Thank you #Netgalley for the advanced copy!

This was such a great read. Our main character, Sunny, is in her mid thirties fresh off a divorce, she is a successful business woman, has a new group of friends but she still ultimately wasn't happy. She decides that she is going to turn her life around and follow her dreams in hopes to not only help herself but others. She decides to create a plus sized swimsuit line and enlists the help of those around her to make it happen, all while relaunching her blog. We watch Sunny navigate the dating world as a divorce, pressure from family, keeping her company moving and being a supportive friend. I found this book very motivating and showing things aren't always perfect.

So I did feel seen in the changing room scene, but the rest of the book felt a bit like forced body positivity to me, which I hate. I don't know if that is just how it came off to me but the storyline was beyond unrealistic and while I can take some wish fullfilment, when you ground your book in reality it is hard to take things seriously. The friends were awesome though.

The perfect pallet cleanser!

Sunny side up is about recently divorced Sunny Greene. Sunny is fabulous. She runs a PR empire and has a gorgeous apartment, great friends and 2 rescue dogs. This book is about Sunny's struggle with body acceptance and getting into her new chapter of life post divorce. This book is literally sunshine.

This is like if Younger and Sex and the City were body positive. I loved having a plus sized heroine that struggles with her body (relatable). I had so much fun reading it.

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the ARC - all opinions are my own!

Sunny Greene is excited to go on vacation with her friends as they are recovering from their divorces. A trip to the department store turns south when Sunny only finds one bathing suit in her size as it appears they do not carry sizes over size 10. She runs a successful PR firm in New York but she thinks her personal life is lacking. One of her goals is to find a date to bring to her brother's wedding. She navigates the dating app scene ending in some hilarious moments. She starts up her blog again to memorialize her dating escapades and mentions two of the men she is dating.
As this is going on, her friends encourage her to design bathing suits for all body sizes after her experience. She starts a second company to make and sell bathing suits. She has such a very busy life that she starts to reassess her priorities. Sunny is a warm, intelligent, successful woman that shines in Sunny Side Up. Sunny will pull you into her story and the book will be hard to put down. I cannot wait to read more from this debut author.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review the ARC of Sunny Side Up.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. As a plus size reader, I could immediately relate to the clothing challenges Sunny experiences and body image issues she is dealing with and was excited to read this book. I think it started out in the right direction, but she became very difficult to relate to. Being a very successful CEO of a PR firm, wearing designer clothes despite her complaints of not being able to find clothes that fit, having every man she meets want to be with her, and creating a swimsuit line within a matter of months with no challenges made me less sympathetic to her. The romance was really hard to believe as she was dating multiple people and not really invested in either besides being physical until she’s in love at the end. I wasn’t a fan or marijuana being included in the storyline, I’m not sure what being high or smoking joints brought to her story. Overall, it is a quick and easy read, but I was not the right audience.

Sunny is 35 and recently divorced. Her brother is getting married in six months and is determined to bring a date. Sunny is a very successful owner of a pr firm. She lives in her dream neighborhood of Chelsea NY and she has two amazing friends. But she has issues with her body. She is has always been larger and has gained more weight since the divorce. Her and her new found friends are going on a divorcation and she needs to find a swimsuit. It does not go well. She remembers the comments her ex made about her body. She ends up ordering ugly suits online. She has her tailor customize and alter them. She eventually figures out that she should star a swim wear line that is size inclusive. While don that she also works on lining up a date for the wedding. She has a crush on her mailman but that relationship is slow going. She also starts somthing with the investor of her swimsuit company.

I really enjoyed this one. She had some really important messages about body image and how women shouldn’t spend all of their time focusing on their bodies, they should devote time to other more important things.
I found this book funny, sexy, and relatable.
I am also plus size and enjoy reading a book where a plus size women has a healthy sex life and doesn’t spend the entire book trying to lose weight. I would recommend this book for any women because every women suffers from body insecurity regardless of what they weigh.

