Much better than I thought it would be. Issues of weight loss and self esteem, covered well but lightly. ( )

Sunny Weston is a 28-year-old webmaster/business owner of a website that sells certain .. toys. She recently lost a massive amount of weight but unlike other books this isn't about her losing the weight and getting the guy, it's more about the after effects of it. It's pretty much like a book after the 'perfect/happy' (unrealistic) endings of those books - Jemima J by Jane Green, for example.

The Perfect 10 means that despite the huge weight loss, she has a bit to go, or she thinks she does, about 2 stone (28lbs) to go from her current Size 12 to the 10. Not sure why a Size 10 (UK) is a perfect goal though, maybe it's a nice round number.

It deals with all her neuroses dealing with the weight loss - she's the same person now as she was then. The big difference is that she has a different dress size. People treat her massively different and all these things confuse her very much.

How she deals with her then unattainable crush, Adrian, now that she has him. Was he just a goal to reach .. having him now, just because she can .. and not because she actually liked him from when she couldn't? Why does he like her only now? Why should the weight be so important? Why was she unlovable then?

A lovely new character of, Cagney James (an amazing name for a character). Who's a PI of sorts but deals only with men - because he has it in him that all women are cheats/bad/untrustworthy .. because of his past 3 ex-wives. His work, as written in the book, is sort of shady .. as he gets his colleagues (Howard and Iuan) to bump into the marks and then carry on with them, while he snaps the shots as evidence. Entrapment? Seems a stretch. Anyway his job isn't particularly important. You just need to know that he doesn't trust women or love that he goes out of his way to avoid them.

The book opens up nicely, where Sunny & Cagney meet or bump into each other. Like in most romance novels, they absolutely hate each other. Both seem to have a chip on their shoulder - Sunny thinks that Cagney likes to put her down because of her (old) weight or that she needs more to lose to be the perfect 10. When he really isn't doing that. Cagney has this thing about not being able to act normally around women anymore - untrusting, thinks they're out to get him etc. .. so he can't say anything right. Each time they meet up, these sparks fly.

But I liked how it was realistic, I mean .. there was a guy + girl in it .. but it wasn't 100% about her meeting the perfect guy and getting him. This guy wasn't fully perfect, and neither was she .. and they didn't get together just like that. I hate reading chick lit or romance novels (or movies) and the characters just fall in love, because they can .. absolutely no justification why each of them actually loves each other. So I really liked that you had to go through the whole story and grow with both of them, before the end.

Out of all the chick-lit I've read .. well, when I used to read, this one is very good. There are certain points where the writing can get very tedious - huge paragraphs filled with analogies or some form of extended ramble about something - in the characters' mind sort of stuff. Some people may not like that and will quit after the first few pages.

There's also a whole setting issue .. Cagney James just sounds so out of place being in the UK (or being English). There's nothing that points out the Britishness of this, besides the mention of love for Kew here or there. It may not be a problem, just a thought I had while reading it.

I'm thoroughly surprised by this book - didn't think a little chick-lit book like this could deal with so much in all these little pages. Maybe because as a woman who struggles with her weight - aiming for that perfect 10 (or more like 8), that it hit home with me. The whole unlovable until I'm xxx lbs. especially. The whole not really wanting to do anything until I am the perfect Size 8 UK/Size 6 US. All the little struggles and thoughts. ( )