Size Matters

by Judy Astley

Jay has always envied her cousin Delphine. While Jay was brought up in a large, chaotic family, Delphine was perfectly dressed with a coordinated bedroom and an immaculate wardrobe. But then Delphine reappears when they are both adults, with a third husband in prospect and the same old air of apparently effortless superiority. Jay never considers that perhaps Delphine is the envious one.

Genres: Chick Lit

289 pages, Paperback

First published January 12, 2004

About the author

Judy Astley started writing in 1990 following several years of working as a dressmaker, illustrator, painter and parent. Her sixteen novels, the most recent of which are Laying The Ghost and Other People¹s Husbands, are all published by Transworld/Black Swan. Judy¹s specialist areas, based on many years of hectic personal experience, are domestic disharmony and family chaos with a good mix of love-and-passion and plenty of humour thrown in. Judy has been a regular columnist on magazines and enjoys writing journalism pieces on just about any subject, usually from a fun viewpoint. She lives in London and Cornwall, loves plants, books, hot sunshine and rock music (all at once, preferably) and would happily claim that listening in to other people¹s conversations is both a top hobby and an absolute career-necessity

Reviews

[Hi…I’m a Bookaholic · Rating 1 out of 5]

2nd DNF of the year.

The amount of characters became confusing and the story didn’t grip me.

The bones of the story did have promise but unfortunately the story did not interest me enough to keep reading.

[LindyLouMac · Rating 2 out of 5]

Judy Astley is an author I have been reading since she published her first novel in 1994. They are generally an enjoyable light romance/ chick lit type novel, nothing brain stretching but usually fun.
This one made me laugh but I think it is far from the best of her novels.
The protagonist Jay works her way through a selection of diet options whilst awaiting the imminent return of her cousin Delphine from Australia. Jay lives in a chaotic household with her husband three children and almost son in law. She owns together with a friend, a successful cleaning company.
Jay has always been envious of Delphine, not just her thinness but the fact that she was the indulged daughter who had everything she could ever want as a child. Having lived in Australia for many years Delphine is returning to the UK to marry her third husband. It is the imminent return of her perfect cousin that makes Jay decide that she will diet and become more like her, well organised and most importantly thin! She tries them all High Carb, No Protein,High Protein, No Carb, High Fibre, Wheat Free, Fat Free, Grapefruit, Atkins, Conley and so on, with a variety of successes and failures.
This novel might not have much going for it as a story but what it does provide is well written humour.

[Karschtl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jay runs a business and a family. With this double taxation it is understandable that her life, her looks and her wardrobe isn't as perfect as those from her Cousin Delphine, who is coming home after being in Australia for years. She asks Jay to organise everything for her return, and although Jay doesn't like to be bossed around by Delphine she does it anyway. She is a nice person, *sigh*. But Jay has one resolution: to lose some dress sizes before Delphines arrival, she doesn't want to look like the ugly stepsister. Several ways of loosing weight are tried out by her.

Relatively short book, and the story was somehow weird (especially the side-stories about/with the kids. Didn't like it that much. Only thing that was a bit interesting were the different methods how the protagonist wants to loose weight. I never did a particular diet, cause I don't really believe in any of that. My rule is always: eat less (and not so much chocolate) and do sports. And it really works, if you don't give up too fast.

[The Bookish Wombat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Since childhood Jay has felt inferior to her cousin Delphine, who she hasn't seen for years. Now Delphine is due back from Australia to marry and airline pilot so Jay embarks on a series of diets and tries to get her unruly family to behave themselves.

I found this quite funny in places, but it does annoy me that women's fiction so often is based round women thinking they're fat and finding their hangups with food a topic of comedy. Size Matters is a pleasant enough read, but leaves a bit of a nasty taste in the mouth afterwards due to the subject matter.

[Rachel Brand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably my favourite of her books, although I only really cared for the main character's storyline.

[Lesley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Think I might have outgrown this author

[Ria · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really good book, very funny with sarcastic humour, full of backbiting and family rivalries.

[kami · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just couldn't finish this book. Tried really hard, but halfway through, felt I was losing the will to live.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

giggled my way through from start to end!

[Elizabeth Emily Browne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It was brilliant and I couldn't put it down.

[Guna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Goes well with a big bag of Quality Street.