Skinny Me

A couple months ago, I was contacted by Charlene Carr, who recently published her first novel, Skinny Me. (I was provided with a free copy of her book in exchange for an honest review.) I actually read this back in October while I was on my early vacation, but it’s taken me ages to write the actual review because I let my Emergency Medicine rotation work me into the ground. I barely went back to my apartment to sleep, and although I’m currently on my Radiology rotation (arguably the chillest rotation I will ever have in my med school career), I still somehow never have free time. The struggle is real. :\

Charlene is super sweet, and has generously offered to give away digital copies of her book to 3 lucky winners! Do ya know what that means?

Yes indeed, it’s a giveaway! (Enter at the bottom! Review is below!)

I don’t typically review books (this is actually my first book review!), not because I don’t love to read,  but because I (sadly) don’t really have much time to read for fun anymore. Once upon a time when I was 16, I decided to read a new book every day out of the year. (I think I actually made it to 323 books or something like that; let’s just say that the school librarian got to know me really, really well.) Most often, any of the reading that I get to do these days involves journal articles, textbooks and study notes and patient charts.

That being said, aside from fantasy + psychic powers and that sort of awesomeness, realistic fiction is my favorite genre, and chick lit happens to be one of my guilty pleasures (shhhh…). This was right up my alley because I could read it without needing to do a whole ton of introspection and deep thinking, nor did I have to answer a bunch of exam questions on it afterward! ;P

I didn’t include the synopsis because I’m trying to avoid being clobbered for spoilers! :O!

Review:
Skinny Me is the first book in the “A New Start” series, and is about Jennifer (“Jenn”), an overweight 27-year-old woman whose life seems to be falling to pieces. She’s lost her job, her mother’s passed away, her brother’s been in a terrible accident, and despite pretty stellar qualifications, she can’t seem to find a new job. Jenn decides that in order to be successful in life and to find the happiness she deserves, she needs to lose weight.

I don’t want to give too much away, but I really enjoyed this book. I generally cannot like a book if the protagonist has no redeeming qualities, and in Skinny Me, the protagonist is very real in the sense that even though I highly disagreed with a lot of what she was doing/thinking, I could still relate to a number of her thoughts, especially in the beginning. I admired how much determination she had when she first started off on her mission and I liked that she initially went about it the right way.

But…this book is also a testament to how much negative self-talk can destroy your life, how important it is to be positive, and how much of a difference having a great support system in your life (whether it be through family, friends, etc.) can be. As Jenn progressed with her goal, there were times while I was reading where I really wanted to grab and shake her (and perhaps also yell, “Why are you doing this!?!”), because I couldn’t deal with how appalling selfish and demeaning she was to her friends and family.

That being said, however, this book does a great job of exemplifying the fact that no one is perfect, and I think in the end, what matters most is that you learn from your mistakes. I liked the progression in this novel; it reads at a good pace, and I finished it almost all in one sitting because I really wanted to find out what ended up happening. :P (The break was because I got hungry and went to go get food.)

This was one of my favorite quotes in the book!

Sometimes it’s like that in life too, we look into a past that no longer exists, looking as if it’s real. We hold onto things in our life that there’s no reason to hold onto anymore, because unlike the stars, they don’t bring us beauty, they bring us pain.

Autumn was my favorite character in this book, and as luck would have it, it looks like the second book in this series, Where There Is Life, is about her!

Enter the giveaway here! <3

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you don’t happen to win, but would still like to read this book, it’s available on Amazon on Kindle or in Paperback! (The sequel, Where There Is Life, is out too, if you want to find out what happens! ;)

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Made it to the bottom?! Check out this ginormous giveaway roundup of 24 different giveaways and Jamaica’s giveaway hub! :O!