Jemima J
Jemima J: A Novel About Ugly Ducklings and Swans
Author: Jane Green
373 Pages in Paperback
Published: June 6, 2000
Dates Read: Sept 20- Oct 11, 2011
My Rating: 2 Stars
Book Summary from Amazon:
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.
With a fast-paced plot that never quits and a surprise ending no reader will see coming, Jemima J is the chronicle of one woman’s quest to become the woman she’s always wanted to be, learning along the way a host of lessons about attraction, addiction, the meaning of true love, and, ultimately, who she really is.
My review in 2011:
A coworker let me borrow the book. She enjoyed it. I liked the beginning and the very end. It’s the rest I have a problem with. With the author’s description of Jemima, I pictured her at over 350 pounds until the author reveals that she is about 5’7 and 217 pounds. That was a shocker! A real woman that size does not match the author’s description of the character. I also have a BIG problem with the way Jemima quickly lost the weight. It was not in a healthy way! It also seemed like a lot of the book dealt with outside appearances and not what’s on the inside, which is what actually matters. This book is not recommended.