A delightfully fun read! It was fabulous for 90% of the book and then the classic southern male insecurities made you question whether Angus really was all that great. Luckily, as all HEAs do, I ended up smiling at the end and happy with how the story ended up. I will note that although the book is presented as a story with a curvy heroine, it is not really the main point of the book and that was a pleasant surprise as well.

Overall, I’d say it’s a solid 3.5 stars. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I really tried with this one, but I just can't be bothered with romcoms that feature fat characters shoving the narrative down my throat that we all must have massive internalized fatphobia dictating our lives. Our MC references that she's angry she let her experiences in high school define her whole life, and I like that we're seeing her change it, but like ... I'm so tired, y'all, I'm so tired.

Also, I found the chemistry between the main couple quite boring. The LI wasn't unique, and even though I can't remember his name at the time of this review (because I've already moved on to several books I'm enjoying a lot more), I distinctly remember disliking it.

Overall -- boring.

Finally, curvy girl representation in a romance is done right! Curves for Days is a charming small-town romance I couldn't put down.

Rose is in the mood for change. She has always wanted to create a place that she can call home. Unexpectedly, she finds that in a small town. As soon as she meets a few locals, she realizes this is where she wants to put down roots. While she does meet some awesome locals, there is one grumpy man who makes it a bit difficult.

Angus is a contractor in town whose grumpy attitude is well known. That doesn't mean that he doesn't like the people or helping but it just takes him a looooong time to earn his trust. When Rose hires him as her contractor for her new house, he feels mixed emotions. Yes, he can earn good money but also has to get used to her sunshine attitude.

It's so fun to see a friendship develop at a realistic pace. You can see the progression from friendship to lust and then lust to love. It's a beautiful journey of self-worth and accepting love. And for my steamy reader fans, you will definitely enjoy it!

I have to thank the author for writing a curvy heroine who is relatable. As a curvy girl, I appreciate it so much because she didn't diminish the character's confidence and body positivity. Like I previously said, Rose is so relatable and feels like a bestie we all could use in our lives.

Angus is a dream, I liked him a lot. I liked their banter and the way the author had them mirror each others desire as they were figuring it out, I didn’t love that the book advertised this being about her size and really ended up being about her trauma, it was a twist on the trope that I didn’t love. Otherwise handyman to lover was pretty fun. The third act breakup was satisfying, although I could have e used more groveling when they made up.

One phrase kept repeating itself in my mind as I read this book: “Breathe of fresh air.” Because that’s what this book is- a breath of fresh air. We’ve seen books with plus size women as the lead, and it seems like so much emphasis is put on the weight of this supposed plus sized person. The male protagonist is always applauded for loving the leading lady in spite of her size-as if it is a flaw he has to look past. “Curves for Days” isn’t like that. Rose (our FMC)‘s weight is not a separate character in this book. It is not given a story line, an emphasis. It is described as a means to illustrate this beautiful character in the minds of the reader, just as the body of a slender character would be described.

This is the story of a wildly independent woman who is given a chance to start over and build her future from the ground up. She wins the lottery and in an effort to escape the attention that a public lottery win brings, she moves to a small town states away from her former home. She meets a whole new group of people who SEE her for who she is, and she flourishes. She buys herself a modest but comfortable home, and hires a contractor to renovate it for her. This giant of a man comes with his own host of baggage: a failed marriage, military PTSD, and a scoreboard mindset that makes him obsessed with feeling like he’s putting back more good into the world than he takes from it. He’s quiet, closed off, grumpy, but our leading lady, Rose, presents him with his own second chance at life and love. The home renovation mirrors their friends to lovers progression in the most natural and beautiful way. The conflicts are very relatable and realistic.

This book contains tropes that we know and love, such as grumpy x sunshine, slow burn romance, small town, friends to lovers, and a bit of enemies to lovers (although enemies is a very loose term in this case). This a book about healing past traumas, loving oneself, and making the world a better place. Tough topics such as rape, military related PTSD, suicide, and death are discussed, but only in dialogue by characters discussing past experiences.

