This was a cute book! It was filled with romance and drama from top to bottom! I loved the friendship dynamic and the relationship dynamic and I also like the fact it spoke about real issues and at times felt like I was reading some much needed advice about “body confidence” and “self love.”

The characters as individuals though - didn’t love them. They were alright and during the plot twist my heart did ache slightly for them but I never felt a genuine connection between them or too them.

I would recommend for a light-hearted fun romance!

Thank you Netgalley, Berkley, and Amy Lea for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Set on You is a Rom-Com following 27-year-old Crystal Chen, a Chinese Canadian Fitstagrammer who is an advocate for body-positivity and embracing who you are—and her gym nemesis, known as the quat rack thief and Chris Evans reincarnate: Scott Ritchie.

The tropes featured in this book are:

• Enemies-to-Lovers
• Sexual tension
• Gym Romance
• Body Positivity
• Plus-size Rep
• Biracial Rep (Chinese Canadian)
• Fun Banter with pop culture references
• Family Drama

Despite being a Rom-Con I appreciate the important topics Any Lea made sure to highlight which includes self-love, racist and fatphobic stereotypes, body image and toxic modern standards of beauty.

I liked Crystal and found her relatable. Despite being an advocate for positivity, she still has her own insecurities to overcome. I always enjoy protagonists dealing with their own insecurities because I like to see how they handle those and overcome them.

My main issue with this book happens to be the romance and it's mostly because I found Scott to be unlikable. He was simply a jerk at the beginning and even if it turn out to be a misguided impression and he was attracted to her all along—that still didn't win me over. I'm usually not a fan of bad first impressions that are eventually justified and turn into something else. There wasn't much depth to his character either that made me care about him enough.

Trigger Warnings: Fatphobia, body-shaming, references to racism, cyber-bullying, mentions of cancer and death of loved ones.

Set on You includes:
-Adult Rom-Com
-Gym nemesis to lovers
-Curvy Biracial Chinese female mc
-Chris Evans inspired character
-TW: fat phobia, cyber bullying, references to racism, fitness/diet culture and cancer

Crystal Chen is a fitness influencer and she butts heads with firefighter Scott Ritchie when he steals her favourite squat rack. One day she loses her phone and she thinks that he stole it, but when she confronts him in the mens changing room, it leads to a hot make out 🥵 They avoid each other for a couple days, but they then run into each other at their grandparents engagement party.

I haven’t read a gym based romance and this was such a fun, quick and fluffy read. I really liked Crystal’s character and I liked her journey throughout the book. I loved her determination and her compulsion to help others around her. Also, Scott was a super sweet character and his pick up lines, terrible, but funny 😂

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you @netgalley and @penguinukbooks for the e-arc and Set On You comes out on the 10th May 2022 in the US and 12th May UK.

This book was amazing. As a mid-size reader, I want more plus size books! Give me plus size MC's, plus size LI's, the lot! I also loved that the MC in this was into fitness, but not as a weight-loss tool. I think this is a book that will resonate with so many readers, in a way both personal and profound. I loved its commentary on the self-love movement, and it's an acknowledgement of self-respect, rather than trying to focus continuously on self-love - which is exhausting. Whilst reading this I was in a slump of really being annoyed at myself and my body and my weight, and this book helped me personally overcome that - which you can't say about a lot of romcoms! The writing itself is wonderful, well structured and un-put-downable. The characters are realistic, and funny, and I loved them all - even the glaring old lady.

A great rom com that is everything I wanted - every trope felt fun and I really enjoyed reading this. Highly recommend if you want a solid read!

This was very cute! I loved both characters and was super invested in their growth! I loved the body positivity in this book and the romance itself was super cute and wholesome! Loses one star because I felt like Crystals anger towards then end was a bit unreasonable and seemed very out of character; it made the final act of the book less impactful for me! Otherwise a lovely and wholesome rom com!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! I have seen this book all over booktok recently and it got me really excited! I loved the curvy girl representation, especially in a romance book, so thank you Amy Lea for that. Overall I enjoyed the premise, the characters were mostly likeable and the book was fun to read at times. But I did struggle to get into it at the beginning and it felt very ‘young’ if that makes any sense. Like I felt like I was reading a book aimed at young adults for sure. The language and the ‘wokeness’ definitely made it harder for me to enjoy.

