This was adorable. Julie Murphy has made a great transition into adult lit and I'm excited that since this is marked as book 1, it means there will be more in this series!

I loved both this story and Julie Murphy’s writing style/voice. Cindy is such a likable but fierce character, her personality is clear and relatable. It felt like I was talking/listening to a friend. I am so glad that the step-family element wasn't toxic like other Cinderella retellings tend to be. The bachelor-esque/reality show element was interesting to watch unfold but it added to the story and the Cinderella plot. The couples meet-cute and all the stolen moments make the romance adorable. I thoroughly enjoyed this read and cannot wait for more.

This just didn’t end up being a book that interested me. When I first read the premise, I was very excited and invested, but getting into it made it clear that it just wasn’t for me. Hopefully it works for others out there!

If the Shoe Fits was my first ever Julie Murphy book. I know, I know! I've been hearing rave reviews of all of her books since Dumplin' was just about to release way back in 2015. I just hadn't read her books since YA isn't my go to anymore. Cue her latest novel, just published on August 3, which featured a new grad in a Cinderella-esque story. I was all in. And when I read it? I was the heart eyes emoji personified the entire time. I loved it.

Here's the book's description:
After having just graduated with a degree in shoe design, and trying to get her feet on the ground, Cindy is working for her stepmother, who happens to be the executive producer of America's favorite reality show, Before Midnight. When a spot on the show needs filling ASAP, Cindy volunteers, hoping it might help jump-start her fashion career, or at least give her something to do while her peers land jobs in the world of high fashion.
Turns out being the only plus size woman on a reality dating competition makes a splash, and soon Cindy becomes a body positivity icon for women everywhere. What she doesn't expect? That she may just find inspiration-and love-in the process. Ultimately, Cindy learns that if the shoe doesn't fit, maybe it's time to design your own.
This novel was too much fun and had characters I completely fell in love with. I was rooting for Cindy the entire time and it's no surprise viewers of Before Midnight loved her too. She was smart and funny and I wanted to hang out with her and her best friend, Sierra. Cindy was floundering, as one does when one has lost both their parents and is dealing with finishing up college with no real idea how things will go after graduation. Her grief is real but it didn't define her or her story. Murphy created a heroine who was so real and and layered. Reading as Cindy learned how to write her own Happily Ever After was wonderful.

Murphy found a great balance of poking fun at the Bachelor(ette) franchise while also not alienating anyone who enjoys the show. As someone who used to watch it all the time, I appreciated that balance so much. It is ridiculous but, as Beck, Cindy's stepmom's protege, explains, it's a massive platform that can be used for good. Like having a plus size woman trying (and maybe succeeding?) to win an eligible bachelor's heart on national television. The behind-the-scenes scenes were so good and helped remind the reader that reality tv really isn't reality.

I really liked that this was a kind of sort of but not really Cinderella type story. Given I have my own evil stepmother (who, thankfully, hasn't been part of my life in eons), this can sometimes be a trigger (which is a problem when I love Cinderella stories...). Sooo I was really happy when the relationship between Cindy, her stepmom and stepsisters was rock solid. Plus, being a lover of Disney's Cinderella, I thought it was TOO CUTE that one of Cindy's triplet half-siblings was named Gus!

I'm absolutely thrilled that If the Shoe Fits is the first in a series and I cannot wait to read the next book. The first installment was so funny and smart and also swoony and had an ending that I thought was absolutely perfect. I'm definitely going to try to make some time for Julie Murphy's backlist sooner rather than later.

*An egalley was provided by the publisher, Disney Books, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

What I loved ❤️
💎 This is probably one of my fave retellings of Cinderella. It’s set in a bachelor-like reality show, so you get the best of both worlds.
💎 The change of a loving stepmother instead of an old evil/mean one in Cinderella gave me life!
💎 Supportive women all around.
💎 A plus size MC - YAS QUEEN 👏🏼 I enjoyed all of the body positivity throughout this one.

Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley & Disney Publishing Worldwide for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Julie Murphy's adult lit debut is not to missed! Full of heart, humor, and reality tv, IF THE SHOE FITS will have readers swooning and cheering Cindy from page one!

IF THE SHOE FITS is the first of a new series of books from Disney/Hyperion publishing that center their fairy tale re-imaginings in the modern world and in Cinderella's case, body-positive plus-sized representation.

Murphy does an extraordinary job of interweaving the cinderella archetype with a brilliantly maneuvered reality tv plot twist.

Highly recommend this book to pull you out of a reading slump! It worked for me!

