Big Girl Panties

by Stephanie Evanovich

Big Girl Panties by Stephanie Evanovich is a rollicking and poignant romantic comedy about a young widow who decides to get in shape...and winds up getting her groove back-and a whole lot more! Holly Brennan used food to comfort herself through her husband's illness and death. Now she's alone at age thirty-two. And she weighs more than she ever has. When fate throws her in the path of Logan Montgomery, personal trainer to pro athletes, and he offers to train her, Holly concludes it must be a sign. Much as she dreads the thought of working out, Holly knows she needs to put on her big girl panties and see if she can sweat out some of her grief. Soon, the easy intimacy and playful banter of their training sessions lead Logan and Holly to most intense and steamy workouts. But can Holly and Logan go the distance as a couple now that she's met her goals-and other men are noticing?

• ISBN10: 0062325485
• ISBN13: 9780062325488
• Publish Date: 30 September 2014 (first published 9 July 2013)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 7 July 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Avon Books
• Format: Paperback (A-Format (178x111 mm))
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[kimbacaffeinate]

Big Girl Panties by Stephanie Evanovich wasn’t something I would have picked up, but I am ever so glad Avon Books sent it to me. Evanovich is a Jersey girl like me and I fully connected with her witty humor, and her fleshed out flawed characters. It is a tale of personal growth, romance, and misconceptions. I found myself completely swept up in this easy flowing tale. Three word review: witty, romantic, enlightening.

Here is the set-up. Holly Brennan is a thirty-two year old widow who ate her way through her husband’s terminal illness and subsequent death. She boards a plane heading home and finds herself seated next to Logan Montgomery. Logan is personal trainer for famous athletes and completely shallow, caring more about his image and career. He is repulsed, she makes witty comments regarding her weight and slowly the two begin to chat. He decides to help transform this witty woman, and she accepts his offer and hires him. The tale that unfolds will have you laughing, sighing, and wanting to slap a few people.

Ooh these characters will get under your skin. You will run through a host of emotions ranging from anger, love, and inspiration. Logan and Holly are equally flawed and run in completely different circles. In his world it’s all about looks and image. Logan has closes friend, but he has never really forms personal attachments or develops intimate relationships with a woman. Logan is in his element as a trainer, he knows how to push his clients, and really cares about making them the best they can be. The man is drop dead gorgeous with dimples and a smile. He dates woman who reflect his image of health, physical fitness and glamour. In other words he is a douche. Holly has so many self-esteem issues, but she also has drive and determination. She struggles with self-worth and using snark and wit to cope. While Holly is not a classic beauty she has this spark and her eyes dance when she delivers her zingers. These two are flawed but both have redeemable qualities that endeared them to me. The relationship that develops grows out of respect, trust, and friendship.I loved their banter, and those heated moments that had me rooting for them. Chase and Amanda Walker are clients and friends of Logan. These two helped with back-story, engaging the couple and adding a little humor with their spanking antics.

Big Girl Panties is a contemporary romance at its core but it’s also a touching, realistic look at two flawed individuals and their personal journey. From the outside world Logan appears brilliant, confident and successful and oh so superficial but as the author peeled back his layers we found something more as he struggled to reevaluate himself. Holly has self-esteem issues and is trying to crawl back out of the bag of Funyun Rings she crawled into. Her weight is just one symptom of her issues and I enjoyed watching her become more confident and demand more for herself. I got caught up in the tale, rolled my eyes over the Walkers antics and sighed when the pages heated up. The author takes us into the minds of the characters and displayed their flaws to us in all there awful glory. It was at times raw and I found myself angry at the characters for their behavior and at other times I felt their fears.

Fans of Bridget Jones will enjoy the sassy romance and humor that Big Girl Panties delivers. I could totally see this on big screen as it screams “movie”.

Copy received in exchange for unbiased review and originally published @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer

[Leah]

When I was offered Big Girl Panties by Stephanie Evanovich to review, I jumped at the chance. First up, what an awesome title! I also adore the cover. I like nothing better than a snarky, funny novel and Big Girl Panties promised that in spades with Holly Brennan. I was really looking forward to diving into the novel, and let me tell you it didn’t disappoint. It’s easily one of the funniest, snarkiest, most weirdly-romantic (you’ll see) books I’ve read so far this year, it’s an asbolute must-read.

Big Girl Panties is the story of a fat girl, and Holly Brennan is a fat girl. She didn’t mean to get so big, but with looking after her ill husband Bruce, she found that food was her salvation, food was the only thing she could control. When she finds herself sitting next to Adonis himself Logan Montgomery on a flight from Canada, she’s horrified. As a personal trainer, Logan sees a project in Holly, but is she willing to put in the time and effort to get the weight off that took so little time to get on? And are Holly and Logan destined for anything more than friendship?

I love stories that involve fat girls. As someone who struggles massively with her weight and longs to look like Miranda Kerr, it’s just not something that’s ever going to happen. I’m consistently dieting (like right now), and so it’s nice to read a book about a bigger heroine. So often heroines complain they’re fat and they’re not, but Holly is genuinely fat. and I was interested in following Holly’s journey as she lost the weight and got herself into shape. It was uplifting and I admired Holly’s strength and determination and it gave me renewed determination to carry on exercising, despite the pain. I also love love stories and omg I was totally crushing on Logan. Sure, yes, I was conviced he was a bit of a jerk at the beginning, but as he and Holly connected more and became friendly, I found myself crushing on him.

The best bit of the novel though was the introduction to the Walkers, Chase and Amanda, they were such good characters, along with Holly and Logan and they were quite the foursome! I really, really enjoyed Big Girl Panties. It was funny, Holly was one of the snarkiest characters I’ve met in a long-time (she had some awesome one-liners), Logan was gorgeous and marry-able and the Walkers were just plain awesome. Evanovich is a brilliant writer, and being Janet Evanovich’s niece means she has good writerly genes! I definitely recommend Big Girl Panties, it was ace and I cannot wait for Stephanie Evanovich’s next novel!

[Cocktails and Books]

When I started this one, I immediately starting thinking this was similar to HE LOVES LUCY by Susan Donovan (which I absolutely adore). But Stephanie Evanovich take a little bit different turn in this ugly duckling (even though Holly doesn't like that term) turned swan story.

Logan Montgomery, personal trainer to many of today's top athletes, meets Holly Brennan on a flight home from Toronto. He has some rather nasty inner monologue comments about Holly as he spies her coming down the aisle towards the middle seat open next to him, but he soon finds himself offer up his services to the woman who needs a little help getting herself on the right track. Over the course of several months, Logan not only helps Holly with her fitness, the two of them become integral parts of each others lives...something Logan has been trying to avoid.

The writing style for this one take a little getting used to. It's told in the third person POV, but there weren't logical breaks where you would know that another character was talking. It could get a bit confusing.

I liked the story, but the characters weren't a bunch that I really liked all that much. Logan could be on overbearing or inconsiderate ass (or sometimes both of those things at the same time). Holly flirted between being depressing, whiny or a way over the top bitch. And then there was Tina, Andrea and Chase. I couldn't decide if I liked Tina or not and there were times where the Walkers just got on my nerves.

I liked most of the book, but I wished the characters could have been a little bit more redeeming at the end to make the HEA worth it.