Good Luck With That by Kristan Higgins – 480 pages
Book Blurb:
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.
My Review: 3.5 stars
Good Luck With That is Kristan Higgins first crossover book from her best-selling contemporary romances to woman’s fiction. It was my first Higgin’s book.
Taking on obesity, body image, friendship, death, survival guilt, society’s view on weight, parenting and budding relationships was tackled in a raw and real way. That is what I liked about this book. It made the reader consider judgments we carry about others and those we carry every time we look in our own mirror. It’s so easy for a person to give me a compliment and immediately I’ll follow up with something that’s negative about me. Sadly, we’ve been conditioned to accept society’s expectations of beauty. This has been ingrained since early childhood.
There are a lot controversial issues brought up in this book. Most will pull at your heartstrings and cause a plethora of emotions to bubble to the surface. I enjoyed most of them. In my opinion however, there were just too many subplots and hot button topics woven through that left some unfinished and others wrapped up too quickly. This novel could’ve been pared down a ton. Honestly, I skimmed Emerson’s pages and her purported version of herself. Finally, I thought the cover art was well done as it in no way influenced what the story would be about. I did see a cover of another version (shown below) that has three women walking; all of them thin to average size. I hope that one gets canned. The authenticity and sincerity of this book must be transferred to the cover if the cover has a representation of three friends.
I’m willing to try another book by Higgins that falls into women’s fiction, with hopes of a more succinct storyline. 
Quotes I liked:
All the misery of being a fat teenager in America, trying so hard to be invisible, quiet, not to draw attention to myself.”
-“…they were just normal, and they were enjoying that elusive state of simply BEING…”
-“This one is for all of us who’ve cried when looking in the mirror. Here’s to never doing that again.”
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