Chubby & Charming: A Small Town Curvy Girl Romance (Big & Beautiful Book 1)

Mandy works as a customer service rep. She has a smooth voice and likes her job and helping people. When Xander calls in, Mandy is able to help him out and her voice captures his interest. He asks her out and she says yes. What Xander doesn't know and what Mandy lives daily with is the fact that she's not skinny and doesn’t say no to a good cupcake. What will Xander say when he finally sees her face to face for the first time? If it doesn't matter at first to him, won't it later on?The first few chapters of this novel were amazing! Mandy was interesting and different as the main character. Enter Xander, the hottie who wants to meet her. There's tension. There's excitement. What will happen?! Then they meet and like each other a lot. The rest of the book is about them being together and the only point of tension is Mandy's insecurity about being with such an attractive HWP male. It's hard to build a story around that. I kept waiting for the complication to settle in and the story to pick up. Even the climax was all in Mandy's head and a complete disappointment and letdown.Halfway through the book, almost every thought Mandy had was on sex and how hot Xander is. We get it. Mandy likes Xander because he's sexy. There are paragraphs and paragraphs devoted to her thoughts about his body and I ended up skimming through most of them after the first couple. Mandy spends so much time thinking about herself, Xander, and her worries about her weight that there is no time left for subplots or plot points.I was disappointed in Mandy and her lack of character development. She is shown as a woman who's trust has been broken in the past regarding men and relationships. Great place to start, but she doesn't change. Throughout the book she drops her trust of Xander any time he remotely seems like he might be pointing out the fact that she's overweight and that he's not. Mandy never gets over this fear. She never gains confidence in their relationship.SPOILER:Mandy acts and thinks like she's very much in lust/love with Xander and all it takes is something small for Mandy to lose confidence in Xander. Does she really love him, then? Mandy and Xander breakup over nothing (just a miscommunication) like they're teenagers in high school. The climax scene at Xander's friend's house was very high school. There were even fat jokes!Xander was unrealistic every time he showed up and said or did anything. I wanted more realism from him, not a Stepford Wives boyfriend! Only in his initial pursuit of Mandy did he seem authentic as a person.

Why can't someone...anyone...write a book about a plus sized woman who is ok with her weight? I am so over authors who make the whole theme of a book about larger women all about how they think everyone will hate them or judge them by their weight. I thought Mandy came off as whiny and Xander came off as arrogant (I know I'm good looking, but...).Ok, in the beginning, I get that she's worried because they have never met. But once he shows interest, let it go. Be you and give me a real story, not another version of every other "fat girl" book.Everyone has a type. Some guys like bigger girls. This is nothing new! I like reading about normal girls who aren't the stereotypical blonde stick figure who has every guy drooling over her.I did like portions of the book and thought it had the potential to be really good with the premise of meeting over the phone, but it didn't pan out.I think I will skip the rest in this series.I gave the author 3 stars because I admire any attempt to write about bigger girls and love.

<i>Chubby & Charming</i> is about a young woman named Mandy. Mandy is overweight and has trouble seeing believing that her hot customer Xander(who she totally looks up on Facebook, because of his sexy voice btw), has any interest in her. They end up meeting a few times, and end up falling in <i><s>LUST</i></s>love.I really had mixed feelings about this story. In the beginning, I had a hard time connecting with Mandy. As a a girl who is also over weight, I found it completely outrageous how many times Mandy down played herself because of her weight. She seemed really whiny and the 'confidence' she had wasn't really confidence at all. I really wanted to like her, but the self doubt was just too much for me. Xander could sneeze and she would probably lose it if another female blessed him! Oh and I won't even touch her circle of "we hate skinny bitches" group of friends.Xander's character...well lets just say he was a knock off alpha male. His jealously at the party was unmerited, and his constant wanting to screw Mandy was just... bleh.Overall, I would give this story 2 stars out of 5. Mandy made it very hard to like her as a character. She basically stereotypes the 'typical' fat girl, who is saved by some super hot guy. I would've connected more with Mandy if she <b><u>actually</b></u> learned to love herself by the end of the story. If you like stories of insecure-overweight women, who find the man of their dreams with a few sex scenes, this is the story for you.

At first I was really into this book, I could get past her putting herself down, I could get past the constant need for more than one item of junk food at a sitting. When it came to her co-worker Melody stating she'd take care of Xander and her immediate thought was it must be because he'd rather deal with Melody instead of her that was it for me. I myself am a big girl and I have my moments too, but at this point it makes me not like the girl at all and even more, it makes the story unbelievable to me. After weeks of dating and being intimate with the guy, you'd think the hang ups about herself would diminish. But nope, I ended up not like the main character anymore; so much so, that I couldn't even finish the book.

What a fabulous book. My favourite book that I have read so far this year. The writing style just pulled me in and I couldn't put it down. Society has very warped views of beauty and what it should look like. Real beauty comes from within and gorgeous comes in all different shapes and sizes. The author captured this idea perfectly and had strong themes of family and friendship which I loved. I would not hesitate to recommend this author. I have just purchased book 2 and cannot wait to read the next book in the series.

Being a bbw myself I was ready to embrace a strong female character who didn’t fall into the stereotypical fat girl.... I was sadly mistaken, Mandy is insecure, unhappy, often psychotic and clearly needs to learn to love herself. Xander made my skin crawl, he was creepy, and managed to be dominant and flaky all at once. Can’t say I will be reading anymore of this series as I had to skim read most of this just to get through it.

Mandy and Xander had me laughing crying and ready to beat up melody . Characters you can relate to, I couldn't put it down and read it in a day I between taking care of my family . Can't wait to read the next in the series.

Great read read at few chapters still reading really good

Great reading