Thank you for my earc of this book. I immediately took to this book, the first chapter drew me in and I knew I was going to have a great time!
I love Fran as a protagonist and I love her romantic and personal journey throughout this book. I can’t wait to read more of Rutter’s books!

I don’t really think Bethany Rutter is a writer. She’s a fun follow on Instargram and a likeable person but her books are just not very well written and for a bisexual author the ways she writes bi people is quite unflattering and a little biphobic. This feels like it was just churned out to meet a contract rather than a story written with any love or passion

A fun, lighthearted and easy read for the self appointed fat babe greedy bisexuals in their slag eras (an underrepresented group within the market imo). I personally preferred Rutter's previous adult title, but this was a fun time nevertheless, and I appreciated the cameos from the characters from Welcome To Your Life.

Brilliantly funny, bold and bi! I loved this book from start to finish, it felt like talking to a friend.

Big Date Energy is a fun, flirty, feelgood book about Fran, who is almost thirty and single for the first time since she was a teenager, and has only gone from one relationship to another. Instead of repeating her pattern of finding someone new straight away, she decides to embrace her independent by dating as many people as she likes, and is delighted with this new adventure.

However, her mother is worried about her and enters her in a reality television show, like First Dates, in the hope that she will find true love. Fran is furious, but in the spirit of adventure decides to go along with it, but is horrified when she is matched with her ex girlfriend Ivy, meeting her for the first time since their teenage breakup on television.

Over the course of the book, Fran comes to a lot of difficult realisions about herself, as a girlfriend, a friend and a daughter, and I particularly liked how it treated the great parts of Fran's independence and sense of fun, and how her obsession with having this in her life and a kind of “main character energy” disrupted her connection with the people who cared about her most.

This is very similar to Rutter's previous book for adults, Welcome to Your Life, and even features a delightful cameo from those characters, so if you are an existing fan of Rutter's style you'll find a lot to enjoy here.

This was a cute, valentinesy read. I thought that the characters were developed well and i liked how the various relationships were developed and progressed. Fran was an interesting character to follow and i liked how she grew over the course of the novel. There were moments where the action was dealt with not very well and it was done in way that could have been subtler. I would read more by this author as i enjoyed it.

⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌶️
❤️‍🩹💄🍻📱🏳️‍🌈

Big Date Energy is a great book about an unapologetically Fat, Bisexual woman who is in her "slag" era, after her third break up from serious relationships. Fran is quirky, and confident but also over getting her heart broken. She goes on serial dates, and one-night stands with both men and women and tries to get by in life by doing freelance gigs doing makeup, working at the cafe, and helping her mum be a model for her plus-size wedding dresses. Her life gets turned upside down when her mum puts her forward for a TV Show where she goes on a date called The Meet Cute, and she gets paired up with her first ex and heartbreak, Ivy.

I loved how unapologetically queer and fat Fran was. It was refreshing to read a character like me. Especially because I didn't have my "slag" era until I was 29 as well which was when I first came out as a lesbian. I loved that I could totally relate to both the sexuality side and the size of the character and read a book that didn't make me feel guilty about it.

I thought this book would be more about Fran and Ivy, but it really was more about Fran and how we see her process of overcoming her original heartbreak with Ivy and realizing she still loved her, and her journey to accept that and realise they're both two different people than they were when they were teenagers.

The book was well written, and I highly recommend it to those who love seeing themselves in authentic characters but also to those who just love reading about women being themselves.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for the copy of the ebook. This review is left voluntarily.

I love this one! Such a fun take on dating, body positivity and social media. The main character is such a joy and as a queer woman I love seeing such authentic rep.

Big Date Energy is the bisexual rom com you've been waiting for! The book manages to centre big topics like family, friendship, queerness, fatness and sex with simulatenous pace and depth. I particularly loved the characterisation of the relationship between Fran and her mum. It was great to see a mother/relationship that showed how parents can be forces for good when it comes to body image and confidence. I'm sure this was both healing and encouraging for lots of readers!

