4 Stars: Modern Day retelling of Cinderella with a realistic body representation with a mix of the bachelor in it. This book has some adult language in it, so 18+, which I find refreshing that Disney is growing and allowing other mature voices to be heard. This has all the things you loved from the original cinderella, stepmother, and of course stepchildren; the father dies, has to work with the stepmother (only its the bachelor), and, of course, follows the same type of storyline. Not my favorite retelling of cinderella (Everafter), but it is on the top of modern-day spins.

Thank you to Netgalley and Disney for a copy of this in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you Disney and Netgalley for letting me read.

I had mixed feelings for this book. The last twenty chapters felt a bit rushed and I'm surprised Disney would allow a lot of cursing. And I wasn't a big fan of the kissing scenes, I thought Cindy and Henry were gonna have sex. The TV dating show is a parody of The Bachelor, and I don't watch the show. The show is rigged anywayay and the network picks another girl over Cindy so Henry can propose too. Cindy gets a huge job offer at the end and goes back to New York City., The ending is practicable when Henry shows up.

For those who love Dumplin (Netflix movie and/or the book), Julie Murphy brings you the first in a brand-new adult series inspired by the classic fairy tale stories we all know and love. The perfect novel for adult readers who crave contemporary, escapist rom-coms.

Cindy has just completed her studies at NYC's most prestigious fashion school and has found herself in the last months of her studies experiencing a creative block. Returning home to LA to live with her stepmother, two adult stepsisters and three child step siblings, she soon finds herself volunteering to figure as one of the female suitors to the bachelor of that season’s Before Midnight, a reality show produced by her stepmother.

I love a retelling of classic fairy tales, and was excited to read this take on Cinderella. I was particularly interested in the fact that Cindy is fat (a term she uses herself as a statement of fact, without negative connotations) and can tell you; I was not disappointed. The novel is captivating for so many reasons, but mainly because the female characters love and support each other in all aspects. Even within the reality television world, most of the female relationships are supportive. The contestants manage to forge friendships even as they compete for the bachelor’s attention with one exception, to provide some conflict.

The romance between Prince Charming and Cindy was lovely. Henry, the love interest, is suitably charming, and I enjoyed that the story was exclusively from Cindy’s point of view. This helped to keep Henry’s intentions and thoughts a little mysterious because without this the suspense would have been much diminished. The emphasis on family and friendship, as well as Cindy’s focus on building the life she wants, really charmed me beyond Cindy simply finding a man.

Rating: 4.5 / 5

Cindy has just completed her studies at a prestigious New York City fashion school, but because she didn’t fully process the death of her father which occurred when she was in high school, she found herself in the last months of her studies experiencing a creative block. Returning home to Los Angeles to live with her stepmother, two adult stepsisters, and three child step siblings to whom she will act as nanny for the summer, she soon finds herself volunteering to figure as one of the female suitors to the bachelor of that season’s Before Midnight, a reality show produces by her stepmother.

I love a retelling, so I was really looking forward to reading this take on Cinderella. I was particularly interested in the fact that Cindy is fat (a term she uses herself as a statement of fact, without negative connotations). I can tell you straightaway that I was not disappointed.

I loved this novel. First because of the female characters and the love and support they give each other. Not only does Cindy have a loving, supportive best friend, but her stepmother and stepsisters are also portrayed positively, as is their relationship with Cindy. Even within the reality television world, most of the female relationships are supportive, the contestants manage to forge friendships even as they compete for the bachelor’s attention, with one exception to provide some conflict.

The romance (let’s not forget this is a romance novel after all) was lovely. Henry, the love interest, is suitably charming for his role as Prince Charming. I liked that the story was exclusively from Cindy’s point of view, which helped to keep Henry’s intentions and thoughts a little mysterious, because without this the suspense would have been much diminished. I have to say that while I found the romance lovely and well developed, it is the other aspects of the book that really charmed me: the emphasis on family and friendship, as well as Cindy’s focus on building the life she wants (with a focus on a career in fashion) beyond simply finding a man.

I loved this book, and I am looking forward to more in the Meant to Be series, hoping future books live up to this stellar start.