Super cute book! I loved Cindy and I especially appreciated that her size is never disparaged with anyone questioning how she could be with Henry. Very fun, light read.

Super cute story. Fashion, humor, romance, what more do you need. I am looking forward to the next Meant To Be novel.

If the Shoe Fits can only be described as the perfect travel read. It’s light, fun, romantic and doesn’t immediately put me to sleep on a 6am flight from San Francisco to New Mexico…I read the whole flight! This story combines two of my incredibly fun things: The Bachelor and a Cinderella retelling.
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I loved Cindy’s character, she really encapsulated that all too familiar feeling of post grad insecurity and aimlessness leading her to say why the fuck not to participating in her step mother’s wildly successful tv show Before Midnight. I appreciated how she navigates the very realistic instances where reality tv doesn’t make space for fat women. It was refreshing to me that the narrative wasn’t question if the lead was into her—he definitely was—but more around what is she supposed to do on the fashion show date, or how does she deal with the styling team who is not even trying to dress her well? These felt like real scenarios that would come up without sacrificing Cindy’s confidence, style and romantic connections.
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In terms of the re-telling I loved that Cindy was a shoe designer very fun Cinderella tie-in 👠 but I mostly loved how the Step Mom and two step sisters didn’t fall into the tired “evil” trope. It was a sweet depiction of a blended family and while not perfect, I loved their support of each other.

Cindy, is a recent fashion school graduate who is working for her stepmom as she figures out her next steps. Because her stepmom is the executive producer of a reality show, Cindy, along with her two stepsisters, ends up appearing as one of the contestants competing to find true love. As the one plus-size woman on the show, Cindy quickly becomes a fashion icon, model for body positivity, and a voice for inclusivity. Cindy’s motivation for agreeing to participate in the show was to gain some publicity in order to get a job offer in the fashion industry. However, Cindy may leave the show finding more than she thought.

Julie Murphy strikes again! I absolutely love this author and her books. I believe this is her first non-young adult book, intended to be the first in her new Meant To Be series, which will be contemporary retellings of classic Disney princess stories. So, while this may seem like a take on a classic fairytale story, nothing about Murphy’s version is as traditional as it may seem. Despite the fact that I was able to predict the general idea of the ending, the way in which Murphy went about getting to the end was a delightful surprise that I wasn’t anticipating.

This story will make you laugh, smile, and feel good all around, as this is truly a rom-com done right. It was a very enjoyable, stress-free, fast read. It only took me about three sittings to finish this book, but every time I reached for it I felt like I was reaching for something comforting and familiar, like the feeling of re-watching all of the The Office episodes. Yes, it was in fact that enjoyable of a read.

Murphy really excels at the diversity in her books—the characters featured here are plus-size, black, gay, bisexual, and nonbinary. I can’t think of many books that include such an array of representation through its characters. These diverse characters are definitely supporting characters, though. The focus is clearly on Cindy’s experience navigating the fashion world, and the world in general, as a plus-size woman. Therefore, the individual experiences of these diverse characters go unexplored. But I don’t think that was a short-coming of this book at all —the supporting characters didn’t strike me as caricatures. Murphy depicted them well and respectfully. They just weren’t the focus of the book. Nonetheless, it was nice to see a variety of characters, even if they were in a supporting role in this story.

If The Shoe Fits is out August 3rd, 2021 and I would highly recommend this ten-times over to anyone. Murphy is an extraordinary writer with a gift for contemporary storytelling.

honestly, i really liked the whole bachelor premise of this book. granted, i do wish that it wasn't the same show with just a different name, since i feel like they were the same thing. but, i still think having the whole premise of them together was really cool and that i think it worked really well. but, i also feel like there was so many just random questions that i had throughout this book, which i won't get into cause of the spoilers.

but, i also feel like that the cinderella moments were kind of weird and i didn't really like ? i mean, i feel like the only real refences were the shoes and that she kind of wore blue a lot. but, i feel like the references were just way to cliché and i didn't really care for. like, i feel like, i mean, it was just kind of annoying and i didn't really care about it. and i mean, i wish that it had more of a plot in the book with cinderella. and like i feel like there is SO MANY different cinderella retellings out there, that this was just kind of underwhelming.

i do feel like the writing in this book though was really good. like, i feel like the writing was honestly so fun and just so easy to read. like i feel like it was just so easy and lighthearted, which i think was just so cool and so like fun. and i mean, the book wasn't heavy or anything, so it was just cool and honestly very light to get into this book. and honestly this book just pulled me in, which i thought was so cool.