3.5 ⭐️

I enjoyed this sweet enemies to friends to lovers fitness inspired romcom from Amy Lea.
Lots of the story is detailed around the gym and leading lady Crystal’s job as a curvy fitness influencer on Instagram. I would have liked more scenes away from the gym personally. Scott was a lovely male lead and actually my favourite of the two. I found him really sweet and was rooting for him more than Crystal. We have some nice side characters too that add some depth to the story beyond the gym which was definitely needed.
The book is very focused on body positivity and we have snippets from Crystal’s Instagram feed to read through. Unfortunately I wasn’t that fussed by this aspect of the book and skim read them towards the end. The positivity felt a bit false and grated on me eventually.
I thought in places Crystal was a bit… much? Unlikable? And not all that nice to Scott for a good part of the book. She overreacted a lot too so because of that I didn’t particularly gel with her and the book couldn’t quite be 4 stars. I was satisfied by the ending and was smiling in the epilogue.
I’d definitely be interested in reading more work by this author in the future.

Unfortunately I found this book really boring, preachy and a bit cringey, but I guess that what happens when the protagonist is a fitness influencer. I just couldn't get into it which makes me sad. Will defo try other Amy Lea books but this one wasn't my kind of thing.

This book is about Crystal Chen a curvy fitness influencer. While at the gym firefighter Scott steals her favourite window squat rack and from then on they become gym nemesis. However, the last thing they both expect is to run into each other at their grandparents engagement. Do sparks fly? You'll have to read it to find out 😉

I'm officially in love with this book, I loveeeee a good rom-com, one that makes you laugh out loud, but also has you dorky smiling at all the cute moments. It was the perfect amounts of romance and humour. There was some cringe worthy moments but in the best possible way.

I really loved Crystal, definitely so relatable, which you often don't get from books. I'm sure so many people are going to be able to relate to Crystal and will be able to get something out of this book not just entertainment. I think that's what made me truly love this book even the more. And Scott was just amazing in every single way, need I say anymore about him.

I recommend this book 10000% it was so cheerful and fun, it was just an unbelievable read. You should definitely pick this book up when it comes out.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin UK for approving me for this arc!!

Considering we both spend far, far too much on TikTok neither of us had seen this one before! We must be looking in the wrong place so if you have any bookTok suggestions let us know!

Set on You follows the story of fitness influencer Crystal and her gym enemy Scott. The pair meet at their local gym and angst is immediate between them as Scott seems to go out of his way just to piss her off!

I vaguely remember a similar instance of an influencer being barraged with negative, hurtful comments because she was plus size and her husband had washboard abs, so it’s definitely a relatable story. I felt like I read the beginning and end really quickly and slogged a bit in the middle however that could be due to spending so much of my spare time on tiktok!

I’d definitely recommend this one for fans of Talia Hibbert.

I realllly wanted to like this as everyone has been saying positive things but I’m sorry (and I know they’re not related at all) but when they realised their grandparents were getting married I just felt like it was an ick and I couldn’t stop imagining them both at family events together. (This is just a personal reference)

I was really confused with the writing style and kept having to reread lines. I don’t know if it’s just the mood I was in but this wasn’t for me.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this arc early in exchange of an honest review

Set On You is the ultimate feel good romcom and I absolutely adored Crystal and Scott's romance. Enemies to lovers is a favourite trope of mine and the slow burn in this was to die for! The chemistry between the two of them was also very believable.

It was really refreshing to read about a plus-size protagonist, as I am a curvier girl who is gaining more confidence in the gym and dating. The messages about body respect, body positivity and the influence of social media on mental health are so important and were handled very well.

Overall, this was an easy five star read for me, and I could not put it down!

Thank you to the publisher, author and NetGalley for sending me this arc. I will be posting this review on my Goodreads and Storygraph accounts, and on Waterstones and Amazon upon publication.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/57438368-georgie
Storygraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/gfairs

I got through this one so quickly because I just couldn’t, and wouldn’t, put it down. I fell in love with Crystal and Scott instantly and holy heck did they make my heart happy. The banter? Incredible. The romance? Incredible. The writing? Incredible. The heroine? INCREDIBLE PLUS SIZE REP.

This is a feel good romcom if ever I’ve read one, it’s entertaining, engaging, slow burn rivals to lovers that has you laughing so hard you cry. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all sunshine, there’s emotional moments in this book, but that’s life. Life isn’t all rainbows and sunshine, it’s rainclouds and wind too.

