Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc and alc.

Unfortunately, this book was not my cup of tea as I had a really hard time connecting with the main character. Perhaps on a different day I may enjoy this book better but for now, it is not for me. I am disapointed as I really wanted to like this one,,,

This was a fun audiobook that I flew through. The FMC is hilarious and quirky and some of the moments she goes through as a plus size woman are so relatable. I can say that the fitting room scene in the book brought back so many horrible memories of shopping for swim suits 🥴🥴 and it’s also the reason I picked this audiobook to listen to.

I love a plus size woman getting the best out of life. Sunny is a go getter and fights for what she wants even though she’s been going through a divorce and trying to build her confidence back up. I love that she shares her experiences in a newsletter to help those who have similar issues and just need someone who understands.

That being said, there’s a lot of this book that is unrealistic. I LOVE what everything stood for. Her pitch for her new idea was well said and I ate up every word of it, but the entire process of how those things work didn’t really match with a realistic timeline. I need a bit of reality in my reading.

If you’re looking for a fun, romcom like audiobook about a plus size woman building up her confidence and being a voice for everyone in the same situation, I highly recommend this one. The narrator did a phenomenal job bringing the characters to life, making me laugh and keeping me on the edge of my seat. And that HEA was so dang cute.

Not really a true romance, more of a women’s fiction. The story is about Sunny who focuses on body positivity and her start up for inclusive women’s fashion, while trying to find a date to her brother’s wedding after going through a divorce. This could have been great. It was just OK. The whole blogging about her dates and the fact that she had sexual experiences with multiple men while going through this felt odd and not real. Parts of it were relatable and other parts were not. I appreciated the supporting friendships that Sunny had. This was a quick bingeable read. I listened to the audiobook and enjoyed the narrator.

The story began with promise, featuring Sunny and the First Wives Club and it seemed poised to develop into a compelling narrative for women's fiction. However, I found myself unsure about the intended genre as it was listed as a romance.
In the first half, the focus was on empowered women who uplift and support one another, fostering confidence and acceptance, including financial independence, women-owned businesses, relationships, body image and sexual orientation.
However, the second half shifted dramatically to focus on Sunny's sexual experiences with multiple partners, pushing her business and friendships to the background. This change in focus felt disconnected from the initial storyline. I felt the explicit content detracted from the narrative, leading to a loss of interest on my part.
While I enjoyed the ending, the overall flow felt disjointed.
Thank you to the publisher/author for the opportunity to listen to this complimentary advanced copy. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Narrator Yael Rizowy did a fabulous job of bringing all the voices of this novel to life. The story of Sunny Greene is all the stuff we don’t want to talk about; divorce, the struggle of women in the business world, weight and body positivity, the dating world, family boundaries, just to name a few. While it wasn’t your typical romance novel, author Katie Sturino, created a world in which we could live vicariously through Sunny’s struggles, fall in love with her along the way, her found family, her fight for growing her business, and cheer for her happily ever after.

Sunny Side Up by Katie Sturino --The Perfect Beach Read!

Let’s be honest: Sunny’s ex? Pure narcissistic chaos. But this book? Absolutely everything.

Sunny Side Up follows Sunny as she claws her way out of a less-than-mediocre marriage and rediscovers who she is on her own terms. It’s a fictional story, yes...but it feels deeply rooted in real experience. Living in a plus-sized body, navigating dating, dealing with fashion that refuses to catch up, and carrying the weight of being constantly underrepresented? Sunny’s journey is one many of us know all too well.

This book doesn’t sugarcoat. It doesn’t glam up trauma or offer tired glow-up tropes. It's simply a reminder; our bodies are not the problem. Our dreams, our goals, our voices, they don’t need permission. We deserve good love, good life, and good bathing suits that actually fit. Period. Done. I pray for the day this no longer has to be said out loud...or in print.

This book is also for any woman who hates bathing suit shopping OR who, after trying on twenty suits under fluorescent lighting, is ready to Mike Tyson the next person who dares look their way. Yes, we’re most likely walking out of the fitting room looking like we’ve been through a war, and yes, we’re probably sweating. Sunny Side Up gets that. And it doesn’t ask us to change...it simply says the thing we should have always been hearing...“You’ve always been enough.”

I picked this one up because I already love Katie Sturino (Megababe forever), and now? I can add this story to the list of things I already appreciate about her. It felt real. I felt seen. And I loved the audiobook...Yael Rizowy’s narration was heartfelt, funny, and hit every emotional beat just right.

