Emily is 17 years old and in her final year of school. University is looming and she feels stuck compared to her friends, especially in terms of relationships. As a self-described fat girl Emily is confident and fashionable and largely unbothered by her weight but with her mother constantly on a diet and picking at her about her weight, and a best friend returning from holiday having lost weight only to immediately get a boyfriend, she starts to lose faith in herself. But then she meets Joe. They connect over music and things seem to be going well but is everything as it seems?

This was a lovely, fast, easy read and I loved Emily! It is so rare to see fat characters in books and even rarer for them to not be obsessed with losing weight. For Emily that was her mum and it was sad to see how she let her obsession damage their relationship, though thankfully not irreparably.

I loved how Emily grew over the story and assured herself that she was worthy. The only thing is that Emily's friends could have been fleshed out a little more.

I will not be giving feedback on this book as I couldn’t really get into it but I think others may enjoy it.

Thank you to the publisher for my eARC copy of this book. Unfortunately I didn’t love this book and therefore didn’t finish, I just didn’t connect with this one. Not for me, sorry.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

A book that teenage me needed to read. I loved the focus on body positivity in this book and wish we saw more of it in books

TW: Fatphobia

I have severely mixed feelings about this book.

Have you ever read a book that made you feel as though you were looking directly back at your own life?

That pretty much sums up how I felt reading No Big Deal.

The other fat girl in our group wasn't called Camilla, and my first real crush wasn't Joe. Everything else though, pretty much an exact match, and seeing it there on the page, reading Emily's story brought back so many old anxieties and so much pain that I thought or maybe hoped, I'd left behind.

"Eat too many of those and you'll always be Fatty Smith, never Patti Smith."

It got to the point where reading this book infuriated me as I drew parallels within my own life and my own insecurities.

But at the same time, I couldn't stop reading. The main character was relatable (or she would have been to teen me when I, for a brief period, cared that I was the only one without a boyfriend/girlfriend), almost too much so which is what made this such an uncomfortable read for me.

"Do not allow into your world someone who thinks you're second best, who thinks your body is a temporary "problem" that you're going to solve, who puts you down in any way."

The writing was easy to digest and the pace fast. I read the book in two short sittings but at the end felt a little unresolved.

Emily is funny, witty and down to earth but I did have a few problems, especially that she became too quickly obsessed with a boy she'd only just met and it takes her a while, too long in fact, to realise that all isn't as it should be. But, saying that, she is a teen and I can't deny that I had a LOT of obsessive moments when I was younger, and let's face it, I'm very obsessive over my books!

"Oh no. Too far, Emily. You can't just ask people why they like dickheads."

I do think the author does a good job of being open about teen sex, and it's refreshing to have sex just be a part of a YA without it being something taboo.

I hated some of the supporting characters in this book, but only because of how they made Emily feel, and the author did a great job of showing how, very often, it's the people closest to you who can fuel your anxieties.

"What's the goal in saying stuff like this to your child? It feels like she just sees an opportunity to make a mean comment and takes it."

I think Emily is a great body positive character, I just would have loved a different ending that wasn't so 'boy-focused'.

LOVED LOVED LOVED THIS
This story is so refreshing, so unique, so body-positive that if I didn’t have to work I would’ve indulged this book in one sitting. I wish I had this book when I was a teenager, this would’ve helped me think that I wasn’t the only one out there who didn’t have a boyfriend, who didn’t experience relationship things, who still valued their friends and life experiences/adventures above getting a boyfriend for the summer. This, is a work of art.

This book was so great. Emily is a fantastic main character, absolutely relatable and the kind of character that teen me really needed to see in books. Adult me still needs to see characters like her and found this book entirely heartening.

Can't believe it took me so long to feedback. This was one of my favourite reads of 2019 and I'm so excited for Bethany's next novel. Such a gorgeous book with an incredible main character. You very rarely see plus sized women celebrated in books and it was refreshing to have a teen MC who owned her body and loves herself.

I loved this book. It was such a sweet and easy read for me and I definitely connected on a deep level with the main character, Emily who is struggling with how she thinks she is perceived by others because of her weight. Emily is a gem, she is confident and outspoken but inside she is dealing with the overbearing nature of her mother who is struggling with her own weight and the constant worry of teenagers – comparing herself to others, measuring success on her friends relationship milestones and focusing on the only thing she can see as being the difference between herself and them – her body size.

