I had the pleasure of reading Exes and O’s first and immediately knew I had to go back to where it all started. Set On You is such a beautifully written push and pull novel between what we know in our heads and what we feel in our hearts.
Crystal considers herself a decent, understanding, and respectable human being. As a fitstagrammer, she shares fitness tips, body positive messages, and all around confidence boosters to her followers. So what did she possibly do to deserve the likes of Scott – her newfound gym nemesis and a calendar worthy Boston Firefighter. After stealing her turn at the squat rack, she can’t seem to shake this guy! He blocks her path when she is working with clients, competes with her unprovoked, and is an all around menace! After an unexpected escalation ignited by a mishap with her phone, Crystal is satisfied if she never has to see him again, until an unexpected commonality forces them back together – their grandparents are getting married! Determined to get along in the name of family, Crystal finds herself becoming more and more smitten until a sweet gesture for her followers turns into a troll batted nightmare.
Like most readers, I enjoy the overall story but I also find solace in the author’s underlining intentions. Amy consistently sprinkled the message about fat shaming and gave new perspectives to common misconceptions. Her portrayal of body shaming, trolling, and societal standards was not something that is unfamiliar but definitely something that needed to be brought to light. I loved her point that we are made to feel that we should be a certain way, look a certain way, succeed in a certain light and we are less than if we don’t. We are also at the mercy of the proverbial light switch so the moment society decides those things are still not acceptable but corporate deems them marketable, we should be accepting, happy, and celebrating what society has deemed our less than qualities. How does that NOT mess with someone’s head!
I also appreciated how Amy focused on the residual effects of toxic relationships. No matter how many times Crystal told herself Scott wasn’t Neal, her default reaction was always the same. Her wants never coincided with her capabilities. She wanted to trust Scott, she wanted to believe she was enough but anything and everything was a trigger for her to go to her default and believe she was just filling in the time until something better came along. For someone who preached so much about body positivity and confidence, it was sad to see how easily she faltered when out under the microscope.
The steamy scenes were more about the emotional engulfment between the two of them rather than the actions. They were soft, sensual, and intimate. It wasn’t just to people trying to find satisfaction, Amy wanted to display how they were intertwined mind, body, and soul.
Along with her characters, one of my favorite things about Lea’s writing is her endings. They are so heartwarming, so considerate, so jaw droopingly beautiful that you don’t need to know what happens afterwards because you officially believe love conquers all.
With the anticipation of her third book now heighten to new levels, I can’t wait to continue this influencer journey with Lea. She is a much needed voice, an artist with words, and a gift to the literacy world.