This book is full of well rounded, thoughtful characters who are flawed and human and immensely relatable. The author incorporates a plus size leading lady in a way that is true to life without making the characters size her whole personality. Rose is a very complex and beautiful character, and as a reader, I appreciated her story and the authors respect for her. Angus, our MMC, is a thoughtful and intelligent character who navigates his flaws without lashing out at the FMC, which is also refreshing. This book was such a fun read- I laughed, gasped, fanned my face at some very blush worthy spice, and grew to love these characters. I was very invested in the story and could not put it down. I appreciated the natural progression of the story and the relationship between Rose and Angus. I definitely recommend this to any readers who love romance, and true to life stories about people who overcome trauma and strive to to return goodness to the world.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved reading about Rosie growing as a person and finding what she wants to do in life while falling for the grumpy Agnus. This book was so entertaining at times and felt myself captivated by the story. This story also opened the possibility of a series for another character’s story. I will be following this author for more books. Overall, would highly recommend.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for letting me review this ARC.

A lot of assumptions were made in the first few chapters. Due to how she dressed she looked too poor for a bed and breakfast and too big to be able to continuously use the stairs. It’s not a insta love because Angus the Main male character clearly does not like her and for good reason she lobbed a sneakers bar at his head which had me laughing…out loud. The banter between them was hot and funny.

The only downside was his reaction towards finding out about the money. It felt like a miscommunication trope and though you could see that his reaction came from his own insecurities, if he had talked about it instead of going deep in his head they wouldn’t have separated for a while.

This book has cemented that I would read anything by Laura Moher

This book is such a cute enemies to lovers, cozy romance. It is so easy to read and such a cute small town story. And Rose definitely represents us curvy women! Love the representation. I love the way her and Angus fall for each other; and once they fall; fall hard. The only thing I would amp in this book is the spice level; but it definitely fulfilled all my expectations

I enjoyed reading this book. It had a good story to it. I liked the variety of characters in it. It was a well written book. I have never read a book by this author before. I look forward to reading more books by this author.

Second chances come in all shapes and sizes.

Curves for Days is an unexpectedly sweet romance between Rose and Angus, two people trying to overcome their pasts. Overweight and always bullied Rose was running from a dark secret, and larger-than-life Angus struggled to heal his wounds - both physical and mental- from his tour of duty. Neither thought love was something they'd find...until they did.

This book made feel so many things at once. It made me laugh, cry and honestly sometimes I wanted to punch Angus and Rosie for how stubborn they were.
It was an absolute delight, the banter, the chemistry, the town, all of it made it very special. I fell in love with all the characters and reading such important topics in the book was an amazing bonus. How a veteran deals with his issues and how he can help other veterans. Body image and depression. All of it together was beautiful.
The perfect balance between drama and a cute small town romance.

I don't know what to say about this book, I couldn't stop... It took me ONE DAY to finish it, I LOVED IT.
Angus... well he's hot and grumpy and I like it, but Rose was the best of the book for me, Rose is funny, kind, a smart-ass... I mean.. she's great!

💭 My Thoughts: I LOOOVED this book so much. It’s in my top five for the year, with Rose and Angus being my top couple so far. I loved Rose’s character. I related to her so much. I loved her sarcasm, and responses to things that came up. Angus was amazing as well. Phenomenal book.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5
🌶️🌶️🌶️ / 5

I liked the cover, blurb and the idea of having a plus size heroine and all that. But it didn't work for me and I didn't finish (seems like an unpopular opinion), so it's not really a review. Just sharing my thoughts. Not posting anywhere else.

Why it didn't work for me: first of all, I must mention that I am an impatient reader. Plus, I didn't connect with the tone of the writing (like the author is trying too hard to prove something). And the beginning is vague.

I mean what's her (the female protagonist) real problem? She's hiding from people, and then runs away quietly in the middle of the night; and then she changes her name, makes a to-do list and then go to a new town. All because someone called Mr Brown died and gave all of his money to her (this is how the story starts, so it's not really a spoiler). On the very day, she (Alice turned Rose) loves that new place but I didn't see why? Then fast forward 10 days, she starts working as a waitress.

Who's Rose (the female protagonist); what she did before moving to this new town; who was Mr Brown and how he died, why he gave his money to her and all that. Keeping so many things unanswered for several chapters didn't help. It felt difficult to connect with the characters and situations.

And then there's this hero: he hasn't even met the girl properly and tells (not just thinks) other people that she's a mess (while that person suggests maybe Rose likes him).

Thank you for the ARC.