I just love Julie Murphy’s books. Her protagonists are funny, charming, vulnerable, and oh so real. Cindy does not disappoint. This delightful twist on the classic fairytale is just too perfect. I was pleasantly surprised by the “twist”... you all know there has to be one and I was legitimately dreading what I thought it would be. I was wrong! And it all worked so well for the story. I really loved that “Cinderella” was very close to her step-sisters and step-mother. There is some great LGBTQ representation in the book, including modeling good pronoun use. It’s (naturally) full of body positivity and authentic discussions of size and size discrimination (because, hello? - JULIE MURPHY!). I love this author and this book did not disappoint. There were definite tears - of several varieties - throughout my reading. I want to see this movie! And I don’t even really watch movies. Henry Cavill as Henry? I mean… he already has the right first name and everything. (Is that a coincidence or on purpose, Ms. Murphy?).

This is a delightful rom-com with a fun look into the behind-the-scenes nonsense of reality television. I don’t watch reality TV either but still enjoyed the book very much. It features good representation, addresses very real societal issues in very honest ways, and is just fun to read.

I was excited to read this one as I have loved the story of Cinderella and Disney, in general, since I was a little girl. It’s definitely more than a modern retelling of this classic tale. As usual, Julie has given us a hilarious and wonderful rom-com with a fresh, charming, and wonderful self-empowering story. The characters names will sound familiar, but in such an amusing way. I love the story of a plus-size female finding her own success as a fashion designer. Ultimately, we we enough of the original Cinderella story to be amused, but not so much that you’re not excited to read the next pages. I highly recommend checking this one out when it’s published in August.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

Pros:
-body positive plus-sized heroine
-Julie Murphy gets representation matters!
-an adorable and very feminist ending

Cons:
-where is my smut?!?! Nothing beyond kissing and body pressing, it's implied sex happens though
-Some awkward descriptions of events in a couple of chapters that I assume will be fixed in the final copy

If Julie Murphy had not written this I would not have read it, but Murphy is a queen and I will literally read anything she writes. I have never watched an episode of The Bachelor and dislike shoes and fashion in general, but Murphy uses this book to call out what is wrong with reality shows and the fashion industry. As always, Murphy is a fantastic writer of likable and realistic characters you want to root for, and Cindy is definitely someone you want to come out on top in the end.

Confession. I read rom-coms for the two-and-a-half scenes of smut. Knowing this was published from Disney, I knew I wasn't going to get any super sexy scenes, but I think it would have made a better book if it was R-rated instead of PG-13. I get that some people aren't into the whole sex in books thing, so this book is for them.

Overall, super cute Cinderella retelling that can be read in a day.

Wow I simply could not put this book down! I absolutely love fairy tales and the bachelor and this book is a combination of all. Cindy is a strong protagonist who has just graduated from fashion school. On her flight home she met a boy Henry and I just love how he treated her. I was rooting for her the entire story and love all of the wonderful positive messages about body positivity and more!! I can’t wait to buy this book and share it with everyone. I just learned this will be a series and I can’t wait for more. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars and feel like I can’t wait to read it again. Thank you netgalley and publisher for the advanced read.

Julie Murphy provides the reader with well written characters and a charming story. The main character is an EXCELLENT example of positive body image. She manages to write a character that not only says she has a positive body image, but actually acts like it and makes no excuses or comparisons. to peers. I loved the main character, Cindy. She exudes confidence. While the title and some elements may give readers Cinderella feelings, this is not a retelling of Cinderella. It is refreshing, fun and perfect for Rom-Com fans.

I loved this book!! Cindy is a lovely plus size woman whose stepmother is the producer of the fiction equivalent of the Bachelor. Her stepmother convinces Cindy to become a potential mate for the suitor on the show. She agrees to compete for the prize money to jump start her career. Cindy is a recent graduate of Parsons School of Design specializing in shoes with no career opportunities. Cindy assumes she will be off the show rather quickly. What she didn’t anticipate was that the bachelor would be a gentleman that she met on her flight from NY to LA after graduation! She stays on the show for the whole time enduring the cattiness of the other contestants, who include her two stepsisters.Cindy and Henry, the suitor, develop quite the rapport that began on the plane.
I highly recommend this book, especially if you like books about plus size women. Finally fiction is starting to catch up with society, like fashion, as far as plus size women are concerned. Even if you’re not interested in plus size women, the dynamics of the dating show and a blended family you’ll find this book enjoyable.

I have a weak spot for fairytale retellings, particularly Cinderella. I liked Cindy a lot. She was comfortable with her body, while still aware that some people would look down on her for her weight. I loved her passion for shoes, her fearlessness, and how creative she was with making shoes and embellishing them.

