Twenty seven year old Sophie is a beautiful happy plus size girl living her dream of owning and operating a boutique in a pretty southern Virginia town. She has great clothes, great friends, is happily single and isn't interested in changing any of it for a man. Gorgeous, cynical and mega rich property tycoon Liam Moran only dates super thin society women or models and isn’t impressed at all by Sophie when they first meet. He has plans to convert parts of Sophie's town into a shopping mall and is convinced he won't meet any opposition from anyone, let alone a woman. The project becomes more difficult than he ever imagined when it becomes clear he needs Sophie’s land for his development. She isn't impressed by his money, his temper, or his looks and doesn't want a shopping mall in her town. Sophie promptly organizes the locals to resist Liam's plans, placing herself directly in his path. Liam finds himself increasingly attracted, against his will, to the outspoken and lovely Sophie, who challenges all his accepted notions of beauty and how women behave around rich men, and she in turn finds it more and more difficult to resist the kind but wounded heart she can see under his ruthless exterior. Liam and Sophie are on a collision course over the property development as well as their own long held prejudices. Money, ambition and rejection also create enemies, and Liam’s past behavior with women comes back to create a violent and dangerous confrontation that they must deal with before they can be together.
Let me take a deep breath here. I have never and I mean never in all of my reading life wanted the main girl to end up with someone else. Especially the main guy's dad jimmy. For real, are you kidding me with this? Okay I can look past the couldn't care less and could care less but the way Lima treated this girl was BEYOND reprehensible. First off, he has weird feelings for the girl so he takes it out by sleeping with some random bimbo that was NEVER mentioned again. Come on, if you're going to do that at least make it be Donna. That way the story would actually go together. Lima was the worst kind of jerk, not only did he say to her face she was the biggest person he worked with ( and yes we are talking about fat) but he broke up with her because a magazine showed a photo of them together and she was just too fat to be seen with him. Then he jet sets around the world to forget her memories. ONLY coming back after some crazy person tries to kill her. And she TAKES HIM BACK?? Are you freaking kidding me??? Honey, have a little self respect. In this story, and I must say again I NEVER want this to happen, but I would have given anything for Sophie to end up with the dad Jimmy. Not only was he ALWAYS nice to her, he went out of his way to make her family, feel loved, and beautiful. I've read some bad stories where I just throw them aside but this one is beyond wrong. Sophie- as a woman, and a plus size woman at that. You never take that stuff from anyone. Grow some self respect. I hope any woman reading this sees this is NOT how you treat someone, and for gods sake step up to the plate and show you are worth it.
God this angers me so much. At one point I actually thought she was gonna stick to her guns and kick him out of the hospital room and honestly never see him again. But no, she's weak. She absolutely weak. Some hot guy shows her attention and she's gonna jump however high he wants. No matter how bad he treated her, and no matter what he said to her!
This is an easy romance about the rather unrealistic romance between a plus sized store owner and the wealthy real estate developer. The book includes recipes that are appealing. However, there is plenty about this book that drives me crazy. First and foremost is the author's constant use of the phrase "could care less". Hello, it is "couldn't care less". While I liked the idea of a plus-sized heroine who was confident and attractive, she was portrayed with ambivalence. although described as "healthy" it didn't appear that she did much besides eat, play with her cat on the couch and run her store. While I agree with the position taken about the ridiculous standard equating skinniness with beauty, healthy is different from obesity. the match between Liam and Sophie was unrealistic and unbelievable. a more satisfying twist would have been for Sophie to have a romance with his father Jimmy, a man who genuinely appreciated Sophie as a person and was attracted to her voluptuous physique. I doubt very much in these politically correct days any news outlet or magazine would publish such insulting and cruel comments about Sophie. Online trolls, for sure, but not any reputable outlet. I also found Liam's barbs about Sophie's eating even at the end of the book hostile rather than loving. Hence I was not totally convinced of the body positivity message. 2.5 stars
Sophie and Liam are both so relatable and likable that it is easy to overlook the flaws in the writing. The author does a good job of building up their relationship in a believable way that makes it fun for the reader. However, the author also gets a little preachy about the acceptability of plus sizes and the villains of the story are stereotypical to an extreme. Still, Sophie and Liam make up for it by engrossing the reader in their attempts to overcome their issues to be together. On another note, the bedroom door is firmly closed in this book which can be a positive or negative depending on the reader
Despite the sometimes awkward writing and the recipes, the book is a fun and satisfying romance to read.
I liked the story however the dialogue between the characters really needed some editing. It was hard to keep up with the multiple character viewpoints happening in the space of one paragraph. Gave 2 stars because I almost read it half way so there was something to the book that keeps you reading however I did not finish it.
Sophie is a plus size lady who owns a dress shop for plus size women. A wedding party is there shopping when the boyfriend of one of the bridesmaids come in for his girlfriend. The boyfriend, Liam, is a building contractor who wants Sophie's parking lot to redo the town's shopping area. Sophie puts up a fight that Liam does not expect. He starts having feelings for her but cares more about what others think.
I loved Sophie. I could relate. Liam, not so much. I adored his father Jimmy who had more in common with Sophie than Liam did. I liked how Jimmy did not pay attention to his son and saw his son without rose-colored glasses. Sophie was strong and true to herself. She created a family around her since she had little support from her family. I loved this story.
While I loved the "big girl" gets the gorgeous guy, I felt like his treatment of her in every bad situation was too easily moved on from. Even with the proposal he barely had to try to make up for it. Then on their honeymoon he makes smart remarks about food. Not cool. Just seems like if it is ever a story about a bigger girl getting the hottie, it always ends with him getting FAST forgiven for ANY horrible behavior. I also really hate romance stories told in 3rd person and since this jumped around with which character it was referring to it made it that much more muddled to read
This was a fun romance. It makes you realize that no matter your size, we all need to be loved for the special people we are. I did find the surprise recipes throughout a bit distracting because I kept wanting to save them for later. Overall this book was a pleasure to read and found it hard to put down.
The story itself is pretty good. My issue is I do not like how it seems to bounce around with the point of view the story is told from. It also needs a good editing done. I don't like how people talk to each other either. I just don't feel that people really talk like they do in this story.
Great entertaining read. This story keeps you engaged from beginning to end. Main character was very relatable. Pretty quick read as well. Perfect if you need something to read while on vacation. I would definitely recommend this book
I absolutely loved this book. For all those "plus sized" women that feel suave, wealthy men are out of reach this will make you re think how you see yourself. I know, I am one of them. It's a beautiful love story (with some hiccups of course) but I loved it and couldn't put it down.
This was such a sweet story! The characters were lovable and relatable. Thank you for writing such a strong, confident plus size heroine! I just wish the book had been longer! ♥️
This was a cute romantic story, nothing raunchy. I love Sophie's confidence and I think that's what makes her more beautiful. Liam can't help but be blinded by her and sees her for than the number on her clothing tags.
Absolutely loved the book! But... sex was missing and it could have definitely spiced it up. It’s difficult to find sexy novels with plus sized women and this could have been perfect if there was some of those scenes.
This was a nice feel-good story. However. I don’t agree with a multitude of the comments that were thrown about, and the lack of addressing said comments. The ending felt awfully rushed, and the character development was odd at best. I love the concept though, and I’m excited to try out all the cool recipes!
This story was awesome sauce!!!! I laughed and I cried. Sophie and Liam story was very romantic. I was happy for the HEA! this is book I wished for more. Happy Reading!