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If the Boot Fits

This seems to be the year of great romances between fabulous fat women and Hollywood heartthrobs. If The Boot Fits continued the party Olivia Dade’s Spoiler Alert started for me.

This second book in Weatherspoon’s Cowboys of California series returns to a luxury SoCal ranch setting, with two characters who are stuck in their Hollywood careers. Sam Pleasant is a movie star who just won an Oscar for a film he’s ambivalent about, and is burnt out and unsure what to do next. Amanda is an aspiring writer who’s let her day job as an actress’s personal assistant take over her life. Her boss is a diva whose tantrums keep Amanda too stressed to pursue her screenwriting dreams. After a friend gets Amanda a ticket to an Oscars afterparty, she and Sam have an off-the-page one night stand, with Amanda sneaking out the next morning, assuming they’ll never meet again. But Hollywood is a small place, and these two keep running into each other, starting with the wedding of a mutual actress friend that just happens to be held at Sam’s family’s ranch.

I picked up this rom-com during a week when I desperately needed a laugh, and it was the perfect comfort read. I love consent-seeking cowboys and sci fi-loving fangirls, and If The Boot Fits gave me both. They meet in L.A., but fall in love while bantering about cattle dogs and horses, in a bucolic setting that serves as a refuge. Amanda and Sam are so obviously into one another, and yet so deliciously clueless about each other’s interest. It was a pleasure watching them slowly figure out how much they have in common (including a love of SFF shows) and flirt shamelessly as they do.

Amanda initially lies to Sam, telling him she’s a busy screenwriter instead of an underappreciated assistant who has to keep answering demanding calls about lunch orders. It takes her forever to come clean, which I found stressful AF, but this obstacle is eventually resolved in a minimally frustrating way.

I appreciated the many plus-sized characters who inhabit this book, including Amanda, who is matter of fact about it. If you are looking for a fat heroine who loves her body, and has zero baggage about her size, this is your book. Amanda is confident about her appeal, even as she’s embarrassed by her job.

To my surprise, one of my favorite things about this story was the three-dimensional villain, Amanda’s awful boss Dru. She is demanding, superficial, and spoiled, but she’s neither stupid nor totally unsympathetic. Dru is a biracial woman in a tough industry, and I could understand how Amanda would get sucked into a codependent dynamic with her, even though I spent much of the book internally screaming at Amanda to quit her job, move to the ranch, and sit on Sam’s face.

This loose retelling of Cinderella is funny, charming, and felt like a down to earth fairy tale. I loved revisiting the playful Pleasant clan, with their unique mix of Black Hollywood Royalty and Western-style chivalry. My only annoyance was that a few of the secondary characters from the first book seemed to have different personalities here. For example, the laid-back teddy bear and eldest brother, Jesse, from the first book seemed glowering and tantrum-prone in this one. That shift wouldn’t stop this book from working as a stand alone, but might annoy readers of the series. I definitely recommend If The Boot Fits for fans of the “Oops, I fell for my one night stand” trope, and teasing banter between confident heroines and supportive heroes.

– Shana

From award-winning author Rebekah Weatherspoon comes a thoroughly modern take on the timeless tale of a struggling Cinderella who finds her prince charming at the eleventh hour—and the adventure that ensues the morning after . . .

Working as the personal assistant to one of Hollywood’s cruelest divas has left Amanda Queen more determined than ever to sell her screenplay and gain her independence. In the meantime, she’ll settle for a temporary escape. When her employer is felled by the flu on Hollywood’s biggest night of the year, Amanda gets her glam on, struts out the door, and parties with the glitterati. But she never expects to come face to face—and closer than close—with one of the hottest stars in the game . . .

Following up his first Oscar win with a steamy after-hours romp with an enigmatic woman seems like the perfect way for actor Sam Pleasant to celebrate—until she suddenly disappears. Worse, she’s vanished with the wrong swag bag: the one containing his Oscar statue, leaving Sam even more intrigued about the beauty’s identity—and wondering if a repeat performance of their amazing night is in the stars. And when a second chance encounter happens, only a trip to Sam’s family ranch—and revealing the whole, not-always-glamorous, truth about themselves—will give them a chance to turn one magical night into forever . . .