and i honestly think it was so cool and honestly really fun to see this book with a fat main character in a bachelor setting. like, i feel like on the bachelor everyone is super skinny, like in real life or even in this book. so, i think getting cindy be fat and honestly living her best life, and not having some sort of trauma about her weight or that she hated herself, i thought it was just so fun and i really loved it. and also just talking about her being on national tv and still talking about body diversity and how people will think about her cause she is fat.

but, i also feel like they kept talking about henry's and his mother and his company kind of going under. but, i feel like they never really talked about it and they never really a resolution to all of this, which just annoyed me and that i wish they said something like they business is fine or it's getting better. and like henry had so many cool ideas to help the business or to bring things into this company, which i just wished we could see. or even just to have something happen that he made some comment about it.

i also wish that there was more 'romance' in this book. like, i feel like the romance in this book was just henry and cindy doing their fake dating and them doing this bachelor plot line, so i feel like they should have just done something more than just a kiss here and there. and i honestly wished we got a sex scene and that they did something more than just like fade to black and a kiss here and there. and also, i mean, i wish we got to see more post bachelor, so we can see them as a real couple, and not when he was dating like twenty people at once.

but, i also feel like that there were so many characters in this book and that there were like 25 ish girls or something, and i feel like that they all kind of blended together. like, i feel that there were like a ton of girls and that they all blended together and that it was kind of hard to understand who is who and what each person liked. and they would just throw names at us, which just made this book so confusing in a sense.

but, i think that there was also a couple girls that they really focused on, like with girls that help were also in the show, and i feel like they also never really let those characters grow. like, i feel that it was kind of confusing and that i feel like they just needed to make them grow and like let the villain of the book, be the villain, but it was still a little bit a mess and i think some of the background characters be background characters. and also just give all the girls a personality.

i also kind of liked seeing erica and cindy having their relationship. like, it honestly felt real cause they had their ups and downs and to see them figure out their life after the dad died. and just to see them figure out where they stand, and just to have erica try to make her relationship with cindy as perfect that it could be. and just like they were honestly kind of cool to see them figure it all out.

but, also to see erica and the step sisters not evil was so cool. like, i think their names were drew and anna, but don't quote me on that. but, i really liked to see them support cindy through all of this and than to see them have plot with not being evil and to help cindy with this journey. and also just to see them not being rude and evil to cindy since they got kicked out first. so, that was honestly so exciting to see.

This was a really cute Cinderella retelling! I was intrigued, and a bit skeptical as to what an adult book from Disney would be like, and I feel like this was a great start to the planned line-up. Julie Murphy's voice translates really well for an adult-YA crossover audience, and I really enjoyed both the individual character arcs and the romantic chemistry. The reality show was a great concept for a Cinderella story, and I'm definitely looking forward to reading whatever Julie Murphy comes up with next!!

Note: I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely love Julie Murphy and her YA books, so I was very excited about reading this one!! I also loved the premise of the book- The Bachelor meets Cinderella! Yes, please! However, the book fell short for me. I didn't connect with the characters, the insta-love was not believable, and it just seemed to drag a bit. This will not deter me from future books that Murphy writes though because I still think she is a great author!

OMG, I loved this! I didn't know what I was getting myself in when I first started this book, but this was absolutely amazing.

From the moment I picked this book up, I couldn't put it down. I became totally obsessed with Cindy and Henry and needed to know what would happen to them.

I loved the Bachelor-like premise and all the twists and turns it brought. I am not a big TV reality person, but I found myself completely engrossed in this story!

However, while I loved this book and all the discussions on fashion and its lack of inclusivity, I have to admit that the ending felt a little bit underwhelming compared to the rest of the story. I was kind of hoping for something grander than what we got. Nonetheless, I still truly enjoyed this book and fell in love with Henry and Cindy.

A new favorite!

Cindy has recently graduated from college with a degree and passion for fashion design. Her area of expertise and her one true love is, and always will be: shoes. But if that is the case, then why is Cindy the only one of her friends that doesn't have any job prospects? With no options and money running low Cindy deems it a good time to move home and visit her family.

Her step mother produces a dating show and, when the opportunity arises and the show needs girls, Cindy decides to jump in. Why not? She won't find love but it will be a great opportunity to show off her fabulous custom designs. But can the show do more than just launch Cindy's career?

I absolutely love the way this book remakes the Cinderella tale into something entirely unique. So unique that I often forgot the premise was loosely based on the Cinderella fairytale concept. Julie Murphy wrote Dumplin', which turned into a play and a Netflix film. If the Shoe Fits is Dumplin' meets The Bachelor (TV show).