Themes / Real-Life Feels:
Divorce recovery with a dose of realness
Fat fashion and the fight for visibility
Plus-sized main character without the weight-loss plotline
Dating after heartbreak
Knowing your worth and refusing to shrink
Internalized shame-External badassery

Would I recommend this book?
Yes, especially if you want fiction that feels like a friend handing you a glass of wine and saying, "I got you...let's do this together.” Bonus points for the audiobook, Yael Rizowy’s narration brings Sunny’s story to life with warmth and depth. This book doesn’t ask for your empathy. It demands your recognition. And I love that. Facts.

Thank you, Macmillan Audiobook and NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review.

This was a pleasant surprise of an audio book - I didn't know what to expect and really enjoyed the different elements that made up the FMC character - she felt really well developed and nuanced, with a lot going on. The backstory of swimsuit shopping in a department store was very relatable and felt realistic. I loved the body acceptance vs body positivity messaging and the way that the FMC really moved in her world.

I was engaged in her journey, while also being a little tired of the love triangle by the end of the story - I think the resolution was well done, but there were times where I found myself reacting strongly to the situations that she found herself in while juggling dating and the different business opportunities she had going on.

There was a lot in this book - definitely a great debut. You could tell that the author felt very passionately about (and had a great deal of experience with) a lot of the topics that were woven into the storyline. The narration is very well done and I enjoyed this one on audio. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ALC of this book!

Super cute book about self acceptance with a hint of romance!! Sunny is 35 with a very successful business who is recently divorced. During this time she struggles with her body image and is on a journey of self love! along the way she meets the silver fox- a charming uber successful businessman who is very into her. At the same time she meets Mr. Postman (her mailman) who is also super hot & super into her. she is put in a very tough position with choosing a man. I laughed & I cried with Sunny until the very end.

I REALLY wanted to love this one! Divorced women who support one another, body positivity, finding and loving yourself as a woman. However, the pieces just didn't fit together for me. I found that the characters did not live in reality. That often, what was supposed to be support and positivity came across as very fake. The beginning of the book was the complete opposite of body positive. I did enjoy the story of these women supporting one another, finding success for themselves and accepting one another for who they are. They cheered the others on throughout the book and supported them along the way. I did not find that this book was very body positive. It talked about a woman unhappy with her body and how she could accept it, it discussed fat shaming, but it all felt very surface level. I never felt like the author dug deep into body acceptance and body positivity. I liked the idea of this book and parts of the story, but it just did not work for me. If you are looking for something different for the summer, this may be a good option though.
Thank you netgalley for my advanced reader copy.

Sunny Side Up is a summer must read debut novel from MEGABABE founder Katie Sturino. Filled with humor and the reality of being a plus size fashion designer in NYC, Katie tells of the struggles with dating after divorce and loving yourself for who you are. Filled with hope, body positivity, and real life struggles. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked this book.

Yael Rizowy did a wonderful job with the narration of the audiobook. Very easy to listen to and great tempo. The sarcasm and eye rolls were easily detected in her fluctuations.

Thank you NetGalley, Katie Sturino and MacMillan Audio for providing an ARC in exchange for honest thoughts.

I gave this book 4 stars

I really enjoyed this one so much. A fun read with a body image and body positivity background. I loved badass hilarious Sunny on her re-awakening from her divorce in this “Sex and The City like” story.

I enjoyed this a lot on audiobook and thank you so much NetGalley for the advanced listen!

What a fun, feel-good debut! This body-positive, light-hearted women’s fiction novel had me smiling the whole way through. Set in the heart of NYC, Sunny Side Up follows plus-size heroine Sunny as she juggles the ups and downs of dating, launching a swimsuit line for all bodies, navigating divorce, friendship, and—most importantly—learning to truly accept herself.

I adored Sunny’s voice—witty, vulnerable, and so relatable. The audiobook made it even better! Yael Rizowy’s narration brought the humor and heart to life in such an engaging way. This one’s a 🌶️.5 on the spice scale, more sweet and empowering than steamy, but still a total win.

If you’re looking for something empowering, funny, and full of heart, this is your next sunny-day read!

Thank you to Celadon Books and Macmillan Audio for the free ARC and ALC, respectively. All opinions are my own.

To start with, I'm a big fan of Katie Sturino and everything she stands for. As someone who identifies as being in a larger body, her message resonates with me and I've found her online presence and advice extremely helpful!

This book is Katie's fiction debut. Our main character is Sunny Greene, a professionally successful mid-30s city girl who is also recently divorced. The book covers her journey to find love again and her professional venture of creating a size-inclusive swim line that women actually want to wear and can try on in stores. Here are some romance elements/tropes you can expect:

- Multiple love interests
- FMC who is childless by choice
- Female friendship
- Supportive and present nuclear family
- New York City setting

Overall I liked this book. It felt very true to what I know of Katie. There were a few things that detracted from the experience for me.

