Romance comedies are my jam, and Julie Murphy wrote the perfect one for me. This was cute, light and such a heartwarming story! Thank you to the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review! I highly recommend checking this out on PUB day on August 3rd!

Newly graduated from Parsons, Cindy is in a bit of a bind. She's not been inspired much since the death of her father hit her and now she's looking at limited prospects while trying to get her mojo back. When her stepmother, the executive producer of the hit dating show Before Midnight, needs someone to replace a contestant who dropped out, Cindy volunteers. She has no real interest in dating, she's just there for the fame and potential sponsorship offers. To her surprise, she's a big hit with the fans -- a plus-sized heroine for the nation to rally behind. She never expects to actually be attracted to the bachelor, Henry. Oh boy, what a mess this is...

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Okay, but can we talk about that cover? The dress... The little lean on Henry. The fact that she's stolen his shoe. Like OMG! This cover is cute AF, and I am 1000% here for it.

And unlike so many cute, rom-com styled covers this book is actually a rom-com. We get our first taste of that very early on when Cindy meets a guy she dubs "Prince Charming" at the airport and they immediately get into a discussion about playing "don't step in the lava" and the perils of air travel. I actually laughed out loud with this book. The dialogue was so cute and unexpected. I thought I knew which way things would go, but I was wrong. It was refreshing.

I really loved the changes to the Cinderella story. Yes, there's definite shout outs to the fairy tale and the Disney retelling, but they are just that shout outs. This is not your grandmother's Cinderella story. I was so pleasantly surprised by the relationships between characters as well as the women supporting women storylines. I loved that this book just had casual representation without making a big production out of it. PoC, LGBTQIA+, and other marginalized identities were just there... like they are in real life. And I loved that all of the characters had their race/skintone indicated and not just the people of color. A+ lack of othering.

But it's the characters and the message that really make this book special. I adore Cindy. She's not perfect but she's fun, real, and well-rounded. I love that she's comfortable in her skin and that she knows her worth and isn't willing to settle. I loved Henry. He was such a complex man with complex feelings who was such a good fit for Cindy. I loved so much of the supporting cast too... including Drew and Anna. They were so good. The message of this book was also well done. That there needs to be a place for people of all body types and all body shapes need to be welcomed and celebrated. This is particularly true when fat people are still acceptable targets for ridicule and disdain. (As of the writing of this review the New York Times had an article that advises people to ditch their "fat friends" because apparently obesity is contagious.) So seeing Cindy navigating the world that isn't meant for her, where finding clothing is a challenge, is honestly refreshing.

I loved the ending of the book. I didn't see it coming and that was great. Frankly I love this book so much that I'm going to want to reread it again and again.

Five stars

I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley

This was absoloutly adorable and should be added to TBRs far and wide! I stayed up devouring it until 2:30 AM!

Some highlights: Cinderella retelling but the stepmother and stepsisters are *not* evil! Inclusive race / gender / sexuality / size representation! Delicious fashion descriptions! Reality TV setting! Love at first sight! This cover!! 😻😻

Some content notes: deceased parents, fatphobia, closed door

I'm still waiting for a book with a fat heroine where at the beginning they note "she was fat" and then barely ever speak of it again, and certainly not as a plot point, but ALAS... someday!! All that said I did like how they treated her size more than some books with fat heroines.

Lastly, I loved how the author handled character descriptions in this book, not a damn simile to be found. She just says "a tall guy with light brown skin" or "a petite white woman" or "a beautiful person with short, perfectly edged lavender hair, a manicured beard to match, razor sharp eyeliner, and nude lipstick rounds the corner..." 😘👌

Loved this! Bravo Julie Murphy! 4/5 stars

I would like to begin by thanking Netgally and Disney Publishing Worldwide for the advanced reader copy!

If you are a fan of the Bachelor and other reality show dating to shows definitely read this book! Even if you don’t like those type of shows still a super good book! The main character Cindy goes to fashion school and loves creating shoes. She moves from New York to California in with her step mom after she loses both her parents. This is her new start. Her step mom Erica is a creator/producer on the tv show “Before Midnight”, she goes on the show for exposure for her fashion/shoe career and it quickly becomes more. She meets the suitor, Henry and her life changes.
This book was really great and will keep you hooked the whole time.
5 stars, recommend!

Love the updated take on the classics we all know and love. Cute, heartwarming, delightful read! Well done, Murphy! Looking forward to reading more.

Loved this adorable romance!

Cindy just finished fashion school and has lost her spark. Heading home from New York to California for the summer seems like a great idea.

However life never goes as planned. After an adorable meet-cute, will Cindy and Henry find their way back together?