Blurb:
Rose feels invisible, but when she wins the lottery, all that changes, and she needs to escape to a small town in North Carolina. She buys a house and vows to start over with no one knowing about her newly found riches. Angus begins to work on her home and finds himself distracted by this feisty female he works for. Known for being gruff and stubborn, Angus falls for Rose’s charms and begins to see the world in a different light.
My Thoughts:
As a Southerner, you know I love a good small-town Southern romance! This book is unique in so many ways. I loved the body-positive representation and the respect Laura Moher gives to mental health concerns like PTSD. As someone who works in the mental health field, I loved having an MMC that was a therapist. This book is a fun read that really makes your heart melt. I love the dynamic between the two characters, and the romance feels so real. I would read this over again; I just wish some trigger warnings in the book were handled differently.

I could not put this book down from the moment that I started reading it. Rose and Angus are both such great characters, and the writing style really worked well for me.

I love reading books with plus size representation. However, I feel like overall the story would have been very similar if Rose’s size and body wasn’t part of the storyline. And considering it’s even in the title, I think maybe I expected it to be more… involved? Less like an afterthought.

It felt like there were some loose ends at the end, especially with July. I am assuming maybe there will be a companion novel to come involving her, which I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up. This book had a lot of side characters, and I really loved them all. I would love to return back to this world and read more by the author, stories set in this same town.

I know that ‘third act breakup’ scenes are to be expected in romance novels, but this personally wasn’t my favourite. However, while reading the story I did expect that that’s what was going to happen, and it did fit with the story. Overall I did really enjoy reading this, like I said, I didn’t want to put it down. It was a quick and enjoyable read, that I would recommend.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca & NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy of this book! I voluntarily read this book, and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

An entertaining, if not challenging read at times. Loved the message of body positivity and the way Angus saw only positives in Rose's body. Also appreciated the psychological struggles both had stemming from their pasts that made them see themselves in each other.

Angus was a great book boyfriend!

I LOVE THIS BOOK, period. The cover caught my eye right away.

I'm here for plus size MC's, and I'm HERE for Rose. I find the premise to be absolutely charming and funny, as well as the characters. I love a small town romance like this one. Rose was my favorite character by far. She is so well-rounded, and I liked her backstory a lot.

"Curves for Days" was ridiculously lovely: a delicious, light-hearted (but also emotional) treat of a book, and it left me with a huge grin and a swooning heart.

Traditional M/F romances hardly ever work(ed) for me because the heroines always made me feel self-conscious: too thin, too perfect, too straight. But god, this wasn't the case!
Laura Moher has managed to create an extremely lovable and extremely reletable female protagonist: I loved Rose to absolute bits, and I have to applaud the author for the rep.
I'm so glad there's seems to be a shift in traditional publishing towards depicting different bodies (and different identities).

Anyway, Rose's story was absolutely wonderful. She is such a complex and multilayered protagonist: brave and snarky, but also anxious, afraid and imperfect. Seeing her blossom in a new town, a new home and a new life, after the bad hand she's been dealt, was absolutely wonderful; I spent half of the book cheering her on, and the other half being fiercely protective of her and ready to do battle in her hame.
And Angus? Gah, that big grump of a man. He was absolutely wonderful, and like his co-protagonist, he is also flawed and complicated. I loved how kind and respectful he was, how mindful of Rose's boundaries, and even though I did spend the last few chapters quite ready to body tackle him to the ground for being obtuse, he made me swoon. A lot.
Both of them did! Their relationship was the sweetest thing ever: deliciously slow-burn, with a side of enemies-to-lovers and sunshine/grumpy, plus a whole lot of steamy.

And the setting was such a great plus: small-town romances are one of my favourite genres, and I adored every single one of the people Rose manages to befriend.

The writing was a bit jarring initially: the author has a peculiar writing style, very flowy and introspective, but after a bit I got used to it and I literally inhaled page after page of this lovely romance.
It kept me hooked from the very first page and I adored following Rose on her journey towards happiness.

I totally recommend this story!



TWs/CWs: fatphobia, death, sexual assault, bullying, PTSD, suicide (mentioned).

Rose is down on her luck when she unexpectedly comes into an insanely large sum of money. After dealing with some assholes, she leaves her hometown for a fresh start. There she meets grumpy Angus, the contractor working on her house. Both are dealing with past trauma and hiding their attraction to each other. The burn was slow, but since it’s dual POV we got to see both Rose and Angus struggle with keeping things platonic. I enjoyed the tension and the secret information we got.

Rose kept her money a secret and I completely understand why. What I didn’t care for was how Angus (a therapist!) handled this news. You would think he’d be a better communicator. I wish there was more groveling and communication before the big reconciliation.

Overall I enjoyed this and would read more from this author.