I found this book very unique! Loved the plot, characters, and author’s writing. I think the cover art goes well with the book and this is a book that every teen should read. I found it inspiring and I would recommend it to anyone that feels just a little lost in life.

I enjoyed reading this book. It's about a girl named Lori who faces society as being a fat person and doesn't feel comfortable in her own body. That is not the only thing she is facing but also her love life and family life are complicated. I enjoyed the author's writing in this book in the form of pacing and involving many real-life conflicts in the story. I felt that I can connect to the story and feel all the emotions the character is feeling which I have to say is a good thing. The plot structure was well done in the beginning but I do have to say that the ending kind of fell for me which I will explain later on in the review. I also want to say that the author did a great shop with showing plus-size women rep as there aren't many books out there that deal with everyday problems.

The main character is Lori and I LOVED her story. She is such a powerful person who is better at explaining her life in art than in words. She is also such a great sister who has a brother with Autism and I love how much she supports him. I really enjoyed her character development in the book as she has been looking for happiness for a long time. I felt really connected to her as she is such a pure, well-written character. I also enjoyed the side characters in this book especially Thembi as she has struggled with not being able to also show her true self. The fact that the author showed other character's problems at home and made them involved in the story just made the whole book better because you don't really know what is happening in their lives unless you read their pov. Also, there is romance in this book which fell a little flat for me because I felt Lori went for the first guy who talked to her and I wish there was more personal growth in the beginning and then her finding a guy.

The ending was ok as the beginning and middle were just amazing that I felt it needed an epic ending. Still, this book was amazing and I feel like we need more books like this. I did have some minor problems with the writing but overall this book is just amazing. This book is a must-read to show that you aren't alone!

This book has deeper meaning than you think.

Yes, it is a romance... in high school. The main character, Lori, is an artist in Cape Town, South Africa far from her hometown of Johannesburg. Her art plays a huge role in this story as does her autistic brother and her being overweight. This book addresses body positivity, feelings of home sickness, family and high school drama.

If you liked Dumplin', you should like this one.

“Big Boned” by Jo Watson
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Young Adult contemporary
Release Date: 9/21/21

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC! I enjoyed every minute of it! It was very relatable! Personally dealing with self acceptance and loving yourself is very real. I also have a five year old with Autism, so I could relate to some of Lori’s struggles.

Lori Palmer is spending her senior year as the new girl at Bay Water High, where the most beautiful and athletic attend. To her this means the opposite of who she is. She’s sad to leave her Art school in Joburg, South Africa, but she knows this move is for her brother to attend the best school. Lori is still coping with her parents divorce and now she has to start over the year before college. What she wasn’t expecting was finding her true self over the next year.
I loved that Lori’s character developed and blossomed through the story. She was very vulnerable and shared her insecurities. She also found her self worth and built some amazing new relationships. I was rooting for Lori, her art, and finding love!

I had high expectations for this book, and it saddens me that it didn't live up to them. I was in it for the plus sized representation, but it wasn't for me.

Many of my problems concern editing. The book felt like poorly written fanfiction.

The author's description of setting and characters were saturated; a very distracting aspect that was unnecessary and frustrating.

That was a fun, one-day read. Loved the South African setting, I could've used more in that area or more language thrown in. Anxiety is forefront but the romance is just sweet, and some LGBT and autism thrown in there as well. Great characters. And the art oh my, I am loving the trend of these talents main characters are having of late like in Furia or How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love with the Universe. But keep the art coming, I'm excited to see what else will emerge.

I went into this book expecting it to be a cute contemporary, which it was. However this book ended up being so much more. Some of the topics this YA tackled was being fat, having anxiety, divorce, bullies, and so much more.

Lori Palmer is fat and hates everything about her body. She has two best friends who she loves and attends an art school that accepts her. That is until her mom finds a school in Cape Town that is better suited to take care of her autistic brother. Lori if forced to attend BWH where everyone is perfect and she doesn’t fit in. Lori starts to change her perspective of not only herself but Cape Town itself with the help of Jake a hot water polo player from her school.

Lori stole my heart and I was routing for her to have her romcom ending throughout the whole book. Loris struggles with her body image, and anxiety was depicted beautifully and hit so close to home with me. I enjoyed Lori’s relationship with her brother Zac also. It was so touching how much she cared for him and did everything she could to make him as comfortable as possible.

Overall this book gave me everything I needed wrapped up in a pretty bow. This was my first book by Jo Watson and I will definitely be picking up some of her other romances.

Lori Palmer is the new girl at Bay Water High. She misses her old school―where her talent as an artist carried more weight than she does.So Lori decides that the only way to survive the rest of the year is to blend into the background, but when she ends up befriending the most popular (and hottest) guy at Bay Water High, Jake.

When old anxieties resurface, Lori uses her art as release and unknowingly ignites a movement. When the authorities start asking questions, Lori realizes that finding her voice might have gotten her into a world of trouble…but sometimes standing up for what you believe in is as important as standing up for yourself.

I really enjoyed this coming-of-age story. The romance was really cute too. However, this story focused more on Lori and her emotional journey on learning to love herself. This book touches on Lori's anxiety and also shows a new perspective of being the sibling of somebody on the spectrum. I also enjoyed reading about Lori's art as well. The characters were great and I enjoyed Lori's new friendship with Thembi and her relationship with Jake.

Overall, this book was an enjoyable and heartwarming read.

Owning who you are. An important message. It was YA with confidence. I wasn’t enthralled nor intrigued but a standard story with a plus size female protagonist. Meh sure?

