Living well may be the best revenge, but that’s not exactly what Savvy Sheldon has in mind when she hatches her “Revenge Plan” after her asshat boyfriend of six years dumps her and dumps on her – but only after he finishes the delicious dinner that she lovingly cooked for him.

(There are asshats and then there are TOTAL asshats, but this dude is in a class not exactly by himself but dropped in a metaphorical vat of acid along with the douchecanoe ex-boyfriend from yesterday’s book.)

When we first meet Savvy her romantic life and her self-esteem are pretty much in freefall. It’s not just that ex leaves her, it’s not even that he was pissed that she was home late from work to cook the dinner she was making for him so that he could finish it before he walked out, but it was the way he blamed everything wrong in their relationship on her. Because she’s been neglecting everything, including herself, to put in long hours at work AND attempt to keep this bastard happy.

So on his way out the door – I wish someone had told him not to let it hit him in the ass on the way out because he just so completely deserved it – he nagged and ragged and negged on the fact that she had “let herself go” and that he deserved a better looking girlfriend and planned to trade up to someone with a supermodel body.

Savvy feels heartbroken AND a little bit guilty. So she calls her fantastic crew of loyal, true blue, ride or die girlfriends to come and help her get her head on straight and figure out what her next steps are going to be.

Her initial plan is to get a “Revenge Body” and make him regret leaving her. That plan has more than a few flaws, because he’s just not worth the effort. But Savvy is – and her friends help her to see that.

Savvy’s plan, with the help and support of her besties, is to work out that thing we all have difficulty finding – a work life balance. Because she has been putting in WAY too many hours at work chasing a promotion and neglecting HERSELF. Taking care of herself by eating better, getting back to exercising, and making time to do things with her friends and her family will make her feel better about herself.

If she manages to make Mr. Wrong jealous and snag Mr. Right along the way – well, that’s icing on the cake. A cake that Savvy will bake herself, thankyouverymuch.

Escape Rating B: The total douchiness of their exes isn’t the only thing that Savvy Sheldon and Tam Doan – or at least their stories – have in common. Both stories are straddling the fence between romance and relationship fiction, although it felt like Gouda Friends was just a bit stronger on the romance side, while Savvy Sheldon’s story is just that bit stronger on the relationship – as in relationships with people other than the love interest – side.

It’s a fun read either way. They both are. Although Savvy’s story is not a romantic comedy – in spite of the publisher’s marketing campaign. Not that it doesn’t have both funny moments and a meet cute – but the emphasis in this one is just not on the romance. It’s on the friendships.

They also both center on self-care stories. Savvy has been so focused on getting ahead at work – thanks to a lifetime of lessons from her mother on making sure that she’s financially secure and stable – that she’s lived her job and dropped the ball on self-care. She’s hasn’t been making a whole lot of healthy choices in any part of her life and that’s something she needs to get a handle on.

That the initial focus of that journey is on losing weight, and that a lot of attention gets paid to how much better she looks is my one quibble with the story. It’s an understandable impulse from Sassy’s initial perspective, but it’s not any healthier than her recent lack of self-care. The more the focus shifts from how she looks to how she FEELS the better the story feels as well. (And some readers will find Savvy’s initially constant negative reflections on her body and her weight to be triggering. Some will find it entirely too familiar and probably quite a few of us – BOTH)

As much as I was happy to see Savvy find her HEA with Spencer, for me the romance felt like the icing on that cake. The cake of this story was all wrapped around Savvy’s close relationship with her friends, the loving details of the way that they supported each other’s journeys, and the fantastic way that Savvy figured out how to nurture her dreams AND have a job she loved without sacrificing her entire life to her job. She created that magical, mystical work-life balance and that part was glorious!

Her friends were all terrific and I’d love to see everyone again in another book. After all, only Joan managed to discover her HEA along Savvy’s journey. Maggie still needs to find hers!

