Quick Synopsis

What Not to Wear and Queer Eye meet All the Feels in this sparkling romantic comedy by Jenny L. Howe, in which the new guest on a popular plus-size makeover show has her style―and her love life―transformed.

Publisher’s Synopsis

Everly Winters is perfectly happy to navigate life like a good neutral paint color: appreciated but unnoticed. That’s why she’s still a receptionist instead of exploring a career in art, why she lurks but never posts on the forums for her favorite makeover show, On the Plus Side, and why she’s crushing so hard on her forever-unattainable co-worker. When no one notices you, they can’t reject you or insist you’re too much.

This plan is working perfectly until someone secretly nominates Everly for the next season of On the Plus Side. Overwhelmed by the show’s extremely extroverted hosts and how much time she’ll have to spend on screen, she finds comfort in a surprising friendship with the grumpy but kind cameraman, Logan. Soon Everly realizes that he’s someone she doesn’t mind being noticed by. In fact, she might even like it.

Book Review

On the Plus Size follows Everly Winter as she is cast to be a participant on her favorite reality tv show that makes over fat women. This show is beyond What Not to Wear and Queer Eye. It follows participants for several episodes as they receive help on all facets of their lives. Unexpectedly, Everly gets more than she bargained for when she starts falling for the grumpy camera guy. ⁣

I really enjoyed reading On the Plus Side. The concept for this book/the show is fantastic, and I desperately wish it actually existed. In addition, this book has some of the best fat representation that I have read, especially when it comes to family dynamics. It would be so refreshing to see fat people on television with no context of losing weight, but I digress.

With the exception of a few characters readers are clearly not supposed to like, I liked On the Plus Side‘s characters. In particular, Everly makes a great protagonist. She undergoes a lot of personal growth over the course of the book, allowing her to open herself up to love and the career of her dreams. While I did not love the unnecessary and pointless grumpiness of the male main character, I thought they had great chemistry and loved him going to bat for Everly. He received bonus points in my book for wearing flannel and rescuing elderly dogs. I just wish he had been as well-developed as Everly. ⁣

I did not really find any major faults with this novel. My one big critique is that there were far too many mentions of Schrodinger’s box. It is one of those things that, if you reference more than once, it really sticks out and becomes annoying. There was a handful of references to it, which just seemed weird.

Overall, I really enjoyed On the Plus Side and recommend it. If you love a feel-good book, have not read a book with fat rep that doesn’t include weight loss, or need a reminder of the insane audacity of cishet white men, pick up this novel.

Rating

Overall Rating

Writing

Plot

Character Development