Wednesday, December 11, 2013

#BookReview: LOSING TO WIN by Michele Grant

I would be hotter than fish grease if what happened to Carissa Wayne happened to me.  Imagine looking your absolute worst and finding yourself on live national television with all of your business put out there for everyone to see.  Even worse, you had no warning that this was going to happen, but your family and friends knew and no one said a mumbling word.  Hotter. Than. Fish. Grease!

Luckily for those around her, Carissa is a Southern belle of the "bless your heart" variety, so while she's seething on the inside, she makes nice on TV.  I can hardly blame her.  Sure, Carissa has put on a few pounds in recent years, but that hasn't affected any parts of her life, except maybe her closet.  Even then, she always looked pulled together.  It's just that the day the cameras came calling, it was casual day at school as teachers and students cleaned out classrooms and lockers in preparation for the end of the school year and the beginning of summer.  And now everyone, including her ex-fiance, has seen her looking a hot mess and being told she's fat.

As if the humiliation of being told she needed to lose weight wasn't enough, Carissa finds herself paired with Malachi Knight, former homecoming king, former football star, former everything in Carissa's world, on the weight loss reality show.  Malachi realizes he screwed things up with Carissa years ago.  She was the only thing he ever wanted and he blew it by letting his career and aspirations go to his head.  By the time he got his head on straight, Carissa was gone and so was his career.  He could stand to lose some weight and, hopefully, by the time the summer is over, he'll have both his job and his Rissa back.

Michele Grant always writes great primary characters, but her secondary characters are just as good.  As nasty and ridiculous as she was, I loved the character of Suzette, if for no other reason than I wanted to get more background on her.  As Carissa's nemesis going all the way back to high school, she's still carrying all the hatred her little pea-sized heart can muster for Carissa twenty years later and she tries to sabotage her own team just to see Carissa lose.  There's a story there. And there are plenty of other characters that I could see getting their own book.  Niecy, Carissa's fabulous line sister, has just the right amount of confidence and "it girl" to her that she could certainly carry her own story.

And it goes without saying that I would love to see a follow up book about the two main characters.  However, I might have explored a story line with Carissa and another participant and dug deeper into that relationship before wrapping things up.  But who knows what's in store for Carissa and crew?  Grant has a way of bringing back characters in subsequent books, so anything could happen.  I'll be waiting to see what's next.

288pp
Published: September 2013



Purchase: Amazon | B & N | Book Depository | IndieBound

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