Review: IndieReader Review
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 9, 2012
After being dumped by her handsome and exercise obsessed boyfriend, couch potato Lucy Wagner decides to rein in her love for food, break out the running shoes and get into shape!Lucy Wagner Gets In Shape jumps right into the story, told from Lucy's perspective, about how Paul, her boyfriend, instead of congratulating Lucy on earning her Ph.D, tells her he is in love with another woman. Lucy turns to her friends for solace. Both Will and Jen work with Lucy at the University and their friendship is filled with quirky quips and a never ending contest to come up with the most saccharin sweet terms of endearment for one another, but obvious caring and affection for one another. After all, Lucy talks them both into training for the upcoming marathon, which Paul is training for with his new love. As Lucy does her best to keep her mind and memories off Paul, she suddenly becomes aware that there might be someone else interested in her. As if this isn't enough to distract her, she is worried about an upcoming job interview that, should she get it, will relocate her away from her widowed father.Though the story gets off to a good start, there are some parts of the book where, the pace slows down because the story gets really heavy in dialogue, or when dialogue is the main vehicle for disclosing information, rather than balancing it out with some narrative description. However, almost half way into the novel, suddenly some twists and romance are introduced which breathes new life into the story. The description increases to a degree, the dialogue slows down as tone becomes a little more serious and the plot elements come together with a little more finesse. There is also less of what Lucy calls "the whine loop". Instead of the quick talking, Lucy, who earlier had facetiously admitted that her comebacks and actions are "so mature," she actually shows that she is growing and shaping up.Author Claire Matthews does have some descriptions that are well written and hit home and provide some insight into the characters and keeps the story afloat:"It's funny - you have the best day of your life, that quickly spirals into the worse day of your life, and you convince yourself that everything has changed - the ski's a different color; food tastes flatter; the sounds on the street are muted and dull. People must be able to see through you, to see that the person you were on Friday is gone, and the new, psychically bruised person before them has deeper thoughts, and emotional wounds that won't soon heal. But then you get to work on Monday morning and realize that's all crap."Also, when Lucy describes her father:"His eyes drift downward, and he stares into his wine glass. I can tell he's thinking about Mom...missing her. Suddenly I miss her, too."Though the plot and characters aren't richly layered enough to sink your teeth into the story, Lucy Wagner Gets In Shape has an enticing premise - food and women and getting in shape and can be satisfying for those who are looking for a "lite" romance.Reviewed by Maya Fleischmann for IndieReader.com 2012