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Phoning It In
Melinda can summarize her life in a few words: dead-end job, nonexistent love life, and a contentious relationship with her older sister—not exactly the rosy picture she had of life at 25.
When Benoit enters the picture, she falls hard. Gorgeous, funny, and smart, he’s everything she’s ever wanted in a man and more, but she can’t fathom that he could possibly want a plus-sized girl like her.
Tired of going through the motions, Melinda tries to find the courage to pursue her dream career, but working for a publishing company would mean moving away from everyone and everything she knows and loves. Is she content to remain in her comfortable rut, or is it time to strike out on her own and seize her chance at getting what she’s always wanted?
When Benoit enters the picture, she falls hard. Gorgeous, funny, and smart, he’s everything she’s ever wanted in a man and more, but she can’t fathom that he could possibly want a plus-sized girl like her.
Tired of going through the motions, Melinda tries to find the courage to pursue her dream career, but working for a publishing company would mean moving away from everyone and everything she knows and loves. Is she content to remain in her comfortable rut, or is it time to strike out on her own and seize her chance at getting what she’s always wanted?
302 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2012
12 people are currently reading
146 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
August 7, 2013
Melinda is a supervisor of call centre reps and despises her job. She had such high hopes when she graduated from university. But it pays the bills and she's stuck in a rut.
She is looking for love but doesn't think she's good enough to love because she has some extra pounds. She has great friends who tell her how wonderful she is inside and out but she dismisses their compliments. When she meets Benoit, she is smitten right away and they start hanging out together ... she assumes they are just friends (though she wants more) and is shocked when he tells her he is attracted to her.
This is the first book I've read by this author and I liked it. I liked the writing style and storyline. It is written in third person.
I liked the characters. I liked Melinda for the most part. She was smart and funny. I liked the interactions between her and Benoit. She was very insecure, though, and whined a lot about her perceived inadequacies ... and it was the same whines over and over and over. Even when things were going great and she should be happy, she was still going on about her weight, her amazement that handsome Benoit would care about a tubby like her, what would they do if she got a new job and she had to move away, etc. I would find her to be a drag to be around when she got into one of her funks. She was 25 but I found her very immature at times. Melinda is close to her parents but not her cold distant sister, Susan. I found her mother's reaction really odd to something Susan did ... it would have been nice to know why her mother reacted that way.
She had great friends in Lou Lou and Blaine. They were very supportive and had a lot of patience (it was good to see their patience finally crack, though).
I would recommend this book if you are looking for chick lit.
Blog review post: http://www.teenaintoronto.com/2013/08...
She is looking for love but doesn't think she's good enough to love because she has some extra pounds. She has great friends who tell her how wonderful she is inside and out but she dismisses their compliments. When she meets Benoit, she is smitten right away and they start hanging out together ... she assumes they are just friends (though she wants more) and is shocked when he tells her he is attracted to her.
This is the first book I've read by this author and I liked it. I liked the writing style and storyline. It is written in third person.
I liked the characters. I liked Melinda for the most part. She was smart and funny. I liked the interactions between her and Benoit. She was very insecure, though, and whined a lot about her perceived inadequacies ... and it was the same whines over and over and over. Even when things were going great and she should be happy, she was still going on about her weight, her amazement that handsome Benoit would care about a tubby like her, what would they do if she got a new job and she had to move away, etc. I would find her to be a drag to be around when she got into one of her funks. She was 25 but I found her very immature at times. Melinda is close to her parents but not her cold distant sister, Susan. I found her mother's reaction really odd to something Susan did ... it would have been nice to know why her mother reacted that way.
She had great friends in Lou Lou and Blaine. They were very supportive and had a lot of patience (it was good to see their patience finally crack, though).
I would recommend this book if you are looking for chick lit.
Blog review post: http://www.teenaintoronto.com/2013/08...
January 28, 2016
Phoning It In was an interesting mix of a young woman who is feeling unfulfilled after graduating from college and not ending up in the field that she dreamed of being in after she graduated. As well as a love story with many long lasting friendships. Melinda Major works for Forward Horizon Insurance Company with Blaine a guy who is just like a brother she never had. She has a sister Susan who is an attorney but they are not close at all and a mother who is mother who she is just finding out she not the mother she always thought she was but a head in the sand kind of woman.
Blaine is tired of the fact that Melinda is never doing anything but staying home so he decides that she needs to get out and live a little. So, he decides they are going out for dinner and dancing to J.J.’s. She finally can’t take it anymore and agrees and invites her best friend since preschool Louisa Carmichael better known as Lou Lou. Lou Lou gets asked out to dance and Blaine sees a blonde making eyes at him so when he starts to leave Scarlett from work, their arch enemy comes to their table and says she wants them to meet her date. She brings him over, Dem her date and his friend, Benoit (Benwah), the sexiest French-Italian man she ever saw.
