Mean Girls

By: Lucy Felthouse

Narrated by: Xanthia Bloom

Length: 1 hr and 56 mins

Publisher's Summary

Adele Blackthorne is a big girl, a curvy chick. She knows it, and she's been picked on all her life because of it. But she's gotten to the stage where she doesn't care. She may be Rubenesque, but she's healthy, too. Much healthier than the mean girls at the leisure center that point and stare and say spiteful things about her. Adele rises above it all, and simply enjoys her secretive glances at the center's hunky lifeguard, Oliver.

As the bullying of Adele becomes worse, Oliver finds it increasingly difficult not to intervene. He doesn't want to get into trouble with work, but equally he can't stand to see Adele treated in such a horrible way. Especially since he doesn't agree that she's fat and unattractive. He thinks she's a seriously sexy woman, and would like to get to know her better. Much better.

©2016 Lucy Felthouse (P)2017 Lucy Felthouse

Adele swims every day at the leisure center....

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Adele swims every day at the leisure center. She always has her eye out for the hot lifeguard, Oliver. She believes he is way out of her league because he is handsome and fit and she is a girl with a few extra pounds.

Oliver, the lifeguard, admires Adele from afar – on top of his lifeguard stand. He admires Adele's strength as a swimmer as well as her self-control around mean-spirited peers, who enjoy talking about Adele's size front of everyone. Their comments are far from flattering!

After an interlude in the sauna, Oliver and Adele seem to be on the right track, but poor Oliver makes a comment for which the author doesn't seem to forgive him (*smile*) but it moves the story along and we get to enjoy their sweet bumbling around.

Xanthia Bloom has a wonderful voice and gives a perfect performance with her lovely accent.

This short story is reminiscent of Bridget Jones's Diary. I would consider it feel good, Chic Lit. Fantastic for any occasion, beach or otherwise. However, it is not something you want to listen to in the car with the little ones, as there are several NC-17 scenes that began about halfway through the book. :-)

Five stars all around

**I received this book in exchange for my unbiased review. I hope that you will take a moment and select – yes – below if you found this review helpful. I invite you to consider following me here on Audible to get my most recent reviews. Thank you.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Sweet Short Love Story

Mean Girls was a great short story about how love is love no matter the body image.  I adored the way Oliver found Adele irresistible and made her aware of his attraction. I especially loved how he defended her even when she didn't need him to.  The narration was good.  The only struggle I had with this is  I believe Adele was a middle aged woman but was dealing with catty high school drama.  Overall this was a sweet read with a little spice!  I received this book free in exchange for a honest review.

A Sexy Way to Promote Body Acceptance

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Mean Girls is a quick and steamy/read listen, but the narrator, title, and cover are sort of misleading or confusing. The narrators adolescent voice made me think that the age of the characters was perhaps in the teens, but it turns out we're dealing with grown people. Adele (the female lead) is near 40. She's fit and healthy, but overweight. She's constantly harassed at the swimming pool she frequents by a group of "mean girls" which turn out to be a group of 3 grown women. She's attracted to the gorgeous lifeguard on duty, Oliver, and it turns out, he's attracted to her too. The story is sweet as they struggle to connect, despite their shyness and reservations, and it's surprisingly hot. It's a great little ode to body acceptance, with a strong message that women of all shapes and sizes are worthy of love and desire. I give Mean Girls 3 out of 5 wine glasses.

Quick Listen

This was a quick morning listen. Can't really say it was funny, ir dramatic. It was a dolid quick short story. I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Super Sweet and Sexy!

Super Sweet and Sexy!

Adele is so adorable and so is the main love interest Oliver!

Adele Blackthorne is curvy and she knows it and she owns it! She made herself sick when she tried to live up to others ideas of what is the right ideal type for her body, so she made a pack with herself to be healthy not skinny. So what if she isn't a size 2. She is a chef, owns her own business, and not only eats healthy but also swims at the local leisure center. This is where she gets eyefuls of the hunky lifeguard who stars in her fantasies on a regular basis.

Oliver hears the hateful things the mean girls say about Adele, and he hates it. Turns out he has been lusting after Adele just as much if not more. He wants to do something about the verbal bullying, but doesn’t want to get fired. He totally blows his shot at telling Adele how he feels, but luckily a cheerful bartender helps him fix his blunder.

The two give love a second chance and find out that they have a lot more in common than they might have thought. They are so sweet and adorable together, I just want to give them both a big hug! I totally agree with Adele that there is a big difference between being naked in front of someone and stripping in front of them. Being naked is just naked, but if you strip for someone, it is a long focus on your body and way more unnerving.