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

This was a very positive, light, fast-paced, and fun read! We follow Sunny, a plus-sized, competent and successful woman navigating life after a recent divorce. I appreciated how this book maintained a positive tone. While Sunny shares her experiences with her weight, she never lets it define her. She stays confident and true to herself, all while working toward her goal of creating inclusive swimwear. That said, the story was very predictable and, at times, unrealistic—things just seemed to fall into place too easily.

Overall, this book was a feel-good, empowering story that I believe many will enjoy!

The story follows Sunny Greene, a recently divorced, plus-sized PR maven navigating the treacherous waters of mid-thirties singledom. Sturino paints a wonderfully relatable picture of a woman grappling with societal expectations, body image issues, and the universal desire for love and acceptance.
The opening scene, set in the daunting swimsuit department of Bergdorf Goodman, perfectly encapsulates Sunny's internal struggle. It's a moment of relatable vulnerability that instantly draws you to her. From this low point, Sunny embarks on a journey of self-discovery and empowerment, fueled by a newfound commitment to self-love and confidence. Sturino cleverly uses Sunny's journey to explore the complexities of body image and the often-unattainable standards imposed on women.
Sturino skillfully weaves humor and heart throughout the story, making it a light and enjoyable read. The romantic entanglements are particularly compelling, offering a modern and nuanced take on love. The contrasting potential suitors – the charming "everyman" mailman Dennis and the ambitious business tycoon Ted – present Sunny with a genuine dilemma, forcing her to confront what she truly values in a partner and in life. The unexpected reappearance of her ex adds another layer of complexity, making the romantic landscape even more intriguing.
Overall, this story is a feel-good read that celebrates self-love, embraces imperfection, and reminds us that happiness can be found even in the most unexpected places.

This book started out slow for me, but once it hit the middle, I was really enjoying the story as a whole. The main character, Sunny, is so relatable and I love how passionate she is about creating a swimsuit line for those that are curvier like her. This would also be an amazing movie. I could see it playing out in my head and with the humor, I feel like this could be a great romantic comedy movie.

Thank you NetGalley for sending this book for me to enjoy and review!

sunny is plus sized woman who has gone through a divorce. she designs a swimsuit and also has an email that goes viral. she finds love with 2 men but finds love with the postman. loved her friends.

Thanks to the publishing team for an ARC copy of this book.

I absolutely loved this book! I'm not huge on rom-com-type books, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but this blew me away.

If you loved Sex and the City, this is right up your alley. It's a chronicle of the adventures of Sunny, a 37-year-old in New York City who recently got divorced less than a year after her wedding. Her efforts to get back out dating and her friendship with two other women in the same situation are definitely reminiscent of Sex and the City, down to the high fashion/shopping angle.

What's different is: Sunny is not a size 2. Her emotional recollection of many times trying to find a larger size in department stores (she's usually a size 14) is so, so relatable to many women, at least in America. The feeling that all of the stores, the magazines, everyone important has decided that you're not "worth it" if you don't fit in these smaller sizes is sadly true for more than half of the women in this country. I nearly cried at the story of having to shamefully go ask for a larger size, at getting the 2 frumpy and poorly made options that the store carried, and at realizing you don't even fit into those options.

<spoiler>What's extra special about this story is that not only does Sunny live this relatable path, she decides to do something about it. She creates a swimsuit fashion line aimed at fitting well for every size body, and at making sure that options are present in stores for everyone. Is the fact that she happens to have all of the resources and people necessary available to her a bit.....convenient? Yes, but I'll forgive it because the story comes together so nicely around this part of the plot.</spoiler>

My favorite part of the storytelling here is that you follow Sunny's adventures from her point of view - so you might fall for a guy who ends up not being "the one," and you might feel as conflicted as she does going through the process.

My only minor suggestion is that some of the characters adjacent to the story aren't as well fleshed out as they could be, and perhaps a bit more intentional diversity would have been nice (I, at least, imagined all of the characters except Noor to be white, although I don't think it's said anywhere).

Overall, if you're looking for an emotional rom-com with real meat on its bones (pun intended) - definitely give this a read!

