This book had me at the dedication: "This one is for all of us who've cried when looking in a mirror. Here's to never doing that again." The book centers around two best friends who met as teens at a fat camp. Now in their 30s they have to come to grips with the death of a third friend who just died. The three had made a list that last summer at camp, "Things to do when we are skinny," and their friend's dying wish was for them to do everything on the list. This book reveals the prejudice against overweight people that is so prevalent but ignored in our society. It brings a lot of emotions forward as Georgia and Marley work on the list, their relationships with their family and the men in their lives. It really resonated with me, and will for anyone with any kind of self-image issue. Interspersed are letters Emerson, the friend who died, wrote to her imagined skinny self that will break your heart. There is a happy ending for these women, but not necessarily a skinny one. But one of self-acceptance, which is the most important thing.

Honestly, just reading the first chapter made me sad and not want to keep reading this.

The subject matter of extreme obesity was the focus of the book. Three friends, Emerson, Georgia and Marley attend a “fat camp” together as teens. Georgia and Marley go on to lead somewhat normal lives but both remain overweight. The two lose touch with Emerson until she has to be hospitalized for complications from her extreme obesity. On her deathbed, Emerson gives Georgia and Marley a copy of the list they created as teens of things to do when they get skinny. The rest of the novel revolves around Georgia and Marley trying to complete the list Emerson left them while dealing with their own personal issues including their weight. The topic of extreme obesity is definitely one that rarely gets touched on in fiction… It scares us… No one wants to think it can happen to them. However, weight is an issue that just about every woman has dealt with at some point in their life. I’m just not sure the way this particular novel was written will be helpful. The wording was a little too harsh and a bit judgmental. Normally, Kristan Higgins books are uplifting and a delight to read… However, this did not seem like her normal style… The characters were pretty shallow and it was hard to follow. Unfortunately, this one will leave her readers disappointed.

3.75 stars
Let me start by saying I've read all of Kristan Higgins' books and have found each of them to be cute, well-written, and full of inspiration to be happy with yourself. This book was more of the same but lost some stars because this message wasn't clear for the first half of the book. In fact, this story seemed to obsess over how you could never truly be happy with yourself if you were fat.

The story begins in the past at a fat camp and introduces the three main characters. They make a list of all the things they'll do when they're finally skinny (hold hands with a cute guy in public, get a piggy back ride, etc.). This resonated with me as I've struggled with my weight throughout my life and a lot of the things on the list were things I'd love to do myself but am too self-conscious. Fast forward 16ish years and tragedy strikes. Two of the friends make a promise that they'll complete the list and set out on their journeys to be happy and accept themselves.

Overall, the first half of the book was overdone and full of self-loathing due to being fat. I feel like the author could have been more successful if she'd cut some of that out. Once the characters started accepting themselves the book took a turn for the better and had a lot of good lessons. I smiled, I teared up, I definitely ended the book on a good note. I think anyone who has ever been called "fat" will identify with and enjoy this book as long as they stick with it.

**I received an advanced copy of this book from Net Gallery in return for my unbiased, honest review.

Good Luck With That – Kristan Higgins

I was fortunate to receive this novel as an Advance Reader Copy, in exchange for an objective review.
Emerson, Marley & Georgia are three kids who meet at a summer camp for obese children and they become lifelong friends. Flash forward to the present – Georgia & Marley share a two story home (Georgia rents from her close friend), and Emerson lives a couple of hours away. While Georgia and Marley have successful careers and a close relationship, Emerson has drifted away a bit, seemingly happy in her career, and a relationship of her own.

Then the two get a call, summoning them to Emerson’s death bed, where the are shocked to see that she’s become a very morbidly obese woman, who’s health issues and imminent death are all related to her size. She leaves them a letter to be read after her death, and within the letter is a list that the three girls had created as kids. And she challenges Georgia and Marley to fulfill each task on the list.

The story is told from the perspective of both surviving women, and through excerpts from the late Emerson’s journals, as they each reveal their struggles with obesity, wanting to be thin, family issues, fitting in, discrimination, acceptance and love.