DNF @ 17%

I loved the premise, I loved the execution. I was very into Cindy's extended family already, which was surprising, given that this is a Cinderella retelling. I thought they were great, and probably would have been one of my favorite parts of the story had I finished.

Even though I knew that Cindy was a recent graduate going into the story, I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that she was 22 and her life felt over. Maybe I need to be more empathetic to people not that much younger than me, but she just felt SO young to be going on a dating show/looking for the love of her life.

I do think this would work really well for those in college or who very recently graduated, as they can likely relate better to how Cindy felt!

<i>"I really like Henry, and of course I want that prize money, but being here, as a plus-size woman, is turning out to be something bigger than I had imagined. It's exciting, but mostly terrifying. I want people to talk about whatever Addison said about me. The morning after this episode airs, people are going to be talking, and it's a conversation that's been a long time coming, if you ask me. I just never hoped to be at the center of it."</i>

TL;DR: One of my favorite Cinderella retellings -- and, IMHO, about as perfect a <i>Disney</i> retelling as you could get.

Vibes: Quite literally Disney's <i>Cinderella</i> meets <i>The Bachelor</i> with a body-positivity twist and a plus-size contemporary "princess"

Genre: New Adult Fairy-Tale Retelling
[Cindy is 22, but she reads older. I know in Julie Murphy's other books her characters all read older than teenagers too, so that vibes. I read her as more like 25, which I think actually works a bit better, although it doesn't fit the whole recent-design-school-grad thing. But 22 seems a bit young for the story.]

Character MVP: Cindy. Again, like Murphy's other protagonists, she's just a character you fall in love with and root for.

Verdict: Okay, as we've established, I am *super* picky when it comes to fairy-tale retellings. Not because I'm uber-loyal to Disney or anything (okay, I totally am, but that's not a factor here), but because if you're going to retell a story that's literally been around for millennia, you *have* to do something new. You can't just tell the same story, but make it modern. Or, what's worse, like with that...Disney villains book about Lady Tremaine, do *NOTHING* with the story.

And Julie Murphy had a trickier task here, I would say. Because this isn't just a Cinderella retelling -- this is a retelling of the iconic 1950's Disney movie published *by* Disney Enterprises, for adults. So I don't know what parameters or guidelines Disney laid down, but I can imagine they're there.

That being said: the allusions and homage to Disney's animated film are there, and they are <b>delightful</b>. Some of them are so subtle, I imagine you'd have to be a Disnerd to fully get them. Like, for instance, Cindy's full name is Cindy Eleanor Woods (and "Eleanor" might even be a deep reference to Eleanor Audley, the voice of the OG Lady Tremaine?). Her's mother name is Ilene. And while the name doesn't appear (I don't think) in full in the book, it means her mother's name is Ilene Woods -- which is the name of the voice actress of Disney's OG Cinderella. Subtle, but a nice nod -- and if you didn't know, it doesn't at all impact the story. Which goes for many of the details I think -- the names of Cindy's triplet siblings are the names of the animated mice; there are nods to that awful black choker which works better in a modern setting than it does with her classic ballgown -- and I appreciated them.

But despite all the similarities to the animated film, there are some key differences -- and they're differences which really worked for me.

✔︎ -- Perhaps the biggest difference is, of course, the setting, which is a contemporary NYC/LA, on the set of a Bachelor type reality show called <i>Before Midnight</i>, executive produced by Erica Tremaine, Cindy's stepmom.
Now, the reason this worked so well for me was because I had just finished reading an article for my college class about how reality shows, primarily <i>The Bachelor(ette)</i> which airs on Disney-owned ABC, perpetuate hegemonic ideals of who is deserving of the fairy-tale ideal of true love -- basically, your white, cis, hetero, slim pretty people. And here comes Julie Murphy knocking down the door of those ideals and busting them up. Reading this book on the heels of that article may or may not have inspired a new course I can't wait to develop.

