Real Women Don't Wear Size 2

August 14, 2006
In St. John's sexy contemporary, staid size 10 Clarise Robinson, top salesperson at Eubanks Elegant Apparel, is determined to use the company retreat to go after her secret love, best friend and boss, Ethan Eubanks. Self-consciousness has kept her from pursuing him in earnest, but as Clarise turns 30, she decides it's "high time she at least tried to locate her wild side," and the office trip is the perfect opportunity: Tampa, Fla.'s Gasparilla Pirate Festival (think Mardi Gras on peg legs). With a new, body-hugging wardrobe and a sexual to-do list, Clarise decamps to Tampa, and while she drunkenly flashes her "Robinson Treasures" for trinkets, Ethan discovers his feelings for her are quite different outside the office. Amid plentiful and inventive sex, though, those old inhibitions take hold of Clarise and Ethan, who can't quite come clean about their sticky feelings. The hot fun is occasionally dampened by some distracting purple dialogue, and hobbled by a too-long ending. Still, this is steamy reading that should appeal to those in the Sex and the City
crowd who aren't getting their fill from standard chick lit.

September 1, 2006
Pleasingly plump sales clerk Clarise Robinson is turning 30, and she's decided that it's time to set her wild side free. This includes doing something about her secret crush on Ethan Eubanks, co-owner of Eubanks Elegant apparel, the upscale clothing store where she works. Ethan is Clarise's best friend and shows no inclination to move their relationship to a romantic level. Clarise also intends to go to the raucous, rowdy Gasparilla Pirate Festival, Tampa's version of the Mardi Gras, for the first time, where she's promised herself she'll let her inhibitions go, maybe earning a few strings of beads by flashing her finest assets. St. John (" Good Girls Don't" , 2005) continues to show her flair for comedic timing and dialogue in her latest chick-lit romp. Readers who enjoyed Meg Cabot's curvy, spunky heroine, Heather Wells, in " Size 12 Is Not Fat " (2006) will also cheer for St. John's plus-sized, spirited, newly confident femme fatale. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)