SET ON YOU – Amy Lea
Berkley
ISBN: 978-0593336571
May 10, 2022
Romantic Comedy

Boston – Present Day

Curvy fitness influencer Crystal Chen is popular on Instagram with her workout videos and advice. She frequents a fitness club where there is a particular piece of workout equipment that she uses at her regular time where she mediates and keeps her mind positive. One day Crystal arrives to discover her favorite squat rack is occupied by a man who refuses to give it up. A faceoff ensues, but he refuses to give in. The next time Crystal is in the fitness club, the man is back, again using her favorite equipment. Her phone comes up missing and she confronts the man, but he denies having her phone. It turns out to be embarrassing when her phone is inevitably found. But Crystal is even more embarrassed when she goes to her grandmother’s engagement party and meets the groom-to-be’s grandson—the man from the gym.

Firefighter Scott Ritchie recently joined the fitness club and is enjoying ticking off the woman who has laid “claim” to a spot in the gym at the squat rack. She intrigues him but gives off a do-not-touch vibe that he loves to irritate. To Scott’s shock, he soon learns that Crystal is his grandfather’s fiancée’s granddaughter. They are going to have to learn to co-exist for the sake of family harmony. But the connection gives Scott a chance to get to know Crystal, and she’s definitely a woman he wants to know better.

Things start off hot and angry between Crystal and Scott in SET ON YOU, but they’re soon heating each other up. Crystal’s social media influencer business has done well for her. She has a large following on Instagram and women come to her seeking advice on how to work out. She recently broke up with her boyfriend after he cheated on her, so when she arrived at the gym in a bad mood to find a newcomer occupying her spot, it’s no wonder she felt frustrated. Scott, of course, wasn’t going to be intimidated by Crystal. They are literally going toe-to-toe as they battle it out. It helps amps up the sexual tension between them, which turns into a five-alarm fire when they finally meet at the engagement party for their respective grandparents. Crystal is interested in seeing how things go with Scott, but she wants to take it slow after her recent breakup.

SET ON YOU is a cute and funny tale that will have readers chuckling. You know that when they finally meet outside the gym, it will be a total “oops” moment—and it is. Crystal isn’t sure if she can trust Scott. But a fireman should be trustworthy, right? He also loves his family, which is a positive trait in her book. Of course, they keep running into each other at the gym, but now that they know each other outside the gym, they start to hang out together. Their romance slowly builds throughout SET ON YOU, and when they finally realize that they want to date each other, it is still not pounced upon. Alas, love can’t always be forced to keep to a schedule. Will they finally admit that they can’t live without each other?

Things are not easy for Crystal and Scott in SET ON YOU, what with their different careers and people wondering what a fit and trim man can see in a curvy fitness purveyor. Can they make it work? Find out the answer in the intriguingly funny SET ON YOU.

Patti Fischer

Curvy girls unite because this one is for us! Well, and anyone else too.

@amyleabooks is a fellow ownvoices bookstagrammer turned author, while remaining a bookstagrammer! How cool!!!

Also, her debut book (this one!) is so binge worthy. It's almost like she does this for a living. And yet, she does not. She works in Canadian government.

All of this to say that you need this book in your life. Support authors, bookstagrammers, curvy girls, and just steamy romance in general.

Also, you get an awkward firefighter who is 🔥🔥🔥🔥!!!

I received a gifted galley of SET ON YOU by Amy Lea for an honest review. Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review!

SET ON YOU follows Crystal, a fitness influencer who embraces her curvy body. She’s on a mission of prompting body positivity and living a healthy and fit life style even if she doesn’t have what some might call an ideal body weight. She shares videos and work out tips and she works as a personal trainer and has made a success out of her influencer life.

When she meets Scott, a new face in the gym, he instantly rubs her the wrong way. How dare he take her spot with the weights? How dare he not follow all the gym rules to the letter? He’s attractive, but she does not like him at all!

This was an overall fun read with some serious content as well. It tackles a lot of issues of body issues, both good and bad, and the interaction of mental and physical health. I really enjoyed the way the author incorporated Crystal’s Instagram posts and the comments from some of her followers. You’ve of course got everyday women who are following along on their own fitness journeys, but also a lot of hurtful trolls who feel they have the right to make comments about Crystal’s weight and shape.

