Review

When I saw this book available for review, I eagerly signed up for it. I prayed Bev would pick me to review it. When I got it, I felt like I’d won a prize. It was only a couple chapters into the book that I realized this was not a Janet Evanovich book but Stephanie Evanovich. My first thought is that they must be related. After a quick check on the internet I discovered Stephanie is Janet Evanovich’s niece.

To be fair, I don’t read Janet Evanovich’s novels. I used to read her back when she strictly wrote romance but when she started the more suspenseful stuff, I didn’t follow. The reason I wanted to read this book was because I thought this was Janet’s return to romance. I was confused and wrong. Somehow I don’t think the publisher minds that I confused the niece and the aunt.

Now back to the book. At the beginning, Big Girl Panties had so much promise. It was amusing and different, the premise of an overweight heroine, Holly Brennan, being willingly whipped into shape by the drop-dead gorgeous, personal trainer, Logan Montgomery. Overweight heroines—and heroes—are in the minority when it comes to romance novels.

However, the first thing that jarred me is the dizzying head-hopping. From one paragraph to another, the reader is bouncing from the Holly’s head to Logan’s. There were so many times when I was reading this book that I didn’t know whose head I was in.

To make matters worse, suddenly we’re in Logan’s girlfriend’s head, who is not really that major a player in the book. This is the girl he’s sleeping with before he and Holly get together. Then sometimes I felt like I wasn’t reading in anyone’s POV, just someone—the author’s I guess—who knew everything. Later in the book we get into Chase’s (Logan’s friend, client and professional baseball player) POV and Chase’s wife Amanda’s. We’re even treated to a love scene between Chase and Amanda. I still don’t understand why and what that scene is doing in the book.

Needless to say, the head-hopping was the first thing that reduced my enjoyment of the book.

I loved Holly’s background and baggage. She’s in her early thirties whose husband died a year ago of pancreatic cancer. Moving on without him is very difficult and she takes comfort in food. Never slim to begin with, Holly is about 80 lbs overweight when she meets Logan and begins training with him. Initially, as one would expect, Logan, who is the ideal specimen of manhood, is not remotely interested in Holly as a woman. He’s the personal trainer to celebrities and sport stars and dates leggy models. Holly is not his type in any way shape or form.

But as she starts losing the weight, Logan begins to see her in a different like, although he does fight it. Holly, on the other hand, is completely smitten and rapidly begins to fall for Logan. They form a friendship after an eating crisis episode at her house and soon after begin hanging out with Chase and Amanda. 

Eventually, they get together and the sex is the best either has ever had. Holly is nowhere near slim at this point. She still has about 20 lbs to lose before she’s at her ideal weight. This doesn’t bother Logan—at least that’s what he tells himself. And despite the fact that they having a torrid, exclusive affair, Holly still doesn’t get why Logan wants her.

Unfortunately, the story goes downhill near the end (And there is an out-of-place spanking scene earlier that had me wincing and rolling my eyes at the same time). I felt Holly completely overreacted when she learns something Logan said and what she does at the Halloween is so way over the top, I still can’t believe a grown, sane woman would do that. I think that’s pretty much when I checked out of the story. I can barely remember what happened after that. They did end up together but I’m still on the fence about this particular pairing. The truth is, I’m not sure I ended up buying or believing in their romance.