I’m afraid this wasn’t for me (but I’m well aware I’m not the target audience). I got to 30% and lost interest. Sorry, but thanks for the chance to try.
The part I read was well written with some likeable characters- but the storyline didn’t grab me.

This was a simple, fun, easy and quick read. The perfect type of book for your holiday, beach, pool kind of read. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

I always love Bethany’s fantastic fat characters and Big Date Energy is no exception. The unapologetic fat babe representation was so beautiful to read and I also really enjoyed the queer and specifically bi representation as well. There’s a diverse range of lovable characters. Fran’s mum was probably one of my favourite characters. She was just so cute. I did however want to punch her brother in the face.

This is a fun beach read that had me laughing along. Fran’s dates were entertaining although I did find they got a bit repetitive towards the end. I wish we had more of the dating show and Fran & Ivy content to focus a bit more on the romance aspect. I found myself not really invested in whether they got together because we didn’t get to see a lot of them. However, I really loved that this showed that you can live without being in a relationship and that the love of friends and family is just as important.

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

I've read Bethany Rutter's YA books and enjoyed those, and this is my first adult book from her. I had so much fun reading this. The main character and her "slag era" felt really refreshing, but at the same time, I loved the second chance romance. I do wish we got to see maybe a little more of the dating show element and the resulting romance, because reading in depth about the main character's odd jobs didn't always feel super relevant.

This is an incredibly fizzy, charming romcom that manages to be thoughtful and a hell of a good time. Rutter refuses to fall into trope and convention — her characters are realistic and well-rounded — but the book still slips down as easily as a sip from a cold can of coke on a warm summer's day.

Big Date Energy is a fun romance novel by Bethany Rutter.
I absolutely love Bethany's books and Big Date energy certainly didn't disappoint.
The novel follows Fran, who is done with looking for love long term and just wants to stay single and date different people.
But Fran's mum has other ideas. She wants Fran to settle down and enters her into a new dating show. When Fran walks on set, she sees her first love Ivy, the one who got away.
I absolutely loved this novel. It was easy to follow and very entertaining. I read the book in two days. I love Bethany's writing and how her characters promote body positivity. A brilliant novel that I highly recommend.
❤️Big Date Energy is released on 1st February.
❤️ Thank you to netgalley, the publisher and author, Bethany Rutter for my arc ebook copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I am such a huge fan of Bethany’s writing and Big Date Energy is no exception. Within just a few pages I was cackling away and the reveal of her TV date made me gasp. I love Fran and her friends, and particularly loved a fat girl having a great and supportive relationship with her mother.

There was a lot I really enjoyed about this: the fat positivity, the way it's so unapolegically queer? Great stuff.

It started out as super fun to read but a significant amount of the book is just the same thing repeated over and over: Fran goes out on a date, has a good time and then has great sex afterwards. Which like... good for her, but it's boring to read the same thing after the second or third time? This would have been a better read if there had been a stronger plot.

3.5 rounded up

Spanning over a year of Fran's life, this book explores her dating life, friendship, family, and career, alongside a quick hop on a tv show. There are some unrealistic parts of this book - meeting back up with Ivy after the blow up, 99.9999% of her dates going well and them being great in bed, etc. It was all rather predictable but it was an enjoyable read. I found it a little hard to be invested in the end relationship as we didn't see all the much of it nor really hash out how hurt she was, but I think this would be an enjoyable book for a 'mindless' easy read. It had good bi and fat rep.

Oh this was such a fun read!

I'm a huge fan of Bethany personally and though I don't normally read romance, I make an exception for her and I loved her last adult novel, Welcome to Your Life.

This is a perfect beach read but it's also got some great points around feminism and fat activism which I loved, and it has such a fun positive energy which I really enjoyed.

This is the kind of book I want to buy for all my single friends!

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for the advance reader copy.

I think I went into this assuming it would be a romance and more about second chance romance than anything else. But there’s not a lot about that and more about the main character Fran dating.

I mainly gave the stars I have for the representation of bodies and sexualities within the story.

I found Fran quite selfish which was addressed in the book and wish this had been more about reconnecting and even the tv show.