This might not be a book for you if weight issues and internet trolls are triggers, but I generally thought that the content was handled well. There is a big focus on Scott’s physique, because of course he is a fireman with a six pack worthy of a spot in a calendar. This of course lead to more questions of self-worth for Crystal.

I found this a quick, easy read and one that I enjoyed.

Set on You is the debut romance by Amy Lea, and my absolute favorite trope enemies to lovers. It takes some heavy lifting to break through the underlying attraction and tension for these two love interests to run into each others arms.

This story has witty humor, an uplifting messages and a dog named Albus Doodledore (Fans will understand the name). The romance leads are vulnerable, authentic and refreshingly fun as they workout what it means to finally say I Love You to yourself and the person standing in front of you.

This novel is sure to get your blood pumping.

Side note, I am all here for books about body positivity, but "why" is the guy have to be so incredibly HOT all the time. His six-pack was mentioned way to many times in the book. I'm sure we'd all welcome real people, real bodies really falling in love.

i really loved these characters! crystal and scott were so charming, and i really loved the subplot of their grandparents getting married. their families are very cute.

the other subplot, of crystal's body positivity journey and her account, was also great and well-done.

unfortunately, i didn't find the romance as compelling as these other aspects, but overall i still enjoyed this book!

Crystal Chen is a successful influencer, amassing many followers as CurvyFitnessCrystal on her fitstagram. Through social media, Crystal is able to share her expertise and help promote body positivity in the process. See, Crystal is not your typical size two trainer. She’s plus size and proud, and it’s part of the reason she’s had such success.

One day while working out, she’s taken aback by the rudeness of a fellow gym goer. Not knowing his name, she begins to not so fondly refer to him as “squat rack thief”. It doesn’t matter how many muscles SRT has, (and if the multiple mentions are any indication, he has many), he clearly lacks manners. Crystal doesn’t know why, but this guy causes her to break a sweat, no workout required. Sure he’s good looking, but he’s cocky and childish and not worth raising her BPM over. But when these two begin to workout🏋️‍♀️ 💪 together, as well as overlap in life outside the gym, the real question is are they meant to work out for real?

Set on You is not unlike a workout itself. The warm-up starts out slow, but the weight is packed on pretty quickly. There’s a definite enemies to lovers vibe between Crystal and Scott, but I found the cool down happened rapidly. With so much story in the first half, I was wondering how it would keep the pace. Although Crystal is painted as a self assured plus sized minority, I found it to be remarkable how easy it was to make her question herself and how others perceived her. It became Crystal clear (pun intended) that Crystal had trouble with her weight- the weight of her insecurities, that is.

One more note before I go. I’m all for books that push body positivity and self love, but I’m still a little put off the guy has to be stereotypically hot in order to do so. Give me real people, with real bodies, really falling in love. Besides this small gripe, Set on You is a debut romance sure to get the blood pumping!

I love a diverse read!! It’s so important to see a breadth of characters represented in fiction and in romance. This is a great read/release for May - AAPI month as our heroine is half-Chinese.

Crystal is a curvy, body-positive, fitness instagrammer. Her nemesis/gym-machine-stealer and firefighter. The enemies to lovers doesn’t last too long in this story and while there’s a lot of focus on romance, there’s also a huge focus on Crystal’s feelings about her body, her wellness and managing others perceptions of her, particularly through the social media lens. I loved the addition of the grandparents. For me the second half slowed down a bit, but I overall enjoyed this story representing unique characters and an intriguing and relatable storyline handling heavier topics. Rounding up from 3.5.

Thank you @berkleyromance and @netgalley for the #gifted eARC of SET ON YOU!

SET ON YOU gave me major gym nostalgia, which is weird because I only ever regularly went to the gym in college and that was only because UW’s IMA was the best place to find out where the good parties were going to be that night.

I loved the gym “enemies” between Crystal and Squat Rack Thief. Her amazing grudge-holding abilities reminded me a lot of my sister (I say this with love sister!). Grudge-holding abilities aside, Crystal loves her family and would do anything for her friends and clients. She’s incredibly supportive and wicked smart. I really enjoyed watching her find her match with Scott.

SET ON YOU left me with a full heart and the motivation to move my body for the sake of moving it and because it brings me pleasure. I cannot wait to see what Amy Lea writes next (hopefully books for Tara and Mel!)

