I really wanted to like this book. The synopsis held so much promise, but the book failed to deliver as much as I hoped for from it. I enjoyed it well enough, but with a few tweaks it could have been an even more enjoyable read.

This was a tough read to get through. There were lots of triggering moments in the talk about the main characters weight and her struggles.

Contemporary story with body positive main character. Will appeal to teens who are invested in the body positivity movement.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. This book was not for me as I was irritated pretty quickly.

To be honest I thought that this book was just meh compared to anything I read during the time I picked this book up. It was honestly really triggering and boring. The plot definitely had my attention but once I started this book I just wanted for it to be over. This is definitely another DNF

I had difficulty with the insensitivity and ableism in this book. The representation of eating disorders and disability was bordering on harmful.

I liked how this book started out and trying to lose the weight. I enjoyed the mom and how things all worked out. Cute story and loved the romance.

DNF @ pg 50 ish

MY LORD this is a whole bag of yikes and just so triggering I CAN’T. HUGE trigger warning for the ableist bullsh*t going on in this book. So disappointed.

This story allows you to get close to someone who is fat and doesn't care and wow what a refreshing take. Seriously. There's not many books that take that position in this society and I appreciate that the story is funny, fresh, and let's you get close to BB as a friend, and not just as someone you're observing.

First off, A+ for food descriptions. I was hungry the entire time I was reading - like drooling slightly. I may have sent my husband on some food runs.

I did struggle with the ableist language - both about being overweight and wheelchair bound - and I had issues with the treatment of the wheel chair in general. It turned BB taking care of herself into something she was only doing because Dove couldn't, and I wasn't a huge fan of that "growth". I think a lot of the language I had issues with was purposeful to show prejudices to be fair.

Sixteen-year-old Bluebelle, also known as BB or Big Bones, lives her life unapologetically. She loves life! She loves food!

When BB has a worse-than-usual asthma attack, her mom insists she go to the doctor. There, she is told that she is overweight (no surprise) and prediabetic (big surprise) and must lose weight, move more, and keep a food diary. To get out of this immediate health crisis, she agrees to make an effort.

Then a tragedy occurs in the family, and things get seriously complicated. Suddenly, losing weight and moving more are the least of her worries. As for the food diary, though, BB doesn't just document what she's eating, she documents what she's feeling--and she has a lot to say!

I went in to this with high hopes, but just within the first 30 pages there were a few racist and homophobic comments and it all turned extremely ableist when a secondary character ends up in a wheelchair.

I thought that I would be able to relate with Bluebell since I am on the heavier side myself. However, I didn’t really find her likable or even remotely nice. I found her to be selfish and rude and that sadly really set the tone for this book. While I didn't enjoy My Ideal Boyfriend is a Croissant, I’m sure that others will.

This book was such a wonderful reading experience. The main character BB is keeping a food diary but it ends up just being a diary in general. She wrote about what she ate every day but also her family and herself. It was great feeling like I could connect with all of these characters. This book is about body positivity and just trying to be healthy and finding a balance that works for you. I loved witnessing BB's attitude change throughout the book. I highly recommend this book!

Thank you, NetGalley and Delacorte Press for the opportunity to read and review this book in exchange for an honest review.

Perfect chick lit! I loved the premise and the characters were well developed! I recommend this for anyone looking for a light and fun read!

Posted to Goodreads: Bluebell is an average sixteen-year-old living in London except she’s quite overweight. After Bluebelle ends up at the doctor’s office after a particularly bad asthma attack, she is ordered to keep a food diary through the summer. Over the next few months, Bluebell writes about her experiences with her family, her life at her job at Planet Coffee, and her possible relationship with her cute co-worker, Max.

I wanted to like this book but it just never happened. Bluebell had the potential to be an interesting main character but her narrative voice was unfocused and at times, annoying. Many of her antics were not actually amusing and left me wondering what exactly was the point of the book. The most interesting part of the book was Bluebell’s sister, Dove, but even her part was not enough to make me really like this book.

I truly wanted to love this story, but I had to tap out early. I think stories with fat protagonists have to tread some pretty fine lines to get a character right, which I don't think this story did.

It was quite a journey reading this book lol. In all honesty, I did not really enjoy reading this book — which is why my rating is so low (I rate based on enjoyment). I’ve broken up this review into parts that I did enjoy, reasons why I didn’t like this book, and aspects that I think will appeal to specific readers below.

<i>“You never really grow up. It's a trick; everybody is wandering around just as lost as a person ahead and the person behind. We are all winging it. You are always waiting for somebody to tell you if you're doing it right but you never know.”</i>

<i>My Ideal Croissant is a Boyfriend</i> follows a sixteen-year-old girl named Bluebelle. Bluebelle loves food and is honest and opinionated. After a particularly bad asthma attack, Bluebelle goes to the doctor. There, she is told that she should loose weight and start writing in a “food diary”. Bluebelle agrees on the basis that she can leave school. But, her food diary quickly becomes a real diary where she talks about her parents’ split, her sister, a crush, and anything else on her mind.