When I originally heard about this book I felt like it was going to be a fun book that tackled some very current issues. There was great pacing which made it easy to fly through and the writing style was really easy to consume. Initially though I did have some issues with how Savvy reacted to the feedback of others, even though her reaction was a very reasonable and common one. That being said I was happy for her as she decided to turn the negatives into positives and better herself. One thing I will say is this book will likely be very triggering to any one with body issues as there is definitely fat shaming and lots of diet culture talks that I know can be hard for some to read. Overall, Savvy's journey was entertaining and full of reflection and learning how to love yourself.

Savvy Sheldon Feels Good as Hell feels more like women's fiction to me than romantic comedy. I mean, it does have its moments, but the book tackles some pretty emotional stuff. Savvy certainly has a journey, and I liked where she ended up, but some things along the way were hard to get through. I would warn that if you struggle with body issues, the first half of this one could be triggering. On the flip side of that, I would say to push through if you can because that's really what this one is about - self-love and body positivity, and it does have a good message. I don't want to give the impression that I didn't like the story. I did, and as a fluffy girl myself, I can totally relate to the need for more body-positive messages. All things considered, this is a well-written debut, and I'll be interested to see this author's growth in future books.

Savannah (Savvy) Sheldon comes from a family of hardworking people (on her mother’s side) who value achievement. Spurred on by her mother and encouraged by her Uncle Joseph, Savvy works really hard at her job as an insurance underwriter and is the likely candidate for a promotion. She lives alone in her childhood home that really needs some renovation, especially her kitchen since she loves to cook. Savvy thought she was in a committed relationship with her six year boyfriend Jason until she wasn’t. He suddenly dumps her, critical of her weight gain and work ethic, says he’s ready for an “upgrade.” Unfortunately, Savvy takes his criticisms to heart and begins on a journey to “renovate” herself.

Savvy is the only daughter of her Thai mother and Black father who was never in her life. Her grandmother taught her to cook, handing down the treasured family recipes to her. She expresses her love through the meals she cooks for friends, family and Jason up until recently. And these recipes are discussed so lovingly throughout the story as Savvy is preparing them, so much so that I could feel her joy and emotion. Do not read/listen to this book when you’re hungry!

I was initially distraught at Savvy’s reaction to Jason’s criticisms because she gave them credibility and weight. When she went on a mission to take up hot yoga, resume her tennis lessons, eat healthier and completely make herself over on the outside, I cringed. Fortunately, I hung in there because Savvy needed to go through this process in order to look inward and do some true self reflection. With the help of her ride-or-die best friends Joanie and Maggie and a wonderful contractor named Spenser, Savvy learns to love every aspect of herself, including her body. The journey to that discovery is full of laughs provided by her zany friends, steamy moments with a “real” man who sees the authentic woman and some mouth watering meals that Savvy cooks up, so deliciously described I thought I could smell and taste the concoctions. I listened to the story and the narrator did the romance, meal descriptions and hilarity justice. I loved Savvy’s triumph even though her route to get there gave me some heartburn (pun intended!). It’s a lovely debut and I’m interested in reading more from this author.

Things I liked about this book:
1. Savvy and her internal journey. While it began from words spoken to her that caused her pain, she did decide to make changes in her lifestyle on her own to help herself feel better. I admire that.
2. Savvy has a great group of friends who support and love one another.
3. Dogs.
4. Savvy had to do some soul-searching about her job, and dang if I haven't just gone through all of that myself! I think it was very real.

Things I did not like about this book:
1. Savvy's tendency to jump to odd conclusions. (Example: Spencer was miscategorized as homeless and that was unfair.)
2. Savvy did allow her psycho ex to get in her head (although who of us hasn't had this issue?), and good golly, why was he everywhere afterward? Was he focused on trying to make Savvy feel worse, thereby making him even more of a jerk-face? or was this just part of the author's way of making Savvy self-evaluate each time? Not sure.
3. Spencer was almost too good and patient to be true.
4. There is a lot of focus on why Savvy decides to diet and exercise to lose weight. I don't see it as fat-shaming, necessarily; but I'm also a Gen-Xer who generationally doesn't see it the same as millenials or Gen-Zers likely do.

Overall, I landed on a four-star rating.