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sunny is an amazing woman who struggles with her feelings of self-worth and has issues with men. Her character is relatable, and the ending is hope-inducing.

This is a fun read for a book club.

TLDR: Sunny needed a therapist, not a boyfriend

Sunny is 35 and a newly divorced CEO of her own PR company in NYC. Her little brother is getting married and in order to prove to her entire family that she’s fine, she gives herself a deadline to find a date. Along the way she meets shitty men, okay men, great men, and her ex pops in whenever he gets the chance. She also is daunted with the task of finding anything not resembling a smock in the plus size swimwear of Bergdorfs to which her solution is to create her own plus size swimsuit line.

Having a meltdown in a dressing room? Relatable. Creating, from scratch, an entire company and line of clothing and having it on shelves in 5 months? Not relatable.

It is a canon event for most women, breaking down in a dressing room at some point or another (my worst was senior prom dress shopping, but I digress). The dressing room’s “omg I know that EXACT feeling” is what had me requesting this ARC. However, Sunny’s take on body positivity was meager at best and toxic at worst. The self talk in parts of this book had me wanting go touch grass. Sunny was also just very difficult to root for because everything came so easy to her throughout the entire book.

It’s entirely possible that this book just wasn’t meant for me and that is completely fine, but everyone should check the trigger warnings that I’m sure will be in the published novel.

This was such a fun read!!! Sunny wanting so much to have a boyfriend and all her ups and downs in finding “the one”. I do think that the younger generation of the age of 20 something would enjoy this book the most. However, I am in my early 70s and I enjoyed it as well! Sunny is a smart young woman trying to make her way in NYC and trying hard to find the right boyfriend - and to make her business a success. Thank you to Kate Sturino for writing this fun story and thank you to NetGalley for giving me a chance to read it and give my opinion.

3 favorite things about this book:

- main character is plus size but she accepts herself so it’s not a book with a lot of self loathing about her body, which gets old sometimes so I don’t want to read a lot of that. She is very much body acceptance > body positivity. And she’s very confident about her job and fashion! But still has anxieties and feels realistic.
- Mr postman seems very human and normal and I loved that
- Genuinely enjoyed reading it - writing style, banter. Funny moments. The mistakes seemed like ones humans would make. The triumphs felt realistic. all the supporting characters. Esp Avery. Chapters arranged well. Not too long, not too short.

This will make a great summer or poolside read .. heck it’ll be good for any season.

Absolutely can’t wait to see what else this author writes.

4.25 stars

Thank you to NetGalley, Celadon Books and the author for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Sunny with a chance of a strong, thirty-something lead, recently divorced making her way through the dating scene while killing it at her career and starting her own size inclusive swimsuit line. There are very relatable emotions, women supporting women, and New York romanticized. It’s a perfect pool/beach read that I really enjoyed. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley!

3.5/5


Sunny found success with her business ventures, but her love life is a different story. Sunny is a divorced thirty-five year old plus size woman who is juggling a lot. At the same time she is mourning the loss of her marriage

Sunny's story tackles body positivity. The body positivity hit me hard as it’s a constant battle and I found myself relating to those judging you on your looks and not who you are (a classic repeated teenage lesson!) I did feel like some of the romance was a little unrealistic, but it was all fun so I did enjoy it overall

Things I liked about the book:
1. I enjoy body inclusivity and positivity
2. Strong female friendships
3. Women running their own successful businesses is always great in a storyline

Things that I struggled with in this book:
1. It was pretty cheesy, but thats probably just a me thing! I like a lighthearted book, but the writing felt kind of elementary and corny. Compared to authors like Emily Henry, Annabel Monaghan, or Abby Jimenez, the writing was a lot less enjoyable. From the POV of the main character, it sort of felt like an 18-year-old in a 35-year-old body.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of Sunny Side Up by Katie Sturino.

I really enjoyed Sunny getting her life and confidence back after her divorce. Many laugh out loud moments! I just wish she would have been more honest to the people close to her.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC! It took me a little while to get into this book, but it was fun, easy to read, and entertaining. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a palette cleanser after a heavy read!