I initially had a hard time getting involved in this story, because – like most women – I could totally see myself and my own struggles in these characters. As the story progresses, and the personalities of each character emerge, I found the book hard to put down, and shed more than a few tears at the heartbreak and then love found within its pages. A very realistic and yet heartwarming read!!

Not what I expected from her after her last ones. Could not get into it. Thank you.

Marley, Georgia and Emerson met at a weight loss camp when they were in high school and, at the end of the summer, made a list of all the things they would do when they lost weight. Seventeen years later, Emerson is morbidly obese and calls Marley and Georgia to her hospital bed where she makes them promise to check off each item on the list. As Marley and Georgia try to follow thorough, they both confront issues that have challenged them throughout their lives. By turns poignant and hilarious, this is an engrossing story of women coming to terms with themselves. A great read!

GOOD LUCK WITH THAT is beautifully written and really packs an emotional punch. I had to keep taking mini-breaks from the book because my heart ached so much for the characters and what they were experiencing. I think any person who reads it will reflect on their own life and hopefully think closely about the power of their words/actions and how those words/actions not only affect themselves but others around them as well.

As soon as I saw that this book was available I immediately requested it, Kristan Higgins loyal fan since her first title. I read this book in one day! Her characters are so relatable , I feel like this book was written for my heart. Women's friendship and relationships, the intricacies of life. I cried and laughed through it all. Kristan Higgins has a way to give us real characters who we become very attached to . Thank you for letting me read this book!

Anyone who enjoys Kristan Higgins previous books will definitely enjoy this one too. That being said, it is a little sadder than her previous titles, a little bit less on an "escape read."

I’ve read all of Kristan Higgins’s books, and she was one of my favorites—I was pretty sure I could count on her books for humor, likeable characters, and a happy ending. I’m using past tense, because I really disliked this book; I wouldn’t have even finished it if it had been another author, but I just kept hoping it would improve. I am really disappointed.
Georgia and Marley obsess about being, as they put it, FAT. Georgia is a rich girl who quit her Ivy League educated law career to teach nursery school, and Marley is a personal chef who won’t put her picture on her website because she's not thin, and who sleeps with a guy she likes who asks her not to tell anyone. Three of them met at a fat camp when they were teens, and when they learn that the third woman has just died because she was so obese, they decide to go through the teen list of things they wanted to do when they were finally thin. It gets worse—some of the chapters are diary entries from the dead obese woman to her purported thin self.
Several other obnoxious characters who resent overweight people appear and add to the unpleasantness. I cannot recommend a book which presents an unrealistic and superficial picture of anyone who has ever struggled with their weight.

I had a hard time with this book in the beginning. It was kind of sad to begin with a death, and there was a lot of self-deprecation going on with the narrators, which made me want to skip certain parts. In the end, I did enjoy the novel, and the well developed characters, even though it isn't something I would normally seek out for myself to read. I could see this as a cute little movie, whether big-budget or made-for-tv. Although I didnt fall head over heels in love with this book, it was entertaining and easy to get through.

I have read and loved every Kristan Higgins book I have read before this and Good Luck With That is no exception. This book as part of the pseudo series that takes place in Cambry-on-Hudson has a different feel from her other romance books. They are definitely more women's fiction that romance, although romance does play a part, they are also much deeper and more emotional in my opinion. And wow, was this particular book emotional and hard to read at times. I know there’s been a lot of criticism of this book and it’s topic, I have to say in my opinion and POV it’s unfounded. But this is my opinion. Not to say it won't be hurtful for some readers but it's also not a story that shouldn't be told.