Now this is only part of the book you still have all her growing pains, her neurotic behavior, young love and an insecure woman. Provided by netgalley.com
Blaine is tired of the fact that Melinda is never doing anything but staying home so he decides that she needs to get out and live a little. So, he decides they are going out for dinner and dancing to J.J.’s. She finally can’t take it anymore and agrees and invites her best friend since preschool Louisa Carmichael better known as Lou Lou. Lou Lou gets asked out to dance and Blaine sees a blonde making eyes at him so when he starts to leave Scarlett from work, their arch enemy comes to their table and says she wants them to meet her date. She brings him over, Dem her date and his friend, Benoit (Benwah), the sexiest French-Italian man she ever saw.
Now this is only part of the book you still have all her growing pains, her neurotic behavior, young love and an insecure woman. Provided by netgalley.com
February 26, 2013
Free read - hints of a good story, fairly quick read, decent writing and the H/h relationship is very sweet but it's more about her insecurities more than anything, which were understandable, and yet highly annoying the longer the book went on. But I will say the characters were well defined, I believed in her relationships with her family and friends. I even give it points for not ending on a cliffhanger, a bad habit many new writers are falling into. But overall, I would have preferred more of a focus on the romance, and less on her inner monologues. She is a difficult heroine to enjoy, but I can say I know many women just like her.
February 28, 2013
This was a well-written & interesting story. However, it got a little drawn-out and reptetivie at times and the conversations between the characters were unnecessarily long-winded at times. I skimmed over a lot of sections but finally finished it. I'll definitely give the author another try though because a lot of her subject-matter resonated with my own life. I would say it was worth my time to read it.
February 14, 2013
I really enjoyed the core of this story. I did end up skimming some of the bits with the different friends and the sister. All in all, I thought Melinda and Benoit were a depiction of a very real and very lovely couple trying to find their way from friends to lovers.
April 9, 2013
Cute fun read. Who among us hasn't felt like everyone else has it all together but yourself, and you're floundering--pretending at being an adult while all around you make it work. Enjoyable coming-of-adulthood story.
February 19, 2013
Enjoyable ... yet quite predictable... Entertaining read.
March 28, 2013
Loved the story wished for more than the way it ended!
February 21, 2013
Pretty cute story about a girl who finally gets what she deserves
March 4, 2013
Very true-to-life. I liked the main characters, they would be fun to have as friends.
September 12, 2013
Melinda never expected to be single and miserable in a call center at age 25, and although she wants nothing more than to find romance and a job in the publishing field, her deep rooted insecurities hold her back from taking the risks necessary for transforming her future. Convinced that she is overweight and hideous, Melinda is sure that she will hit 30 without having met the man of her dreams, and at this rate she will probably also be stuck in this same excruciating dead-end job that drains her soul on a daily basis.
But, everything changes when Melinda meets Benoit, a gorgeous, successful, available man who starts to display some sort of interest in Melinda's company. But surely this perfect man is only seeking a friendship, right? Nobody as physically wonderful as Benoit could want romance from an overweight woman with a dead-end job, could he?
While testing the boundaries of a confusing new relationship, Melinda struggles to convince herself to start sending out resumes in the publishing world. A job in publishing would require a pretty substantial move on Melinda's part, though, and what would happen with Benoit if Melinda were to ask him to be part of a long distant relationship? When a woman wants two conflicting things, each with all of her heart, in which direction should she allow herself to be swayed?
PHONING IT IN centered around a painful realistic young woman, Melinda, who was so irritatingly insecure with herself that it almost felt redundant -- but, at the same time, I found myself readily relating to her issues with confident and body image because they are such universal issues that can be easily identifiable to readers of all ages. I enjoyed Melinda's bleak descriptions of life in a call center -- having, myself, spent time in a call center position, I was amused by her conflicts with horrible schedules, irritating customers, and holier-than-thou coworkers, which could be relatable to many readers in dead-end jobs of all types.
The storyline was a tad predictable, and I never quite felt enough connection with the characters to understand Benoit's intensity towards Melinda, but PHONING IT IN was still a good story that will definitely be entertaining to those who love chick-lit or romance with a bit of a focus on the characters careers.
I wasn't entirely convinced by Melinda's main dilemma -- the choice between a close relationship with her dream man or the opportunity to take a fabulous job in a far away location -- possibly because the romance felt a bit underdeveloped, and the career path seemed to be uncertain based on the character's extreme insecurity. But, I was still pleased by the ending, which really did make me smile in such a way that just made everything feel happily concluded and finalized by the last page.
I appreciate the opportunity to receive a copy of this novel for the purposes of providing an honest review. My opinions are in no way influenced by the manner in which the story was received.
But, everything changes when Melinda meets Benoit, a gorgeous, successful, available man who starts to display some sort of interest in Melinda's company. But surely this perfect man is only seeking a friendship, right? Nobody as physically wonderful as Benoit could want romance from an overweight woman with a dead-end job, could he?
