I Really Enjoyed Reading Muffin Top by Avery Flynn. This Book was Everything. I Devoured it in One Sitting. It was Hilarious, Sweet, Romantic and Sexy Read.

I Highly Recommend all Readers to Grab this Book now and Read it.

Anybody that doesn’t love Frankie instantly is dead inside! (I kid, but not really) What a incredibly likeable guy Avery Flynn created. He was the total package ya’ll! He was sexy and charming and funny and lovable and just plain fun to read! Honestly, he stole the show in this one.

Sooooooooo, now I get to tell you this small not so good piece of this story, imo. Well, two. Lucy’s *size* was way too focused on in the story. I get the plot and story-line, but it was just too much. It’s like it consumed the theme of the entire book and it almost swallowed up the HEA journey. It’s kinda what happened in the last book as well. I really love the concept of this series but I really wanted to read more about Frankie and Lucy together as a couple and not just about Lucy’s *size and insecurities* …. Second, the whole *blow-up/conflict* between them felt #twitchy to me. Like waaaaay over the top for grown people and I certainly didn’t like Frankie’s part in the whole thing. I won’t say too much but he’s too good of a guy to have all that happening …..

Don’t let any of that deter you from this book or this series. How a book feels to one person is all subjective. Avery Flynn is a good author who writes fun stories so make go ahead and #oneclick and make your own mind up :)

I adore Avery Flynn! Her books are so fun and full of emotion and this one was no different. I thought the heroine especially was written very well and I connected to her!

So, I don't always pay attention when I read a blurb that I like on whether or not a book is part of a series. It's definitely not smart but in this case it has gained Avery Flynn a new reader and I have a new series to look forward to! Muffin Top is book two in The Hartigans series by Avery Flynn and in my opinion it can be read as a standalone.

Frankie Hartigan is the oldest of the Hartigan siblings, at thirty-three years old. He’s an Irish, red-readed, firefighter that has no problem enjoying a different woman every night. But a conversation with one of his former hook-ups has him wondering if there is something wrong with him.


Lucy Kavanagh is a publicist that specializes in crisis communications. Lucy is a healthy, strong woman, with a beautiful face, healthy appetite and a little extra cushion.


Enter a total jerk that wants to share his unwanted opinion with Lucy and Frankie attempts to save the day. One thing leads to another and Frankie is headed to Lucy's high school reunion. What unfolds is an entertaining story with well developed characters that drags you in to find out what happens next.


Being plus sized most of my life made this book totally relatable to me. Reading a story written with the hangups I have had in life makes all the more impact, investing me in the story even more. I would recommend this book whether you read book 1 or not...although I will say now that Flynn has me hooked on the characters I have already one-clicked book 1 and am anxiously awaiting book 3!

This book had a little bit of everything. It was funny, filled with romance, and great characters. It was good storytelling.

Frankie was such a lovable character. A true romantic. He had me swooning and smiling so much. Once he set is mind on something there was nothing stopping him. And once he set his sight on Lucy, that was it, he was going to do everything he could to prove to her that they were worth it.

Lucy was filled with so much sass and I loved it. She wasn't always as confident or comfortable in her own skin as she is now. Slowly though, she's embracing the woman she is even though at times it brings her back to a place she wants to leave in the past. There were times I wanted to knock some sense into her, tell her to stop and just let what she's feeling lead her to where her heart is telling her to go. Slowly, but surely she got there and it was beautiful.

Frankie and Lucy, oh gosh, I couldn't get enough of their witty banter. These two were so made for each other. They had me laughing and smiling and at times brought that emotional punch. They were so good for each other. Loved them.

All in all, Muffin Top was an enjoyable read.

Muffin Top by Avery Flynn is a contemporary romance filled with humor, romance, and two main characters that you can't help but like. I enjoyed this novel and would recommend.

This book had so much potential, but the climax disappointed me so bad! This had all the stuff I liked but then in the end, the way everything was wrapped up made me not like it! :(

LOVED this book! But then I again I'm an Avery Flynn fan so I'm already kinda biased. I love that Frankie loves women, no matter their shape or size; of course Lucy isn't willing to accept Frankie's attention, because of the negativity sh'e's always been on the receiving end of due to her body shape. I thought Frankie's outlook and positivity were great as he slowly but surely got Lucy to see herself through his eyes.

