Cherry Baby

This book was excellent - Rainbow Rowell has such a knack for writing relatable characters who feel real and burrow into your heart and Cherry is a new fave! Cherry is a self-described fat woman, who is struggling with who she is after the breakdown of her marriage with Tom. Tom moved to L.A after his comic Thursday was optioned for film and left Cherry in Omaha with their dog Stevie Nicks (WHAT A NAME!). When Cherry runs into old crush Russ one night, she starts to believe she can have a future without Tom. Her feelings are thrown into turmoil though when Tom comes home to start packing his things up. Does Cherry really want to live without Tom? And does Tom want to be without Cherry?

Reading from Cherry's POV honestly felt like talking to a friend she felt that real! Her feelings around her weight were especially poignant for me as someone who lived in a fat body for most of their life. Her and her sisters come from a long line of fat women and the narrative around how this felt and looked in the real world was so relatable. The mixed feelings around her relationship with Tom were written about so well too and I loved seeing flashbacks to how their love came to be originally.

This is a book that you want to hug when you've finished. It's got a sweet second chance romance, but it's mostly about a woman in her 30s dealing with all the complexities that come with living life - something a wide audience can relate to!