45 Pounds (More or Less)

45 Pounds (More or Less) by K.A. Barson

*May Contain Spoilers*

Here are the numbers of Ann Galardi’s life:

She is 16.
And a size 17.
Her perfect mother is a size 6.
Her Aunt Jackie is getting married in 10 weeks, and wants Ann to be her bridesmaid.
So Ann makes up her mind: Time to lose 45 pounds (more or less) in 2 1/2 months.

Welcome to the world of infomercial diet plans, wedding dance lessons, embarrassing run-ins with the cutest guy Ann’s ever seen—-and some surprises about her NOT-so-perfect mother.

And there’s one more thing. It’s all about feeling comfortable in your own skin-—no matter how you add it up!**


I received this book from Net-Galley as an ARC.

I picked this book to read and was so excited when I was approved to read it. I know how Ann feels. I was and sometimes still am Ann.  Ann is a teenager, that is so focused on food that its all she thinks about.  She's obsessed and her mother is obsessed with what she eats, which only makes Ann more obsessed with food.  Shopping is painful, having friends is non existent, well real ones anyway.  Ann just feels like no one understands her, no one wants to have anything to do with her.

Not only does she deal with her weight but she deals with her parents divorce and their new families.  Her mom married Mike a politician and Her dad married Nancy, better known as Godzilla. Both sets of parents have new kids and she feels like the new families are more important. When all of that started she at least had her brother Tony but now he's gone and she can't even get him to answer a Facebook message from her.

All the while Ann constantly struggles with her weight, she orders a new diet system off of an infomercial. Something about it just makes her think it will stick.  Her aunt Jackie drops by one night with her girlfriend and lets everyone know that her and Chris are getting married and wants Ann to be a bridesmaid. Immediately Ann knows that means dress shopping and she knows she HAS to loose some weight so that she can fit in to a dress.  She starts working out with the Secrets 2 Success (S2S)  plan she ordered, she eats the food and she gets a job to fill her time.  She loses weight, she works hard and slips sometimes, but she's determined.

After a while she finds that while this plan is working for her, she's learning that she can eat food that doesn't taste like cardboard and still be healthy. She also notices that what her mom and her do about food and weight is seriously screwing up her baby sister, Libby, who is four and is worried about getting fat so she doesn't eat.  Ann has enough and blows up at her mom at the rehearsal dinner for aunt Jackie's wedding.  Ann learns somethings about her mom that she never knew, things that explain a great deal about why her mom is so obsessed with weight.

I really enjoyed this story. Watching Ann realize that no matter what size clothes a person wears they have to be happy with themselves. There is a cute boy involved and the interactions with Jon (cute boy) are so small I don't want to let any of that slip. I will say that the butterflies that Ann gets around him, make you feel like you're a teenager yourself.  Ann figures out that maybe not having her dad around all the time is a good thing, because honestly he's a dick.  I really wish we could of seen more from Tony, I feel like he just left her high and dry, with out any thought.  All in all I thought this books was great. Check it out!! You'll enjoy it!

**Goodreads Summary