I am in love with this mix of characters from this series and the previous!!! None of these books have been disappointing, in fact, I've devoured them every time they're opened. Laughing so hard I have tears on more than one occasion! Her dad and dog are hilarious, that dog especially I think is one of my favorites! I love how sassy Lucy is even while fighting her own demons and learning to trust and overcome the obstacles in her path. I could rave on and on about every aspect of this novel, if you've read her others you will definitely love this one, but if you haven't, what are you waiting for?!!?!!?!?!?! Here's your invitation, Come jump into this amazing world of intertwined characters that you won't forget!

First book by Avery Flynn and I enjoyed it! The story was good but it kinda dragged on a little in the beginning, hence the 3-stars. But I did enjoy Flynn's style so I will read other books by her for sure!

OMG! Frankie Hartigan is amazing. When he says he likes women he means that likes them in any shape size or colour. And Lucy is having a hard time accepting that is true because she's faced so much negativity about her size all her life that Frankie just seems too good to be true. So being friends seems to be the way to go. If only this enormous chemistry between them would stop getting in the way.

Props to Frankie and the way he handles Lucy and her issues and that ending will have you teary eyed with a wide grin on your face.

Lucy is an over the top in your face kind of girl who hides behind her personality to keep people from looking to deep. Frankie is a tall tall firefighter oldest of his siblings closet romantic who has placed himself on the bench until he can figure himself out. Now throw them together for a week long high school reunion of Lucy's and lets see what happens. Reality set in when they have to return to their normal lives.
Flynn gives us all the feels in Muffin Top each character shows a little more of their softer side as they get to know each other. I love Gussie I can so picture this dog. The dialogue what quick and witty, which one can expect from the mind of Flynn.

***** 5 LOVED Stars*****
This is my first read by this author and I enjoyed every word of it. Frankie Hartigan is the oldest of the Hartigan siblings, at thirty-three years old; Irish red headed firefighter at the Waterbury Firehouse. Lucy Kavanagh is a successful publicist that specializes in crisis communications. In other words, her clients have gotten themselves in trouble and she has to fix things. Lucy and Frankie had met before at gatherings but didn’t really know each other. When Lucy on a bad date and Frankie decides to help by proceeding to sit down and order dinner. Little did they know this will change everything for the both of them. This was a great read.
*****ARC from Social Butterfly PR for review*****

I honestly don’t know where to start with my review. This book made me cry and not in a good way. I was and still am the “fat chick”. I never felt like I was good enough for anyone, especially to love. My mother is still hypercritical of me and I’m 51 years old. Dieting in high school and being a size 8-10 wasn’t good enough for her. I had big boobs back then and that didn’t help the body image issues that I still have. My younger brother tried his hardest to keep the comments from me but I still heard them. I still hear them. My husband is my biggest cheerleader. He didn’t marry me because he felt sorry for me, he married me for ME. And that’s the biggest thing that I got from Frankie and Lucy’s story. Frankie loved Lucy. Period. No pity, no I’m just here for a good time. He loved her. I UNDERSTOOD Lucy and every one of her quirky insecurities. The abandonment issues with her mother, her dad still using the nickname, the mean girl in high school and the men that are just too stupid to realize how awesome she really is.

Believe me, Lucy still had a lot to overcome in the book within herself. I get that because I’m still in a work in progress and I’ve been married now 14 years. Of course, my husband didn’t make the grand gesture that Frankie did but hey, it worked for Frankie and Lucy. These two had more baggage than a blogger at a romance convention. The thing that I couldn’t help but giggle about was Lucy’s dad. Overprotective, funny, touching and emotional sums him up for me. He was there for both them, not just Lucy. And let’s not forget about the dog, Gussie. Oh Lord…

This book was funny, emotional, sexy and heartfelt. Ms. Flynn nailed the emotions for Lucy. It felt like she interviewed me. Plus, Entangled NAILED the cover. Just saying…

If you are looking for an emotional read about two people that fight their feelings for one another with heart, humor and a big old dose of sexy times, look no further than Muffin Top. Ms. Flynn nails it and I can’t wait for Fallon’s book. Talk about one tough *itch and she’s one of Frankie’s sisters.