Cindy is then convinced to join the cast of a reality television show to try and find true love. Will she find her true love on the show or is Henry her true love.

At first I was worried this Cinderella Retelling would be as tired as most others of its kind. However having Cindy be plus size and proud of it, made my heart happy. We need more of this in the world.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
I have never loved a romcom as much as I love this one. This book is everything. A plus size girl on the Bachelor? You would never ever see it. This book gives all of us bigger girls some hope that some great catch of a man might actually like us too. I'm absolutey obsessed and have nothing bad to say. I give this book the highest recommendation!

Thank you Julie Murphy, Disney Publishing and Netgalley for this ARC!

**Also please make this a series or a trilogy because I love Cindy and Henry. I need to see them take on the fashion world.

A light and fun beach read! I thoroughly enjoyed the plus-sized fashion perspectives, diverse characters, and playful integration of "Cinderella" attributes. Thank you for making me (and many of my students) feel seen and heard.

Aspiring shoe designer and fat girl Cindy signed up to join the cast of a reality dating series called Before Midnight to raise her fashion profile. But when she meets the bachelor, she recognizes him from a recent flight to LA. Henry agreed to try and find his perfect match on TV in return for help with his mother's struggling fashion business. Away from the camera, sparks fly, but can Cindy trust Henry's motives? Will her five minutes of fame be worth it in the end?

This was a fun, lovely Cinderella-inspired story from Julie Murphy. I'm pretty much over fairytale retellings, but enjoyed Faith Takes Flight and was cautiously excited about the idea of a fat romance heroine. I'm so glad I took a chance on this book because (1) it's not THAT much of a Cinderella story (okay, there are special shoes, a step-mother, step-sisters, and a dead father, but those are the biggest connections and they don't all turn out as you might expect) and (2) wow did I love Cindy and her story. After just reading another romance novel that featured an ugly, fat, angry aunt as a joke secondary character (don't worry, she's secretly a thin, beautiful, happy witch), If the Shoe Fits was such a breath of fresh air. Murphy skewers some of the typical comments fat women get, like "wow, you're so brave for wearing [insert form-fitting piece of clothing]" and the inability of the fashion world to accommodate fat bodies. At the same time, she doesn't turn Cindy into some sort of body positivity warrior/martyr--she's just a young woman trying to find her way in the world.

The one (small) critique I have is that most of the secondary characters are underdeveloped and I would have liked to see a few more things tied up at the end, but otherwise I would highly recommend this book. I can't wait to read whatever Murphy writes next!

When a Cinderella story meets the Bachelor, you're met with Meant to Be: If the Shoe Fits!

Cindy's life has plateaued. She's graduated design school with no job in sight so she's headed home to California to nanny for her triplet step-siblings. When she meets a mysterious man on the plane, she chalks it up to a "what if" moment, and continues full steam into nanny life.

Life picks up as soon as she's home, as her stepmother is the producer of a major reality show. As two cast members drop out right before filming begins, Cindy and her stepsisters agree to jump in and set off on a world of adventure.

It's so refreshing to see a body-positive plus-size protagonist, as she represents so many women today. Light-hearted, cute, and a quick read, this should definitely earn a spot on your reading list!

I adored the fat representation and the subtle nods to the Disney film (naming one of the triplets Gus-Gus, etc,). I didn't think I was going to enjoy the reality show setting, but I found that the pacing and personalities were easy to get invested in. I definitely recommend this to fans of Olivia Dade and Jasmine Guillory.

Murphy gives readers a legitimate heroine that actually gets her HEA and the guy against all odds. Set against the background of 'reality' television, Meant to Be: If the Shoe Fits, contains many of the behind the scenes secrets that show a little more of the reality than flash. This is a quick, solid read for any fans of the genre.

This is a modern fairy tale loosely based on Cinderella, but with nice step-relatives, an all-too-human prince charming, and a plus-sized Cinderella who designs shoes. Cindy becomes a contestant on a TV reality show much like the Bachelor and finds that the male contestant is her seatmate from her cross country flight. It is rather predictable but entertaining and it is nice to find a strong female character in Cindy and other characters from all walks of life. It was a fun read.

I wasn't able to finish this one. The premise was just too much. I like the message of body positivity and I usually like modern fairytale retellings. However, this one tried to hard to make the dating show premise fit the fairytale. It started to become predictable, but not in any good kind of way. There are library patrons that may enjoy this title, but this one seemed to be trying too hard.

