Review: Jemima J. by Jane Green

Title: Jemima J.
Author: Jane Green
Series: N/A
Release Date: June 5, 2001
Pages: 384
Genres: Adult Contemporary, Chick Lit, Romance
Source: Purchased

Jemima Jones is overweight. About one hundred pounds overweight. Treated like a maid by her thin and social-climbing roommates, and lorded over by the beautiful Geraldine (less talented but better paid) at the Kilburn Herald, Jemima finds that her only consolation is food. Add to this her passion for her charming, sexy, and unobtainable colleague Ben, and Jemima knows her life is in need of a serious change. When she meets Brad, an eligible California hunk, over the Internet, she has the perfect opportunity to reinvent herself–as JJ, the slim, beautiful, gym-obsessed glamour girl. But when her long-distance Romeo demands that they meet, she must conquer her food addiction to become the bone-thin model of her e-mails–no small feat.

This book was okay, to say the least...maybe a little less than okay. At first, I really liked Jemima and there were times when I felt like I was reading things that I've thought before.

Feeling inadequate because of weight? Yep.
Having a huge crush on someone and them not really noticing you? Duh!
Having a gorgeous friend that makes you feel even more inadequate? Totally.

Basically, the entire beginning had me going...

But beyond that, I had some issues with this book.

First, I felt like Jane Green had started writing the book with different scenarios that she wanted to tackle, but then as she went on she just left them hanging. For example, there was a point in the story where it sounded like Jemima was going to have negative effects because of her crazy weight loss (more on that later) and her sick addiction to the gym, but unless you count on getting the man of your dreams as a negative effect, that entire plot point that she hinted at just sat there. AND YES, SHE HINTED AT IT!

"He is convinced that under the golden skin. . . Jemima Jones may not be as healthy as she looks."

The next thing that I had a MAJOR issue with is that Jemima loses 100 pounds in 3 months. 3 MONTHS!!


Like what even was she thinking?? First off, I don't even think that is possible! And if someone did attempt to do that, then the character would be starving themselves and Jemima would have ended up in the hospital. This was a plot point I thought the author would visit, as I stated earlier, but nothing bad happened to Jemima. I just had a huge issue with this.

Also, Ben was kind of a douche. Just going to throw that out there. In the end, he doesn't even recognize Jemima in front of him and says that he would rather ditch Jemima to be with this "mystery" woman in front of him. In the end, he only fell in love with her, or I should say acknowledged that he loved her, because she was skinny and pretty.


Sure the very last paragraph made up for it A BIT. But pretty much throughout the entire book, I was looking to see how much further I needed to read to be done with it. All in all, it was a disappointment.

Sorry, Jane...