Don't worry about the b*@#%es, cause they don't go un-scolded.

This audiobook is narrated by Xanthia Bloom. She does a good job with all the various characters, as well as with the story telling.

Overall I give this 5 of 5 stars!
Audiobook was given to me for free at my request in exchange for an unbiased review.
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When size doesn't and shouldn't matter

Any additional comments?

Another quick read from Lucy Felthouse, but again I feel satisfied.

This is about Adele, a bigger woman, and Oliver, a lifeguard. I'm guessing if he's a lifeguard he is fit and in shape, so let's just go with that.

Either way, Oliver wants Adele. Adele is crushing on Oliver.

It's quite perfect. Well, it is once we get rid of those pesky mean girls. You know the ones. Those who bad mouth and judge everyone because a)they're jealous or b)they're petty. Or both. It could be both.

You'll get sexy times, laughter, and fun in this story. Grab it today!

"This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review."

Not going to be a favorite

I liked that Adele is fit, healthy, and plus size. She shows that people can be confident and sexy at any size (most of the time).

The interactions between Adele and Oliver are a bit strange, on several occasions I thought 'Really? Would anyone actually say that?'. I also sometimes felt that there was sections of dialogue in there just for the sake of having the characters speak, it added nothing to the story.

The story is OK, but I didn't connect with it or the characters.

The narration fits the story, the character voices are consistent and well delivered.

This book was supplied free by the author/narrator/publisher and I voluntarily wrote this honest review.

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Good Short Story

I got this ARC via audiobook boom. The narrator was very good. The story is one of showing that in spite of the mean girls Adele is able to catch the eye of the lifeguard. The lifeguard/ has been watching her all along. This is the case of the good girl gets the guy. Very short story but nice. Perhaps if it were longer she would have stepped up and fought her own battle but it is ok for someone else to help you fight.

Better Title: Nice Girl and Guy Prevail.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I received a copy of Mean Girls from the author, via AudioBook Boom, in exchange for an objective review. I enjoy reading romance, so I was open to listening after reading the blurb. First off, Mean Girls is definitely a novella, if not a slightly prolonged short story. In fact, if you take out the erotic sections, what it reminded me of most was the short story romances I used to read in my grandmother's Good Housekeeping magazines 40+ years ago. Those stories were short and sweet - they had a heroine who was misunderstood for whatever reason, and a hero who cut through the nonsense and fell in love. And that's what Mean Girls is. I actually find the name a bit irritating, as it grants importance to the very people and ideas the triumphant couple put in their place. So as long as you don't expect more, this is a delightful story. If you start analyzing too much, you find the age difference, the heroine's protests about her inability to lose weight, and the middle school behavior of the titular mean girls a bit hard to swallow, so just don't. Take it for what it is: a well-performed, sweet story. It has a few explicit sex scenes - some imaginary, and some real - so if that puts you off, don't listen. Otherwise, it's a nice short diversion, just like those stories from long ago.

Good read

Any additional comments?

Mean Girls by Lucy Felthouse was a good book. Adele is a big girl who is finally at the stage of not caring what people think. Adele is a very healthy woman who meets the sexy lifeguard Oliver while swimming. Unfortunately there is one clique of women who make it a point to bully Adele. I loved reading this book.

Big bottom girls are sexy

Where does Mean Girls rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Uplifting story where the sexy girl is big, buxom and upbeat, the skinny girls are mean and do not attract the lifeguard.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Adele, she was strong, self assured and refused to let mean girls get to her.

Have you listened to any of Xanthia Bloom’s other performances? How does this one compare?

Not listened to one before, this was a pleasant starter

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Oliver the tongued tied hero become extremely out spoken and protective of his size 20 girlfriend. It makes a great change to see that not all heroines are a size 10

Any additional comments?

“I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.”

Short in length and heavy on delightful content!

This book is a snapshot into the start of a wonderfully sexy, fun and mature relationship. Interestingly, it doesn't begin from first sight. The two characters, Adele and Oliver are already aware of each other, attracted to each other and equally unsure of themselves. They both know what they like, know what they want and suffer from a slight lack of confidence. I suppose sometimes we see ourselves so clearly that we miss the parts of ourselves that are truly amazing. This is definitely true of the protagonists.

That said, this short, easy-to-listen-to story is a celebration of attraction in all its forms and a poignant criticism of today's standards of beauty. It is delightfully funny and remarkable real in its approach to insecurities, sex and the preconceived expectations of beauty. For such a short story to do all this and not miss out on keeping-it-real (and a little messy) sex is pretty incredible.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.