When the book begins, she had just graduated from a fashion design program in New York City and needs a job. Like the fairytale, Cindy has a stepmother and step-sisters, but unlike the fairytale, they are on good terms with each other, particularly she and her step-sisters. She agrees to spend the summer babysitting her much younger half-siblings while waiting to see if she gets any of the fashion jobs she applied for.

Erica, her stepmother, is producing a popular reality TV show called Before Midnight, where one man has short dates with the female contestants. After each date or so, a contestant is eliminated. Apparently, he is supposed to propose to and marry the last woman left in the contest, which I thought was unrealistic. As a reader, I would have preferred it if they had won a trip together to an exotic location.

Erica is short on contestants, so she asks Cindy and her daughters to fill in. Cindy had sat next to a man that she really liked on her flight home from New York. Imagine her surprise when he turns out to be the Prince in the TV show.

There was criticism about Cindy's weight, both from the audience and the contestants, which was expected but still made me wince. There was also a point to me where Cindy seemed to take the show too seriously which seemed out of character.

This was an entertaining book that was quite suspenseful at some points, although for me the romance seemed rushed.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher Disney Publishing Worldwide via NetGalley. These are my own opinions of the book.

I am a sucker for a cute cover, and this book roped me right in. Then I found out it was written by Julie Murphy, and I became doubly excited! I have been a fan of Julie Murphy's <i>Dumplin'</i> series for a while now, and I jumped on the chance to read her newest: <i>If the Shoe Fits (Meant to Be)</i> is a modern-day Cinderella retelling about a Bachelor reality show with a plus-size lead trying to find her way in the competitive shoe designers world.

Just like Murphy's other books, <i>If the Shoe Fits</i> is incredibly addicting. I fell in love with Cindy, Henry, and their tangled mess of getting to know each other while navigating a reality dating show. The whole reality dating premise reminded me of <i>One to Watch </i> but I still really enjoyed every bit of this charming book.

Keep all the body positivity books comin'!

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for the ARC

Are you a fan of the bachelor or any other trashy romantic reality TV show? Do you love a good Cinderella retelling? How about queer representation? A plus sized main character? Well then I’ve found your end of summer read!

Cindy is a prospective fashion designer fresh out of school. She moves back home from New York to nanny for her tv producer step mother for the summer as her step mom works on her new reality tv series. When part of the competition drops out of the show, Cindy is thrown in to the world of reality tv. She hopes to win some money to continue working on her fashion brand but,at end up with a little more than anticipated.

This book was such a cute read! I loved Cindy as a character and thought she was witty, fun, and real. I also really loved how the step sisters in this retelling are actually great side characters and not horrible people. The love interest, Henry, is likeable and sweet. I do think some of the characters lacked depth, but it’s fun and a great beach read for this August!

What could be better than Julie Murphy and a Cinderella retelling? Well, pretty much nothing.

If the Shoe Fits is an incredibly sweet, heart-warming and emotional modern take on a classic tale. I adored it for its representation, its ability to make me smile and fall in love with a shoe-loving Cinderella and her Prince Charming.

There are many things I love about this book. The first is that Cindy is a plus-sized main character. If you know me, I constantly want more books featuring plus-sized people as main characters, especially in romance novels. When I found out Julie Murphy was writing a Cinderella-retelling romance novel, I knew I could count on her to do it and do it well. While yes, Cindy is fat, it is not what the entire book is focused on. She doesn’t need to learn to love herself or is trying to lose weight, she is just that – a person who is looking to find her direction in life. It’s not the main focus of the book and I find that so refreshing.

Cindy just graduated from fashion design school and has a passion for shoes – designing, wearing, everything about them. She’s come back home to live with her stepmother, stepsisters and three half siblings. Another aspect of this story I loved is the relationship Cindy has with both her stepmother and her stepsisters. In most cases these types of relationships with the main character are horrible, but in If the Shoe Fits these have a surprisingly good relationship with one another. While yes, Cindy and her stepmom Erica are not the closest, it’s nice to see them actually get along with one another and have a good relationship. Her stepsisters were very supporting of everything they do

The plot of this book focuses on Cindy as she takes part in a Bachelor-style show called Before Midnight. She’s there not to find love but to find opportunities to help jumpstart her fashion career after the show. I’m a fan of the Bachelor shows and loved the behind-the-scenes perspective this gives us. I adore the Prince Charming, how he and Cindy meet and the little snippets we get of them together as the show progresses.

