You Don’t Have to Say You Love MeWorldCat•LibraryThing•Google Books•BookFinder
This book was ah-mazing. Seriously. I recently did a review of another Sarra Manning novel, Unsticky, and I’m so glad that I didn’t judge Manning based solely on that. You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me was an upgraded version of Unsticky. Seriously, way upgraded version.
Before we get too far, the synopsis from GoodReads.com:
Sweet, bookish Neve Slater always plays by the rules. And the number one rule is that good-natured fat girls like her don’t get guys like gorgeous, handsome William, heir to Neve’s heart since university. But William’s been in LA for three years, and Neve’s been slimming down and re-inventing herself so that when he returns, he’ll fall head over heels in love with the new, improved her.
So she’s not that interested in other men. Until her sister Celia points out that if Neve wants William to think she’s an experienced love-goddess and not the fumbling, awkward girl he left behind, then she’d better get some, well, experience.
What Neve needs is someone to show her the ropes, someone like Celia’s colleague Max. Wicked, shallow, sexy Max. And since he’s such a man-slut, and so not Neve’s type, she certainly won’t fall for him. Because William is the man for her… right?
Somewhere between losing weight and losing her inhibitions, Neve’s lost her heart – but to who?
From the synopsis, the book seems pretty predictable, right? Well, it sort of is. But, not in a bad way. Even if I could already guess how to was going to end, it didn’t take away from how great of a book it was.
The story was well-written and the dialog was original and funny. I loved the characters, something that I couldn’t say about my previous Manning read, Unsticky.
Neve has a never ending list of body issues. Neve Slater used to be morbidly obese and with a ton of dedication and perseverance she was able to drop a ton of weight. Unfortunately, she couldn’t drop her body hang-ups. Part of why I loved Neve so much was because I can relate to her. I’ve lost weight and am still losing weight, and even when I get to that magic number of pounds, I know I’ll still have tons of reservations about my body. And I’m sure I’ll be just as annoying about them as Neve was in the book. Still though, she was likable and intelligent. Two things I love in a heroine.
Max. Oh, Max. He had his own set of issues to overcome. And even though he was described as something of a male slut, he didn’t come across that way to me. And once he and Neve entered into their “pancake” relationship, he seemed totally committed. I instantly loved the two of them together. And Max was sweet. He was believable too. He was a great guy who never treated Neve like crap or tried to make her feel bad about herself.
Then there’s William. In Neve’s mind, he’s amazing. He had a way with words and seemed very involved with Neve. While reading, I got the impression that he was just using Neve and… well, you’ll see. William certainly wasn’t getting any love from me!
Max and Neve’s pseudo relationship progressed at a natural pace. It was so believable and it left me with a happy little feeling. So many people commented on the length of the book, 500+ pages. But I didn’t even notice the length. It was entertaining and it didn’t feel like it was dragging on.
On to the more intimate details 😉 I don’t want to give away too many details, but I loved the way these little sections of the book were written, as well. It wasn’t a hard core romance novel, but it certainly had it’s fair share of sexual scenes. And unlike some books, *cough* Fifty Shades… *cough*, whose sexual scenes come off fake and way exaggerated, Manning did an excellent job of writing the sex scenes. They weren’t exaggerated or over done in any way. Plus, I couldn’t help but LOVE Max. He made the entire story better. Definitely Fictional Boyfriend Material.
I definitely recommend this chick lit book. It’s well written and better than a lot of other similar novels. And if Unsticky left you wanting more, definitely try out this book!
So, are you craving pancakes? 😉
