When I first saw this book advertised, the title attracted me to the blurb and that was enough to have me clicking 'request'. I like books that are set very much in the real world with real people problems waiting to be solved.
When I started reading it, the plot engaged me straight away (the 'he told her on the 13th day before the wedding' was such a good hook - and isn't a spoiler as it comes very early on in the story) but I had an issue with the naming of the main character. It was clearly done with great clarity of thought by the author and it wasn't Hazell I had a problem with, it was the characters themselves. It was such a horrible nickname to bestow upon someone they supposedly cared for that I found it quite disturbing and it turned me against Piglet's family from the beginning. We then discover the origins of the name and it is heartbreaking for so many reasons. Later on in the book comes the scene in the wedding shop and I was apoplectic. There is no wonder that Piglet is the way she is and makes (what I consider to be) all the wrong decisions in her life.
Her response to stress is extreme and might come across to some as completely unrealistic, but I could completely relate to it. I haven't had a healthy relationship with food since becoming anorexic in my mid-teens and I swing between wanting to eat nothing and everything. Losing weight is a constant battle trying to balance my natural reaction to just stop eating with the awareness that isn't healthy for me and is a poor example to my children. When life gets stressful, eating is the one thing I can definitely control and whichever direction I go in, I have had to train myself to listen to the voice in my head telling me not to go to extremes. Therefore, I completely sympathised with Piglet in this. The pressure she is under from her family and herself would overwhelm anyone, let alone someone already trying to plan a wedding and then when a relationship crisis is thrown into the mix, there's no wonder she struggles to cope!
At times, this isn't an easy read because Piglet deserves so much better from life than she believes she does. Thank goodness for her friend, Margot and in the end, even her family had redeemed themselves slightly in my eyes.
Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC.