Julie Murphy is such a talented author, I’ve enjoy everything I’ve read by her. This book premise certainly had the potential to come off as too cutesy but it wasn’t at all, it had just the right amount of sweetness combined with the strong female lead to make it another excellent read.

Cinderella meets One to Watch in this new spin on the fairytale.

Cindy is fresh out of design school with no job prospects on the horizon when she is asked to be a contestant on her stepmother’s reality TV show. Maybe this can at least get her in front of an audience that could see her unique fashion style, particularly her love of shoes.

This is the third Cinderella retelling I’ve read this month and they are all so different. This one was so fun and I loved the twists on the original, including the relationship Cindy had with her stepsisters and stepmother.

Thank you to Hyperion and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

How much did I love this book? Let’s put it this way, I started it just before 6 pm one evening, and then, other than stopping to eat and answer a phone call, I basically did nothing but read this book ‘til I finished it at 3:45 in the morning later that night. I was absolutely hooked. I had been so excited to not only read Julie Murphy’s adult debut but also a plus-sized Cinderella retelling but also so nervous, but let’s just say this book more than met and, in fact, surpassed my expectations.
Summary: Cindy Woods has just graduated from fashion school and, struggling with feeling uninspired and still grieving her parents, agrees to move back home to help her stepmom. When an emergency causes contestants to back out of the reality dating show her stepmom produces, Cindy volunteers to step in with her stepsisters, hoping, if nothing else for some exposure for her fashion career. What she doesn’t expect is for the Suitor to be Henry- someone she’d already met and had considerable chemistry with. Balancing becoming a body positivity icon with sorting out what’s real and what’s engineered for the show, Cindy finds herself falling for Henry. Cindy didn’t come on Before midnight for love but could she find it and maybe some inspiration along the way?
Most of the time fairytale retellings feel very much unoriginal and you just have to go with it and move on because that’s what you get. Since Cinderella is one of the easiest fairytales to do a modern retelling of, it has probably been redone the most so the various adaptations all blend together and are harder to tell apart. This was not the case here. In fact, I would often forget that this was Cinderella until there would be a big wink to it and I’d go OH! And I’d get to enjoy the wink or clever callout to tradition while Julie spent the rest of the time taking everything that drives me crazy about Cinderella retellings and either turned them on their head or threw them out the window. I think the number one thing that keeps me from enjoying Cinderella stories most of the time is the relationship with the stepfamily. Sometimes we’ll have a nice step-sister but most of the time the stepmother and stepsisters are monsters and needlessly cruel for no good reason. Occasionally, if we don’t have one nice stepsister, we’ll have a dumb one to balance out the mean one but even they are still mean for the sake of meanness. I think that was the thing that drew me in the most at the start of this book, the fact that Julie said, ‘you know what, we don’t need to do that this time and chose to reexamine our Cinderella’s relationship with her stepfamily. Rather than blind cruelty and mistreatment, there is real love and fondness and I thought that was so refreshing and welcome and such a smart choice. Especially given that Cindy had already lost her parents, it meant a lot to me that she wasn’t being mistreated by her stepfamily. That was really special.
Julie is my favorite contemporary author and every time I read one of her books she more than earns that title again. Each time I start a new one I get nervous because I have so much love for her previous books and I get this weird worry that I won’t love this next one as much as the last few but every time Julie puts those fears to rest in the first five minutes of reading. Her writing is funny and down-to-earth and witty and so human. I don’t just love her for how she writes fat people but I will always be grateful to her for it. There are several sections in this book that speak directly to my heart in a way that no other author has. She writes fat girls with love and care and experience in a way that isn’t token or fat for fat’s sake but in a way that’s real in a way only fat people know. It means so much to be able to read my experiences in such a wonderful story. To read someone like me getting to be happy without having to lose her fatness. I never knew how much I needed a fat fairytale before I read this book. And, despite the fact that, yes there are people who are fatphobic in the book, they are made into centerpieces and those moments aren’t the big pivotal ones the book revolves around but instead sticky little obstacles to overcome. That was kind and clever of Julie and very smart.
I have never watched the Bachelor or any other kind of reality dating show but with these characters and the way Julie wrote it, I loved the whole thing. She played with the drama and the fairytale so well and I loved her twists. It’s very easy for these kinds of things to feel artificial but with the walkie-talkie and other choice moments, she perfectly grounded the romance and allowed me to fall in love with Henry and Cindy falling in love with each other.
With a bold and lovely cast of memorable characters, a romance worth swooning for, and the leading lady of my dreams, If the Shoe Fits is the whole package. It was just an absolute winner of a book and a new favorite of mine and another crown in a collection of wonderful books by Julie. Go buy this incredible modern take on Cinderella, it is amazing and I couldn’t love it more!

Cindy has just graduated from college in New York with a shoe design degree, and is headed home to LA to be a nanny for her youngest siblings while she's scoping out job prospects. Her stepmother is the executive producer of Before Midnight, a Bachelor-type dating show. When 3 contestant spots open up and need filled immediately, Cindy's two older, very fit stepsisters agree immediately, but Cindy is more than hesitant. Sure, she would get recognition that would help rake in job offers, but she'd also be the only plus-sized woman in the history of the show. After some encouragement from her sisters, she decides to go for it, and to her surprise, becomes a fan-favorite. Even more surprisingly, she feels a connection with "Prince Charming". What could go wrong?

As soon as I saw that this was by Julie Murphy, I knew I had to get my hands on it. She is phenomenal, and I have never been disappointed by anything she writes. I LOVED THIS BOOK! I'm a sucker for fairytale retellings, and this one took Cinderella and made it better! There was so much positivity all through this book that I just felt happier when I was reading it. I can't wait for the next installment!

I received this ARC courtesy of Netgalley, in return for my honest opinions

I've read a couple of books by Julie Murphy, Dumplin' and Puddin', and when I read the synopsis of this one, I knew I wanted to read it. Thank you @disneybooks for sending me a copy of If the Shoe Fits. I have seen some comparisons to a recent BOTM pick, One to Watch, which I haven't read but have heard good things about. I loved Cindy and Henry. Cindy was funny, resourceful, genuine, and kind. Henry was swoon-worthy, and I loved how gentle and sweet he was. This story is advertised as a plus-sized Cinderella retelling, and it was nice to see Julie Murphy trying her hand at a novel geared towards adults. Julie Murphy handles the topics in this story with the sensitivity and wit that only Julie Murphy can do. Admittedly, I'm not really a fan of the Bachelor and other TV shows of the like, but I did enjoy that aspect of this book as well. It was entertaining and I read it in a matter of two hours. It'll be out on August 3, so definitely add it to your radar if you haven't yet!

I was up until almost 2 am reading If the Shoe Fits in basically one sitting. Julie Murphy is the first author to publish in Disney's first take on modernizing their classic fairy tales for an adult book audience. This first novel is a reinterpretation of Cinderella. Cindy is returning to live in California with her step-mother, step-sisters, and half-siblings after graduating with a design degree from an NYC university. Once there, her step-mother's tv show, Before Midnight, a Bachelor analog has multiple contestants drop out last minute, and Cindy is volunteered. Cindy is the first fat woman to be on the show and becomes a bit of a body positivity icon.

I was excited about this book from the moment I saw the cover. I like a lot of Disney's properties, as most do, and was so excited for modern rom-com's inspired by the Disney princesses. Starting out with Cinderella absolutely did not disappoint. I was also excited because I had read and really liked Dumplin years ago, so I was quite excited for Murphy's first adult novel.

This book is very, very funny. I laughed out loud multiple times throughout the story; it was truly so much fun. I did also cry, so it worked on my emotions on both fronts. I am always annoyed when something is pitched as a rom-com and then doesn't deliver on the comedy side of that equation, but If the Shoe Fits is certainly funny. This story was so enjoyable; I read it in one sitting because I was just enjoying it far too much to put the book down or to be distracted by my phone.

The way Murphy interprets so much of the story into a contemporary story was delightful and often hilarious. Obviously, there are still serious parts of the Cinderella story leftover; Cindy's mom died when she was quite young, and her dad died a few years after marrying her step-mother, but in this version, Cindy has an occasionally contentious but mostly supportive relationship with the Tremaine's. Cindy really really loves shoes, it was her focus in school, and she has an incredible collection. Her half-siblings are the mice; I found this absolutely charming. I could list funny analogs, but I don't want to spoil too much of the surprise.

I also really loved the places where Murphy deviated from the Cinderella structure. I thought each reference and each deviation was very well thought out and really helped to tell this story in a meaningful and interesting way. There are also a few changes to the structure of The Bachelor to make it more plot-friendly and Disney-friendly (though I think Disney owns the show?). I have not actually watched any of The Bachelor's family of products (except once as a child with my babysitter), but I did listen to a now-defunct podcast about the show a few years ago, so I know enough about the program to get some of the jokes and references. The biggest change is that the show is airing while filming is happening; I think this works very well for the plot, even if it seems like it would be a production nightmare.

Cindy's experience as a fat woman is written so well (and just as a heads up, fat is Cindy's preferred description, there are a few times in the book where folks tap dance around the word in a quite funny way). We have airplane scenes and clothing disasters on the page that are able to talk about being fat in the world very frankly and really work to show the ways fatphobia keeps fat people from certain experiences. I also really enjoyed that this book isn't about Cindy gaining self-acceptance; she already views herself as a person deserving of respect and love, and dignity and already feels positively about herself. There are books about that journey, but this one happens to have different things as emotional conflict. Cindy is just a fat woman who is at the center of this love story.

The romance is so incredibly cute. Murphy spends quite a bit of the beginning of this book lets the reader get to know and love Cindy; it really was excellent to have so much time with our heroine before we start getting to know Prince Charming. The initial time spent with Cindy really pays off with the romance; you really root for Cindy because you know who she is and what she wants and not just because she is the lead character. As a heads up, this is a fade to black kind of book and not a, as TikTok would say, spice kind of book.

Getting to know the male lead of this book was just as delightful as getting to know Cindy. The banter is absolutely excellent. It is absolutely what kept me turning pages at 1 am when I might have otherwise picked sleep. I really liked the way his character's backstory and emotional arc contrasted so well with Cindy's. Murphy writes romance so well, I really hope she writes more adult romance in the future.

I loved the way Cindy's step-family was approached. I thought it was a perfect handling. They weren't absolute angels who had never had problems with each other, but they were also treated as full people who are a family unit even if they haven't always gotten along perfectly. I have had other retellings fail completely for me because I hate the way they handle the villains, this book didn't have them as an abusive family, but it is clear that Murphy put a lot of thought into how to keep some of their personality traits the same in this interpretation.

I could write for pages and pages about how much fun I had while reading. But I should probably wrap it up at some point. I am so excited to get a finished copy with the book is properly out on August 3rd, and I am so excited to read more in this series!

I was provided a free copy of this by @netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
This was such a fun, cute romance story! I flew through it! Cinderella-ish, with a Bachelor twist! When Cindy gets the opportunity to be a contestant on Before Midnight she views it as an opportunity to jumpstart her fashion career. But, after she meets the eligible bachelor, plans begin to change! Cindy blazes her own trail, and shows the world who she is. I was rooting for her, excited to find out what happened, and totally invested in this story!
If you enjoy fun quick romances, I would definitely recommend this one coming out 3 August!
#MeantToBeIfTheShoeFits #NetGalley

I love Julie Murphy. I’ve read almost all of her books, I think she can do no wrong, and this one is no exception. Such a sweet retelling, modernized just perfectly!!

Let me preface this review with I do not watch the Bachelor nor the Bachelorette, it is not my style of show. I don't like how forced or how unrealistic it seems. That being said I am a huge sucker for fairytale retellings and who does fairy tale retellings better then Disney. Very few people. And once again they have not disappointed with this book . I love how real Cindy is and how she is able to embrace not only who she is but how she looks and doesn't let that hold her back in the competition. I love the representation overall in this book! I honestly just don't have enough good words to say about it. I am a fast reader in general but it is very rare these days that I just want to sit down and binge a book. This one is very much binge worthy.

Thank you Disney and Netgalley for allowing me to read this book early. It was a perfect treat and a lovely surprise!

Thank you so much @DisneyBooks & @NetGalley for giving me this physical ARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 03 August 2021)

SYNOPSIS | Cindy's mother is the executive producer of America's favourite reality show (Before Midnight). This bachelor style show needs one more contestant & Cindy agrees hoping that the exposure will help kickstart her fashion career. It turns out that being the only plus sized woman on a reality dating show gives her a lot more attention than she anticipated.

WHAT I LIKED:
- this had such a YA One to Watch vibes
- who doesn't love a Cinderella retelling?! (there were some really nice nods to the original)
- really great diversity & representation within the characters

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- this is intended to be an adult romcom, but it still had a very YA vibe
- it also felt very short & the story wasn't as flushed out as I would have liked
- the whole Cindy / Henry romance was too insta-lovey for me so I didn't really find myself rooting for them

I was apprehensive that this "Cinderella Story" would pit the main character, Cindy against her step-mother and (thinner) step sisters. I was happy that this wasn't the case. Cindy, a recent Parsons School of Design grad, is still trying to process the deaths of her parents, and navigate the world in her (larger sized) body. After a chance encounter on an airplane with "Prince Charming", she ends up on a reality dating show where he is the bachelor. The plot is light-hearted, but sensitive, with deeper themes than first expected. Will Cindy choose her prince or choose herself?

An enjoyable read! Cindy was fun, body positive, and with a good attitude. There wasn’t an ‘evil’ stepmom and step sisters, though you grow to dislike the stepmom because of the behind the scenes of her job. The stepsisters are great, kind people.

I didn’t see as much of a resolution of the non-romance plot as i would have liked. What happens to his company? His mom? The romance had one closed door scene.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. Thanks to NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion for providing me with access.

I love Cinderella retellings and this one was just as adorable as the others I've read. It was a bit rough around the edges, but overall I enjoyed the story. I also enjoyed the behind the scenes look into the not so real world of reality TV. I'm not really a fan of the Bachelor Franchise and honestly, this book really solidified my reasons why. But other than that, the story was cute, the characters were fun, and I loved the happily ever after at the end.

This is a really cute YA-ish romance that ties together Disney and reality TV. It reminded me of the perfect marriage of One to Watch and A Cinderella Story. I enjoyed the plus size protagonist and the overall fast pace of the story.

I have never disliked a Julie Murphy book, and this one is just as enchanting and of the moment as her others. This book has great crossover appeal as the only thing that makes it adult instead of YA is the age of the protagonist. I loved that the stepmother and stepsisters were nice and supportive in this retelling. The main romantic plot was a little predictive, but the ending was still satisfying and the look behind the scenes of Bachelor-style reality tv shows was so fun.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Thank you to Netgalley and Disney Publishing for a chance to read and review an early copy of this adorable Cinderella retelling: If the Shoe Fits! And yes, it’s a new series!

I loved everything about this. It has reality tv and a plus sized female, just like One to Watch. But in this one, Cindy is on the show trying to find true love as opposed to Bea being the suitor.

Cindy actually has a nice stepmother and loving step sisters and loves shoes. It was adorable and fun, with a nice mix of some quirkiness. It was light hearted and had me smiling from ear to ear. I was rooting for Cindy and I adored her body positivity, and how she embraced her curves. I feel like every girl and woman can appreciate that and needs to hear about it. And our male lead was a sweetheart, and I was very impressed with his character development!

Overall, a fun and cute read. It was addicting at times and predictable in some ways but still enjoyable. I am excited to see what comes next in this series and hope that we get to follow one of the step sisters in the next one.

I also need to pick up Julie Murphy’s other books ASAP!

I absolutely adore Murphy's new Cinderella retelling! Full of connections to Cinderella with everything from calling Henry "Prince Charming" from the first time she met him, to Cindy's name, I was surprised to find myself falling in love. Murphy really pulled it off with just the right amount of rom-com-dram in this Cinderella meets The Bachelor. I'm not the biggest princess person, and even less so a Bachelor fan, so I was even more impressed by how easy and enjoyable this was to read.
Cindy is an incredibly likeable character. She's into fashion, struggling to make ends meet in New York with her best friend post-graduation, and still recovering from her father's recent death. She's flexible at home with her stepmom, always giving her the benefit of the doubt and taking care of the triplets as their nanny. She's almost too likeable, but I didn't find that it bothered me because it felt like she had enough going on otherwise. I appreciated that her main dilemmas came from deciding between furthering her career or pursuing a relationship - that seems to be a common theme among women my age.
Henry oscillates between jackass extraordinaire and Prince Charming. He clearly adores Cindy from the start, and continues to demonstrate that in their one-on-one interactions. The hard part in their relationship seems to stem from when he's in the public eye. He can't seem to shake his rich kid persona, the one where he gets to have as many one night stands as he wants without a care in the world for the women he's going through. Of course, being on a reality TV show likened to The Bachelor doesn't help that image at all. Cindy calls attention to that plenty throughout the story.
Looking back on this book, Cindy and Henry were both a bit unbelievable, but in the moment this didn't have any bearing on my reading. I sped through the pages, finding full enjoyment from the ways in which they were each using the show to further their own interests, and casually falling in love on the sidelines. I loved that their meet cute was in the airport before the show even started. They share enough in common to make their romance feel believable.
Fat positivity, fat visibility, and LGBT visibility are front and center to the book, true to Murphy form. She weaves these effortlessly into the plot (the way they should be) and provides ample opportunity for the characters to call each other out when necessary. I continue to appreciate the contributions to what's available, and am so glad that authors are making their way through the publishing world to continue to questions our biases as individuals and as a society.
While this book may not give you many deep thoughts to contemplate, you might find you'll stay up late anyway for the sheer enjoyment of reading this book.

Thank you to the publisher for an eARC of this book via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

So I absolutely loved this! It was subtle with the Cinderella references and was just an absolute delight to read. I always love Julie Murphy’s characters and Cindy and Henry are no exception! I don’t enjoy reality TV but I definitely enjoyed reading about the behind the scenes of one. This was a great beach read, light and fluffy .

CW: grief, death of parents

This was a sweet, cute read. I read the majority of it in one sitting! It was a quick one.
I've never watched the Bachelor or anything, I can't stand those shows, but I didn't mind that type of show being the setting in this book. I thought it was cool that for the most part, the girls were nice. I also liked that even though this was a Cinderella retelling, that the step-family wasn't evil. I agree with another review I saw that the ending was a bit abrupt, but that's the only thing that really bothered me.

If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy is a charmingly funny romantic comedy that gave me a reason to believe that happily ever after's still do happen.

I loved the modern twist given to the bits of the original Cinderella tale thrown into the story. From the glass slipper to the stepmother and two stepsisters, these little bits from the original Cinderella fairytale connected me to the story in unexpected ways. Bringing up happy memories from childhood stories gives the novel a magical fairytale quality that helped me tap into all that is good and right. When a story has all those positive traits, it surely will touch the heart and put a smile on your face, and If the Shoe Fits did that and more.

The story is entirely predictable, but what makes it a five-star story that easily held my unwavering attention from page one to the last page is the characters. Cindy and Henry are completely relatable with complexities and layers that give them that genuine feel I look for in any story. I wanted them to have their happily ever after more than anything, and I could not put the book down until I knew that they did – however that might look.

I also enjoyed the use of a Bachelor-type reality show the story centers around because, let us face it, that is something that can bring on all the chuckles and smiles. The story never takes the reality series seriously. Instead, satirization is achieved by playing up all the unreality of reality. It is so much fun and hits on many truths that take this story to a whole other deeper level.

The story also has a character lineup that includes much diversity, and it does so in a respectful and completely natural manner. It never feels like it is trying to be diverse for diversity's sake, but that is truly a microcosm of our world today.

To Read or Not to Read

If you are looking for a story that will make you believe in happily-ever-after again, If The Shoe Fits will do that with many chuckles along the way.