This was okay.

Well, this sure was a thing.

If The Shoe Fits is a modern retelling of Cinderella, but it’s a very loose adaptation. In this tale, Cindy, our protagonist, is a shoe designer and plus-size woman rather than a princess. Also, unlike Cinderella, she has a great relationship with her family which was one of the things I really enjoyed about the book. Cindy ends up being on a Bachelor style dating show in which she tries to find romance.

I have learned from the internet that If the Shoe Fits is the first adult novel from the author as she normally writes teen fiction and wow, did that make more sense. This has a real teen fiction feel, which isn’t a bad thing at all, but the character didn’t necessarily feel like an adult? She could have been 19 and the book would have felt the same to me, really. Everything was a bit too tame for me, which maybe is why I felt like it leans more toward a teen. I did love the representation of a plus-size woman, and I thought Murphy’s real stand-out writing came within talking about those aspects of Cindy’s life.

Overall, this was a fine book, but the big drawback for me was the actual romance element. Cindy’s love interest was incredibly boring, and it really didn’t feel like there was any chemistry or spark between them. The Bachelor element was fun, I love books set within the world of reality shows, but I wish this had a little more oomph to it. Perhaps it’s because this trod the line between new adult and teen for me, but they kiss a few times and there’s a fade to black scene that gives literally nothing away. I don’t need all my romance to be erotic or have heavy sex scenes, but if you’re NOT going to include those, you better make sure the romance and chemistry are popping off the page for me to care about your characters since they can’t have a physical aspect to the relationship. It just fell flat for me. This felt more like a coming-of-age story or a general relationship fiction novel more than a romance, which was disappointing. Great premise with everything around it is very enjoyable, but the actual focus, the romance, really faltered.

Title:  If The Shoe Fits
Author:  Julie Murphy
Format: Paperback
Pages:  304
ISBN:   9781368053372

Three Descriptors: Cute, Sensitive, Teens will love

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