As a plus size red head, the cover of this book drew me in the most. Unfortunately this book failed to keep me hooked, which really made me sad. I wanted to fall in lover with this book so much but I just couldn't connect.

This is the YA book I wish I had read when I was a teenager! It's a really fantastic take on loving yourself, body positivity, and healthy relationships, as a teen. I also loved how the book normalized therapy. Even as the middle aged woman I currently am, I enjoyed the therapy sessions in the book, a good reminder to love ourselves first.
We all also know I have a soft spot for teenage romance, and this one is so cute! It's definitely written for the YA audience though, so don't expect anything more than that.
I highly recommend this book for teens, especially teens who are struggling with finding themselves, or dealing with body image issues.
I also want to add that teenage me would definitely have given 5⭐s!

Wow... When I picked up this book at first, I thought it was going to be a relatable story about a big girl in a skinny world. Turns out it was that plus so much more.

Lori is such a relatable character for me. I've had a lot of similar experiences to her and at some parts I felt like the author had seen a younger me, made her a red head and put her in South Africa instead of Scotland and told parts of my story.

I know there's a world of Lori's out there, and I think this book would be a great read for people who feel the way Lori does.

Lori has wonderful growth and character development and it felt really natural. Sometimes she took two steps back before she took a baby step forward, and that made her so believable as a character. The love she has for her brother (but also the fact that she can be honest about how his condition affects her) really shows what a lovely character she is.

I really enjoyed reading the development/detoriation between her and the other characters. I was hooked from page one!

The other issues raised in this book are poignant and tastefully represented. I applaud the author for the delicacy around the subject.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

i really enjoyed this! i connected with the main character and am so glad to see plus size representation. the writing style wasn’t my favorite but overall really good!

YES. I have been waiting for something like this. I absolutely loved it and felt very seen as a plus sized woman.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Big Boned follows Lori Palmer as she switches to a different high school for her Senior year. Leaving the open and accepting halls of her former arts high school is difficult, particularly for Lori, who's been bullied and scorned in the past for her weight. She knows the only way she'll make it through her last year is to blend in, but that's easier said than done. As Lori navigates her broken home, her future as an artist, friendships, and caring for her brother, we get to watch her finally find her voice.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It centers a lot on the concept of self-love, and about being your fullest self without allowing others to tear you down. We spend a lot of time with Lori while she's in her therapist's office, learning the difficult lesson of being kind to herself. I loved these moments, the way that her therapist gave Lori tools for being kinder to herself and talked her through her insecurities and into loving herself.

I also appreciated how this book wasn't just about a fat girl. It was also about autism, and ADHD, and divorce, and parenthood, and social justice, and the beauty in broken things. I came to the page with certain expectations, and the book far exceeded those expectations.

I think this book may be quite difficult for plus-sized readers in some parts. While Lori's story and struggles are relatable, she really is not kind to or accepting of herself for the bulk of the novel. She gets there, in the end, but the struggle to get there may be triggering for readers who have gone through similar experiences, whether saying/doing those things to themselves or being bullied using that particular language/those tactics. Lori has a lot of trauma, and Jo Watson doesn't hold back in being honest and genuine about that trauma.

I received an EARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I haven’t had much success with Jo Watson in the past and I requested this book with an open mind. Unfortunately, I don’t think her writing is for me. Despite my low star rating due to the statement prior and myself not being the target audience, I do believe this book will be successful with the target audience as it does speak of body positivity and insecurities. In that sense, it is extremely relatable and I could myself in Lori as a plus size woman.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for and advanced copy of Big Boned.

I enjoyed this book, as someone who is plus size I could relate to a lot of the things Lori went through and thought about herself. People can be mean but we can also be mean to ourselves.

I absolutely adored Zac. And the relationship he and Lori had was so sweet. It’s not often that authors add characters with autism or who are neuroatypical and so it was really refreshing to see that.

Lori’s growth was tremendous in this book and I would love to have another one with future Lori to see what her life has become.

I flew through this book, the plot was brilliant. I loved getting to know the characters, their backgrounds and family life. Overcoming insecurities, bullies, fears, standing up for yourself, doing the things you love. But the book fell short with the number of errors in it. Both spelling and grammar as well as practicalities. Right at the start, it mentions the colour blue being made by mixing green and yellow?! I re-read this paragraph many times in case I was missing something or had misread it altogether. For me this was a bit of a downer, how could an art student make a simple, basic mistake like this? I ended up spending the rest of the book on edge picking up on further mistakes/inconsistencies. Hopefully, these may be ironed out in the final copy?

This book was so sweet and wholesome! I genuinely enjoyed our main character and reading from a 'bigger' person's perspective. You don't often see that lately and it's pretty important in my opinion.

I unfortunately had to put this book down because I was not enjoying it. I don't usually like to that, especially with advanced copies, but I can't read this book anymore.

Personally, this book is not for me. I am sick of books featuring plus sized main characters who hate themselves. I get that enough in my real life (I mean me) that I just can't read about it in a book. I don't like how truly brutal Lori is about her body, it's really not something that I think young adult readers should be reading because it affected on me so I can imagine how it will make young readers who have this same body type think about themselves. There are also moments where Lori brings down other girls, at least in her mind, because they're skinny. It just felt uncomfortable.

The writing style is not for me, I don't think it is very well written because the way the characters are described are honestly weird and and I don't like how randomly over descriptive it is.

I can't in good conscious finish this book and recommend it to others. The 25 percent I read I did not like, and I think there are better books that have much better plus size representation than this one.