Fat Chance, Charlie Vega

 


Hi! Welcome to my stop of Fat Chance, Charlie Vega blog tour, organised by Turn The Page Tour team. Click here to check out the tour schedule.  Anyways, I was really excited about this and guess what, I loved the book. This is such a wholesome story. So without further ado, let's get into it!!


Book title: Fat Chance, Charlie Vega 
Author: Crystal Maldonado 
Publisher: Holiday House 
Release date: February 2, 2021
Genres: young adult, contemporary, romance
Book purchase link: Holiday House 
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Coming of age as a Fat brown girl in a white Connecticut suburb is hard.
Harder when your whole life is on fire, though.

Charlie Vega is a lot of things. Smart. Funny. Artistic. Ambitious. Fat.

People sometimes have a problem with that last one. Especially her mom. Charlie wants a good relationship with her body, but it's hard, and her mom leaving a billion weight loss shakes on her dresser doesn't help. The world and everyone in it have ideas about what she should look like: thinner, lighter, slimmer-faced, straighter-haired. Be smaller. Be whiter. Be quieter.

But there's one person who's always in Charlie's corner: her best friend Amelia. Slim. Popular. Athletic. Totally dope. So when Charlie starts a tentative relationship with cute classmate Brian, the first worthwhile guy to notice her, everything is perfect until she learns one thing--he asked Amelia out first. So is she his second choice or what? Does he even really see her? UGHHH. Everything is now officially a MESS.

A sensitive, funny, and painful coming-of-age story with a wry voice and tons of chisme, Fat Chance, Charlie Vega tackles our relationships to our parents, our bodies, our cultures, and ourselves.


MY REVIEW

Oh. My. God. 

That's basically my reaction after reading this book. Have you ever experienced this kind of feeling? Like when you see yourself in one of the fictional characters and you just couldn't help but resonate with the said character based on experiences that you once have gone through? I'm literally dumbfounded in a good way as if the author herself knew what I have been doing with my life.  Omg, if I were to list things that I find myself being seen in this book - it'll be endless, perhaps I could write a book out of it. Ok ok, let's talk about the story first before I start rambling things. 

Fat Chance, Charlie Vega is a kind of a heartwarming yet realistic story that teaches us to be unapologetically ourselves. To embrace whatever kind of flaws that engulf us and to be bold with ways we want to live. And I learnt something from this book, roughly translated, that it's okay if you haven't found time to love yourself because sometimes you'll grow to love yourself when you've found someone who'll love you, wholeheartedly. This book gives me some sort of hope that everyone deserves their happy endings and I shall wait, patiently for that day to come. 

Charlie is a character that obviously I can relate myself to her a lot, as per mentioned in the first paragraph. I like her character development throughout the story. We can see how often she compares herself to her beautiful, kind-hearted best friend Amelia and to be honest, it sucks. I wish I could give her a hug because I knew this feeling. The feeling that you always come fall second because everyone prefers your beautiful best friend as their first choice. The feeling that you have always been overshadowed by your own best friend in many aspects of physical traits and departments and the fact of having a beautiful bff, guys start taking you for granted - it truly sucks. What not more frustrating when Charlie has a complicated relationship with her mom. 

But later, through the course of the story, I like how the author redeems the characters, they are all messed up in their own life and nobody should condemn them because everyone, essentially, is not perfect. Did I mention Brian? He's such a gentleman, like, you guys better find a guy like Brian. I like how he's always been there for Charlie when she's at the lowest point of her life. My heart, I don't know, beats so fast whenever they are together, fixing and filling in on each other's void.  People from the other side of the room maybe could probably hear me rolling around on my bed with a stupid goofy smile because heck yes, their romance made me giddy!!

I highly recommend this book because it's just chef's kiss.

TW: fatphobia

Thank you to Edelweiss and the publisher for sending me an Advanced Reader's Copy in return for an honest review. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Crystal Maldonado is a young adult author with a lot of feelings. Her debut novel, FAT CHANCE, CHARLIE VEGA (Holiday House), will be released on Feb. 2, 2021. By day, she is a social media manager working in higher ed, and by night, a writer who loves Beyoncé, shopping, the internet, and being extra. She lives in western Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and dog.


GIVEAWAY:

Enter to win one (1) finished copy of Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado! Open USA only. There will be 1 winner.

Giveaway starts: Monday, February 8, 2021

Giveaway ends: Monday, February 15, 2021 at 12:00 a.m. CST

Click here to enter! Good luck dearies 💓

 







 










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