This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Reviewed by Kira Slaughter
Every bride dreams of looking beautiful on her wedding day, don’t they?
Violet doesn’t. She is dreading it. In fact she can’t think why Sebastian ever asked her to marry him. When they met, she was a size 14-16. Now she is a size 20.
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How will she ever find a dress which doesn’t make her look ridiculous? And fat.
Dieting club NewYou! promises the answers. But things just go from bad to worse. It is time for Violet to come up with some solutions of her own.
I remember when our Ed Kirsty G put a post up on the site about this book and I thought it looked brilliant. A light hearted piece of chick lit perfect for a lazy day. I was partly right… this was the perfect book for a day when you don’t have anything to do, but it was not as light hearted as the cover conveys.
Violet is overweight and insecure and we are introduced to her as she is legging it into Marks and Spencer to buy the biggest chocolate cake ever. She has just found out some disturbing news regarding her fiance Sebastian.
However, the book is not solely based around Violet and her weight troubles; there are four other characters in the story with their own weight problems and we see how it affects their lives too.
From loneliness to health issues, each character goes through emotional hell as they try to come to terms with losing weight and gaining the confidence to go after what they want.
The main focus of the story is Violet – she's the pinnacle of the dieting group. At the start of the book she’s just been made redundant so she’s feeling very low, but she gets a heads up about a job and goes for an interview, which turns out to be very amusing, but I won’t let on how as I’ll leave you to find out for yourself!
With a new job and her rapidly decreasing waistline, Violet finds a quiet confidence in herself that she shares with her friends in the group.
The best part about the book for me was the close friendships that were forged between the characters (apart from Sebastian and the evil diet club leader!).
All in all this was a brilliantly written book about the perils of losing weight and building friendships in tough times. I thoroughly recommend it.
8/10