Sadly a DNF for me due to the triggering content/language of diet culture and fatphobia. I only made it 20% in but absolutely loved the author's writing style and I'm sure this book has a reason for the content, but I'm not mentally in a place where I can tough if out and get there.

The friend group is a delight and I hope to read more from this author in the future!

Savvy Sheldon Feels Good As Hell, follows Savvy after she's dumped by her boyfriend, essentially because she works too much and has gained too much weight over the years they've dated. Savvy's response is to give her life a bit of a makeover, and prove to her ex just what he's missing. At the same time, Savvy decides to make some changes to her house as well, which means she's working closely with a contractor named Spencer who seems to like her just as she is.

I requested an ARC of this book, excited to read a body positive Black romance, and I didn't quite get that. I was very particular with the way I worded the synopsis in this review because I don't want anyone else being misled the way that I feel I was. This is not a body positive book. While that may be fine with you, I found myself disappointed that the only time the character found herself beautiful was when she had completely remade herself and her curves were now toned due to the exercise regiment she worked so hard to integrate into her schedule. Let me be clear that I enjoyed reading about Savvy exercising and playing tennis and going to yoga. I just disliked how it crafted a message I find to be quite harmful. I'm all about people making changes in their life. I'm all about people making healthy choices. But I feel like it's important that self love not be reliant upon the way you look. Nothing really changed about Savvy throughout the book. She's still hardworking, fun, and loving, but at the end of the book she's more toned and has a better haircut and that's when she finds peace within herself. I think there might have been an attempt to sprinkle in the discussion about loving yourself no matter what, but because of the way the story played out, that attempt meant nothing.

Beyond my issues with the overall premise of this book, I found the pacing and transitions in this book to be extremely odd. We'd go from a scene with friends to a scene where Savvy is at her job, with no transition between the two. Not even a line or two to let you know the setting had shifted! There were several times where I thought I was missing a paragraph and had to double check to make sure I hadn't skipped a page because of how clunky the transitions were. The area that was affected the worst by this was the romance. There was no chemistry between Savvy and Spencer, because there was never any buildup. Any supposedly steamy scenes just started out in such odd ways that I never was feeling the connection. I truly felt like I was missing the pieces that would make me understand why these two felt like they had a connection!

After all my griping and grousing you may think I hated this book, but that isn't the case. I just found this book to be quite mediocre. I just didn't care for most of it. It was a slice of life story, and it could have stopped at any point and I would have been fine leaving Savvy to live her life. Maybe this is just a continuation of the fact that the writing didn't mesh with me, but at no point did I truly care or feel any stakes in Savvy's life. I didn't care about the romance, Savvy's job, her house, her aspirations. I wasn't quite bored, but there was nothing that pushed me to read this book either, besides for it being an ARC.

In the end I gave this book two stars. I didn't hate it, though I had my issues, but I just can't think of anything that I gained from this book either. If it still sounds interesting to you, then read this book! Just because nothing in this book clicked for me, doesn't mean that this story can't work a lot better for you. But if anything I mentioned sounds like it would bother you as well, then I'd suggest skipping this story for a more well-developed book featuring the true meaning of loving yourself.

Loved Savvy so much! It was easy to root for her from the beginning and I loved being with her on her journey. Looking forward to reading more from Taj!

After getting dumped by her terrible boyfriend Savvy sets out to get a promotion and get a revenge body. I wasn't prepared for how hungry this book would make me, Savvy sounded like an amazing cook and I would have loved to see some of her recipes included in the book. I also wasn't prepared for how focused this would be on Savvy's exercising. I loved Savvy's friends and how the yoga and tennis scenes added to their relationship, but they just felt like a lot for me at times.

I know that this book tried to feature weight loss in a good way, but I didn't like how detailed it got about cheat days and restricted eating. I also didn't appreciate that Savvy thought Spencer was homeless and that it became a joke. As far as their romance went, I would have loved to see it develop more and maybe have fewer scenes of Savvy playing tennis.

Savvy's friend group and the food really made this book for me!

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishers and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I laughed and I cried. This book was full of so much positivity and heart. It made me feel Good as Hell!