Fashion school graduate Cindy is low on job prospects, so she moves in with her reality-show-producer stepmom for the summer. When a spot just happens to open up in the newest season of the Bachelor-style series, Cindy finds herself with the opportunity to get nationwide exposure for her designs – and the chance at winning a hundred thousand dollars. The very last thing she expects is to actually find love – until she finds that the “Bachelor” in question is a familiar face.

If The Shoe Fits is a cute little romance novel inspired by Cinderella. But if fairy tale retellings aren’t your thing, don’t worry – it’s a pretty loose inspiration. For the most part, the inspiration ends with shoes and a stepfamily (who in this version are actually pretty nice). This book features fantastic representation – in addition to a plus-sized heroine, we have a multicultural cast including bisexual, lesbian, and non-binary side characters.

If The Shoe Fits also had something that I always love to find in a romance novel – an extremely competent and capable heroine. I loved that in addition to being fat as well as fabulous, Cindy is a genuinely talented fashion and shoe designer. This, in addition to exploration of themes like grief and female friendship, helps to flesh out her character and the book as a whole. Henry, the “hero,” was also an enjoyable, if slightly less well developed character.

There are a few things that aren’t quite believable – how she got cast in the show in the first place is frankly a stretch – but sometimes, especially in romance novels, you just kind of have to roll with these things, and in this case, I felt like the rest of the story made it worth going with the stretch.

Cinderella Retelling with a Bachelor spin that has a plus size main character? COUNT ME IN! The main character Cindy who has lost both her parents- just graduated from college as a design (but her passion is mainly for shoes), heads home to live with her tv show executive step mom. When she gets the opportunity to join the Bachelor like show called, Before Midnight she jumps at the chance! Whats better than 100k and exposure for her future career. But it quickly becomes more than that. I loved that this retelling steered from the unbearable step mom and step sisters and Cindy truly has the most supportive second family. The twists and added drama really made this an enjoyable and easy read for romance lovers. The only issue I had with this book was the somewhat of an abrupt ending.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book snuck up on me. Cindy, a recent Parsons graduate and spiring shoe designer, twenty-two and fat. She’s also orphaned and unemployed, and she agrees to go on a version of The Bachelor called Before Midnight. But it turns out she’s already met the Bachelor, when she was flying home after graduation.

Murphy jumps in and I kept feeling like this was a book in a series where I hadn’t read the other books and wasn’t getting all the references. But as I got settled, and as Cindy goes on the dating show, the book finds its keel. And then it becomes kinda great in parts, when we get to see both the machinations of reality tv and how Cindy stands up to them. And she figures out who she is and what she deserves.

I ended up liking this book much more than I thought I would. 3.5 stars. But this is a book that sorely needs an epilogue.

I got a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am a total secret reality tv show lover. There’s just something fun about turning the tv on and investing an hour of your day into someone’s love life...even better??? All the juicy gossip and drama that goes on. It’s a guilty pleasure.
I absolutely loved this play on reality tv and the ties to Cinderella. This is probably one of the cuter Rom coms that I’ve read in a really long time and I love the main character Cindy. I also love that she represented a fierce and fashionable plus size woman.
Light to medium steam level!

If the Shoe Fits is a cute rom-com, mash up of the Cinderella fairy tale and the other recent release about a plus size fashion icon on a reality show, One to Watch.

I blew through this book, it was hard to put down. I was rooting for the characters I was supposed to, on the fence for the characters that were indeed on the fence, and riding the rollercoaster of emotions trying to decode Henry's actions with Cindy.

With that said, like One to Watch, this is a preachy and heavy handed book for the whole spectrum of "awareness". I wish it could just be a plus size romance without being a sermon for every minority group. It's also an "insta-love" story which I had to suspend my disbelief for throughout the whole book. Obviously, I was here for a plus size girl getting the prince, but like, why did he fall for her? It's never made clear.

The Cinderella retelling is beyond brilliant! The author presents a realistic picture of life with the step family that I love-love-loved as well as Cindy's journey to process her grief. The Cinderella names that were sprinkled in were very clever, and obviously, the shoe-addict plot is fun!

I pictured Beck as British Bake Off's beloved Sue Perkins.

Thank you NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion for a copy for me to review!

Cindy has just graduated from Parsons School of Design with the dream of being a shoe designer, but after a disasterous last year of school, finally dealing with the death of her father, she is left with no job prospects and has to return home to LA. On her flight, she sits next to "Prince Charming" and immediatley has a connection with him. Upon her return to LA, she moves in with her step mom, two step sisters, and triplet half siblings. Cindy quickly gets cast on her step-mom's reality dating TV show and her plane "Prince Charming" is the show's bachelor. The spark between the two continues to burn, but will he pick her? Read this fun, romance novel to find out!