I wish I had read this as a teenager. By the novels conclusion, Emily has realised that she can’t compare herself to others and that she doesn’t need to accept anything less than the best, because no matter what she looks like it doesn’t change who she is as a person. It’s a cheesy and well-worn message but to have it put so plainly in this Young Adult novel really made me feel good and root for Emily as a character.

This novel also attempts to tackle the social issue of fad dieting in the form of Emily’s mum who is constantly trying to lose weight but struggling to do so. She seems to be impeded by her daughter’s self-confidence which from a mother is so completely the opposite of what I grew up with I did struggle to ‘believe’ her attitude although I totally understood the mental health side of things behind these actions. I think this was the only detraction for me and it didn’t impede my enjoyment of the novel as a whole.

Really enjoyed this. Emily and her friends rang so true as teenagers today, but I (26 years old now) could also really identify with the universal struggles they faced. I would have loved a heroine like Emily – bolshy, cool, fat-but-who-cares – when I was a teenager.

Meet Emily Daly, a stylish, cute, intelligent and hilarious seventeen-year-old about to start her last year at school. Emily is also fat. She likes herself and her body. When she meets Joe at a house party, he instantly becomes The Crush of Her Life. Everything changes. At first he seems perfect. But as they spend more time together, doubts start to creep in.

What a good book. Funny, and easy read, and a look at loving yourself while being up against a world who doesn't seem to love you quite the same. At what point do you say I like you, but I like me more? Should you? (Side note: yes you should.)

<i>No Big Deal</i> is great. A quick, fun, nice read.

Short and sweet, this is a fun body positive romp through the life of a confident and charismatic teenage girl - who happens to be fat. Super fun.

I don’t normally read YA but I absolutely adored this book. It’s cute and funny whilst getting across an important message. I honestly wish this book had been around when I was a teen. Every young person who feels the need to change themselves and who they are needs to read this.

Emily is such a great character. She’s funny, confident and strong and I just want to be her mate. She knows it’s not her body that’s the issue but other peoples opinions. This book covers body positivity, childhood crushes, friendships, preparing for uni, complicated mother-daughter relationships and more. Definitely recommend.

I received a copy of the ebook in exchange for an honest review

It is so refreshing to read a book with a fat protagonist where the plot isn’t about her being fat or trying to lose weight. I loved No Big Deal, it’s so well written and funny and heartwarming. Just brilliant.

Emily Dean is an outgoing 17 year-old trying to balance school, friendships and having a crush on Joe with society’s disapproval of her body. Emily is fat, a fact she is more than OK with but those around her see weight loss as a goal she should aim for. Emily has no interest in propping up the diet industry, which makes her relationship with her mother complicated because she is searching for the diet that will change her life.

No Big Deal is the type of YA book I wish I read when I was a teenager; smart, funny and uncompromising. Instead I’ll settle for pressing it into the hands of my friends who are parents and insisting they pass it on to their children.

I wish teenage me had had this book so I could have learned to love myself like Emily loves herself. I knew exactly how she felt with her mum constantly projecting her own insecurities, but I didn't have the true self-worth that Emily does. I found that really inspiring! I never had the confidence to be exactly who I was and to not give two fucks about what everyone thought. With more (fictional!) role models like Emily in the world, I would have understood that being fat wasn't all there was to me. Luckily, we seem to very slowly becoming less fatphobic on a whole, but there's still a way to go.

"I’m not just a tragic fat loser. I’m a cool fat babe." < put this on my tombstone!!

I found some elements a little cliched, but overall, a really great step in the right direction.

(spoiler-review). I really liked this book. Emily is such a confident person who loves herself, and I love her for that. I would have wanted the supporting characters to be more three dimensional, but it was all right. I liked the book all the way until the last paragraph - how it ended. I don’t like the open ending - what if she goes through the cycle again?! I need to know this new person would accept her for who she is. I know that isn’t the point of the story but it’s there on the page.

I liked this - I really liked Emily as a protagonist, I liked her family too, especially her sister. I didn't like Joe, the relationship clearly wasn't good so I wasn't surprised how it ended. I also found the Fat Positive 101 stuff too basic for me, but I think it would be good for teens.

Where the hell was this book when I was growing up?! It is a BODY POSITIVITY VICTORY! The character of Emily is a true queen. Not only is the book absolutely amazing, it also introduced me to the greatness that is @bethany_rutter ‘s Instagram. I have even brought a copy of the book!