THIS POST MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!!
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Hello sassy people! Today I’m gonna talk about my very first ARC!!!!! I had the honor to receive an Advanced Readers Copy from Grading Curve: Curvy Soulmates by Emily Bunney!!!!
This series brings us an app, that connects curvy women to their perfect men…
“Searching for your soulmate? Welcome to Curve Connection, a brand-new dating app developed by curvy women for curvy women and the men who love them. Whether you’re into executives, sports stars, blue-collar workers, rockstars, or billionaires, we deliver guaranteed happily-ever-afters. Swipe left or right to start searching for your soulmate today.
Curvy Soulmates is a collection of steamy short romances brought to you by 12 of your favorite instalove authors.
Coming November 2021.”
I loved the concept and can’t wait to read the rest of the books in this series!
Grading Curve: Curvy Soulmates
(Curvy Soulmates )
by Emily Bunney
When a feisty, curvy school principal moves to a sleepy coastal town for a fresh start, she has no idea she’ll find love in an unexpected way.
Jess
After years in an unhappy marriage, Jess leaves everything behind for a new town and a new job. The only thing missing is a new relationship. Her best friend decides she needs to jump feet first into the dating pool and sets her up a profile on Curve Connection – a dating app for men seeking curvy women. At first, she’s skeptical and some of the messages she receives don’t help. But then she matches with NerdGuy – a sweet sensitive younger man who just gets her. Could this be the new relationship she’s been looking for?
Tate
Starting a tech company with his twin brother was always Tate’s dream, but when times got tough, they took a job refitting the tech in a small Elementary school. He arrives expecting to meet a middle-aged, matronly principal. However, the woman who crashes into him is a curvy, sexy, sassy pain in his ass. As they begin to work together, she fights him at every turn, but he just loves butting heads with her. Tate knows starting a relationship with Principal Jess Vega is not an option, not while they work together. So instead he turns to Curve Connection to see if he can match with another curvy woman to try and take his mind off Jess’s peachy round ass.
Can these two find love online or will it land unexpectantly on their doorstep?
Genre: ARC, Romance
Year: 2021
Tropes: Curvy heroine, Divorced, Female age gap, Latinx character, Neighbor, School principal, Tattooed hero, Twins in Romance, Victim of past abusive relationship
Smut factor: 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥 4/5 (steamy)
TRIGGER WARNINGS (Based on my opinion): No trigger warnings
Main characters: Jessica and Tate
Main conflict: There’s not much conflict, they are simply working together for a period of time and need some personal growth.
Pacing: Fast
Mood: Easy
Plot or character-driven: Character Driven
P.O.V.: Double P.O.V.
Character development: Good (direct)
Diverse Cast: Latinx
Read in: November 2021
My Rate: 3/5
Feminist rate: 5/5 Older heroine (10 years older)!!!! And there is a power unbalance, and it’s on the female side. She is the boss (in the office and also in bed) and I LOVE that. And she also plays very lightly with the school principal kink. Also I see a lot of body positivity, not only because she is a curvy heroine, but she is a heroine that has (and I quote) brown nipples and she is not completly shaved, so I see Emily breaking a lot of the toxic paterns I see in society and in a lot of other romance books and I love that.
Adjectives and general thoughts: Light, funny and positive in all the ways posible.
Recommend this to people who love easy stories with insta love and a sweet HEA (happily ever after)
This is the story of Jessica, a school principal, and Tate, a tech guy (I don’t really know what to call his profession). Tate is a grumpy guy, who doesn’t know how to socialize much and Jess is a strong-minded woman, who is determined to innovate in her new school. These two don’t have the easiest meet cute, and they’re working together, so that’s kinda hard, but they will see new sides of themselves and of each other through the app Curvy Soulmates.
I have to be honest, I’m not a huge fan of insta love, but it worked in this book, it was insta but it wasn’t rushed, the characters had good development and we understood where they were coming from. But to me, the best parts of this book are the positivity parts. This book deals with a lot of stereotypes that are very harmful but at the same time are still very much incorporated into our society. This heroine is:
- Latinx (and being one myself I love and appreciate seeing us represented in books)
- Curvy (and beautiful, strong, intelligent and did I say strong?)
- Older (she is 38, Tate is 28 and if you know me, you know that I LOVE a female age gap, I live for this stuff)
- Divorced (it’s 2021, but women are still judged for divorcing their shitty and abusive husbands)
- Got out of an abusive and toxic relationship (and all over the book we see how strong she is to be able to get out and love herself)
- She is the BOSS (I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve read an office romance or any other trope where the hero is in a power position towards the heroine and that frustrates me to no end. So I love that the roles are inverted here)
And so much more, these are the things that made me like this book so much. And I sincerely hope you like it too!
And now it’s the part of the post where I use quotes to prove to you guys all the things I just said in my “small” Goodreads review. I believe that this part has no spoiler but be warned that it does have quotes from specific parts of the book if you don’t want to read anything.
This book, to me, is about self-love, more than couples love, is about accepting, appreciating, and loving yourself. Jess is, from the very first chapter, learning to be bold, to love herself, her curves, her personality, she is strong, she imposes herself, she is powerful, has new ideas and she is going to make them a reality.
But being strong doesn’t mean you are not vulnurable sometimes, it doesn’t mean you don’t have fears and reservations, it doesn’t mean you don’t have baggage. Being strong means pushing trough, getting up and facing your fears, and Jess does that here. She gets up, even if her ex put her down, again and again, she gets up and becomes a powerful woman.
And her friend, with the help of this amazing app, gives her the final push, to come out of her comfort zone, and find love, and I love that it is also a way to show her that she is hot, she has a lot of men who love her body type, love her curves and love her.
And last, but not least, I LOVE that she is older, and even though she has a moment of doubt, it lasts two seconds, and she comes back to the mindset of “I’m hot, I’m beautiful, of course he wants me” and I’m here for that.
If you want to buy this book, it is now live on Amazon and on Kindle Unlimited! You can also add it to your shelf on Goodreads and see what other people thought about it!
Well, that is all for today, I hope you like this post, hope you enjoy this book as much as I did. Feel free to leave your opinion about it in the comments and I will see you next time!
Bye sassy people!
- I know that some comments I make about decent guys on my posts are the bare minimum a guy should do, so no, they don’t deserve to be treated like gods for doing the minimum, but at the same time, I’ve read a lot of sexist books and I appreciate authors who make characters that can serve as role models and examples of how a decent guy acts and what a loving and respectful relationship looks like. I believe we should always encourage these authors and bring attention to the ones that still write sexist characters and stories.
- I make a lot of comments about sexism and healthy role models in books, but a lot of times these characteristics don’t make the book a bad book and definitely don’t make the author a bad author. Please never shame these authors and these books for these comments, I simply feel that we need to have awareness of the less than ideal situations some books bring us, and not use the romanticized problem as examples of what a relationship should be. Most of these authors are still amazing, and the content they write doesn’t reflect directly with their personal views and opinions. Always make sure to respect and be kind to everyone, even while criticizing their content.
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Meet Me
Brazilian architecture student and book lover
One of my goals in analysing my readings was to talk about important topics, like feminist and consent, because literature, art and culture influence us, and I believe we should always encorage authors who talk about this topics.
Come check out my Goodreads Reading Challenge!
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2020
I read 148 books in 2020, come see them!