I did like the emotional development of the main character and the incredible supportiveness of her friends. On the other hand I didn’t like that this gorgeous woman needed to get fit and lose weight to be able to find herself. Nor did I need the detailed work out plans. Each of these scenes included important plot points in the form of dialogue or character thoughts but I found the emphasis was placed more on what she was doing to get healthier and gain her “revenge body” for entirely too much of the book.
I was really hoping for a body positive, no matter the size, type book and in some ways this novel delivered, but in other ways it fell flat.

3 stars

Savvy Sheldon, the titular character of what is billed as a rom com but to me reads MUCH more like contemporary women's fiction, is a character readers cannot help but root for from the first page to the last.

When the novel begins, it's clear to everyone but Savvy that her current romantic relationship is toxic, and the great hope is that she'll realize this and make some internal changes that will help her see that she deserves so much more. Sound familiar? Readers may not experience many surprises here, but they will get some fun characters and dialogue as they follow the adventure.

Savvy's journey includes the outside and the inside, and because there is so much focus on SAVVY's growth, which is a huge benefit, this feels improperly marked to me as a romance. Yes. Savvy experiences romantic moments, but this is not at all the center of this novel. Readers looking for a likeable character who grows and faces some tough realizations and conversations will find this appealing, but those who are here for the rom-com might consider getting that wish fulfilled elsewhere.

I enjoyed the read overall and will look forward to reading more from this author.

What a great book by Taj McCoy! I think this is going to be a hit and I loved it so much. Anytime there's a strong heroine, swoony romance and unstoppable friendships...count me in! And can we just PLEASE bring back more normal sized women in books! Taj NAILS this! YESSSSSSSSSS! Loved this one!

Savvy Sheldon was a strong, driven main character who was working to better herself after an ugly breakup. I admired her work ethic and the relationship she had with her friends and family.

I thought this book was okay, but I would be cautious to recommend this to friends with body image issues. Throughout the book, Savvy was trying to better herself because her ex said she didn't pay attention to him and had let herself go. I think the book would have been better served to see her excel as an individual rather than entering into a relationship at the urge of everyone in her life.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I have to admit that I'm a bit torn about one of my most anticipated releases of the year. First off let me say, thank you to the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to review this advanced copy for an honest review.

Right off the bat I wanted to love this book and in many ways I did. I didn't have the same issue with it that I saw others raise in terms of diet culture and exercise. I DON'T think this is a book where the character hates themselves because they are fat or a book that is saying you have to be skinny to be beautiful. That's actually the opposite of the message that Savvy gets from her friends a support group and the opposite of what Savvy comes to realize about halfway through the book. I think that everyone's journey for self love and weight looks different. You can eat clean and exercise without trying to be skinny. You can change your hair style and take up new (or old) hobbies without it being a complete betrayal of who you are. That doesn't mean you hate who you are, it just means you're looking for a change, which I can totally understand. Even the concept of a "revenge body" in this book didn't feel like a revenge body to me. Even though this is a phrase Savvy uses a few times after being dumped by her boyfriend for "being fat and not paying enough attention to him" (which, let's be honest, is the REAL reason he dumped her), but I think that phase doesn't really fit with the the content of the book. No matter how many times she said "revenge body" Savvy never gave off the impression she was trying to lose a lot of weight or get skinny. There's even a moment when she and her friends agree, this is not about the number on the scale, but it's about helping her feel comfortable and strong in her body. Savvy ate a LOT of delicious food in this book and at no point did it seem like she was depriving herself, so I wanted to get that out of the way.

Now that we've clarified those points, lets dive into what I loved and what I didn't care for in this book.
<b>First the good points:</b>
-Savvy's friend group was amazing. They were funny, supportive, and ready to go off whenever her trash ex happened to pop up. Like they stayed on go and I LOOOOVED that. Get you some friends that will try and jump your ex in public ok!

-Savvy's relationship with food when far beyond what was on the surface. Cooking is a passion she learned from her grandmother and you can tell she puts a lot of love in her meals no matter what she's cooking. Food was definitely a hobby and love language for her, so much so that she had a dream of creating a cookbook and often took different cooking classes to learn new things. Cooking was part of her self-care routine that she adopted and it was great to see that side of her. Mama was COOKING okay. Every time she mentioned a new dish, I found myself getting hungry lol.

