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My Review:Title: Weight Expectations
Author: M.E. Carter
Series: Cipher Office #1
Published by: Smartypants Romance
Release Date: October 15, 2019
Format: eARC
Pages: 302
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Source: Social Butterfly PR
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 Diversity Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 New Release Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon
My rating:
Blurb:Rian Thompson thought she joined the gym to get healthy. Little did she know she was about to add hundred and ninety pounds of swoonworthy abdominal muscles and arrogance to her life.
Every day in Rians’s life follows a predictable pattern, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. She’s got a nice job, a nice place to live, and a nice family – even if they are a little wedding-zilla-ish at the moment.
She doesn’t need anything spectacular to be happy. She just needs to get healthy – mentally, physically. . . and maybe spiritually if that happens. But she’ll settle for two out of three until her sister finally gets hitched.
Carlos Davies thought his life was perfect. Little did he know it was about to be turned upside down by a woman who is not his type.
In Carlos’s mind, his life is damn near perfect. He’s got a great job, a great place to live, and a great stash of pick up lines that always work. It has occurred to him that maybe no one actually takes him all that seriously. But with these bulging biceps and thick, dark hair, does that even matter since he’s never sleeping alone?
Welcome to Weight Expectations, where great—and unexpected—things happen.
I received a free copy through Social Butterfly PR in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.
3.5 stars — This one did not start off that well for me. Which is not to say it was a bad book, but it wasn’t the book I was looking for. First of all, the romance took FOREVER to spin up. If you prefer a romance book that’s got a lot of screen time with the hero and heroine together, this might not be the book for you. It took until at least 50% before we saw any movement in a romance direction. Heck, I think it was almost 35% before we even saw them interact more than just crossing paths (the dinner). It felt like reading 2 separate stories that eventually became one. And because I was anxious for the romance, it started to feel like those individual stories were getting repetitive. Like I wasn’t seeing enough character growth in either of them to make up for the lack of together time.
Rian was okay, but I found her to be a contradiction of sorts. At times I really appreciated this, b/c it reminded me of myself. On one hand she is this sassy joker…and we’re told how kind she is. Which I saw bits of, but I was told it more than shown it. She also has some pretty great body positive thoughts about why does she have to be skinny to be pretty/worthwhile, as long as she’s working on her health. But she’s also inundated with insecurities about her size. And I *got* that. Because that’s me. I might have the insecurities, but I’m pissed off at the world that I do have those insecurities, and I don’t think it’s right. But at the same time, this story is just FILLED TO THE BRIM with scenes and thoughts about exercise, clean eating, diets, etc. And I felt conflicting thoughts about them. Because it was kind of boring to be honest. And it felt like we were being sold on certain diets, even while it was trying to show that the diet/food choices were for health/cholesterol reasons. It was enough to make my head spin. Outside of her weight and trying to get healthy, and dealing with her bridezilla sister, I didn’t always have a good grasp on who Rian was…what she was interested in (reality shows? What else?). At least not until the last 1/3 of the book.
I was NOT a fan of Carlos at the beginning. AT ALL. He was arrogant, shallow, full of himself, and obsessed with his own looks. That’s just not the kind of hero I’m into. I get that some of that stems from his own insecurities, but I had really hoped we’d see him come to some realizations about that, and maybe get to a more healthy relationship with his *own* self. It’s one thing to enjoy working out and how it makes you feel, and it’s kind of another to be all just about how good/hot you look. It made it hard for me to believe in his attraction to Rian. I’d have believed it more if he’d looked at why he was attracted to Rian, seen that there was a whole package there, and understood that there was more to himself than looks too…I don’t know, there was just a depth missing. And god, if I had to hear him tell himself how he couldn’t be attracted to her because she wasn’t his type one more time, UGH. I get it. He’s confused. And I guess the author is trying to establish that he’s bewildered too. But it made it hard to get on board with his attraction, b/c he was almost horrified by it. And I get it was more than just her appearance, it was about her personality too…but, I don’t know. I feel like that missed the mark the author was shooting for, you know? At least with me.
Now, saying all of that, I wouldn’t have kept reading if that’s all there was to it. I *did* actually enjoy Rian’s sass, and I loved her relationship with her trainer. I almost wish he’d been the hero though, I loved their comradery. Now, the relationship with Rian and Carlos did turn around and finally ramp up and get into the kind of romance I enjoy by the last 1/3…if the whole book had been more like that, I would have rounded up instead of down. I really loved seeing how they made each other laugh and smile, and I finally started to see some of their chemistry with one another. It was just almost too late, you know?
There were some great secondary characters in this one, particularly Tabitha. She was a hoot. I also appreciated the bits we saw of Frank, Nancy, Francesca, and the cameos of Quinn and Steven. I really enjoyed the peeks we got into Cipher Security, especially seeing Rian perform at her new job…I loved seeing her shine in her element.
So yeah. Total mixed bag for me, which is a bummer because I was really looking forward to this one. It just didn’t have a clear message IMO, and it got bogged down in the wrong parts of the story to be interesting to this girl in particular.
Yeah, I DNF’f this one. 🙁
Bummer. I thought it might work better for you…at least it was KU.