First, the book came right out of the gate with a dressing room scene, starting off the weight and body content with a bang. Especially having read the whole book I understand why they chose this structure, but I really wish that we had learned more about Sunny as a person first, before we joined her in a frustrating dressing room experience. After all, part of the message of body acceptance in the book is that we are so much more than our bodies, but it felt like this opening scene told a different story. I also think the book could use a trigger warning for the diet culture/body issues setup portion.

Other things that didn't quite work for me:
- The chapters seemed a bit long at times.
- The conflict pacing was off for me, in that I felt like the crux of the third act conflict started too late in the book.

As far as the audiobook experience goes, the narrator was not my favorite. Maybe it's just me, but I felt like her energy didn't match Katie's or the overall message. I much preferred hearing Katie's voice during the dedication and acknowledgements. In my perfect world, they would have found a narrator with more similar vibes to Katie herself.

Notwithstanding these issues, I'm still glad I read the book and I appreciate that Katie is finding new ways to spread her message! If you go in ready for the body and weight content, I think it's worth the read.

I loved Sunny and her group of friends. They had Sex and the City friend group vibes. I loved the mailman - seriously adorable. Be warned, this book is entirely about body image issues, despite the strong, driven female main character working full time at her own company while getting a startup off the ground. In an early scene, Sunny is trying on swimsuits and it is specifically stated that she's been a US size 12 for most of her adult life, and that her 40 pound weight gain is recent, to do with her divorce. Women have body image issues at all sizes, and weight gains are difficult. I'm in no way minimizing that. However, it's implied but not specifically stated that she's now a US size 16, maybe an 18, and again, it's recent. Within the last 7 months. Later in the book, she talks about hating to fly because of seatbelt extenders or needing an extra seat. Um....excuse you?? There's no way someone who has been a US size 12 for most of their adult life has any experience with that on any airline. Doubtful at a US size 16, or even 18, especially since she also mentions multiple times that she is tall. I'm all about body acceptance and female empowerment and needing to work through the constant barrage of tiny women that are presented as normal. But...while the competent, stylish, professional, ambitious main character may have trouble finding cute swimwear in a department store in her size, she is nowhere near the point of needing accommodation on airplanes! Anyway, you've been warned.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the advance listening copy of this title.

I love Sunny! Can I subscribe to her newsletter? This book reminded me of Meg Cabot's Heather Wells series, which I loved. Having grown up with a mother who made comments about my weight til the end, I definitely appreciate not wanting to hear about weight from family members, and I could definitely stand to work on body acceptance. I need a Sonny swimsuit!

I really loved this book. And I loved the narrator of the audiobook. I will definitely be looking for more from this author!

Really cute story that is an obvious homage to Carrie Bradshaw. It’s like if Carrie Bradshaw was a recently divorced millennial size 14. She has a blog where she names her potential boyfriends as nicknames. She has her own boutique PR firm. She has 3 equally fashionable and girly friends that she often lunches with in Manhattan.

After dating Zach seven years, they get married and divorce after only 3 months.

She joins a recent divorced ladies group and they decide to go to the Bahamas to celebrate. Although she has always been a size 12, now she can’t even fit into a size 14. On manhattan this counts as plus sized. She takes the experience of bathing suit shopping as inspiration and starts a bathing suit company.

I really thought that the body acceptance vs body positivity language really landed. It is way more accessible to accept and be neutral about your body rather than to celebrate it. I have been a size 18W and a size 2, I can definitely relate to all of her body image issues. I’ve lost and gained over 1000 pounds in my lifetime, so I can tell you that although dieting is unhealthy and doesn’t work long term, I will never stop dieting because the world just treats you so much better when you are in a smaller body.

The sexual freedom in the book isn’t for me, not necessarily my generation, but I also appreciate the sex positive message, particularly within the framework of high fashion, high socioeconomic status body image culture.

Sunny has a judgmental mom, an infuriating ex, and fun friends. It’s not all that relatable to a common woman in middle America and it’s a bit hard not to be jealous of Sunny who is very successful and privileged in a lot of ways. And it can be hard to listen to someone whine about their successful, glamorous life.

That said, I really enjoyed this and it is great on audio as well. Well acted and good New York accents and parent and man accents.

Thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the ARC. Book to be published June 24, 2025.

Sunny Side Up is a novel that reads like a memoir, and that’s exactly what makes it so addictive. Katie Sturino gives us a peek into the glamorous, messy, and the real life of a woman navigating love, heartbreak, body image, and self-discovery in NYC. The names may be changed, but you can’t help wondering how much is true, especially when it comes to her ex-husband (podcaster vs influencer) and the new love interest (mail carrier vs UPS driver). That curiosity keeps the almost 10 hours flying by.