Setting aside, here are the other things that worked:

✔︎ -- Female Friendship.
I LOVED that Cindy has, if not a healthy, at least a warm relationship with both her stepmother and her stepsisters. The female-centered conflict is at the heart of so many fairy tales, and especially the ones that male authors (like the Brothers Grimm and Walt Disney) chose to prioritize, so it was really refreshing to see that. So many Cinderella retellings maintain that conflict -- and it's tricky, right? Because if you have a female antagonist, you're elevating your female characters, but they're still in conflict, usually over superficial vain things like love and appearance. Here, there is tension and conflict between Cindy and her family, most notably in Erica's reluctance to let Cindy on the show, but it's not hostile. There is concern and love there, and that's the difference.
Even on the show, which could have been a hotbed of female conflict, Cindy makes two good friends (who she's still in contact with after the show) *on* the show, and is friends with Beck, the assistant producer. The cattiness while there, is very much minimized. We have The Mean Girl, but even she isn't as mean and catty as she could be.
Oh! And Cindy has a friend *before* the show. Which I know is a fairly low bar -- Protagonist has Friend! -- but when you rewatch Disney movies as much as I do, the lack of female friendships really stands out.

✔︎ -- Cindy's agency.
Cinderella is one of those princesses who really gets criticized for being passive, and the nature of the story kinda lends itself to that. (Which is one reason why <i>Ella Enchanted</i> is so successful a retelling: it attempts to explain that passivity.) Here? Cindy is full of agency: *she* decides to go on the show, *she* goes after her Prince Charming (no passively pining in a locked room fo her!) and *she* decides not to...well, she decides the ending of the book.

✔︎ -- A fully-realized Prince Charming.
No one-dimensional stock Prince here! Henry is a fully realized character, with a personality and a backstory. We know things about him, and he has his own inner conflicts and journeys.

✔︎ -- An actual courtship.
It might seem like the reality TV dating show might undercut this point, but I don't think it does. At the very least, it ensures that we get to see Cindy and Henry actually get to know each other. And what's important, is that we see them do so "off screen." We, the reader, don't just see what the "TV audience" sees, the fake, orchestrated dates -- we see Cindy and Henry carve out personal time and actually have conversations with each other. No one night of dancing and then BAM. Wedding.

✔︎ -- Interests outside of romance.
Another big departure from the animated film -- largely because of the contemporary setting -- is that Cindy is interested in things other than romance. Yes, the story is a romance, and finding love does play a part in the story, but notably, Cindy has a career -- or, she's trying to. Equally important to her is getting her designing back on track, and exposure from the show is her initial reason for going on.

✔︎ -- And, finally, Body Positivity.
I love that Julie Murphy's book address sizism and how the media has conditioned us to equate "fat" with "unlovable." There are so many powerful, significant moments throughout the book where Cindy's size is rendered visible, from Irina's lack of wardrobe options to her reflecting on Addison calling her "brave" for wearing something a slim girl would wear without a second thought.

I just...loved everything about this book, and I don't know if Murphy will be writing other books in this new series, but I kinda hope she does.

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A #Cinderella retelling with a #bachelor twist. Cindy loves shoes and as a recent parsons graduate she knows that shoes can make an outfit. Even more so as a plus size woman she knows that clothes don’t always work for all sizes, but shoes do.
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Her stepmother is executive producer Of Before Midnight, basically the bachelor.
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She joins the show with her two stepsisters. I love that this may be a Cinderella retelling but there is no evil stepmother or evil stepsisters.
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There is so much I loved about this book. I loved the #projectrunway moment Cindy created for herself on the group date. I loved her twist of a glass slipper and of course her blue shoes…hello Carrie Bradshaw ! I just loved it all!

A Cinderella inspired Bachelor type book...count me in! For fans of One to Watch.

Cindy’s stepmother is the producer of Before Midnight, a reality TV show where 20+ women compete for one bachelor. She needs someone to fill in for a few spots for the season they're currently filming. Cindy and her two stepsisters agree to go on the show; Cindy agrees to show off her amazing shoe designs. Cindy is surprised the bachelor is none other than Henry from her flight meet-cute. Henry is both surprised and delighted by this. The two have a lot in common, including some connections in the fashion industry.

As expected, there’s drama with the girls of the house and behind-the-scenes meet-ups with Cindy and Henry. There also a few scandals thrown in for good measure 😉. There’s a lot of body-positivity and LGBTQ+ representation that I loved!

Thank you to NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Meant to Be: If the Shoe Fits was a delight of a book. It's technically an adult book, but it has the vibes of a young adult book. Julie Murphy just has a way to speak to young girl inside of you dreaming of romance. This is, of course, a Cinderella retelling, but with some changes that I adored. I loved that Cindy's relationship with her step -family was (while not perfect) well intentioned and overall loving. And while they made some story plots about her size, I like that it wasn't the central feature of Cindys' character, unlike the similar book One to Watch. Overall I loved this book and I hope it is the start of a new series!