Book Lovers Inc.
Romance Novel Reviews, Author Interviews, Commentary
Review: You Don’t Have to Say you Love me by Sarra Manning
Format Read: Paperback purchased by reviewer
Number of Pages: 560 pages
Release Date: February 3rd 2011
Publisher: Corgi
Formats Available: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle Edition
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher, Goodreads, Amazon. com, Book Depository, Barnes&Noble
Book Blurb:
Sweet, bookish Neve Slater always plays by the rules. And the number one rule is that good-natured fat girls like her don’t get guys like gorgeous, handsome William, heir to Neve’s heart since university. But William’s been in LA for three years, and Neve’s been slimming down and re-inventing herself so that when he returns, he’ll fall head over heels in love with the new, improved her.
So she’s not that interested in other men. Until her sister Celia points out that if Neve wants William to think she’s an experienced love-goddess and not the fumbling, awkward girl he left behind, then she’d better get some, well, experience.
What Neve needs is someone to show her the ropes, someone like Celia’s colleague Max. Wicked, shallow, sexy Max. And since he’s such a man-slut, and so not Neve’s type, she certainly won’t fall for him. Because William is the man for her… right?
Somewhere between losing weight and losing her inhibitions, Neve’s lost her heart – but to who?
My Thoughts:
You Don’t Have to Say you Love Me by Sarra Manning surprised me! Really and pleasantly surprised me! Though why it came as a surprise since I only heard good things about it, I really can’t say.
Sarra Manning created a set of unique and quite memorable characters, whose story was a pure delight to read! Neve, the main heroine is a person with many personal problems, let me say that before anything else. She has such a low self-esteem I just wanted to smack some sense into her! Granted, her childhood (she was bullied at school) and the fact that she was really overweighted in the past are enough reasons to justify her low self-esteem. Throughout the whole book she has such a false image of herself that most of the problems she has in her personal life are self-inflicted. She keeps punishing herself and her body over and over again until the very end of the story. But despite the fact I couldn’t agree with all her decisions, Neve is a real woman. A woman who has to deal with a really pressuring image, the media are imposing on us, with real problems that I couldn’t help but love and see attributes of her in myself or in friends of mine. After all, who hasn’t felt the pressure even once in her life to have the perfect body of models or actresses? We all had a diet even once in our life and never, I mean never we are satisfied with what we look at in our mirror. Even the most stunning woman has something that she dislikes about herself and works to improve. Whether I still agree with the pains we go through to achieve that elusive perfect image is a whole other matter.
Max, the hero, is a man with a lot of personal problems himself. Maybe of a different nature than those of Neve’s but still, Max has his own issues… And let me just tell you that he’s adorable! Seeing those two real characters trying to get past their personal problems and becoming happy first and foremost with themselves and then with everything else, was a pure delight!
The book is quite a long one, with many details, but I didn’t feel tired or bored not for a single minute.The pacing of the story is even, the tension between the main characters delicious and all in all, Sarra Manning created a story that goes straight into the shelf with my favorite books!
Just do yourselves a favor and read this book.You won’t regret it!
I give You Don’t Have to Say you Love Me 5 Bookies
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.
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| 5 Stars: Perfect! I Love It! | |||||||||
| 4 Stars: Awesome Book! | |||||||||
| 3 Stars: I Liked It! | |||||||||
| 2 Stars: Not bad, but maybe not for me. | |||||||||
| 1 Star: Didn't like it! Did Not Finish it. | |||||||||
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Great review, and I am glad you liked the book so much. But I am disappointed that she did not stay overweight and was loved despite that. You don’t have to be model thin to find true love, and most important, love yourself as you are. So no, I am not going to read this one.
I totally agree with you Aurian about being overweight and finding true love.The whole media image that is imposed on us is so wrong on many levels.
But this story is actually of a woman trying to come to terms with herself and her body, so believe me, by the end of the story she’s just an average woman and not model thin.
I have heard good things about the author, but I must say that I am with Aurian on this one. Why did she have to change? Then he only loved her body
Great that you enjoyed the book so much, I’m a big fan of Sarra Manning’s books.
@ Aurian and Blodeuedd: The heroine was before (several months and even years before the book plays) not just a little overweight, she was morbidly obese. She had to get slimmer because it was that or get sick because of the extra weight. And just like Anna said, at the end she was a normal woman with a body of a woman who managed to lose a lot of weight, so she was not model thin and perfect.
And btw, the hero didn’t even know her when she was obese, so it’s not about him only loving her when she was slim.
I’m overweight and struggle every day with it. A shame about the story line.
I can understand this being written in the way it is, being overweight and losing weight and then finding love and being a size that’s not stick figure thin but just average. I’m overweight and I don’t see many books in which the heroine is overweight throughout the story and finds true love, which I think someone should start writing because so many of us are not a size 4, 5, or even 6.