Blindsided

Written by: Amy Daws
Reviewed by: Mary Warren

Mac is a professional soccer player, easy on the eyes and smooth with the ladies. Freya is a plus size seamstress with very little experience with romance. When Mac offers to give his delightfully awkward best friend lessons in the bedroom, the scenario plays out much as one might expect, but that won’t stop us. We all love it.

While this is a trope we can all get behind, this book also delivers on the characters and the story. Freya is relatable and lovable and is easy to root for. Mac is a dreamboat; he is a hunky, tattooed, ginger Scottish footballer with a heart of gold. His love for Freya and their friendship is evident in everything he does. These two characters care very deeply for each other. Of course there are missteps while their friendship grows into something else, but their quick and witty banter never stops.

This is the first book by Amy Daws I have read. Reading a book with fat representation by an author who writes a majority of straight-sized characters is always a crap shoot. When writing fat characters, there’s always a risk of falling into fatphobic tropes and stereotypes, and authors who don’t have experience writing about or living as a fat person are at greater risk of these pitfalls. Daws, however, does a wonderful job of making Freya multidimensional. Freya is easy to love and identify with and the book is wonderful because of that.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I went in not quite sure what to expect, but I would say it is in my top 10 of fat girls romances. This one will definitely be a book I read again and again. The audiobook uses two narrators, which I love for romance novels, and they did a fantastic job.  So yeah, if you are in the mood for a romcom that has the perfect balance of sweet and spicy, I would recommend this one, in either text or audiobook form.