This book, to me, is not about fat shaming or how losing weight makes your life better, it’s about the very real struggle we as people (and not just women) face in regards to food, healthy eating habits, past hurts, and self-acceptance and love. This book was difficult for me to read at times because I was able to understand all too well, unfortunately, the emotional struggle our main characters dealt with. The mental berating of one’s self when you don’t feel good enough and the self-loathing that comes along with feeling a lack of control in your own life was very honest and real. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Emerson, Georgia, and Marley are best friends since meeting at a camp to help them lose weight as teenagers. Georgia and Marley ended up being roommates as adults with Emerson staying in touch but not as frequently because, as we find out, Emerson has gained so much weight it's difficult for her to leave her house and she's embarrassed by her weight. Emerson dies at the beginning of the book due to complications of her weight. Georgia and Marley are still struggling with food and weight related issues, one woman more than the other but in different ways.

Georgia and Marley and Emerson are all very different in how they approach food and their own weight. It was super interesting to read about how differently they saw food and body image and how much love they had for themselves. What I also loved about this book were the secondary characters. Georgia's nephew and Marley's client also struggle with their own versions of self-acceptance. I loved this. I loved seeing yet more angles and the different ways people struggle and how they overcome them.

While weight and relationships with food is a constant element, what I took away from this book was more about self-acceptance and self-love than anything else. I cannot discount the importance food and eating plays in this, though. A lot of people struggle with a healthy relationships with food and body image, I felt that Higgins talked about this in a brutally honest way which will be hard for some people to read. It was hard for me to read at times, too with my own personal history of food complications. But that didn't take away how raw and honest this book felt about a very complex topic. I really and truly commend Higgins for tackling the topic. If you’ve struggled with self-acceptance, control, or unhealthy eating habits this book will be difficult to read but not in a bad way per say.

What made it difficult for me was how much I could relate to the characters struggle of self-acceptance and how I had similar thoughts myself at one point in my life. But it was also such a good book to read in that I could see how far I’ve come and how much it broke my heart to read about intelligent, kind, strong, and compassionate women hate on themselves so much. This book was cathartic. It put me through a ringer of emotions but the triumphs of so many characters was beautiful to see. True love starts with yourself and I think this book was a great example of how hard it can be to get there.

I've been enjoying Kristan Higgins's transition to women's fiction from romance, she's found a way to balance the swoon-worthy stuff with real life issues. I've never struggled with my weight but I felt the struggles of Marley, Emerson and Georgia. Another winner (but the title I feel isn't really great...)

Always a Kristin Higgins fan she exceeds expectations with her poignant and insightful view of life as a woman with eating issues. The story of three friends who meet at camp for overweight girls follows their friendship into their 30's. The three all have weight issues that manifest in very different ways with very different results. Health aspects, relationship aspects, family, career, all these circumstances are presented in this book. A gem of a read.

Well written, accurate portrayal of how a fat person feels and how those feelings are ingrained in her life. Very uplifting to see how Georgia and Marley deal with those feelings and learn to really live their lives.

I truly enjoyed spending time with these characters.

*Thanks to Netgalley and the author for providing an e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

Writing: 4 Plot: 3 Characters: 5

Full of typical Higgins hilarity, this book differs from her other books (and yes, I have read them all), in one critical way - the three main characters are all women who self-identify as “fat”.

Georgia, Marley, and Emerson meet at fat camp when they are kids and remain close friends for the rest of their lives. The story opens when Georgia and Marley, who live close to each other in New York, are called to the Emerson’s death bed in Delaware. The tale is told in alternating voices, with Emerson’s story emerging through her journals as she writes to “the other Emerson”, who is thin and leading the life she meant to lead.

I have never had weight issues and confess to being someone who has never considered what it is like to be fat, but after reading this I feel like I know a lot more about body image issues, practical issues for the morbidly obese, and the impact of weight gain on many different kinds of interactions. Higgins has managed to embed a lot of serious issues in a book that remains, light, funny, and uplifting. Plenty of romance, relationships of all kinds, fun work choices (where does she keep coming up with these delicious jobs?) and trademark Higgins humor, it’s another “can’t put it down” title.

An incredible and sad story of ultimate failure, second chances and self acceptance. Filled with friendship, family both warm and cold. Fascinating subject, almost felt too personal. It made me squirm, cry, laugh and cheer! A well written tale. I will be thinking about this book for a very long time. Great for book clubs, discussion is almost needed in the end.