This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Reviewed by Lisa Spoors
We first meet Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Glass
during her late father’s memorial service, for which she’s catering. First
impressions are that Charlie is a bit of a pushover – especially when it comes
to her family. As we learn more about
Charlie, we discover she has two half-sisters, Robyn and Gaby, who are clueless
and awful in equal measure, and sound like they wouldn’t be out of place in an
episode of Made in Chelsea. She has the predictable evil stepmother Diana who,
it seems, has never liked Charlie and will go to great lengths to ensure she is
never happy or successful. Next there’s
the typically reliable best friend, Lucy. And then there’s Ferdy, another
friend of Charlie’s – one who’s utterly gorgeous and charming and perfect in
almost every way, but for some reason, just a friend. There are several other key
characters who pop up in the book but I won’t list them all – it would take far
too long for a start, and I’m not sure I can remember all their names.
So as I said earlier, Charlie’s father, legendary shoe designer Elroy Glass (think Choo or Louboutin) has recently died. Consequently, Charlie finds herself as a majority shareholder in her father’s shoe business. Obviously her stepmother and half-sisters as less than enthused about this – especially since Charlie is a size 18, which spurs her on to making some changes in her life.
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Charlie returns from a boot camp in America (which we get very little detail on) transformed into a svelte size 10/12 with blonde highlighted hair. I find it hard to believe that losing a bit of weight and dying your hair can make you unrecognisable to family members and friends, as the book suggests, however.
Anyway, Charlie soon discovers that being thin(ner) means that she’s caught the eye of a very eligible bachelor named Jay, who her half-sister Robyn has been trying to snare for ages. Alongside this, Charlie’s trying to revive her father’s ailing shoe business and keep her friendships with Lucy and Ferdy on track.
Charlie as a main character is undoubtedly likeable, if a little weak. Well, more than a little. It’s actually bordering on pathetic in some parts of the book, and I found that frustrating. I thought that there could have been a lot more of the storyline dedicated to the revamping of Charlie’s shoe company – I know I would have loved to read more about that – but the focus for Charlie seemed to be less on her business and career and more on her image. Again – frustrating.
One thing I really did struggle with was what to take away from this book. At the risk of sounding like Keith Lemon in Celebrity Juice – what’s the message?! Charlie was fat, now she’s thin. Nobody fancied her, now everyone does. Everyone else was shallow and image-obsessed, now Charlie is shallow and image-obsessed. I suspect the idea is that in the end, it’s what’s inside that counts – but I can’t actually be sure.
I did enjoy reading this book, but I found it a little on the long side and, as I’ve mentioned, I would have preferred reading more on Charlie’s transformation and her job in the glamorous world of shoe fashion. It’s worth a read, but I wouldn’t put this book at the top of my to-do pile.
6/10