DNF @ 48%

I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Everly is a fan of the show On the Plus Side and is eagerly awaiting the next season— only to find out she’s one of the newest stars of the show. An unknown person in her life has nominated her for a specific reason that will be revealed at the end. The hosts help the stars become confident in their bodies and themselves via help in all aspects of their life— career, wardrobe, etc.

This book had such a great set up and I was so excited to read a book about a plus sized woman learning to love herself. Unfortunately at 48% we were still nowhere with the plot and we didn’t know much about either male “love interest” beyond the surface level.

Overall I think this has potential and while it wasn’t for me I would definitely recommend giving it a chance!

After being in such a book slump lately, I’m SO happy to report that I loved this story. Logan is crushworthy, the supporting characters are great, and I love a good reality TV trope. When this book comes out on December 26, I really hope people buy it because it’s a romantic-comedy that seems realistic (despite the reality TV angle).

What didn’t work for me

Everly’s confidence: At times, I was a little confused about how Everly saw herself. Sometimes, she was saying she wanted to hide and not be seen, but other times, she was saying she looked great in everything, and I feel like one person can’t really be both things at the same time. This probably isn’t the right book for it, but I really hope one day we get a plus-size character who is just plus-sized and where that isn’t the anchor of the story. But Howe did a great job of giving Everly other character traits, at least, so she wasn’t *just* fat.

Spice level: I was really hoping we were going to get a sex scene with a fat person. Yet again, it was fade-to-black. Don’t get me wrong, you can tell the characters are drawn to each other and are hot for each other, but I would have liked a little more spice.

What I liked

Logan: It’s not a spoiler to say that Logan is the love interest—I mean, he’s on the cover. I really enjoy that we didn’t get his POV, but it was really clear that he was into Everly from the start. There wasn’t really much “does he like me?” or “I must be misinterpreting things” or mixed messages—they figured out pretty quickly that they were into each other, and it was refreshing. He really had his priorities straight.

The pacing: The story starts basically at page one, with Everly being bombarded by the hosts of the show she loves, and from there, we dove right in. There wasn’t a lot of extra, unnecessary storytelling…and I love when there’s an epilogue, too.

No breakup: I don’t want to go into spoiler territory, so I’m going to keep it vague, but in almost every story like this, some miscommunication happens between the main character and their love interest, so they break up or spend some time apart for a while before they get back together. I’m happy to report that there is nothing like that here! They go through something together and have each other’s backs and it feels so much more realistic.

The dog content: This is going to seem random, but there are a lot of mentions of dogs and pets and they all have adorable names—and I was here for it.

4 STARS

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced book copy in exchange for my honest review.

“On the Plus Side” by Jenny L. Howe
Words, Labels, can HURT
A light fun read with some truly heavy topics/situations portrayed. I enjoyed what this story presented and the way that it was done. I think the reader has the option of reading this as fun and fluff or to think seriously about what is said in this story. Happy Reading ! !
NOTE: This review expresses my honest opinion.
I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley

Everly is a plus-sized woman who wants to blend into the background. Everything she does is just good enough. All her efforts are upended when she ends up on a reality show for plus-sized people that helps them make over their lives.

On the Plus Side is an a perfectly adorable romcom. Everly is lovable and genuine in a way that made her character feel real and relatable. Her relationship with Logan was sweet and satisfying. This is such an honest portrayal of being fat and living in the world with other's expectations. Jenny Howe just did an amazing job with this book and I can't recommend it enough!

Just from the author’s note I knew I was going to love this book. It was immediately clear that Howe had truly taken the time to figure out who she wanted Everly to be and how she wanted Everly to carry herself. I LOVED that this book’s (in which Everly, the female main character, is plus size) main focus and main character’s focus/development/story had almost nothing to do with her body. Everly discusses her past of fat shaming but her insecurities are not based upon her body but rather how feels she’s lost herself. As Howe says “she is struggling with who she is, not what she looks like”!!! I also loved Howe use of the word fat and her commentary in the author’s note that the word fat does not need to be a weapon!

