Review: Bikini Season

Summary: Erin Merritt has returned to her scenic hometown of Heart Lake to plan her wedding, but when she repeatedly runs into her childhood crush, she wonders if she’s engaged to the wrong man. To make matters worse, all the stress is making her eat, and now she can’t fit into her wedding dress.

Erin enlists the help of her cooking club--Angela, Megan and Kizzy--and the Teeny Bikini Diet Club is born. The women make a pact to get slim enough to wear their bikinis to the lake by summertime, a pact that changes their lives forever. With a little help from her friends, Angela faces her fear that her marriage is crumbling. Megan confronts the self-esteem issues that have always held her back. Kizzy deals with her husband’s efforts to sabotage her diet and keep her overweight. And Erin learns some important truths about love.

Pull up your favorite beach chair and savor this funny, inspiring story about being true to yourself and following your heart, and the women who enrich our lives. - st. martin's press

BIKINI SEASON by Sheila Roberts was just the book that I needed this week. I have been home with two sick kids all week, and I'm starting to feel a little down. (Like many moms, I just can't stand to see my kids unhappy or in pain.) I decided to take a somewhat positive approach on being trapped in my home and figured that I could get a lot of reading done. I looked at a few books in my TBR pile and decided that I just wanted to read something fun and uplifting -- BIKINI SEASON was the obvious pick.

I have to admit, that every once in awhile, I enjoy reading a feel-good book about the power of female friendships. What made BIKINI SEASON special was that the their friendship centered around helping each other lose weight (for a variety of reasons.) The women in this novel were from all different backgrounds, different races, different ages, and different shapes and sizes; yet they all loved and supported each other through everything. I thought all the members of the Teeny Bikini Diet Club were extremely likable, and I found myself "rooting" for them in their diets as well as their lives.

I have been toying with the idea of starting Weight Watchers to take off a few pounds, and this book definitely motivated me. All of the low-fat, low-calorie food mentioned in the book sounded delicious, and the author provided the recipes at the back of the book. I thought the characters' weight-loss stories were very realistic and very inspiring. The characters' actions will sound familiar to anyone who has ever tried to lose weight. I also liked how the author made the women very human in their dieting struggles -- they did have "bad" eating days, but always went back to eating healthy the next day.

If you are looking for a light "beach-type" read, I suggest taking a look at BIKINI SEASON. It's just a fun read about the strength of women and their friendships.