Look at this cover. No, you're not listening - LOOK AT IT. I actually think you don't need to read this or any other review at all to enjoy this book. You may not even have to read the book when it comes down to it...
The Skinny -
He: The Most Popular Guy in school - football jock, gorgeous, cool AND nice - fulfills his youthful potential by becoming the QB for the Dallas Cowboys but then when everything goes horribly wrong - with his own health as well as his father's - he returns to his hometown and finds that the girl who had had a crush on him all through school is still around and has become pretty, darn hot.
She: Chubby, awkward high school teen gets her deepest secret - an unrequited crush on the school's most popular and out-of-her-league guy - outed in the most mortifying way possible. She spends a lot of the next 10 years or so getting past that and becomes a confident, fun, fulfilled person. But then The Crush rolls back into town and she has to deal with all the small town's commentary as well as his totally of arrogant assumption she would still be into him.
Conflict: Leftover effects of the trauma of teenage embarrassment on her part, and a probable end of his sterling football career mean that they both have a bunch of issues. Plus the fact that even though she's a pretty confident person, she still feels the twinge of insecurity watching all the ladies in town throw themselves at him.
Liked:
1) Both characters were fun and confident and pretty happy with themselves. No one needed "fixing" and both were able to deal with their own emotional lives without acting like asses.
2) The chick was described as cute and hot and a size 14. I am given to understand this is the US average size for a woman, so although the point that she wasn't exactly skinny was made, it wasn't belabored to the point of being annoying. In fact the hero doesn't really remark upon it at all. Nice.
3) The female character had a passion - plant biology of all things! I love it when characters have interests and passions outside of their romantic lives. It just makes me feel like they are people with the capacity for fulfilling their OWN happiness and the fact that they found a partner with whom to share that happiness is just a wonderful bonus.
1) Both characters were fun and confident and pretty happy with themselves. No one needed "fixing" and both were able to deal with their own emotional lives without acting like asses.
2) The chick was described as cute and hot and a size 14. I am given to understand this is the US average size for a woman, so although the point that she wasn't exactly skinny was made, it wasn't belabored to the point of being annoying. In fact the hero doesn't really remark upon it at all. Nice.
3) The female character had a passion - plant biology of all things! I love it when characters have interests and passions outside of their romantic lives. It just makes me feel like they are people with the capacity for fulfilling their OWN happiness and the fact that they found a partner with whom to share that happiness is just a wonderful bonus.
Didn't like:
1) Not that I disliked this exactly, but I do find the corn-fed, salt-of-the-earth, good old boy Texas jock a bit of a tired hero archetype. I guess there's nothing not to like about this hero - he was a nice guy along with being a hot, successful athlete - but I guess I would have liked to see a "twist" in the character somewhere. Something unusual about him that would make him be something more that the other jock heroes I read. Apart from his predisposition to like average-sized woman, that is.
1) Not that I disliked this exactly, but I do find the corn-fed, salt-of-the-earth, good old boy Texas jock a bit of a tired hero archetype. I guess there's nothing not to like about this hero - he was a nice guy along with being a hot, successful athlete - but I guess I would have liked to see a "twist" in the character somewhere. Something unusual about him that would make him be something more that the other jock heroes I read. Apart from his predisposition to like average-sized woman, that is.
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