*sorry for the TMI stuff*

I’m a reader who loves a book to be slightly different, to have characters outside the norm in some way. Which, probably explains my absolute adoration of alien sci fi romance. But, when it comes to heroes and heroines that aren’t from outer space I like them to have some quirk or unconventionality, something I can identify with, otherwise I get bored. This is why I was so excited about Avery Flynn’s Hartigan series. In Butterface, the first book in the series, we don’t have just a “plain Jane” heroine we have a heroine who is, in an objective sense, unattractive. I loved it.

In Muffin Top Flynn continues this trend, but instead of an ugly heroine, we have a curvy heroine. But, I know there are plenty of books out there where the heroine is described as “curvy”, but it just seems to be code for big boobs and a tiny waist. What I liked about Lucy, our curvy heroine in Muffin Top, is that although she does have the requisite big boobs, she’s genuinely a bigger a woman with curves in places society tells us we shouldn’t. She’s also unapologetic about it and has learnt to embrace herself and her shape. Kind of.

Then we come to Frankie Hartigan he’s our ginger haired 6’6” fireman. A ladies man who enjoys women, but doesn’t offer his partners more than a few nights of fun between the sheets. Frankie was a great hero, it’s hard not fall for the big ginger gentle giant. However, I felt like his back story was a little bit shaky. For example, he knows that he doesn’t take any of his relationships beyond a few nights of sex. And yet he get disconcerted when someone points that out to him? I didn’t quite understand why he became so upset about something he already knew.

This wasn’t the only thing I found a little shaky. I did like this book and I did like both Lucy and Frankie. Together, I kind of liked them they definitely had some sexual chemistry and there were some truly hot scenes between them. However, there didn’t seem to be much else besides mutual attraction. I don’t know why, I’m still trying to figure it out, but for some reason I didn’t quite buy the “madly deeply in love” thing they had going on by the end of the book.

Maybe my expectations for this book were too high, as although I liked it, I didn’t fall in love with it like I did with Butterface. However, it was still a lot of fun and I will happily be reading the next book in the series.

I actually read this book a couple of months ago and absolutely loved it. It is another story by Avery Flynn where the main lady character, Lucy, is large in every way - she's a size twenty, with a big, bold personality that's too big for most men to cope with. She is rarely silent but when a stranger has the cheek to suggest she should eat salad instead of a hamburger it is fireman Frankie Hartigan who steps in to pretend to be her boyfriend and shame the jerk. This leads to the Frankie staying to eat a meal with her and then going with her to attend her High School reunion.

Travelling to it, seeing her ex-classmates, going into all the challenges, there's so much fun in this story! In contrast, however, there's others who ridicule Lucy because of her size and the school bullies are still around. They need to watch out, though, as Frankie proves to be a protector and a fierce competitor. There are some great revelations about motivations and more as the story progresses, making this a very moving, emotive read and one that I loved escaping into. Whatever your size, this is a funny, heartwarming, endearing read with great characters and lots of love - definitely one of my favourite reads for 2018, as is the earlier book in this series, Butterface!

I was lucky enough to win a copy of this book in a lottery organised by the publishers. This is my honest review of the book after choosing to read it.

I love Avery Flynn. I love almost everything I’ve read from her. This one just didn’t quite land for me. I mean; I obviously liked it – I’m still giving it 3.5 stars. But she’s usually an automatic 4 or 5 from me.

My biggest problem with this book was Lucy. I wanted to like her. In fact, I started off loving her. When the asshole walked up to her table at the bar and proceeded to fat-shame her about her meal, she informed him that she actually just wanted a Mountain Dew and a burger. She stopped short of actually telling him to fuck off, which, frankly, I would have enjoyed. But as the book went on, she became less badass and more insecure and defensive.

Which…. look. She’s plus-size. I get it. But it’s mentioned repeatedly that she’s a size 20. She won’t fly to Missouri because of how “people like me are treated on a plane”. But she’s a size twenty. Currently, the average size for a woman in the US is a size 16. So she’s a bit above that. I could understand if she’d said something about how awful the constantly-shrinking seat sizes are or how she’s never allowed an armrest or something, but I don’t think, at a 20, she’s prohibitively large for flying. (For a harrowing account of what it’s like to fly as someone who is, check out this thread from @yrfatfriend)

I know women who are size 20. Not a single one of them is this defensive or this constantly on-guard. Frankie can’t say good morning without Lucy assuming it’s out of pity or out of some sort of veiled comment about her weight. As attracted to her as he was, I was surprised he hung in there as long as he did. It had to be disheartening to have every single word out of his mouth doubted and second-guessed.

