I loved this book! 4.75 stars rounded up.

The plus size book loving heroine, the San Antonio vibes, MCs having actual emotional growth and sizzling physical chemistry made Next Best Fling a read I couldn’t wait to come back to multiple times day until I finished it.

At times I worried about our main character, Marcela, and her self sabotaging habits built from a cycle of family trauma, but major kudos to the author for actually having our girl do some much needed self reflection and have a honest to goodness character arc! We love to see it!

I don’t know what tropes I would use to describe this book, and I love that fact! It’s a refreshing read, shaking up the sometimes over-relied on romance tropes. Will “getting over someone by getting UNDER his brother” be romance’s next big thing? Because this was HAWT.

I loved the themes of friendship, how family can hurt you, self acceptance and self kindness, and leaving toxicity behind are woven throughout the book. And praise the romance gods for giving us a plus size MC who doesn’t hate her body!!! As a plus size reviewer, I connected with some of Marcela’s very real thoughts and insecurities about previous dates and interactions, but she ultimately never let them become intrusive or stop her from loving herself. Seriously, the bar shouldn’t be so low but I adored how the author allowed Marcela to convey some realities of plus size life without ever leaning on fatphobia to show us.

All in all, I loved this one and will absolutely be recommending to all Texan and Plus size romance readers.

Thank you to Forever and the Discover Forever program for the arc.

Ate this book up in under 24 hours. Normally I don’t like if the MMC mentions another girl if it isn’t the FMC BUT THIS AUTHOR CHANGED MY MIND REAL QUICK. The chemistry between the characters AND THE GRAND GESTURES??? MY book lover heart was screaming. I love this book sm.

Thank you Forever and Hachette for the ARC!

I loved this book. I got home from work and only stopped reading (begr dgingly) to eat dinner. The writing was witty, engaging and conversational. Marcela was a loveable disaster with a good heart who had me rooting for her the entire time.

I loved the way that Marcela and Theo bring out the best in each other and grew together and individually. Theo was a DREAM. His words made me melt, but his actions made my heart stutter even more. Marcela's fears were all understandable and it was glorious watching her grow to understand herself, but to want to have more for herself too.

I don't think I could say anything bad about this book if I tried. Love. Love. Love.

3.75 stars rounded up. I almost DNFd during chapter one and I am very glad that I kept going. While this book was not perfect and I had to majorly suspend belief at times, there is a lot about it that I really loved and I look forward to the author’s next book.

The main character is fat, she’s obsessed with books, and she doesn’t trust her feelings or the hunky hunky love interest’s feelings. So like, is this effing play about me?!

It’s set in San Antonio and all the Texas things made me very happy, especially the H-E-B tortillas shout out.

Also it was very hot. My jaw was hanging open multiple times lol.

Fake dating because you’re in love with the individuals in another couple who are getting married, one of whom is the MMC’s brother, is too messy for me.

Fat FMC • librarian • NFL player • fake dating • rebound • 1st person POV

Likes:
-Marcela’s passion for her job as a librarian was so cute!
-Theo being passionate about Marc’s job too was adorableeee!
-The fat FMC rep was great!
-While the basic plot of this wasn’t for me, I will read more from this author in the future

Dislikes:
-Too many “almost” spicy moments due to interruptions 🙄
-The whole premise was a setup for disappointment actually
-The characters kept going around in circles
-I got weird vibes from one character, but all of a sudden in the end he’s the big bad villain & the root of everyone’s problems…? It didn’t track for me and felt like a scapegoat for poor writing

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

Look - if I stay up past my bedtime to finish a book, you know it’s worth reading. In fact, I read this one all in the span of a few hours one evening. I adored Marcela’s underlying fierceness and hated how much she lost of herself in the name of her “best friend” and secret crush, Ben. Theo has definitely gone through a lot, between relationships with his family and persistent injuries as a football player, not to mention his one-way feelings toward his sister’s fiancee. While they both could have certainly been more forthcoming at various points in the story, it’s easy to see why they felt they needed to guard their hearts while their “fake” relationship started to become a thing all on its own. There were quite a few unexpected moments, enough that I couldn’t put down the book and needed to know how things ended.

If you liked the vibes of Kate Winslet’s character/storyline in The Holiday (especially hating Jasper Bloom obvi), if you like bookish characters (especially those trying to help increase diverse reads for teens!), and if you are looking for some characters who feel extremely real and messy, I cannot recommend The Next Best Fling enough.

Thank you Netgalley and @ReadForeverPub for the advanced copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and ReadForever publisher for the advance read of this adorable book. All opinions are my own.

This book was so darn cute and managed to hit on some fairly serious topics at the same time. The overview of two people coming together and fake dating to try and act normal when their love interests are engaged is by no means groundbreaking, but the execution made it exquisite!

Somehow, in the middle of a romcom, we ended up with a perfect depiction of how factors like parental abandonment and experiences with fat phobia create deep rooted insecurities. And I am here for it. So often, if these topics are touched on at all, it’s way too lighthearted or even talked about as a joke. It was so refreshing to see them realized in a serious manner even within such a light and fun read.

Also: so healthy! It’s rare for me to find a book where characters need to take a step back from each other and then actually do it. Everything was resolved exactly the way I wanted at the end (no spoilers - so I can say no more).

I’m so glad I pushed outside my usual fantasy genre to enjoy this one.