Read this, read this ASAP.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my e-arc. (less)

I enjoyed this book, and it’s definitely different to some of the other books I’ve read recently. I loved the representation and the message about body image! The social media side of things was also very true to real life and the world we live in now.

(I feel like the enemies storyline could have continued for a while longer - it ended up being a bit more like insta love.)

The banter was great! Overall a quick, fun read

This started as a cute enemies to lovers romance following Crystal, a curvy fitness influencer, and Scott, a firefighter. The chemistry between them was definitely there and I enjoyed seeing them act on it but the pacing of their relationship and the story felt off, with it being quite slow from the middle. The third act conflict also wasn't really that good.

That being said, the representation in the book was great and I loved that Crystal was both plus sized and half Chinese as it was great to see this inclusion.

This book started off really really good, It had an enemies to lovers vibe to it which I adored. It did get a little slow towards the end and it felt a little repetitive at times but overall it was a super cute and fun read.

I liked that the plot was a little different and nothing like what I've read before. I absolutely loved the representation in this book and the way the author has used it to empower women. The main character went through something that I think almost all women and girls do and I think that it made me realise that everyone feels insecure and that no matter what you look like, a lot of the time, we always seem to find something to cut ourselves down about. That made me feel okay, knowing that others feel like that too.

Set on You follows fitness influencer Crystal Chen and her encounter with dreamy firefighter Scott Ritchie, who occupies both her professional life by invading her sanctuary at the gym as well as her personal life as their grandparents are set to marry each other. The story follows their growing attraction as Crystal battles her insecurities.

I absolutely loved Crystal, her powerful words through her Instagram posts as well as her determination and courage to commit to her true self. I loved the emphasis on the power of social media, and Lea definitely does not shy way from the the negativity that seems to linger through the form of trolls. Secondly, Scott's patience is admirable, the way he woos Crystal is dreamworthy and his character development is well paced!

I through the pacing at the beginning of the story was slightly jilted, Crystal and Scott seem to almost act on their attraction before Crystal even learns his name. Despite this, their chemistry is hard to deny! I would have loved to have seen a few more scenes that specifically focused on their relationship development as there was a greater emphasis on Crystal's battle with her insecurities. Despite this, the book was a heartwarming read, and the romance was perfect!

I would definitely recommend this book, the romance is great and the characters are strong and well developed. It was hard to not fall in love with both. The story places incredible focus on the power of social media (which is very important in this day and age) and I loved the positive message the story was advocating and i can't wait to read any future stories by Amy!

I found this to be really easy to read and a nice story but for me it isn’t to the standard of contemporary romance that I’m used to. The flow and tempo of the book was sluggish for me half way through and the ‘conflict’ in the third act just wasn’t believable enough for me to make it work. I know this is the authors first book so I will definitely pick up her next week as I can imagine that her writing will grow more with book two. This was a nice read but definitely not a stand out for me.

BOOK REVIEW: Set On You by Amy Lea

2.5 Stars

I am so sad that I didn't love this book as I was really looking forward to it!
Set On You is based around fitness and body positivity instagrammer Crystal. It is meant to be an enemies to friends to lovers trope.

Crystal is a half chinese, half white curvy fitness influencer who posts about her work outs and "inspiring" and motivational thoughts. She is also a personal trainer and works with other influencers. I sadly did not click with her character. I found her to be pretty selfish and self absorbed. She is also really quite annoying and her instagram posts came across as so fake and irritating. I was a fan of the general messages but as someone that has followed real life body positive influencers, I found what she was posting to be rather vague and not actually all that inspiring. She also doesn't treat the lead male very well which made me like her even less.
The lead male is Scott, a firefighter and fellow gym goer. I really liked Scott, although he seemed pretty lacking in background and I wanted more personality from him other than being the "nice guy".
Because I struggled with the characters, I didn't love the romance. It also was quite "insta love" despite them not talking about a whole lot. More communication and intimacy was definitely needed.
I liked some of the side characters and the inclusion of their families which added a bit more depth and background.
The writing was fine, although it all came across as quite fake and not realistic. There was also quite a lot of repetition, especially from Crystal. She kept mentioning "Her girl Lizzo" which got old really quickly.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book as there are so many better "curvy girl" romances out there to read.

Please note that I was #gifted this ebook in exchange for an honest review.