-Being able to go on this journey with Savvy where she realized she'd lost herself to the pressures of others and needed to rediscover all of the things she loved about herself was beautiful. I think often times we can get lost in relationships (platonic, familial, and romantic) and succumb to the pressures of being what we think everyone else should be. Savvy had to come to terms with this and figure out what it is that she wanted to define her and what would make her happy, not everyone else. There's a moment <SPOILER> where Savvy admits aloud that her "revenge body" scheme wasn't really about her ex saying that she was fat (because again, I think his main issue was that he wasn't getting his ego stroked enough and he was childish). It was about that fact that what he said to her made her realize that in all the time they'd been together, her fear of losing him stopped her from having her own opinions and making decisions for herself. She was constantly worried about what he thought of something and she was finally ready to do something for herself. </spoiler> That was definitely one of my favorite moments in the book.

<b>Now the things I didn't really care for:</b>

-While I didn't mind seeing Savvy begin her new workout routines, like hot yoga, hiking, and tennis, after awhile the tennis scenes began to feel repetitive. It started to feel like filler honestly. We're told that Savvy used to be a BOMB tennis player in high school and college and that she loved the sport before she was injured. Her new mission after the breakup includes jumping back into tennis with a personal trainer, who she quickly became friends with. This was great because we got to watch Savvy rediscover her love of tennis again, but I did <b>not</b> not need a play by play or what the tennis workouts consisted of every time she went. And trust me, she plays tennis a lot in this book. I think that time and writing would've been better served digging into her love of tennis and showing us why she loved it, not being technical about the workout.

-In the beginning, Savvy mistakes the LI, who's a contractor, for a homeless man because of his appearance and the fact that she's never seen him before. Okay fine. My issue is that they kept bringing this up throughout the whole book. "Remember when you thought he was homeless?" "Oh gosh, can't believe I thought he was homeless" "Oh gosh he could never be homeless." LIKE GIRL WE GET IT! It's not cute or funny to keep repeating this over and over again.

-This was NOT a romantic comedy. Did it have funny moments? Yes. But a few funny lines doesn't make something a comedy. And also, just because there's a romance involved, doesn't mean it's a romantic book. This brings me to my next point. The romance was cute and I liked the LI, but the central piece of this book for me was the journey of self-discovery that she went on, NOT, the romance piece of the book. Don't get me wrong, there was definitely romance, but it wasn't the most important thing in the book. That's not an issue in the grand scheme of things, but it sort of felt like this was supposed to be a story about a woman finding and loving herself, but "oh wait, this is too heavy and serious so let's add some cute romance in here to spice things up." Romance can be a lot of things and it's not a monolith (other than the HEA/HFN qualification), but a romantic comedy, this was not.

Also, this may just be me, but Savvy didn't NEED to be in a committed relationship with this man by the end of the book, especially since she'd literally lost herself in her last relationship. Also, some of the issues she had with him (like him leaving first thing in the morning to walk his dog without waking her up) were really weird, especially when he literally explained to her what he was doing. Like girl, please calm down.

-The other element is the synopsis gave me the impression that Savvy didn't really enjoy her job. Even while I was reading, her job seemed like more of a burden than anything else. She did find a little resolution with this at the end, but nothing about her job interactions made me think, "oh yeah, she should definitely keep working here no matter what." They took full advantage of her on a regular basis and while that is true to real life, it still irritated me a lot, especially when it seemed like she was only working there to satisfy her mother and her boss.