SET ON YOU is out 5/10/22.

cw: exercise, body shaming, fatphobia, cancer

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4392834084?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CdJBe5olb1x/

WOWZA!!! There are not enough words in my vocabulary to explain to you how much I loved Set on You! I am speechless – well kinda.
This is a enemies to lovers trope it was pure perfection. Easily one of my favorite romcom books ever. It had the right amount of playful banter and humor that just makes you grin from ear to ear. The two main characters are so fun that it was impossible not to fall in love with them. Crystal was a great leading female character who reminds us about loving ourself, loving our body, and doing whatever it is that makes us feel good in a healthy way. Scott (picture Chris Evans in a firefighter suit) and that is Scott. Hot, right?? That is how Amy Lea made her readers picture him. But most importantly, Scott and Crystal were made for each other. They are my favorite book couple and will always hold a special place in my heart

Another thing I have to rave about is the pop culture references throughout the book. When Lea mentioned Real Housewives and Peter Kavinsky, I knew this book was destined for me and I was all in. The references gave me a sense of realness and one of my favorite elements of the book. Amy Lea has positioned herself as an amazing purposeful debut novelist and I look forward to reading more books by her in the future.

Set on You was a great bingeworthy fun and insightful romcom. I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend.

Set On You is a wonderful debut novel from Amy Lea. It checks all the enemy to lover boxes for me. I love how the snark and sarcasm kept me laughing throughout the book. Throw in positive body image messages and a sweet second chance romance for the grands and you have the perfect book for a cozy weekend on the couch.
The heat between Crystal and Scott is simply perfect and I enjoyed seeing their relationship evolve. Of course, happy endings are never a given and I was crushed when it all came tumbling down. But never fear, this is a romcom and eventually things get back on track.
Overall, there are great themes in this story, trust, communication, body positivity and family. I look forward to reading more from this author.
Thank you to Net Galley and Berkley Publishing Group for an advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Set on You is fun and inspiring romcom that revolves around Crystal, a fitness instructor and Instagram influencer for curvy women who realizes self-love is a constant journey and having swolemate by her side makes that journey easier, happier, and more beautiful.

The story is about acceptance, body respect, self-love, reality of social media, self-confidence, stereotypes, body shaming, friendship, family, and love.

Writing is entertaining, engaging, and fast paced with first person narrative from Crystal’s perspective. The plot is interesting and light-hearted with realistic and relatable characters and important topics that we don’t see often in this genre.

The beginning is amazing. I loved the introduction of Crystal, her career as fitness trainer and Instagram influencer, her family, and how she met Scott, her squat rack thief, who kept stealing her instruments and started banter at the gym that turned her hate to friendship and love when she got to know him more after her grandma’s engagement party.

I like what author said in the notes in the beginning. This isn’t about the character realizing to accept her body and learn self-love as she already knows it, she already working on it by inspiring women like her who is not size zero, advocating healthy life without measuring calories. It’s more about her journey on this self-love path and how fatphobic stereotypic comments on her platform create obstacles making her rethink the base of her body positivity campaign. And this is best part of the book.

Crystal is so relatable. She is independent, confident, headstrong, competitive, compassionate, and inspiring person. It’s really amazing to read how she started her fitness journey, how she became an influnecer and made it her full time career. I could understand her frustration when her family pointed she should get real job and I loved her for sticking to what she loved and she is passionate about. Her vulnerability makes her more realistic.

I wanted to reach out to her when she talked about how she has been body shamed in school, being bullied on social media, how her ex treated her. It’s already hard to stay on this path and stereotypes make it even worse yet she keeps fighting for herself and for women like her and I love her for that. Her doubts and feelings when cyberbullying and hateful comments attacked her confidence is genuine. I loved how she came out of it and realized she cannot fight the world alone, she has to let in people who love her and supports her and keep them in life to make her journey more beautiful.

Scott is interesting. At first, I wasn’t sure what think about him with his childish competitive behavior and that smug confidence, making Crystal worked up but as we know him more, like Crystal, we see him in a different light. He is handsome muscular firefighter with heart of gold. He is caring, lovely, and compassionate guy whose life hasn’t been as easy as his looks. It was surprising to read he was lanky, nerdy guy in school who has been bullied by other kids. His smugness is all part of show and from within he is as vulnerable as Crystal.