While testing the boundaries of a confusing new relationship, Melinda struggles to convince herself to start sending out resumes in the publishing world. A job in publishing would require a pretty substantial move on Melinda's part, though, and what would happen with Benoit if Melinda were to ask him to be part of a long distant relationship? When a woman wants two conflicting things, each with all of her heart, in which direction should she allow herself to be swayed?
PHONING IT IN centered around a painful realistic young woman, Melinda, who was so irritatingly insecure with herself that it almost felt redundant -- but, at the same time, I found myself readily relating to her issues with confident and body image because they are such universal issues that can be easily identifiable to readers of all ages. I enjoyed Melinda's bleak descriptions of life in a call center -- having, myself, spent time in a call center position, I was amused by her conflicts with horrible schedules, irritating customers, and holier-than-thou coworkers, which could be relatable to many readers in dead-end jobs of all types.
The storyline was a tad predictable, and I never quite felt enough connection with the characters to understand Benoit's intensity towards Melinda, but PHONING IT IN was still a good story that will definitely be entertaining to those who love chick-lit or romance with a bit of a focus on the characters careers.
I wasn't entirely convinced by Melinda's main dilemma -- the choice between a close relationship with her dream man or the opportunity to take a fabulous job in a far away location -- possibly because the romance felt a bit underdeveloped, and the career path seemed to be uncertain based on the character's extreme insecurity. But, I was still pleased by the ending, which really did make me smile in such a way that just made everything feel happily concluded and finalized by the last page.
I appreciate the opportunity to receive a copy of this novel for the purposes of providing an honest review. My opinions are in no way influenced by the manner in which the story was received.
Read
August 29, 2013 Phoning It In was an interesting mix of a young woman who is feeling unfulfilled after graduating from college and not ending up in the field that she dreamed of being in after she graduated. As well as a love story with many long lasting friendships. Melinda Major works for Forward Horizon Insurance Company with Blaine a guy who is just like a brother she never had. She has a sister Susan who is an attorney but they are not close at all and a mother who is mother who she is just finding out she not the mother she always thought she was but a head in the sand kind of woman.
Blaine is tired of the fact that Melinda is never doing anything but staying home so he decides that she needs to get out and live a little. So, he decides they are going out for dinner and dancing to J.J.’s. She finally can’t take it anymore and agrees and invites her best friend since preschool Louisa Carmichael better known as Lou Lou. Lou Lou gets asked out to dance and Blaine sees a blonde making eyes at him so when he starts to leave Scarlett from work, their arch enemy comes to their table and says she wants them to meet her date. She brings him over, Dem her date and his friend, Benoit (Benwah), the sexiest French-Italian man she ever saw.
Now this is only part of the book you still have all her growing pains, her neurotic behavior, young love and an insecure woman. Provided by netgalley.com
Blaine is tired of the fact that Melinda is never doing anything but staying home so he decides that she needs to get out and live a little. So, he decides they are going out for dinner and dancing to J.J.’s. She finally can’t take it anymore and agrees and invites her best friend since preschool Louisa Carmichael better known as Lou Lou. Lou Lou gets asked out to dance and Blaine sees a blonde making eyes at him so when he starts to leave Scarlett from work, their arch enemy comes to their table and says she wants them to meet her date. She brings him over, Dem her date and his friend, Benoit (Benwah), the sexiest French-Italian man she ever saw.
Now this is only part of the book you still have all her growing pains, her neurotic behavior, young love and an insecure woman. Provided by netgalley.com
Read
February 10, 2014Wondering what inspired me to write this book? Well, it was a combination of my own experiences with working in a call center, and my thoughts about Body Dysmorphic Disorder. You can read about my thoughts on that topic on my blog.
At heart, Phoning It In is a coming of age story, a tale about finally figuring out what you want in life and deciding to go out and get it.
If you enjoyed this book and want to know more about Lou's adventures, you can read about them in the new companion novel, Derailed, which is available on Amazon.
At heart, Phoning It In is a coming of age story, a tale about finally figuring out what you want in life and deciding to go out and get it.
If you enjoyed this book and want to know more about Lou's adventures, you can read about them in the new companion novel, Derailed, which is available on Amazon.
June 27, 2014
I was really enjoying this book most of the way through. However, when it ended, I feel like everything suddenly got rushed. There were some story lines I feel like didn't get wrapped up (Susan's decision, their mother's animosity) and I would have liked a little more of the "happily ever after" bit. It just ended so abruptly I felt let down.
June 25, 2015
This was more of a 'Guide to The Right Things to Say' book rather than a novel. That said, I ended up liking this a lot despite how contrived the book felt because it made me want to be better (as cheesy as that sounds). Melinda just struck quite close to home and she struck pretty well.
July 21, 2016
good read
Want to read
February 13, 2013Amazon (ebook) freebie 2/13/13
March 23, 2013
Pretty good book but very long winded.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews