Review: Give This One A Pass (D Grade)
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 08 1, 2011
Grace Miles has been getting up very early to work out at the gym for two reasons. First she wants to lose ten pounds, and second she has it bad for Mr. Gorgeous, Max Kramer, who she can't stop staring at as she exercises. And because of this she ends up falling off the stair climber and bumps her head,  ending up unconscious. Grace is beyond mortified, but it got Max to notice her. But because she's so tongue tied around him and he's beyond gorgeous, he goes back to working out without a single thought to her health. Grace is so far gone over Max that she thinks about him night and day. If there was only some way where she could get his attention without making a fool of herself and finally find the courage to talk to him.One man who does appreciate Grace, abundant curves and all, is Carlos the gym janitor. He knows how much of a jerk Max is when he overhears him talking to a friend in the locker room about Grace. Max has some not so nice things to say about Grace, calling her chubby, how the earth shook when she fell and how she's a "psycho chick" because she constantly stares at him. This enrages Carlos, but he keeps his thoughts to himself.When Grace isn't at the gym, she owns and operates the Desert Java, along with her sister Kathryn. Grace decides she needs to stop nibbling on all the baked goods she sells and gain the courage to ask Max out. Then one day while at the gym Grace tries out the new treadmills and black outs, finding herself in a new super thin body and with the name of Callie, and better yet, with Max. Plus she's the local celebrity weather girl. Grace thinks she's hallucinating and runs again on the magically treadmill and back in her old body. Now everything is topsy-turvy for Grace because not only has she gotten a taste that being perfect is not what it's cracked up to be, but being herself and finding love with a man who appreciates her, bulges and all, is one reality she many not want to give up.Half way through I wanted to throw Craving Perfect against a wall (if only it was in print form and not digital). I thought this would be a cute read, but it ended up grating on my nerves like nails on a chalkboard. Grace is obsessed with losing 10lbs, which leads me to believe she isn't that overweight. We're never told how overweight she is and it's never about her losing the remaining 10lbs or a certain amount of weight she  may have already lost. I have the feeling she maybe a size 10 or 12 and is not this humongous, chunky woman Max cruelly finds her to be.Max is a major jerk who makes fun of Grace because of her size. Again, I really wonder how fat she is? She says she has a size 8 1/2 foot, so that must make her fat, right? (I have size 9 1/2 foot, so I must be huge). Also all the beautiful, fit people in this book come across as rude and mean, including the guy at the front desk of the gym who barely gives Grace a glance because she's so fat. Grace is obsessed with eating sweets every time she works out and after. All she thinks of is food and lusting after jerky gym man. Grace is really a pathetic and sad woman who acts over the top immature.Then the book transforms into a fairy tale where Grace jumps on a magic treadmill and ends up in an alternate universe where she's a size 2 and dating the jerk Max. She ends up freaking out for too many pages to count until she ends up back in her own skin. The romance with Carlos should have been cute, but again Grace is just too annoying. I had no sympathy for her whatsoever. She has no real personality or dimension, just like the story. It would have worked better if it was a contemporary romance or chick lit type read, but for some reason a paranormal element was thrown in, which makes no sense.Craving Perfect by Liz Fichera is one of these lacking reads and a total pass.Katiebabs