It’s true. I’m not what most people would call “pretty” and, well, high school was rough. Fast forward ten years and life is good… league.
But then he kisses me. And we totally forget the room, the crowd, everything.
Then he tells everyone we’ve been dating for months.
Soon everything starts to feel too real, from adorable fights over “necessary” tools to fix my broken porch to surviving a free-for-all dinner with his six siblings to picking up where our last kiss left off.
But there’s something he’s not telling me about why he’s really hanging around, and I’m pretty sure it has to do with my mob-connected brothers.
Because this is not a make-over story, and Cinderella is only a fairy tale…
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Great story…loved how strong the heroine grew up a beauty by not allowing some people in society to deem her unattractive by their standards. Must read!!
I really liked both of the main characters in this book. I would be happy to be friends with them both.
Love who you are. That is the mantra of Gina’s life. Being the butt of jokes were the norm for Gina. Meeting someone who seemed to be dealing with the fact that they were different in other ways than looks, was a little unexpected. This was a great read.
Good read.
Loved it! Everyone deserves true and real love!
I did mot enjoy the language and did MOT finish the book.
Cute story and enjoyable characters. A fun little escape. I especially liked the heroine.
Sweet, romantic, sexy everything turns out good in the end story. I enjoyed it!
Stopped reading because of the stupid way she acted. Didn’t fit the situation.
did not finish this book – just could not find it interesting
DNF. I got tired of the derogatory talk that the main character kept doing to herself.
“When you look like I do, you get used to people treating you as if you were just a punchline and not an actual human being. So yeah, people”
I came across this author by accident. It popped up in my Kindle Unlimited as a free read and listen. I started it immediately. You always want the underdog to win in the end and this book was no different. I’m not sure if I’ve ever read anything quite like this.
Gina is not your regular heroine. You know the beautiful, drop dead gorgeous kind. She know it and it seems everyone doesn’t let her forget it either. Until she meets Ford at a wedding and they are forced to kiss on a “kiss cam”. Sparks fly for this wedding planner and cop. Oh before I forget, Gina is the sister of two (2) men who are known as the neighborhood loan sharks.
Read this book to see where Gina and Ford’s relationship leads. You won’t be disappointed.
The premise here is that poor Lucy is ugly so I was expecting a plain Jane wallflower type to become kind of a bombshell once you get to know her, but this isn’t that story. These aren’t scientific measurements but I estimate that 80% of this book is Lucy telling us that she has an ugly face and everyone is mean to her because of it, so right from the start, I don’t like the world that’s been built here. Sure, people are jerks and the world can be a cruel place, but adults going out of their way to discuss her ugliness in front of her and concoct pranks to humiliate her is too cliché to take seriously.
I assumed this was satirical and expected a super funny book where the author went to this extreme to remind us that we’re all beautiful in our own way, but nope. The moral of the story is Lucy’s ugly but she’s okay with it. Nobody ever even attempts to make this woman feel better about herself, not even the man who professes to love her. I wanted to like these characters but there wasn’t enough to them to draw me in. Lucy’s entire identity is being ugly and okay with it. There was nothing else to her. Ford is a stereotypical by-the-book cop who speaks and acts more like a robot than a human.
Every character in the story is a stereotype or caricature from her shady, wanna-be Goodfellas brothers to the cops who drink too much to the rivalry between the police officer and the firefighters. This was actually painful to read. Lucy’s overprotective brothers appointing themselves protector of her virtue was the cliché which broke the camel’s back. This is the first in a series and the next one stars a woman who is comfortable in her plus-size body and I can only imagine it reaches cringe-level infinity the same as this one.
07/14/2021 I was taken by surprise with “Butterface” (nook). This love story is a poignant reminder that beauty is not just on the outside. Gina inherited the large nose of her family and was teased and bullied because of her looks. Ford knew that she was a beautiful woman and fell in love with her. A HEA.
I would actually rate this book as 4-1/2 stars.
Hilariously funny, the characters are great! Butterface is highly entertaining!
Totally improbable storyline and quite a few detailed sex scenes. If neither of those things bother you, then it is a fun and sometimes funny story with some interesting people who will likely be in future stories… mostly about firefighters.
Loved that one of the main characters wasn’t perfect in looks and body. Like most of us!
This had a lot of cute scenes in it, but I grew tired of the constant negativity this heroine had regarding her looks. Yes, I understand that’s the storyline, but it was mentioned over and over again and at some point this author needed to realize that I got the message.
While I enjoyed the evolution of this couple’s relationship, I would have liked this story and this hero more if he had been attracted to the heroine before they actually made a connection. I realize that’s not real life, but I read for the fairy tale, not reality.
This was a fast book with lots of fun, quirky characters and plenty of steam.
This book is a surprise. I really enjoyed it! Her outlook on herself was a way that many females feel. Always thinking to herself she isn’t good enough or pretty enough. Very enlightening. Makes me wish the negative people would read this to realize how much those words hurt someone else.
I loved meeting all the Hartigans. They certainly are a bunch. As well as her two brothers. I almost cried from the note they left her in the box. For more than one reason. I did listen to this on audio. Savannah Peachwood is a rockstar! All the Inflections in her voice definitely add to the storytelling. Brian Pallino is the males in here. He does good as well. I am on to the next one.
I’ve been dying to read this series for so long, but was holding off to read them back to back.
This book sucked me right in. I stayed up all night reading it (oops!) and just couldn’t put it down. I tried, so I could sleep, but my mind stayed on it and I couldn’t until I finished it. It’s the first I have read by this author, so you never know what you’re going into. Her writing just flows so beautiful. It’s a perfect level of easy humour but actual good writing. I was very much able to tell the two POVs apart. Often authors don’t give characters different voices, but that wasn’t the case with this one at all.
I loved the characters so much. Gina was not the beautiful, modelesque girl we often get in contemporary romances. She’s plain, with facial features that turn people off. Aka: she’s human. I’ve been dying to get into this series because Butterface and Muffin Top are about women who don’t fit into society’s image of “perfect”. Gina isn’t hot or pretty by most people’s standards. It made her such a great character to read and to be honest, very relatable. I see why these books are a hit with readers. It’s a refreshing change.
Ford is such a doll too. He stands out from all the jerks and although his first meeting with Gina is less than ideal, that doesn’t stop him from being intrigued and attracted by her. I loved all the parts where his coworkers would make snide comments and rude jokes about her appearance and he would stand up for her. He’s a Prince Charming in the truest sense of the word.
The story is great! I loved the situation they were put in. It makes it so much more sadder for her, but still great to read. The situation they were put in is parallel to their characters. Gina doesn’t trust relationships because how they’ve always been for her. This is one that she’s trusting wholeheartedly. For Ford, he’s a good guy who just wants her, but his situation is making it so he shouldn’t. The romance is a fantastic slow build, stomach-tingling time. I felt so much for these two while reading.
I can’t wait to go onto the next book! If one of the next two proves to be as good as this one, the author has a new follower!