<u>Some things I liked</u>
- Quote at the top! Really captures the coming of age, growing up aspect of the book.
- We start with a really confident main character. Throughout the book, we see that her confidence fluctuates and we as readers can understand how self-love and confidence isn’t always easy and that there are times when we aren’t as confident as we were the day before (a non-linear progression). (I often see a character arc where our MC is not confident and then learns to be confident throughout the book so this arc was interesting to read about).
- I enjoyed the family dynamic in this book. Our MC’s parents are on a “temporary” split and Bluebelle explains that this has actually happened a couple of times before. This aspect managed to add quite a bit of humor in the book, especially with the MC’s father (one of the more well-developed side characters in the book).
- Our MC gets called out on a lot on some of her selfish behavior. This book follows an unlikeable narrator who seems very self-centered and makes a lot of rude/judgmental comments. This was frustrating to read and hard to root for our main character, but by having characters in the book also point it out, it wasn’t *as* annoying.

<u>Some things that did not work for me</u>
- Our main character Bluebellle. I already mentioned a little bit of this, but I did not like our MC. I felt that she was constantly judging people around her (assuming what they think) and she made a lot of sweeping general statements (which are just my pet peeve in general lol) such as “you think this” or “those people do this” and we rarely actually see proof that her thoughts on them are correct. I think maybe I just didn’t connect with her attitude and humor —very dramatic.
- The writing style. The writing just did not click with me. The whole book is supposed to be our main character’s food diary, but some parts feel like they were a part of the food diary and some parts didn’t. There is an unbalanced mix between some parts being all dialogue and some being all description (particularly long food descriptions). I also noticed that it was difficult to tell who was speaking a lot because of the lack of dialogue tags.
- Plot and pacing. There were a lot of details in the book that to me slowed the pacing down and felt unnecessary. This book is written in a very “slice of life” style, but I left many scenes wondering how it was important to the bigger picture. The plot for me did not really pick up until the 50% mark, and even then it was still slow to finish. I considered DNFing this multiple times while reading because it was so slow and I was not enjoying myself.
- Romance. I don’t think we got enough development with the love interest for me to be really rooting for them.
- Side characters. Related, is just the lack of development of our side characters. Beyond the dad, I didn’t really feel like I knew anyone else. I would have loved more development on the mom and Camille, the MC’s best friend. We got a little bit on her sister Dove, but I wanted more to really connect to their relationship. (I think that this is because the book was so focussed on our MC and the book was written in a diary format, we really only saw things through Bluebelle’s filtered perspective. With so many judgmental comments whenever someone would do or say something, even if we were learning more about a side character, I just couldn’t pay attention because I was annoyed with our MC’s voice).
- One specific plot point about 60% of the way through the book (specifically our main character’s reaction to it). Light spoiler ahead — one character in the book ends up being in a wheelchair. I did not like the way this was handled on the main character’s end because she made it all about herself. I was uncomfortable by the way that Bluebelle was embarrassed by the wheelchair and acted as though it was the-end-of-the-world. I was shocked at the way another character’s injury could make our main character still reflect only on herself and her feelings, saying things such as “would people treat me this way if I was the one in the wheelchair?” Our main character is called out for this behavior and in the end, she grows (so we as readers know that this is not okay). But I just couldn’t shake the feeling of how uncomfortable it was for the plot point of someone else having to temporarily use a wheelchair cause our MC to develop.

Overall, if I were to recommend this, I would probably recommend this book to a younger reader, someone who is first transitioning from middle grade to YA, perhaps? A lot of the humor and writing style feels like it could appeal to a younger audience. If you enjoy reading about flawed characters with an arc, a diary format, or a slice-of-life type writing style, then this may be for you. If you want to read a book that explores topic such as eating disorders (trigger warning for this one though), body positivity, etc. then you should try it out. This book comes out <b>July 16th 2019</b>! If this book interests you, check it out.

**ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.**

I think it deserves to be mentioned first and foremost that this book is chalked full of eating disorder triggers, so steer clear if you do not want to read about over eating and/or binging and purging. Now that that's out of the way, let's get on with the review!

After an asthma attack has made her confront her weight, BB is tasked with writing in a food journal. Begrudgingly she begins to write down everything she eats, but only after her mother bribes her with the opportunity to drop out of high school.

Yeah, you read that right. We are actually entertaining the thought of letting a 17 year old drop out of school simply because it "isn't her thing" The adult in me is screaming!!! BB is not a like-able character. She is selfish and bratty, and thinks she knows best simply because she's a teenager. Okay, she sounds like a normal teenager but this doesn't make me like her anymore. She expresses no modesty or consideration to her family, friends, and coworkers around her, That being said, I like the writing style! Its witty and funny and refreshing in the YA contemporary world! I like the representation of the different body types and the call-outs to how we all body shame each other! I can get used to more books with such honesty(and humor!)

Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity. I NEVER take these for granted. At this time though, I will not be able to provide feedback. Due to personal matters, I am currently out of the country until September. Please receive my apologies hoping this may not affect me in any future requests.

This was a quick, fun read. Bluebelle (aka BB) gets told that by her doctor's office that she is asthmatic because she is overweight. The nurse then (not so kindly) suggests that she keep a food diary and work out to try to get healthy. But BB feels that she is beautiful the way she is and no, she will not keep a stupid food diary and only agrees to use a gym so her mom will let her leave the doctor's office. BB wants to drop out of high school and get an apprenticeship in leiu of her final year of school (not something that happens in the US, so I guess this is a British thing?) because school is dumb and has better things to do with her life.

BB is hilarously real. She talks about her love of food lke people talk about their friends. I loved her relationship with her younger sister, Dove. There were some really hilarious parts in this book that had me laughing out loud. But also tackles real-life problems such as family issues and sibling arguments.