Rating: 
Summary: Well written, but with mixed messages
Review: Although I enjoyed the style and the story of this book, and I was caught up in the trials and tribulations of Jemima Jones, I was left ultimately with mixed feelings. Jemima is very overweight, and, although a very talented writer, she hasn't been promoted at work mainly because of her looks. She is in love with Ben Williams, her handsome coworker, who thinks of her only as a friend. And, she is also friends with the beautiful Geraldine, whose copy she re-writes, and who was promoted before Jemima, mainly because of her looks.We know that it is a cruel, one-dimensional world, and this is further proven when Jemima meets a California hunk on-line. He wants to meet her, so she drives herself into an exercise-obsessed, unhealthy diet, to make her into a beautiful woman. And, her life changes, but she still feels her old self on the inside. Jemima travels from London to California to meet Brad, the hunk, but nothing is as it seems on the surface. Lessons are reviewed on the dangers of judging people by their outward appearance. Also, there are people who will love what is inside, but are afraid to show it to the world. But, the most confusing lesson is that it seems Jemima, who was always smart and talented and beautiful, could not find love until she lost weight. And, this is simply not true. And, were I Jemima, I would wonder how someone who loved her as a friend would suddenly fall madly in love with her once she was thin. This is a light, entertaining read, but it has too many mixed messages for me to be left completely satisfied with the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Complete and utter waste of time
Review: What a disappointment. The story starts out nice, but turns into a complete farce. From 200 plus pounds to 120 in 3 months?? Give me a freaking break. And not only does the heroine drop weight in the blink of an eye, she's **gasp** the most beautiful person in the world and **gasp** every single man who meets her must have her. Whatever. Thin people should do a little bit more research before they decide to write a "fat girl" book. There's just too many of us who are going through it to buy into this ... . Do youself a favor and read "Getting over it" or "Good in Bed". Those are worth the time.
Rating:
Summary: Truly Bad
Review: Having lost 156 pounds myself, I was excited to read this book. In the first 1/3 I totally related to Jemima. At my highest weight I was 347 pounds and I was huge. I had three chins. I couldn't fit in a regular sized seat. I ate way more food than I should have. I kept feeling like YES, I know Jemima's pain! Then Green breaks the news that Jemima only weighs 217 pounds. WHAT??? Shattered. All hope for this book was shattered. At the time I read Jemima J, I weighed 210 and was wearing a size 16. I was in no way disgusting, nor did any of the discriptions of Jemima even come close to being real for a 217 pound size 16/18 woman.
It made me really mad.
This is not a fairy tale.
Rating: 
Summary: How Can I Be the Only One Who Sees it?
Review: Yes, there are a lot of unbelievable twists, and yes it is a fairy tale...but isn't that why fiction is so great? Jemima is a great heroine, and a tolerably life-like character. I see myself in her far more than I'm comfortable with. The group of friends I have passed this onto have loved it just as much as I have. Perhaps it should only be read by those who are less pompous elitists and more fun-loving materialists.
Rating: 
Summary: I Liked It Until I Finished It
Review: I was so upset when I finished this book that I considered giving it one star. But I reserve single star ratings for books that are so awful I can't finish them, or have to struggle to do so, and "Jemima J" was not one of those. On the contrary, it is very well written, with a likeable protagonist and an interesting storyline. So what was the problem? Basically, everything that's already been outlined by other Amazon reviewers. The funny thing was, while I was reading I wasn't shocked by the fact that a 217 pound, 5'7 woman was portrayed as grotesquely obese, and that her isolation and unhappiness were blamed entirely on her weight. I knew that this was ridiculous, and my assumption was that this was simply insecure Jemima's perception of herself, as it is for many women who can't wear a size six. I did raise my eyebrows when Jemima dropped a hundred pounds in a matter of months, but I was sure that later on it would catch up to her in the form of some kind of health effects, perhaps placing her under a doctor's much needed care. And I hoped that either a) Ben would recognize that he loved Jemima BEFORE he saw her newly emaciated body, thus displaying some depth of character that we hadn't previously seen, or b) Jemima would realize that she was way too good for such a shallow celebrity wannabe. None of this happened. Instead, when I closed the book I was left with the message that people who weigh much more than a hundred pounds are fat, and that fat people have no friends, lousy jobs, and eat like horses. People who find fat women attractive, like Brad, are sexual deviants, and even they are ashamed to be seen with a fat girlfriend - and that this is all okay. Moral of the story: if you are fat, your only chance for happiness is to lose half your body weight, which is simple once you put your mind to it. Once you conform to society's standards of acceptable size (or at any rate, the author's standards), all your deams will come true, just like they did for Jemima. EXCUSE ME?!? There is a brief postscript tacked on to the last page, advising that now that Jemima has acheived all of her goals, she's let herself go a little, but don't worry, she's come to accept and love herself for what she is: a "voluptuous" size 10. Voluptuous? Are you kidding me? I know that Jane Green has a few other books published, and once I get over feeling offended by "Jemima J" I might give one of them a try. To my knowledge, Green's other novels don't deal with the overweight, so perhaps Ms. Green heeded that old adage about writing about what you know. It's just a shame she didn't stick to that here.
Rating: 
Summary: Jemima J
Review: After the end of the first page I fell in love with the book! There are so many women who go through the same thing as Jemima. Today in or society it is simply not exceptable to be overweight, women must be thin and beautiful at all cost. It is sad to think that the skinny less qualified girl will always get the job but it is unfortunately the truth. There is a lot that can be learned from Jemima J. Beauty is only skin deep but true happiness and self appreiciation is much deeper. A person can change the ay they look but not the who they are. An important lesson I learned form this book is to accept myself and be happy with myself. This is a halarious, insperational book that i recommend all women sould read atleast once.
Rating:
Summary: Nice Novel
Review: Basically, the novel is about a young woman whose overweight has become unbearable. She describes what it is like to live with beautiful skinny people when she's like a big balloon permanently craving for food. She then decides to go on a diet. The next thing you know, she is thin and beautiful. Now a new chapter of her life starts with that new model-figure she's got. When I started reading the book I thought a made a mistake buying it. It started off slow, and in some parts, secondary events in the story are explained with too many details and the conversation between the characters is sometimes prolonged with pointless sentences. However, I started enjoying the book after a while. In fact, I am now very thankful I got it. The story is very inspiring. It gave me motivation to achieve my goals in life. It has very good morals, and a message for every girl out there to overcome her insecurities and achieve the life she dreams of.
Rating:
Summary: Just read it!
Review: This is a modern day Cinderella story. You can easily read this book in one sitting and your only regret will be that it ended.
Rating:
Summary: Laugh out loud fun!
Review: This book was great fun. I absolutely loved the fact that at any given moment a narrator would pop in the text and describe the exact details of what the characters were up to and also explain why or why not something did (or didn't!) happen. It was easy to identify with Jemima's struggles with weight and men! Any single woman knows how difficult it is to meet a nice man even if you aren't suffering from weight issues. Fabulous job, Jane Green. Can't wait to read more of your zesty tales.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I did not think the ending was at all fulfilling. I liked it until the last 75 pages or so. I was very disappointed from that point. I wish I would have just stopped reading it, I would find it more fulfilling to have not had the experience of the disappointment.
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