This book gave me early Sex and the City vibes, with Katie’s Substack column standing in for Carrie Bradshaw’s column, and her adventures in NYC full of shopping, dating, girl talk, and self-reflection. But instead of a size 2 in Manolos, Katie brings us the perspective of a real, size 12/14 woman big-busted, sometimes insecure, and totally relatable. If you’ve ever cried in a dressing room trying on swimsuits am or left Anthropologie in frustration because nothing fits your boobs, this one’s for you.

The audiobook is upbeat and fun, with moments of emotional honesty that hit home. Katie’s voice (literally and figuratively) is fresh, funny, and authentic. While her NYC lifestyle may feel a bit more champagne-and-shopping than most of our budgets allow, her vulnerability and humor make it feel like you’re listening to a friend.

Highly entertaining and heartfelt, Sunny Side Up is a feel-good listen that celebrates resilience, friendship, and loving yourself even when life gets messy

I didn't know anything about Katie Sturino before I was invited to read her debut novel. I liked the premise of body acceptance. I was also all-in for Sunny's personal empowerment and entrepreneurship. I even was drawn by the comparison to Sex and the City, which I've watched completely more than once (though not in a long time). Somewhere during or after Chapter 4 (roughly 16–20% in), I made a note for myself that I was extremely bored. Despite everything drawing me to the story, I felt like it was being delivered clinically, and that maybe she should have written an autobiography instead. The clinical treatment diminished somewhat as the story developed, but the further I got into the story, the less I liked Sunny as a person.

There were a couple of sections that delivered messages one would expect from a body-acceptance advocate especially well. In Chapter 10, there is a section about mixed messages to girls and women—how they change as we age, and different societal expectations and ideas about girls and women versus boys and men. In Chapter 16, Sunny talks about body neutrality (acknowledgement) being healthier than body positivity (e.g. claiming to love one's cellulite—most likely insincere). Beyond these messages, pros include narrator Yael Rizowy, the character of Sunny's seamstress, and animal companions (in this case, canine). [Yes, I'm grasping at straws.] Cons include foul language, explicit and casual sex with multiple partners (not limited to those mentioned in the blurb), a passive-aggressive mother, and infidelity. The story delivers the expected happily-ever-after, but I didn't feel it was the least bit deserved, considering Sunny's behavior throughout—most specifically the shabby way she treated Dennis and Ted in pursuit of both satisfying her sexual desires and securing a date to her brother's wedding.

While this book wasn't for me, perhaps the author's established followers will enjoy it thoroughly.

Sunny Side Up is a must read for anyone who has felt badly about how they look compared to the societal norm (which is almost everyone for one reason or another). Sunny is a woman that has never fit in a perfect size 6 and there is a lot of shame and negative self image that comes with that. So, she starts a Substack and create a bathing suit line that will allow all women to feel good in the skin they are in. There is lots of drama around her brother's upcoming birthday and who she will bring as her plus one following her recent divorce. I really liked Sunny and her message about body image and her approach to life.

The narration was easy to listen to and flowed. I want more Sunny!

Thank you Net Galley, Katie Sturino and Macmillian Audio for the opportunity to preview this title. The opinions shared are my own.
Sunny Side Up is expected to be released June 24, 2025.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5

(2.5 stars, rounded up)
Sunny Side Up started out great, with a scene of Sunny struggling in a dressing room, trying on a swimsuit. A LOT of women will relate to that struggle, no matter what size you might be. I know I related to it! (Although I definitely don’t shop at Bergdorf Goodman these days! Well, never have, to be honest. And with Sunny being in the size 12-14 range, I’d guess she wouldn’t have a lot to choose from there.) (Also, why would someone that size need a seat belt extender on a plane? I’ve been there myself and never needed one.) Anyway … I finally gave up at about 45%. There was just too much description of room furnishings and what everyone was wearing, and it finally got to me. Add in that the main character kept throwing herself at men and then talking about the details of their encounters - that made me feel icky, especially with the construction guy.

Sunny is being described as a “Carrie Bradshaw for the next generation.” I may be one of the few people in the US who never watched Sex and The City, so that comparison did nothing for me. But I enjoy Katie Sturino’s attitude toward her body (and my body and your body), so I wanted to give this book a whirl. It just wasn’t for me. I did skim to the end to see who Sunny wound up taking to her brother’s wedding as her plus-one, but that was just to satisfy my curiosity.

I bounced between the ebook and the audiobook and Yael Rizowy did a fine job with the narration, so it was not her fault that I decided this book wasn’t for me.

Thank you to Celadon Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy of this book and to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an advance copy of this audiobook. All opinions are my own.