Jeff Sexton
Bi Romance For The Younger Millennial / Zoomer Set. If you have an ounce of work ethic in your pinky finger, you've got more than our female lead and narrator of this tale. Which means you're likely going to find her quite annoying, at the very least. If you're not a fan of bisexual women or the term "cishet" (to be clear, the second thing there is only used a time or two that I noticed), maybe skip this book. If you need the spice of a Carolina Reaper or at least a Scotch Bonnet... eh, you're not going to like this one much either. If you're not a fan of romance novels that could have been a five minute mature conversation a decade ago... you're probably not going to like this book. If you're not a fan of trigger warnings at the front of books... well, this one has a couple of pages of them.
With all of *that* dispensed with, welcome. If you're still here and still interested in this book, know that for what it is, it is reasonably solid. Maybe a touch squishy in some areas and maybe rolling a bit after the rest of it has stopped moving a time or two, but good enough to be enjoyable for those that can suspend their disbelief for a few hours and just go with the story as presented.
And the story as presented *is* a fat bi chick version of a fairly standard plot device in romance books - multiple dates with different people set up by some friend/ family group, except the best friend winds up inserting himself into them and... well, like I said, its been done more than enough for you to know exactly how this goes. While there is more spice than the "clean" / "sweet" crowd will likely prefer, there also isn't really enough to "give them the vapors" either, so on that point it is somewhere in between. The romance itself, as a form of second chance / these kids should have had a mature conversation a decade ago and could have been together this entire time, still works for what it is.
Really the areas that this book - and all of Howe's books - break a bit of ground is their acceptance of "larger bodies", but Howe openly notes in that same trigger warning at the front of the book that in order to make this particular story work, she had to trim down the more typical nearly screaming from the rooftops level of "fat pride" / "fat acceptance"/ however you want to phrase that... and yes, to an extent, it shows in the way the story is told and ultimately in how the story flows.
And yet, with all of this noted, there really were no technical errors noted here, and thus this book could work well for someone looking for something atypical during the Holiday season that isn't a "holiday book".
Very much recommended.