Okay now the actual book… I LOVED Everly, despite her feeling like she had lost herself she still stayed true to herself and what she wanted/how she wanted to be seen/what she wanted to represent. Her inner monologue was so heartbreaking in that it was just so honest and so relatable. Logan is truly to DIE FOR. I was physically kicking and giggling over this man. “Fuck that…you’re NOT too much” I’m sorry???? He was so protective of Everly, in wanting to ensure she was able to comfortable and get the most out of her experience/what she wanted out of it. It’s not a perfect book, there’s a lot about Everly’s best friend and Everly brother (who are married) which while reading I had assumed Howe’s first book must have been about that couple due to the amount of info we got about them (seemed like context for those who maybe hadn’t read the first book), but then I saw her first book had nothing to do with this world/these characters?? So a little confused on that but the characters were still likable, just maybe added some extra fluff. I also would have loved to gotten to know Logan better or see Everly and Logan have more intense/deep talks, but even without these things I was 100% rooting for them and thought they were great for each other.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for a honest review!

I absolutely love and appreciate a book with plus-size representation.

This book was such a fun read and just what was needed. Everly and Colton, their chemistry is off the charts and made reading about them so much fun. I couldn't put the book down!

This isn't my first Jenny L. Howe book and that is why I requested this arc, and I am SO glad I did.

A special thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Publishing Group for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am on the fence... on the one had, I loved Logan and Everly together. They are just so sweet and lovely and I wanted more of them together.
On the other hand, the first half of the book felt too long. I could easily put this down and have to remind myself to pick it back up to finish it. It wasn't gripping- which breaks my heart to say because again, I thought this couple was so sweet.
The whole point was for Everly to find herself again and regain her confidence, but I just wanted more Logan.

I enjoyed this fun romance! The chemistry between Everly and Logan was steamy and as another plus sized woman, I appreciated how Everly was portrayed. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for this advanced copy!

Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫
This book was a delightful read! It's a cute romantic comedy. Everly Winters ends up on a reality TV show, "On the Plus Side." She is feeling overwhelmed by the process and all the attention when she forges a friendship with a grumpy (sexy) cameraman. The book takes off from there. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a light, enjoyable romcom!

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc. Overall, this was an enjoyable read! I will say my review is heavily influenced by my own personal taste, and reality show stories never really hold that much appeal to me. But, I really did like seeing the journey Everly went on, and watching her confidence in herself grow was quite sweet. My enjoyment was also helped by the obvious influence Julie Murphy's "Dumplin'" has on the book--more fat girls in fiction getting their HEA, please and thank you! The rest of the characters run the gamut of fully fleshed out, somewhat realistic, all the way to vague characterization. But, at the end of the day, this quick read made me smile quite a bit.

This was overall a cute and empowering book, especially to someone that’s a part of the fat community. I was actually able to take away something from it, which I always appreciate when reading.

I wish the characters were more developed though. Along with this, the indecisive FMC made it hard for me to root for her. While indecisiveness isn’t a bad thing, it just felt like too much here.

On the Plus Side is a super fun new plus size romance! Fans of What Not to Wear or Queer Eye will love this book.

Our heroine, Everly, is a talented artist who's lost her sense of self and confidence since losing her grandmother, who was always her number one fan. Everly's mom has always criticized her body and over time, wore down her self esteem.

When Everly is nominated for the plus size makeover show, On the Plus Side, she finally has a chance to pursue her dreams by applying for an art show, designing her own tattoo, and finally making a move with her longtime crush. But when she meets Logan, the outwardly gruff but secretly kind cameraman filming her, she learns her worth in love.

Logan is a great hero that checks the boxes for a perfect "looks like he could kill you, actually a cinnamon bun" hero, and Everly's growth in this book is so great to see. I think there's some depth lacking in each of the characters, but overall, this is a really fun romance featuring a fat woman getting the love she deserves. 4 stars!

I enjoyed On the Plus Side. It is a cute rom-com book. Everly is a plus size woman who gets picked for a reality makeover show, Logan is the grumpy cameraman but shows another side to Everly. You will enjoy their banter and slow burn romance. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the E-ARC. This is my own opinion.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this Advanced Readers Copy of On The Plus Size by Jenny L. Howe!

This was one of my most anticipated books of the year and it absolutely did not disappoint.

Everly hasn't felt like herself in a long time. Her job is fine, but it doesn't excite her. She flirts with a hot coworker, James, but isn't sure it'll ever go anywhere. Her wardrobe doesn't bring her joy. She stopped pursuing her hobbies (especially art) a long time ago. So when she finds out she's been nominated for her favorite reality makeover show, On The Plus Side (think queer eye but for fat people), she's thrilled. This is finally her chance to rediscover who she is.
The hosts of the show are every bit as wonderful as she expected, and though the show immediately pushes her out of her comfort zone, she's excited to see where the journey takes her. And if the grumpy camera man, Logan, is a part of that journey, even better. But as she starts to make space for the person she wants to be--the person she is when her mother's critical voice isn't running through her mind--she starts to wonder if there might not be some truth to criticisms of the show she's read online.