As someone who adores romance books, I do wish we got more Cindy and Prince Charming together. I understand the nature of the show, they don’t get a whole lot of time together and these two get more than normal, but I did miss all the buildup of a relationship between the two. Personally, I like more angst as a relationship is created and forged, which is why this book didn’t get a full 5 stars because this doesn’t have that major push and pull that I love. It’s sweet, but I miss that angst (I believe angst fuels my life blood, so it’s a “me” thing).

Overall I really enjoyed this! I love Julie Murphy both as a person and as an author and can’t wait for this book to come out. It releases Aug. 3, 2021 and I highly recommend picking it up. This is the first book in a new series of adult rom-coms inspired by classic fairy tale stories and I can't wait for more.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CPKGnsHL6dK/

First, I’m a huge fan of fairytale retellings and I have an extra soft spot for Cinderella. The way @andimjulie retold this age old story was exquisite. The dynamic between the stepfamily and Cindy (love it) was so perfectly captured - there was still immense love there BUT the idea that there was a certain wall between herself and her step-mom and sisters was executed phenomenally. I must say - this is the first book by Julie that I’ve read (I know, I know 🥟) so it probably comes as no surprise to those who have read her other books that the way she approached Cindy’s weight is so so so important and so well discussed. It’s done in such a natural way, as well, because every single conversation about in the book is grounded in reality (unfortunately, in a lot of cases 🙄) Overall, I’m so darn happy with this book and I’d recommend it to everyone at my library!!! Also - if you love any type of reality tv dating show or fashion - ITS A NO BRAINER. 🧠

great romance and retelling of cinder Ella. I loved the backdrop of the bachelor and finding one's love. I loved that they initially met up on the way there. I loved the sisters and that they were looking out for each other. I also loved that she loved shoes.

Julie Murphy has done it again!! Meant to Be: If the Shoe Fits is a fun, lighthearted YA contemporary romance retelling of Cinderella. Think The Bachelor meets the classic Cinderella tale we all grew up with. This is a Cinderella retelling I didn't know I needed, yet it left me needing more fairy tales mixed into the reality tv world. So fun! The story is fast-paced and the romance is completely swoon-worthy. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys fairytale retellings. This is one not to be missed!

Thank you to NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion for sending me an ARC of this book for an honest review!

This book is exactly the light and quick read that I needed in these crazy pandemic times. A modern (and very loosely based re-telling) of the classic Cinderella story that I grew up watching mixed with a “Bachelor”-esque backdrop (which, being honest, I love to “hate-watch”) made this book a very quick and easy binge-read. I appreciated that this book made a conscious effort to be inclusive both by including a plus-sized (read: normal) main character and other diverse and inclusive supporting characters. More books like this need to be supported and published! (I’m also waiting for the day that reality tv is even a little bit as inclusive as portrayed in the book...sigh).

My only critique would be that I felt that the love story may have gotten in the way of character development (*gasp* it’s a romance novel and she doesn’t want the love story front and centre! *gasp*) Hear me out: I feel like the romance may have developed too quickly to be realistic and I would have appreciated if the main character was a bit more fleshed out. That being said, I wasn’t really reading it for anything other than entertainment, on which this book delivered!

Thank you to NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion for the digital advanced reader's copy of this first title in the new Meant to Be series, "inspired by the classic fairy tale stories we all know and love, perfect for adult readers who crave contemporary rom-coms."

This is the lightest of light frothy reads, perfect for escaping real life.

It also combines two of my favorite things: Disney fairy tales and reality TV. How could I not pick this up?

Quick summary: Through various ways and means, Cindy, a recent fashion school graduate with a passion for shoes, ends up on the Bachelor-like reality show, Before Midnight. Will she find love or at least gain an Instagram following for her shoes and style? (This is based on a Disney fairy tale, sooooo . . . how do those usually end?)

I enjoyed all of the cute references to Disney's Cinderella. Some are obvious, and some are more subtle, but these Easter eggs added to the fun.

The romance is also cute. Perhaps too quick for my personal cynicism, but I was willing to roll with it. I was definitely cheering for Cindy.

Most of the dialogue is snappy, and even the secondary characters were likeable (except for the usual reality show villian. Of course, there's one on every show.).

If you need a happy break, pick it up and indulge your wish-fulfillment fantasies.

*some adult situations, but PG-13 at most

This was such a cute and fun read, like all Julie Murphy's books have been. I adored the Cinderella meets The Bachelor type story, the body positivity, and the main character, Cindy, was very lovable and relatable. I also enjoyed Cindy's relationship with her step-mother and step-sisters and that in this version they weren't evil and hateful. 4/5 stars. Would definitely recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read!