This ended up being a lot longer than I intended, but all in all, the point is that while I liked reading it for the most part, it just didn't stand out too much to me. Not bad, not amazing, just sort of average. I fully suggest reading it for yourself and seeing where you land on the spectrum.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this advanced copy in exchange for a review. I am a part of the blog tour team for this book.
This story follows Savvy Sheldon, who has just been dumped by her boyfriend of several years. He tells her that she’s let herself go and says some pretty hurtful things as he’s breaking her heart. So, Savvy decides she is going to get herself a revenge body. She’s going to get herself back into shape and start doing the things she loves again so that he will see what he’s just lost.
This book is pitched as a rom-com and I sort of don’t think that’s accurate. It’s less a rom-com and more a story about Savvy finding herself. She’s rediscovering the things that make her happy. She’s doing only good things for herself. I enjoyed this journey so much. I really loved following Savvy as she rekindled her love for tennis and spent more time with her best friends. Honestly, Savvy and her friends were one of the best parts of this book. They were an absolute riot. I loved every page where the three friends were together.
There is a romance in this story too. It was one that I had no problems rooting for. I really liked how they took things slowly since Savvy had just gotten out of a relationship. They had some really believable chemistry. But also I couldn’t stop laughing at how Savyy thought he was homeless when she first met him.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I loved seeing Savvy find her happiness, happiness that didn’t depend on a man. I loved the food and cooking aspects of the story. I liked the romance. The friendships were hilarious and my favorite. I even liked the workout parts of the story. I definitely think this one will be well-loved by readers.

This was cute but it didn’t stand out to me as much as some other books with similar plots and themes. It lacked the spark and the banter that I really look for in a romance (the romance wasn’t the center of the book). I enjoyed her friends and support system. Such a fun cover and title!

I really loved this book. This book is full of great female friendships and I love when there are strong friendships in romance novels. Savvy goes on quite the journey to become the person she wants to be and I really appreciate how she kept her focus on what she wanted, not what anyone else wanted her to be.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions and mistakes are my own.

Based on the cover, I had high hopes for this book. Alas, when Savvy’s asshole boyfriend dumps her at the very beginning of this book, saying he needs to “upgrade” from her and calls her out for being fat and letting herself go, I got a little nervous. Desperately hoping that this would be a book about a fat FMC loving herself just as she is, I had hoped this wouldn’t be about the FMC using the ex-bf’s hurtful words as an impetus to change her whole life. However, following the breakup, Savvy gets a haircut, starts working out, changes her eating habits and while none of that is egregious on its own, having it be inspired by the thoughtless, hurtful words of an ex partner, does not send a great message, that being that in order to feel worthy of being loved, requires one to be fit or skinny.

I don’t normally love books that focus a lot on diet and exercise and cheat days and all that. There’s quite a bit of that in this book. But that would even be ok had it not been so intertwined with what prompted it. Had Savvy decided, unprompted by her ex’s hurtful words, that she wanted to be healthy, fine, I’d have accepted it. But doing it because of him, because she wants to make him have regrets, didn’t make me feel great.

Secondly, calling this a rom com feels far fetched. The romance is very light, so much of the book is about Savvy and her friends and the tennis and the yoga and the cooking and it really feels like the romance takes a back seat to all of it. I very much like Spencer and Savvy as a couple but I don’t think the romance between them drives the plot of this book. The driving force of the book is about Savvy making changes in her life and deciding what she wants and deserves and going after it. Spencer just happens to be one of these things. I honestly feel like her friends feature as much if not more than the developing relationship between Spencer and Savvy.

CW: fat shaming, diet talk, exercising and complaining about not losing weight

As a curvy girl i adore everything this book stands for. Savvy is a pleaser, she does and does and does for everyone around her and finds herself in a rut. Her long time boyfriend shows his true colors which sends her into a quest to find herself. I obviously hate the ex but I LOVE the journey she took for herself in this book. It can be overwhelming to come out of a relationship that leaves emotional scars but with her girl gang, her family, new friends, and a new man by her side Savvy learns to trust and love herself. Her ability to step out of her comfort zone regularly in the story were endearing and her ability to make a stand was empowering.

On top of all that personal growth this book was sexy and steamy and displayed what real love and confidence in a partner can look like. Savvy deserved all the good things that came her way and wow Spencer is mega book boyfriend material. I love his quiet pursuit and his determination to make sure she knows with his actions and his words.

Taj McCoy is a force to be reckoned with. I can't wait to see what she writes next.