Mimi Finnegan is at war with Edith Bunker (her bunion) and has enlisted the help of Weight Watchers to finally ditch Edith. As she works to drop the pounds she meets international best-selling author Elliot Fielding and engages in a wild, whirlwind romance. One of the funniest books I’ve read in a long time. Mimi is a hilarious! (Or proof that I have a twisted sense of humor) #MtTBR #PikesPeak #DustyBookshelf ( )

The book is hilarious. I could relate to some degree to Mimi, but not everything. As the book progressed, I did find myself less interested. Sex in the carriage turned me off. I don't care if it's just a quickie, but I think the book was doing well enough without it!

It also kinda bothered me that Elliot was tied to Beatrice when he made it clear that he wanted Mimi. Of course, Mimi can't really do anything about it. So she moves forward with Richard even though her heart longs for Elliot. It's romantic, but it's stupid at the same time. The heart wants what it wants, but life just gets in the way. ( )

"It’s like my weight has become the barometer for my whole life."

This is a quote from the novel, and an accurate one. Mimi- who prefers her given name "Miriam" but no one will call her that- is focused on her 10-20 possibly excess pounds as standing between her and happiness. Much space in the novel is given over to counting points Weight Watcher-style, and/or "cheating"- neither of which are healthy approaches to food and eating, nor do they actually work more than 2-5% of the time over 5 years.

And then, given 2 suitors, one of whom is pretty much perfect, and one of whom is engaging in sleazy behavior (OK, it was all EXPLAINED, but he was still being sleazy), naturally she picks the one with CHEMISTRY as a trump over decency. The fact that the decent man is even willing to speak to her again is among the more ludicrous parts of this novel.

Still, it was a pretty entertaining read. Most of us women have grown up with dieting crazy, so it feels all too familiar. Parts were laugh out loud funny.

Only one stupid homophone mistake that I caught: someone died in a "grizzly" car accident, but it did not seem to involve a bear. I assume our author meant "grisly".

Even though it's an entertaining read, though, I would not recommend it because of the the focus on pounds and fractions thereof, and human worth as a result of what's on the scale. While it's an accurate depiction of how crazy dieting usually makes one, neither that, nor the fact that any such plan is far more likely to fail than to succeed, is not addressed. ( )

This book is quirky, a bit humorous, and has both good and bad advice for those of us who think we don't measure up.

A bunion jumpstarts Mimi's transformation. Mimi identifies as the sister with the best legs and feet, but now . . . she wonders what her role is. At the same time, she becomes smitten with a British author her workplace helps represent, even though he has a woman from back home in his life. In an effort to impress him and make him leave his girlfriend, Mimi joins Weight Watchers, gets her hair dyed red, allows her sister's designers to custom make clothes for her, and several other things. What seems to matter the most in the end is that Mimi gains some much needed confidence and the ability to stand up for herself.

The lessons I wouldn't suggest taking to heart: Mimi sleeps with Elliot before they are married (and at least once before he's even committed to her). She gets pregnant from one of these assignations.

I liked that Mimi reconnected with a high school friend (Kevin) and that the two support each other through the Weight Watchers program and in recovering from lost loves. I also like that Mimi is up front with Richard about liking Elliot rather than just stringing Richard along or using him only to make Elliot jealous. ( )

This is probably one of the better fictional stories involving New York that I’ve read. Which isn’t really saying anything, since, despite living in New York, I haven’t read many books actually set here.

Bah. I’m sorry, but I can’t stand Elliot. But, meh. So, the first book I read had causal rape, this one has causal cheating. I mean, seriously, I’m not trying to make something that isn’t into cheating. Two people love each other. They can’t be together because of ‘complications’ including the fact one is on the edge of or is (or isn’t) engaged to another woman.

How fucking saintly of him. By being one woman’s ‘rock’ while she goes through troubling times (‘it’s complicated’) while at the same time cheating on her with another woman. The main star of this book is, in fact, that other woman. The woman, Mimi, who initially attempts to see Beatrice as this beastly creature that she will ‘show up’ by looking gorgeous and steal her man before he, Elliot, can become engaged to her, Beatrice. Meanwhile Mimi is stringing along one, or is it two, other men. At least she’s up front about it. I have no real problem with that part. It’s the part where Elliot and Mimi can’t seem to keep their hands off each other. Even though Elliot is engaged to another woman.

I wonder if there was a plan initially about how everything would turn out. Because everything seemed to be going in a certain direction. The ‘other woman’, who actually is the original woman. Hmm, that’s complicated. I mean, the woman initially in the relationship with Elliot. Well, initially it appeared she was going to be pulled from by another man. And everyone would live happily ever after. Except . . . ‘it’s complicated’.

Like the first book, this one went deep into it with me thinking I’d be giving it high marks, high rating. Before all the complications started. I forget now when I started having trouble with it, but I think that started even later in the book than in the first. I think I made it to the 80% mark this time before I got overly annoyed.

Unlike the first book, I found myself laughing a lot while reading this one. I think I laughed once during the reading of the previous. Even a few tears might have been shed. I’m not sure if that was due to laughter or something else.

In summary, it’s quite possible I would have desired giving this book . . .oh, maybe 5 stars. But for that causal cheating that occurred.

(I shall now offer a counter to my last paragraph: Elliot and Mimi both went through major psychological toil because of this cheating so it wasn't exactly causal. Hmm, I think I just got hooked on the idea of this author being causal about at least one thing that annoys me, as I spotted in the previous book, so I went out of my way to see the cheating here as being casual.) ( )