Published By: HarperCollins
Pages: 400
Released On: 31/03/2022
Serena Mills should be at her wedding. Instead, she’s eating an ice cream sundae and drinking an obscenely large glass of wine in a Harvester off the M25.
Everyone thinks she’s gone mad. She’s jilted the man everyone told her she was ’so lucky’ to find.
But Serena wants to find love. A love she deserves – not one she should just feel grateful for.
So, sne escapes to the big city and sets herself a challenge.
52 weeks. 52 dates. 52 chances to find love. Easy, right?
*****
Thanks to HarperCollins for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
It was so refreshing to see a protagonist who is, in her own words, fat. It’s even more refreshing to see this as a positive, rather than an excuse for fat shaming. Yes there are nods to that and thoughts that she doesn’t deserve what a skinnier person does, but overall for me, she is a character who happens to be plus size, rather than a plus-size character. It’s incidental to me. And at the same time, vitally important.
I found myself identifying with Serena more than I’ve ever identified with a fictional character before, which was a lovely touch.
It is lighthearted and funny and joyful and loving, but serious and sad and thoughtful, and above all, honest, in all its positivity and negativity. At its heart, it is a rom-com, there’s no escaping that, but it is so much more than ‘just’ a funny romantic comedy. Yes it is enjoyable to read, but it gives you something important to think about, and I think your opinions may find themselves altered by the end.
Books By Your Bedside 