Book ~ "Phoning It In" (2012) Anne Wentworth

From Goodreads ~ Melinda can summarize her life in a few words: dead-end job, nonexistent love life, and a contentious relationship with her older sister - not exactly the rosy picture she had of life at 25.

When Benoit enters the picture, she falls hard. Gorgeous, funny, and smart, he’s everything she’s ever wanted in a man and more but she can’t fathom that he could possibly want a plus-sized girl like her.

Tired of going through the motions, Melinda tries to find the courage to pursue her dream career, but working for a publishing company would mean moving away from everyone and everything she knows and loves. Is she content to remain in her comfortable rut, or is it time to strike out on her own and seize her chance at getting what she’s always wanted?

Melinda is a supervisor of call centre reps and despises her job.  She had such high hopes when she graduated from university.  But it pays the bills and she's stuck in a rut.

She is looking for love but doesn't think she's good enough to love because she has some extra pounds.  She has great friends who tell her how wonderful she is inside and out but she dismisses their compliments.  When she meets Benoit, she is smitten right away and they start hanging out together ... she assumes they are just friends (though she wants more) and is shocked when he tells her he is attracted to her.

This is the first book I've read by this author and I liked it.  I liked the writing style and storyline.  It is written in third person.

I liked the characters.  I liked Melinda for the most part.  She was smart and funny.  I liked the interactions between her and Benoit.  She was very insecure, though, and whined a lot about her perceived inadequacies ... and it was the same whines over and over and over.  Even when things were going great and she should be happy, she was still going on about her weight, her amazement that handsome Benoit would care about a tubby like her, what would they do if she got a new job and she had to move away, etc.  I would find her to be a drag to be around when she got into one of her funks.  She was 25 but I found her very immature at times.  Melinda is close to her parents but not her cold distant sister, Susan.  I found her mother's reaction really odd to something Susan did ... it would have been nice to know why her mother reacted that way.

She had great friends in Lou Lou and Blaine.  They were very supportive and had a lot of patience (it was good to see their patience finally crack, though).

I would recommend this book if you are looking for chick lit.