I loved him for being protective for Crystal, supporting her with her Instagram platform even though he couldn’t fully understand why she keeps it with all the negative comments or what it’s like to be a person that doesn’t fit in society’s margin, and for speaking up when things became horrible, and making her realize it’s not only her fight when she is in a relationship, it’s their fight.

Secondary characters are amazing, especially Tara- Crystal’s sister and Mel- Crystal’s friend and client. I so wish to have Tara’s story and I hope author make this a series for it. Crystal’s family is fun. Her grandmother marrying Scott’s grandfather makes the story even more lovely.

Best part of the book is theme and layers of the book. I loved Crystal’s Instagram posts. I loved what she said about body positivity in all her posts. It was amazing the way author showed reality of social media, even positive and inspiring things are attacked with negativity and that impacts the person behind the platform.

I loved the way author represented body positivity and how it’s not just about body positivity but about self-acceptance, body respect and self-love, importance of staying focused on the journey of being healthy and strong not just focused on losing weight and measuring calories. It’s okay to feel bad and low sometimes as self-love is not a constant thing but a journey, there always will be ups and downs, and keeping loved ones and supporters close make this journey more lovely and beautiful.

Romance is sexy, hot, and slow burn. Enemies to lovers trope, banter, and many sexy and tender moments make the chemistry sparkling. I like how they took things slow, got to know each other more, making sure Scott’s recent breakup is really over and their feelings for each other isn’t just a heat of passion. Crystal’s platform testing their relationship is another interesting aspect that made it more realistic.

Climax is interesting and little surprising as it was different from how I imagined it. I liked everything that happened in this part. Crystal’s downfall was touching and sad. I loved how her support system helped her back on her feet and the way she found her way back to happiness. I loved the changes she made with her platform. I absolutely love her chat with her father. Ah and the grand gesture! No romcom is complete without it. It was so lovely making the end is perfect, uplifting, and feel good.

Why 4.5 Stars-

It’s perfect but somehow it didn’t wow me.

Overall, Set on You is fun, inspiring, feel good, refreshing, original and realistic romcom with fun moments and serious topics.

I highly recommend this if you like,
Biracial curvy heroine
firefighter hero
realistic and relatable characters
body positivity
theme of accepting and respecting body
Reality of social media
dealing with stereotypes
many sexy and lovely moments
enemies to lovers trope
slow burn romance

This is a cute romantic comedy promoting body positivity. I liked the characters okay, but I found the whole social media influencer career choice really annoying. Why does that have to be a thing? It's also another body positive book that is all from the perspective of the female and shows the love interest in an almost too perfect light. It was a nice binge read romance, but nothing special. Thanks netgalley and publisher for a copy to read and review.

Enemies to lovers is my fav rom-com trope jam and this debut did not disappoint. Scott and Crystal’s story was fun and unique.
Crystal is a curvy girl who is half Asian and half white so she’s dealt with a lot of haters but more so now as she has made a huge social media presence with lots of followers and promoters. Scott is the clichéd hot fireman who crowds her at the gym and steals her spot. You can feel the vibes coming off both of them in waves right from the start.
Just when Crystal thinks she’s managed to get rid of him, she runs into him at a family dinner while at the same time learns that her grandmother is marrying his grandfather. They encourage her to give him a chance, so they start off as friends running errands for the wedding and as time goes on, they find they can’t get enough of each other. The road to togetherness isn’t smooth, but the journey is worthwhile.
Crystal is strong and embracing self love but also tackles the online haters with class. Scott is super supportive and despite being a gym rat, isn’t a total douche. He took a minute to grow on me, but once he did, I was all in.
Can’t wait to see what the author brings out next.
Thanks to Berkley Books and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.

I enjoyed the realistic look at being body positive on instagram while also dealing with haters. My issue with the heroine is that she started off mean and I get secondhand embarrassment/cringe when the meanness is over the top. I didn't recover fully from that so I wasn't that big of a fan of hers. I did enjoy her family and their meet cute and the interesting dynamic in the fam. Plus, I enjoyed the merging of the cultures and how she navigates being half Asian/Irish and looking nothing like her sister. It was still a fun novel of you like enemies to lovers.

