Rating: 
Summary: just too many happy coincidences
Review: "Jemima J" is the story of Jemima Jones, an overweight columnist for an unheard-of newspaper in the UK. She secretly lusts after Ben (one of her co-workers), but he never notices her as anything more than a friend. The first half of the book flows reasonably well. The author either did her homework well, or has an amazing sense of empathy. But after Ben leaves the newspaper to take a glamourous job on a television programme, the story falls apart, following one hard-to-believe event with another, with the author taking up threads of the storyline that had only been briefly mentioned, and completely dropping others. The Internet love that was only briefly discussed in early chapters suddenly figures prominently, and out of the blue, Jemima is going to meet him in Los Angeles. Jemima has lost 100 pounds in 3 months. The author notes that the trainer at Jemima's gym is worried about her sudden huge weight loss, but never says anything, and this is mysteriously never mentioned again. Despite Ben being on a hugely-popular television programme, Jemima never watches (although it had been noted earlier how much time she spent watching television), so isn't aware of his success. The much-lauded surprise ending is anything but a surprise... All in all, it's a disappointing book. Even ignoring all of the happy coincidences, the message that the book sends is anything but self-affirmating. Jemima only finds friends after she becomes a size six. Jemima's Internet love only loves her because of her figure. Ben only notices her after she's lost the weight. The ending of the book is hardly an ending, and the epilogue tacked on reads like a legal disclaimer.
Rating: 
Summary: Thin and Beautiful
Review: Jemima J is a novel about an overweight woman struggling to look and feel beautiful. Jemima J lives in London with two model-type roommates and works at the Kilburn Journal where all of her colleagues are thin and beautiful. She is completely infatuated with the assistant editor whom she thinks has absolutely no knowledge of her existence. She becomes close friends with two of her associates including Ben, the man of her dreams who, to Jemima's surprise, she has a lot in common with. One of her newly developed interests is the internet. Jemima and Ben possess a fascination with the internet and the countless topics of research that is readily available to them. While surfing the vast world of the internet, they find themselves in chat rooms talking to people from a variety of different places. Jemima J soon learns she can create a false identity that only she would have knowledge of. After meeting a gorgeous man online, whom she sent an edited photo of herself looking about 150 pounds thinner, Jemima J is driven to improve her life and strive to be that thinner woman from the picture. She reaches her goal after much hard work, persistence, and dedication. Being the renewed woman that she is, Jemima jumps at the opportunity to meet her Californian dream. She soon discovers that he is as perfect as she had imagined, but after a few weeks, things begin to change. Jemima J is an extraordinary novel that takes you into the mind of a woman fighting to improve her life. It is a fast-paced read that draws its readers in with its interestingly shifting plot and humorous tone.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm glad I just got it from the library
Review: This is a horrid book, do not waste your time reading this.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining !
Review: Exactly what I expected and wanted when I purchased this book! Entertainment! It kept me great company for three days and made me laugh and interested in the outcome of Jemimas life. The book does not glorify thinness in the least but states a fact of society and its attitude towards weight. May that be right or wrong, it is a fact that is not being justified but simply noticed in this book. And just to give Jemima a bit of credit here : Ben liked her before she lost weight !
I did not intend to write a review for this book, but felt compelled to do so after reading the bad reviews previously written ! Read it ! It's fun !
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, But Green is No Marian Keyes
Review: I enjoy Jane Green, though I think that as an expatriate Brit living in New York she can't quite claim to be a full part of the "British Chick Book" genre (as my husband has dubbed it) I adore. Green doesn't have quite the same wit as a Marian Keyes, Helen Fielding, Jenny Colgan or Isabel Wolff--all great British romantic comedy authors whom I encourage everyone to check out--but she does produce entertaining "set in London" (albeit a London that seems way too "American" to me) tales about spunky female "singletons" searching for love. Jemima Jones is fat, very fat. A wanna-be features writer at a crap paper, Jemima discovers the Internet and hooks up with hunky Los Angeles gym owner Brad, then sets about to transform herself into the model-thin PhotoShop-doctored photo she has sent him. And she's successful, going from 210+ to 120 pounds. Anyone who has ever struggled with weight or love--and what woman hasn't?--will sympathize, at least in part, with Jemima. But I only gave this book three stars because it's impossible to totally like Jemima, as her choices are a little too bizarre, her sudden weight loss (100 pounds in six months) and transformation into a model-pretty, head-turning beauty no man can resist too utterly unreal and the entire plot far too predictable. This book entertained me fairly well on a Sunday afternoon by the pool (I finished it in about six hours) but Green's "Dear Reader" style of writing (where the author often "talks" directly to the audience, leaving the characters in limbo) gets rather tedious by the end.
Rating:
Summary: A Disappointing Book
Review: A plausible and promising plot sagged before the middle and dragged on and on all the way to the end. I only finished it to see if the writer could redeem the book at last. The plot twist might have made the book terrific, but didn't quite work--it was rendered more incredible than believable and fell sadly flat. This book seems not to have seen the hand of an editor, ruthless or otherwise. There was entirely too much of it, but not enough credible detail or drama worked into it along the way to either make it work or sustain it. It demonstrated a nice flair for writing and language, but was weak on storytelling.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe if
Review: 'Jemima J' is a portrait novel about a woman who is over-weight and knows it. Yet doesn't do anything about it. She eats more food than I can imagine eating in one day. Interest in the internet convinces here to 'chat up' an American Beauty King, the perfect man, in her eyes. Eventually, Jemima decides to lose weight and join a gym, and as she starves herself and kills herself everyday on stairclimbers and stationary bikes, the weight drops off. In a course of three months. I've never heard of anyone losing 100 pounds in 90 days. Her online "boyfriend" (crush) convinces her to visit him in Los Angeles, and a two weeks stay turns into a novel about unrealistic fate. Had it not been for one of the characters (Lauren), I could look past most of the other "Heaven like" coincidences, but this is just too good to be true. Although very well written and moving (as far as her weight is concerned), this book simply paints a fake picture of losing weight and riding off with your prince charming. Maybe it should be filed under "Fairy Tales".
Rating: 
Summary: Surprisingly insightful
Review: I find it interesting that many did not give this book great reviews. It is not only well written in a literal sense, but also provides characters that anyone can relate to on one level or another. I found the book thought provoking and an iteration of how anyone that is overweight feels. I completely disagree with many reviewers opinions that the love interest was shallow and did not have interest in Jemima until she was thin. In fact, I think the story portrays that he did have an interest, even when she was "fat" but that HER OWN low self-esteem led her to miss opportunities in love and career. This is a great read for everyone!
Rating:
Summary: Elementary Reading
Review: This was what I would call Elementary Reading. The story line is not only predictable but very common... boy meets girl, girl likes boy, girl becomes beautiful, yadayada. The story line however wasn't the really the problem with the book (I often like this overused plot) the problem was the authors comments in the book. For example, we'd be reading about Jemima's day and all the sudden a short paragraph would read something like 'little did she know this would effect her life later'. I thought these little paragraphs were annoying, like we couldn't figure out on our own where the story was going or that we were too dense to understand the story line ourselves. I didn't hate the book, as I did finish it. However, I would recommend it to any intelligent reader.
Rating:
Summary: wordy yet catchy
Review: This is a great reminder that Helen Fielding has company! J.J. is not as humorous as "Bridget Jones" but it does keep your attention. You are really rooting for Ms. Green's leading woman, but you become frustrated for the decisions she makes. The author can be less repetitive at times, but all and all it kept my attention and I read it willingly in only a few sittings. Hope you enjoy it.
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