I was a little hesitant about this book. It was a great idea but one that it is rarely executed properly. I really did enjoy this book!

Crazy to Leave You by Marilyn Simon Rothstein starts with the fear that every bride faces...being left at the altar, especially after dieting yourself silly to fit in the perfect dress! At 41, Lauren Leo is afraid that her biological clock is ticking away too fast and when her fiancé leaves her at the altar, she's afraid she'll never be that skinny and that close to being a mother again. The only thing she can do is eat all.the.donuts and lean into her career in a way she has never done before. Returning to work the day after "the humiliation" her boss asks her to go from NY to Massachusetts to see an account. On her way home she is in a car accident, after which her boss offers her a driver to take her wherever she needs to go. However, the driver is not quite the man she thinks he is.

I loved this novel. It was interesting to see how Lauren navigated her difficult family life (who gets along with all their siblings? Anyone?) her mother, her fiancé and her life after the humiliation. Mistakes are made, donuts are eaten, but in the end, the mistake of marrying the wrong man is avoided because he is just too weak. Thank you to the author, Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review. And can I say again...the donuts? I just want to stop at all the bakeries now!!!

I was able to preview this book through NETGALLEY.com! I found this book to be a hilarious, honest look at how a forty-one year old, overeater handles being jilted at the alter.

Lauren is my new favorite protagonist! She is so real and relatable. I found myself laughing out loud as she refused to weigh in until she had showered and shaved. After all, dead skin and hair must account for some unwanted and unnecessary weight!

The look at family dynamics in particular mother- daughter and sister-sister relationships was spot on. It can be extremely challenging to navigate those relationships as different personalities view how to be of help and communicate love in very different ways.

I think I found a new must buy author. I cannot wait to go back and read her previous books and will be recommending her to all I know.

Unfortunately. I had to dnf it, I just wasn't really feeling the whole: I feel sorry for myself vibe......and it didn't get much better, I dnfed it at 36% I really, really wanted it to get better but it didn't......

Thank you netgally for the copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book really focuses on the main character's weight and body image, and as a result the story kind of drags on, especially through the middle of the book. I did read all the way through, and would be interested to read another book by this author and see of it improves

Thank you to NetGalley for my free copy in exchange for my honest review. This book was okay. I found Lauren to be hard to like and I found the topic around her weight and eating to be too much. I did however love Rudy and her work story.

I was able to get an Arc of this book for an honest review. First, know there is a lot of talk about food and diets in case those topics are triggering for you. Second, there are some word choices and phrases that are a bit dated for a 2022 release in my opinion. The writing reminded me of the romance novels my mom would read back in the day. Additionally, even though I am someone who has struggled on and off with their weight and diets, I could not connect with Lauren. Her character was whinny and annoying in my opinion. Actually I couldn’t connect with any characters and didn’t like any of them. Lauren’s family was the worst. They could all benefit from lots of therapy. Overall, I was bored. I kept waiting for something to happen but nothing ever really did. It was a lot of bland dialogue. I wanted to like this book but really disliked it and thought about DNFing it several times. I should have so I didn’t waste my time on it.

Highly recommend!! This book is a definite page-turner! You'll be left thinking about the story long after you put the book down. First book to read by this author but definitely not my last!

I loved this book. I loved Lauren. To me the romance was justifiably on the back burner through most of this book, as Lauren needed to muddle through losing an ex, her horrible mother, her other messed up familial relationships, and her work life. Rudy was also a gem of a man and he was able to read and understand Lauren almost immediately. He was such a good man.
I really enjoyed the angst and pain and discomfort that I experienced reading this and Lauren’s relationship with food and weight was very relatable.
Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC for my honest review.

I enjoyed this book more than I expected to! (TW: food, eating, and body image are a common theme in this book)

Our main character, after being left at the altar, sinks into a bit of a slump and has to work her way back to being herself again. She struggles with her binge-eating as she tries to balance her romantic, work, and family life.

I love that we get to see her family play a part in this narrative. Many "romance" books simply throw a family member in to move the plot along, but in this book the family members play an active role in shaping the MC. And the fact that their Jewish faith is incorporated into the story! Loved it.

Rudy was such a great character. Sweet, happy to listen, and a thoughtful man overall. Glad we didn't fall down the cliched "I've loved you since I laid eyes on you" hole.

The writing style was light and easy to digest. Some of the phrases were so funny to me. One particular one that I remember was where she got "thrown under the bus" metaphorically, but instead of saying that, the book read:

"Thanks," I said from under the bus.

Overall a lovely read!

I really didn’t enjoy this book it dragged on and on.

First time I have read anything from this author hopefully the next one is better.

I wasnt a big fan of this book i felt like it dragged on. I couldnt connect to any of the characters in the novel. And the ending was just okay.

This is the first book I have read by this author and I don’t think I would rush to read another. I found it extremely difficult to connect with the main character (Lauren) and a chore to pick up and read.
It started out promisingly but as the story developed I found each chapter boring and the dialog basic and difficult to engage with. Not my favourite book and not something I would recommend to others.

I enjoyed reading this story and immersing myself in Lauren's life, but I wish the romance had been more prominent. This was a fantastic book for me. It had some funny, heartfelt, infuriating, and awe-inspiring moments. It started slowly, but once you realised where all the characters were coming from, you fall in love with them and don't want to put it down. There are some good plot twists that keep the storey moving forward and keep it interesting to read. This was a fun and easy read that was a slow burner, but it wasn't a bad read like some others. It was well written, with likeable characters and a compelling plot. It was a fun book to read.

I was a little disappointed by this one. A quick glance at other reviews shows me I'm not alone in my issues with how Lauren's weight is dealt with throughout the novel. It also took me a while to get into and I didn't really connect with any of the characters. An interesting premise however, and I appreciated the author's humour throughout.

Lauren is having a rough time lately. Her fiancee left her at the alter, her perfect sister may not be as perfect as she thought and her other sister was largely absent until she wasn't. A great story about a woman who is coming into her own and doing it her own way.

This book is a complete disaster, the writing style is childish, typical of a second grade schoolboy (my niece, third grade, already writes in a more articulate way and makes better use of main and subordinate sentences), it is nothing more than a list of short sentences, consisting of subject, verb and complement ... <i>I got up. I had a coffee for breakfast. The phone rang. She was my sister. I replied. "How are you? Said my sister." Well, thank you "I replied ... </i> over 300 pages like that, terribly boring and unreadable. The plot is inconsistent: a woman is left by her boyfriend tyhe day of theri weeding, and ever since, we simply read silly conversations with the rest of her family, with a couple of friends / acquaintances and with whom in the end (what a big surprise!), will become her new boyfriend. For the rest, the cosmic void.

A quick and easy read that I found myself picking up after a long day to unwind. The characters are beautifully written and I came to love them within the first few pages and was rooting for them all the way to the end. At times I wanted to stop reading because I just wanted the experience to go on for longer.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

the book was very well written and i loved it however it wasn't my cup of tea. i can't discredit the fact that the book made me laugh and was very funny at times, however, its not something i see myself usually enjoying. the plot was certainly unique, and the writing style was amazing.

I have never read a book but this author but have fallen in love with her work after reading this book and look forward to reading her other works of art. The story is about finding yourself, never giving, women empowerment, and family. It was amazing to read how the characters grew and what happened to them and that were able to make it through! It also goes to show that not everything you see is real life, there is stuff going on behind the walls we don’t always realize. Life is not perfect, but you have to keep working and striving to make it better everyday! This book will remind you of that!!