I am so used to dual POV romances but, once again, I LOVED Jenny L. Howe's choice to use the single point of view. In chapter one I was so sure James was the love interest, but in chapter two I was sure it was Logan. (I try not to read copy so I don't get spoiled for things like that, and I'm so glad I didn't know!)
From start to finish I felt challenged to step out of my comfort zone, just like Everly--On The Plus Side has inspired me to reexamine the choices I'm making in my own life so I can lean into the ones that really bring me joy. This book has such a special place in my heart. Jenny L. Howe was already an auto-buy author after The Makeup Test, and this book really just solidified that for me. It really felt like a love letter to the fat readers who so rarely get to see ourselves as a (non-fetishized) main character in a romance.

Thank you, NetGalley for the arc!
Okay, let me start off by saying I totally get why people do and will love this book. It was fun, cute, and entertaining. I was actually laughing out loud at a few parts. But, I felt like I got to a point in the book where I could predict the rest of it, and I didn’t want to have to go through all the lessons the character was learning because it got cheesy for me, so I did end up DNFing at about 64%.

I received an advanced reader copy of On the Plus Side by Jenny L. Howe from Netgalley.

Simply put I loved loved loved this book. OTPS is probably one of if not my favorite romance novel that I have read this year. I did not want this book to end yet I could not put it down. The chemistry between the two main characters is so tangible that I often found myself grinning ear to ear as I read. While quirky and funny, this book was also emotional and tugged at my heart. More than once i will admit to tearing up. LGBTQ+ and body positive affirming, this book is bound to be a hit. I cannot wait until it comes out in December so can add a physical copy to my bookshelves!

On the Plus Side by Jenny Howe was a quick, enjoyable read. I liked the premise, but I thought it was a bit preachy at some points, but overall it was a good way to pass an afternoon.

3.25 stars. I did like On the Plus Side more as I went through it, and there were things that I enjoyed about it, but it ultimately was just fine for me.

On the Plus Side follows Everly, who is nominated to be on a reality TV show called On the Plus Side, a mash-up of What Not to Wear and Queer Eye where all of the participants are fat. She's lurked on fan forums for the first two seasons, but now she's on the show. The book follows her journey on the show, as she works to achieve goals to feel like herself again and embrace her art, through marketing and design (she works at a marketing firm, but as an executive assistant rather than a designer) and by designing her first tattoo. She's also crushing on her hot coworker, but she seems to be developing some kind of connection to Logan, the cameraman for the show.

I'll start with the things I liked. First of all, there was no third act break-up! We love to see it! There was other conflict that was resolved by Everly and Logan sticking together and also enlisting the help of their friends! Incredible!

I also loved the positive fat representation. Everly's struggles and successes, her experiences being fat-shamed or the passive-aggressive comments she got from her mother, the hosts being fat as well -- it was really nice to be in a world where there was real representation that was celebrated in the context of the show. And we get a lot of insight into Everly's relationship with her mother, and we see some of the work they do to repair the brokenness.

And I did like Logan. He's a brooding, flannel-wearing, blue-eyed hunky cameraman who we get to watch open up to Everly. And he knows how to operate a washing machine 😏 What's not to love?

Now for the cons. Remember how I said I liked Logan? What I didn't like was the number of times that he was described as "lumbersexual." What does that even mean?

There's a plot line throughout that has to do with the way that Everly is being portrayed in the final cuts of the episodes where she feels like the storyline she wants to tell is being ignored by the showrunner, even when she goes to her and complains. While it lends itself to a satisfying ending, it's a whole lot of gaslighting of Everly, and Logan is a big piece of that gaslighting, because he has a strong mentor-mentee relationship with the showrunner and he just can't believe that she'd do anything less than perfectly authentic and honest and not purely ratings-driven. It just sucked to read, because you as the reader can piece together what's happening, and it feels like Logan should have been able to also.

All in all, On the Plus Side was... fine? The last third of the book was more enjoyable than the first two thirds, and while parts of the book felt off, it's got positive representation and a very satisfying just deserts kind of ending.

Content warnings for fatphobia, previous experiences with parental abuse, animal death (past, but it was still sad), death of a grandparent, strained child-parent relationship.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an eARC of On the Plus Side in exchange for my honest review.

I really wanted to love this one, it is so nice that we are starting to get main characters who are plus size, but unfortunately I did not finish this book. I had a hard time getting in to it and I wasn't liking Everly which made it hard for me to continue reading. I think others will love this book, it just wasn't for me.