Amy Lea's Set on You is a delightful romance about a curvy fitness influencer and the firefighter who can't seem to stay away from her. Crystal is a fitness influencer which is a very "of the moment" kind of job, and she seems to be getting continually interrupted by firefighter Scott. After a couple of run ins at the gym they both show up to a family dinner only to realize their widowed grandparents are marrying each other! Once Crystal gets to know Scott she realizes there's more than what her first impression suggest.
I really liked this one. It was a quick read with likeable characters throughout. It's the perfect summer beach read, or a relaxing afternoon romp. The pacing is great, all the characters seem there for a reason, and Crystal and Scott have such fun chemistry.

Set on You is a bingeable, slight enemies to lovers at the beginning that almost feels like it turns into a friends to lovers as they push off their attraction to build the trust between the two of them.

Firefighter Scott pushes fitness instagrammed Crystal’s buttons at the gym. Her annoyance at him leads to a very steamy connection as they navigate their relationship. As Crystal deals with letting a another man into her life, she also has to contend with cyber-billing as she tries to represent the plus size community and live up to her brand of self-love. As you can expect, this pressure she has out on herself along with the negative comments creates a riff in her new found love.

I’ve really enjoyed reading this book. The only thing I wish it had was a dual POV. I think that would have allowed for a little more depth to Scott’s character.

Recommend for fans of rom-coms with witty banter, a meddling grandma and body positivity message.

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced reading copy! Crystal is a fitness Instagram influencer, who meets Scott, a buff firefighter, at the gym. After some arguments about sharing workout equipment, Crystal and Scott find out there is attraction and family connections. But ultimately old insecurities and Internet trolls threaten to get in the way of their happy ending. This was a cute, romantic comedy that had good pacing. This is Amy Lea’s debut romance, and it moves pretty quickly and does a good job at covering the serious topic and issues with the “body positivity” movement, as well as being cute and enjoyable. Scott is a great cinnamon roll hero, who falls for Crystal quickly and is the sweetest, watching movies with her, bringing her clementines, and having a very adorable dog. This is a quick, easy story that is a perfect May read as we enter into summer. I recommend this book for lovers and fans of romantic comedies, inclusive fitness, and bi-racial identity stories.

This was such a wonderful debut novel from our fellow bookstagrammer Amy Lea! 💕 I've been looking forward to reading Set on You since Amy announced it, and I feel so lucky to have gotten the chance to read this delightful book early.

Set on You has a great enemies to lovers vibe in the beginning, but I liked that the enemies part didn't last too long. This definitely became more of a slow burn romance, as Crystal was hesitant to let Scott in too soon after a bad past relationship on her part, plus the fact that he's recently single. For me, the best part of this book was the amazing friendship that Scott and Crystal developed before things ever got physical. They became best friends so quickly, which formed a great foundation for their eventual relationship.

Y’all, add Set On You by @amyleabooks to your TBR immediately!

When I started my bookstagram, Amy was one of the first people I connected with. She is just the sweetest and I am so darn excited for her and this book. When she announced her debut novel, all of the @unitedbyromcoms ladies knew we need it to be a feature for us! This book Is officially out on May 10th.

Read this if you love:
✨ enemies to lovers
✨ body positivity (if you loved The Fastest Way to Fall, I think you’ll love this one)
✨ a bit of a slow burn romance thanks to them developing a friendship before their relationship turned physical
✨ a swoonworthy hero
✨ text messages throughout the book (who doesn’t love those?!)

Thank you so much to @berkleyromance for sending me an e-ARC for my honest review. And make sure you check out #unitedbyromcomsfeature throughout the day for all of our reviews!

I really liked the message of this book. The main female character, Crystal Chen, is a biracial fitness influencer who doesn't conform to traditional standards of beauty because she's neither white nor thin. She is a big proponent of body positivity and self-love and has amassed a pretty huge following on Instagram as a result. She loves exercise and spends a lot of time (like A LOT OF TIME) at the gym, which is where she meets Scott, the annoying gym nemesis who becomes so much more. I really liked the honesty of Crystal's struggles with self-esteem and body image and could relate to her guilt over feeling that way when she's supposed to be promoting body positivity. The message overall was great, but I didn't feel super connected to either of these characters, and I think it also threw me off that so much of the book is set in a gym or otherwise connected to workouts and exercise. That's just not my personal jam at the moment, so I think it took me out of the story a bit. I would absolutely read more Amy Lea, and I appreciate her unique perspective and her commitment to wider representation in romance.