"Skinny Bitch in Love" by Kim Barnouin, is frothy chick-lit with every requirement. Heroine Clementine has a suitably bizarre family, a gay best friend and a fat best friend. Her fat best friend is actually an aspiring actress, hoping to play the Fat Friend in movies.

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Before I start my review, let me say that I am not a vegan/vegetarian. I don't judge those of you who are, but I am not a vegan. Just wanted to get that out of the way.

The first thing that drew me to this book was, quite honestly, the cover. You know I like cartoonish covers, so it's not that surprising. I thought it was a fun cover and after reading the blurb I was convinced I had to read the book. Plus, you all know just how much I love chick lit.

I loved Clem. She was like a breath of fresh air. She's a very strong woman, she doesn't beat around the bush, you won't see her trying to sugarcoat things and she's one of those women that want to do things on their own, no matter how difficult the road to get there is. I also liked how ballsy she is. Yup, she's my kind of gal :-)

Zack is...well, he's hot. Infuriating sometimes, but hot. I think the reason he was attracted to Clem was because she was so different than what he was used to. I could actually feel that at times he was frustrated by her unwillingness to accept help, but he eventually came to terms with it.

By the way, when you read this, make sure you have some tasty noms nearby. There were these scenes with cooking and...man, did they sound tasty! Besides the food and the romance, you get some funny scenes too.

I am wondering if this book will turn into a series. I would so read it if it did. So go ahead and read Skinny Bitch in Love if you're in the mood for some fun reading. You'll love it :) ( )

A Pleasant Surprise for the summer (or any time you feel like a "summer read") 4.5/5.0 stars

The title caught my attention, but the opening chapter had me hooked. While there is a second story with the romantic bit we like in summer reads, the main story is about Clementine (Clem) getting back into business after a bitter, passed-over colleague spikes a signature vegan dish of Clem's for a food critic with a pat of butter. Causing Clem and nearly the entire staff to be fired, this also resulted in Clem being black listed by all vegan establishments in the Santa Monica area. A goal-oriented, hard-working, passionate-about-food, clever twenty-something and smart vegan chef, Clem is forced to seek other avenues of business opportunities to attempt to earn $$$ enough to begin her own vegan restaurant. Clem's never-give-up attitude is an inspiration, even for a fictional story.

The second story, the romantic bit, slightly resembled a tennis match -- back and forth, back and forth. The He (Zach) and the She (Clem) are opposites who attract (naturally) as they try to find a way to allow themselves to love one another while accepting each's differences (or insightfully described by gay best friend Ty, teach each other how to love one another).

Surprisingly, I didn't feel this story was a hard-sell for veganism -- meat eaters and vegans rejoice! Both of you will enjoy this read! Yes, the author did insert her personal opinions about "cutting out the crap to not feel like crap", but the author conveys her passion and beliefs without lecturing through Clem and describes delectable dishes that nearly make me want to buy one or more of her cookbooks.

I rarely give a "summer read", chick lit style story more than a four-star rating because being a light, easy-to-read genre, they rarely "stick with you" after you are finished reading. They rarely provoke pondering, rarely provide insight or open your mind to new ideas or new ways of thinking and, while they can be thoroughly entertaining at the moment, they also can be forgettable in a short span of time.

So why the 4.5 stars? Because Ms. Barnouin kept me coming back for more! This says much as I do not have a e-reader and reading this digital book at my desktop computer is NOT the most comfortable way to enjoy a book, but I didn't want to pause when I needed to put the story down and I came back as soon as I could. I thoroughly enjoyed the cast of characters (well, maybe not the disgruntled colleague or Duncan, but we must have characters we're supposed to not like, right?). I enjoyed the banter with and sassiness of the roommate (Melissa McCarthy MUST be cast for Sara's role if ever this book is made into a movie!) I enjoyed Clem's tenacity and Zach's matter-or-fact-ness.

I highly recommend this book to vegans and meat-eaters alike. Thank you, Ms. Barnouin for not lecturing, yet enticing me to explore your cookbooks.

Disclosure: I received this ARC in digital format from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I am glad my request was accepted because this is fantastic light romantic read was very entertaining with a clever, sassy and smart heroine, an almost better roommate without a hard-sell toward veganism. ( )

I enjoyed Skinny Bitch in love, as read her Skinny Bitch and loved it as well as recommended it to many others. (fun and sassy)!!
A vegan myself (not skinny, nor fat), but eat healthy - liked the humor and always enjoy cooking and chefs, gourmet cooking, as I enjoy eating healthy.

Clementine (chef) gets blacklisted when one of her back stabbing co-workers sets her up and as a survivor, she comes up with ways to make it after her unfortunate loss of work ---looking forward to her own dream restaurant, then along comes Zach, hot rich guy involved trying to open a steak house.

Loved the strong character and she calls it like it is. Enjoyed the book, humor, and romance as well as the vegan content and will continue to read Kim’s books. Look forward to reading some of the other ones I have missed. Be sure and read Skinny Bitch as loved it!
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Greatly entertaining! She is independent, no nonsense, and hard working. She will not be bullied or manipulated... no even by her insanely gorgeous billionaire boyfriend. Yeah! You go girl! ( )