Customer Reviews

Big Girls Don't Cry

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Who says you have to be thin to be attractive? Who says you have to wear a size five to look good? Well, I don't know who started the rumors, but the heroes who sought the heroines in the anthology Big Girls Don't Cry, must not have gotten the news. These men fell in love with successful women who were a bit larger than what the perceived American concept of what is an attractive women. The authors for this anthology provided the reader with sexy tales featuring the full-figured woman.

Busy advertising executive Tricia Spencer is busy and does not have time to be sick, let alone laying in a hospital bed, in Donna Hill's offering, Dr. Love. When Tricia faints during a staff meeting, she is rushed to the hospital. One glimpse at the good-looking doctor, Dr. Evans, maybe getting sick was not so bad. Dr. Evans is able to heal what ails her, but can he heal her self-esteem as Tricia compares herself with her older, thinner and pretty sister?

College professor Megan James returns to the family ranch and is reunited with Tyler Savoy, her high school sweetheart in Brenda Jackson`s The Perfect Seduction.. After the senior prom some 20 years earlier, Megan and Tyler started something they could not finish. Now, meeting again Megan is determined to have Tyler finish what he started. She gives him an ultimatum and he agrees to help her when she is ready, even though Megan thinks she is ready now.

The last thing that big, beautiful and high maintenance, salon owner Cherise Givens expected to be doing was camping out in Monica Jackson's Through the Fire. Cherise hires artist and ex-Navy SEAL Shepard Fraser to redecorate her beauty salons. On the way to a swanky party in California, their plane goes down. Now, Cherise must give up the glamorous life to survive in the wilderness and try to squash the sexual tension between the two of them.

Domestic Diva Cara Scott is hired by Neal Dunbar to help him unpack and settle into his new home is Francis Ray's novella, His Everything Woman. Neal thinks Cara will be perfect because he is never falling in love and marrying and according to her statements on a local television show, she is not looking for love and romance in her clients. However, his mother has other ideals and would love to see the two of them together.

As romance readers are well aware, these four authors are the best at what they do, weaving a tale of romantic tension. My favorite story was Through the Fire as Cherise had me laughing out loud imagining her being out in the wilderness. Big Girls Don't Cry is a fun read, curled up in front of a fire place with a cup of tea.

Jeanette
APOOO BookClub

Donna Hill. Workaholic advertising CEO Tricia faints during a presentation. At Midtown Memorial Hospital, she learns she has high blood pressure from Dr. "Fine" Evans. As she and her doctor begin seeing one another, her "bad girl" sister tries to entice him away.

Brenda Jackson. Full figured Megan loved Tyler when they were teens, but he left her for veterinary school heeding the advice of her family to enable her to attend Harvard. Fourteen years later he vows to not repeat the same mistake.

Monica Jackson. Forced to retire from the SEALs due to an injury, Shep has become a famous painter. Plus sized Cherise hires him to paint her beauty salons. On a private plane flight, the pilot dies from a heart attack. Shep uses his survival skills to keep himselfand his client alive in the wintry mountains; the climate proves easy, but Cherise not so as she is used to being in charge. Still they fall in love while living off the frozen land.

Francis Ray. In Austin, domestic diva Cara desires Miami transplant Neal, a renovation designer. Neal wants her too, but he only desires her as a "hired wife" to help him with a client. As they fall in love, Neal refuses to believe in a real permanent wife.

These four delightful novellas star delightful big babes who can take care of themselves in the workplace, the boudoir or the home, but know life would prove better with the hunk they love at their side, but if not these inspirational BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY.

Harriet Klausner

I enjoyed all of these stories. Some of these stories are continuations from the book "A Whole Lotta Love". In "Dr. Love" by Donna Hill, Tricia Spencer finds love in the place she would least expect, a hospital bed. In "The Perfect Seduction" by Brenda Jackson, Megan James is set to lose her virginity to the man who has held her heart for years, but, will she be able to pull off her plan or will she find the tables turned. In "Through The Fire" by Monica Jackson, a very self assured woman finds out that all her conceit doesn't mean a thing when she's lost in the woods with a very handsome, and very outspoken ex Navy Seal. In "His Everything Woman" by Francis Ray, Cara Scott finds it hard to keep a level head when she comes face to face with Neal, a very handsome man who has hired her to do a job.

I will make this short and to the point. This is not as hot as ther other ones has been. All 4 of these lady are top seller and on my top 10 list, but this is not far close to the great work I have seen from them. I must say I wasn't impressed with any of there stories.

While I am glad there was a book published honoring plus-sized women looking for romance, I am a little disappointed that only one hundred or so pages were dedicated to each story and that each one was not very well developed. I would have rather seen much more transition and maturation in the characters than what was in each of the stories.

Not to take away from the efforts of the authors, but I really wish they would have written full-length novels for each of the stories, because it seems as though they take their time at the beginning of the stories and rush to an ending, which is characteristic of these types of books, but I believe they chose to put even less effort into the middle and endings because it is just a "book about fat girls."

Overall, I liked the stories. They had interesting plots and were very cute, but they just didn't "play out" well in that I don't think enough space/pages were allotted to allow their full development of the characters and the plots themselves.

This book had lots of potential...four stories about plus-size ladies and their new romances. The stories are cute, light entertainment, with appealing characters but no surprises. I'd have liked a bit more suspense, in all cases the reader knows immediately that the object of our heroine's affections feels the same way. The biggest problem here is the sloppy editing which eventually gets very intrusive. Commas missing everywhere but put in where they don't belong, words misused (in the narrative, not in the character quotes)and overused. A few examples: "...and a jolt of electricity jettisoned through his body." "It was a patient's right to sign themself out of the hospital and there wasn't much he could do..." "He hung up the phone, debating for half a minute as to the veracity of calling her at home, but decided to go with his gut." if the author doesn't know the meaning of "jettison" or "veracity", surely someone else on the publishing staff ought to?

For many years, every heroine in every romance novel was petite in nature, and even though most of the stories were good, for women of substance it was a little hard to relate. So needless to say, as a full-figured woman myself, I was overjoyed (just as I was when I found out there were novels that were written by people of my race, who featured people of my race) when I found out that several of the top names in the romance genre finally heeded the calls of big, but beautiful, women everywhere.

First there was the anthology Living Large, followed by A Whole Lotta Love, and now in BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY, we are introduced to four more voluptuous vixens who are the epitome of elegance and grace, and who have men who desire them, no matter what their size. Each contributing author has written stories that are positive in nature, but also touch briefly on the doubts and insecurities heavier people tend to face (thanks to the negative stereotypes often portrayed in the media). Of course it goes without saying that each story is sensuous and very romantic. Whether you're a "big girl" or not, you're sure to enjoy this latest full-figured anthology.

Reviewed by Renee Williams
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

interesting reading. Story plots were OK. Stories seemed too short, would have liked more detail in stories.

The men in this anthology/novella: Michael Evans, Tyler Savoy, Shepard Fraser and Neal Dunbar are men who don't let the certain size of a woman dictate their feelings. Tricia Spencer, Megan James, Cherise Givens,and Cara Scott...Big Girls Rule!!

True love has got to exist after reading 'Big Girls Don't Cry'. It was nice to read that big women are found sexy. And to be honest I like the way one of the stories touched on someone having a eating disorder. It was refreshing to read this over something like Zane or Wahdila Clark.