New York Times bestselling author Kristan Higgins is beloved for her heartfelt novels filled with humor and wisdom. Now, she tackles an issue every woman deals with: body image and self-acceptance.

Emerson, Georgia, and Marley have been best friends ever since they met at a weight-loss camp as teens. When Emerson tragically passes away, she leaves one final wish for her best friends: to conquer the fears they still carry as adults.

For each of them, that means something different. For Marley, it’s coming to terms with the survivor’s guilt she’s carried around since her twin sister’s death, which has left her blind to the real chance for romance in her life. For Georgia, it’s about learning to stop trying to live up to her mother’s and brother’s ridiculous standards, and learning to accept the love her ex-husband has tried to give her.

But as Marley and Georgia grow stronger, the real meaning of Emerson’s dying wish becomes truly clear: more than anything, she wanted her friends to love themselves.

A novel of compassion and insight, Good Luck With That tells the story of two women who learn to embrace themselves just the way they are.

My rating:  5.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. I read this book for ARC August 2018! Love this reading challenge. And this year I’m especially excited because as part of the challenge they added one of my favorite things, reading Bingo! This book will be checking off my “Author you’ve read before” box. I have read Kristan Higgins in the past, she’s actually one of my favorite authors so I was very excited to be able to review this book.

Kristan Higgins has always done an amazing job of connecting the readers to the characters and the story, and this book was certainly no exception. The reader is drawn into the lives of these three women – Georgia, Marley and Emerson – and thrust into an immediate friendship with them. The emotions this book created in me were nothing new for reading a Higgins novel, but there was something different about this one – it was hitting a little too close to home this time. I have struggled with body image and weight issues, and to be 100% honest with an addiction to food, most of my life. In fact I just started a new diet this past week, one of countless many times that I’ve tried to turn things around. I connected with the content of this book so deeply, it was like someone was taking my thoughts of the past 10 years and put them down on paper for me. At times it was even hard to read this book, because it made me face some issues with myself that I haven’t wanted to think about in a long time. My issues with my body, my issues with feeling loved, my thoughts on ordering fattening foods in front of people and wondering if they were judging me for not ordering a salad. I luckily have not had as serious an issue as the girls in the book, but never the less these thoughts and feelings resonated with me so much. Women are obsessed with weight – the next fad diet, the next fad exercise. Waiting for their lives to begin – constantly promising that they’d go on that date or plan their next trip after “they lose a few pounds.” This book was a beautiful journey of women looking for acceptance, and really a journey about learning to love themselves despite their flaws. I think that everyone should read this book, but especially any woman who has ever questioned their worth because of their weight. This book is a wonderful story with a wonderful message and i encourage everyone to read it and really just accept themselves as they are and love that person.

Favorite Quotes

“I didn’t want to be one of those people who couldn’t enjoy food because she was obsessed with being thin.”

“I could waste time wishing to be small. I could get surgery. I could starve myself and never eat the foods I loved again. That wasn’t was I called living…”

“Every fat girl starves herself at one point or another…The point was control… and grief.. and self-loathing;”

“It’s willpower that’s the issue. All those fat-haters talk about how weak we are, us super-fatties. They leave out the fact that we might also be lonely, scared, isolated, poor, in pain, sexually abused as kids or any number of things. To much of the world, we’re just weak.”

“I didn’t want looks to matter. I didn’t want size to matter. But they did. Size had killed Emerson. Size had me in this store not quite recognizing myself.”

“It would have to become my life’s work, all that measuring and weighing and passing on all the good stuff. You trade one side of the addiction for the other.”

“I know it’s an addition. I know it’s a sickness. I know, and I don’t want to be like this, but the power of food, of wanting, of trying to be full is too great for me to resist.”

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page