And Frankie. He was just so adorably clueless. The first time they make out, Lucy wants to keep going but Frankie wants to wait until they can have sex properly, not on her father’s couch. Of course, instead of believing what he says, she assumes it’s because he’s rejecting her, she gets defensive, shuts down and walks away. Frankie, adorable clueless guy that he is thinks he’ll just deal with it tomorrow. Which… sweetie, no. Don’t let her sit and stew on that all night. Go fix it now. He did that kind of stuff often. It was starting to annoy me, until I realized that he just didn’t know how deeply this insecurity of hers went. Which I get. Lucy was all over the place. She claims to him that she’s a “curious, sex-positive, grown-ass woman”, and she tells us through her POV that she’s fine with her size and happy with her body, but then she’s constantly putting herself down, and lashing out at people before they give her a reason to. Of course Frankie couldn’t figure her out. I could barely figure her out, and I was in her head for half of the book.

It sounds like I hated this book, and I didn’t. As usual, I loved Avery Flynn’s writing, and I loved the side cast of characters. I’m excited to read more in this series. But when the book blurb says “The only thing about me that’s a size zero is the filter on my mouth. I’ve got a big personality, a big rack, and a big number on the scale. And I’m perfectly fine with that.”, then I would expect the heroine to actually be perfectly fine with all of that, and she wasn’t. I was expecting Lucy to have to deal with all of the bullshit that goes along with being a plus-size woman in 2018, but I wasn’t expecting the constant self-loathing.

3.5 Stars

I really wanted to like Muffin Top. But I just had a hard time connecting to Lucy from the get-go. She talks a big game about being self-confident, but I really didn't get that vibe from her at all. And as a plus size woman myself, I hated that her size became such a plot point rather than Lucy just being a size 20. Too much attention was drawn on the the fact that she was plus sized, and it began to really irritate me. And Frankie waffled so much on whether or not he liked her... This one just didn't do it for me.

I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.

Book two of The Hartigan's would probably have flowed a bit better if I had read book one. With this huge cast of characters, and previous happenings it would just make more sense to read book one... so don't be me and read out of order, that's not cool. When Frankie comes to Lucy's rescue while she is trying to eat, he decides to stay and chat. When he offers himself up as Lucy's date to her high school reunion, he has two things in mind, one it will be something to do while on "vacation" and two it will keep his mind off the fact that he has just sexually benched himself. Helping Lucy is the perfect thing to keep him occupied, now to just get Lucy to agree to spend a week with him. Lucy knows that man whore Frankie has no interest in her, but she can't say the same as he is a star in her spank bank fantasy reel. Can Lucy get through this week without embarrassing herself any further? When every thought in her head is to jump Frankie and ride him like a cowgirl, its no wonder that she is starting to get mixed feelings when he gives her those looks and says the things he says. What happens when Frankie's game plan changes and now its getting Lucy to notice him?

This was an ok story, there were some funny bits, some really good naughty times, and a bit of drama. There were times that my heart hurt for Lucy and some of the things she had to endure. I am looking forward to the next story in this series, lol I will read book one before I do though. I give this 4 stars.

Have you met the Hartigan's yet?! I love them. The first book, Butterface introduces us to them and if you didn't fall hard for each one then, then this one should do it for you.

Frankie Hartigan followed in his families footsteps by becoming a fireman. His brother (from book 1 deviated by becoming a cop) is now happily married and Frankie is happy for him but even happier it wasn't him. Then 3 things happen that will forever change his life. First, one of his hookups caused him to question his life choice of being a man whore with one comment. Second, he is forced to take a vacation because he has never taken one. And thirdly, he sits down next to Lucy in a bar and gets to know this woman he has met but didn't know anything about.

Over greasy cheeseburgers, they make a pact. I gotta say I loved Lucy because I could see my self in her. She has become a strong and independent woman but has a low self-image. This showed itself in many parts of this book. And of course, I love Frankie. All the Hartigan's are amazing. But Frankie was blindsided by this woman.

This was an amazing book I loved it. There, of course, were a couple of parts that really made Lucy look bad. But this book was just too good to obsess over those parts. And I absolutely LOVED that epilogue.