Download Your Copy Hungry For Happiness Composed By James Villas Formatted As EPub

don't know what was more offensive, the terrible writing or the absolute selfloathing and "fat stereotypes" that marked this story.
per the author's not so subtle message, chubby chasing is a perversion, go figure. Not my favorite. The premise was good and the story line itself was ok,but I didn't really like any of the characters.
I expected more. As a southern woman, I literally hate the main characters language, No woman I know talks like she does, Also, all of the characters have names from a century ago and this book seems to be set in the earlys.
There werethings that were interesting/honest: the fact that a once fat girl gone thin is still unhappy , and obsessed, with her looks.
. . and her detail in cooking, For these reasons, I gave itStars, I had to force myself to finish this book, No one talks like that, no one dresses like that, and the main characters are absolutely loathsome.
The entire premise, plot, and description of the South are all extremely unrealistic, patronizing, demeaning toward women, and poorly researched.
I just dont think I enjoyed this book at all, Loretta was a miserable woman and the way she talked about overweight people was dreadful, I could understand if it was about herself like an inner dialogue we all have that but the way she spoke about her mother, her sister and her friends got to be too much.
Its one thing to worry about their health but to call then fat tubs olard or fatties was just over the top.
Also I really doubt everyone is called bub, southern people calling you hun yes but I guess everything in this book was just over the top.


The description of this book is deceiving especially saying this is moving, witty and uplifting there is nothing uplifting in this book and it says it will resonate with woman of any size well it resonated with me and NOT in a good way.


I was also a bit offended by the discussion questions in the back of the book, the first one talks about Lorettas social status and does she try to elevate it, well yes she does thats all through the book but the way these questions are worded is offensive.
I am not from Texas or from the south but I think Texan woman would be very offended by this book or at least should be.


Maybe if this book was written by a woman who has been through weight loss and stomach banding it may have been uplifting but it was written by a man who definitely doesnt like women with a little meat on their bones.


Stars
I hated it, First of all, it's incredibly insulting to anyone that has even a few extra pounds, And if a man is attracted to a heavier woman is a "pervert" and "needs serious help" The main character is negative, hateful, and allows herself to be used and abused in an attempt to make her friends see how great she is.
And, as a born and raised Texan, all I can say about the dialogue and description of these people and places is just NO.
Has the writer ever been to Texas If so I'd like to know where he went that this is the impression that he got.
It's insulting to me as Texan and a woman who has struggled with her weight, I don't have a single positive thing to say about the book, I would have given it less than one star if it was possible, Two is correct it was ok, The story was unspectacular and not what I was hoping for, For lack of a better phrase, the story was shallow, The narrator was shallow. The writing style was annoying almost to the point of distraction, and made it more difficult to like any of the characters.
I've been to Texas. I have friends from Texas, They don't go around using "sugar" and "hon" every other word, I understand wanting to convey a time and place, but it's just insulting to me that the author doesn't believe I can adequately

imagine a Texas accent.
It was ok, and I read it all the way through, but I certainly don't recommend it.
I wish I good do half, I would actually give itand/stars, The main character is whiny and selfabsorbed, I was hoping this would be a book about changing your life/habits with humor inserted throughout.
I was wrong. The only thing I enjoyed were the recipes, This wasn't bad but it could have been better, The heroine is a deepfried Southern former fat girl and the story picks up after she's had lapband surgery.
She suffers through some strange, bizarre, and sad relationship issues, has countless arguments with her overweight family members who think she's 'putting on airs' now that she's lost weight, yet succeeds with carrying on her life despite all of the obstacles thrown in her path.
My biggest gripes are the highly exaggerated Southern accent the author manages to write with, and the fact that he makes Loretta seem like a victim despite her successes.
In his engaging, powerful, and laughoutloud funny second novel, the awardwinning author of "Dancing in the Lowcountry" serves up a story of friendship, dreams, and determination featuring a sassy Southern heroine as real as she is unforgettable.
Hungry for Happiness is the story of Loretta Crawford, ayear old woman who's husband leaves her for another, thinner woman.
Loretta decided to change her life and starts by having lap band surgery, Before her surgery she weighedpounds and was only'", Even though Loretta is losing weight, she still loves to cook and word gets around that she's one of the best cooks around.
Soon she has her own catering business, Also, as she loses more and more weight, she catches the eye of more and more men.


I noticed some reviewers didn't like Loretta's Texas dialect and thought it was over the top.
I'm not Texan so I can't say for sure if it was accurate but even if it was over the top I thought it was charming and funny.


I think the overall message of this book was that there are no simple solutions to life's problems.
Loretta thinks that weight loss surgery and losing weight will automatically make her happy but she doesn't realize that she has underlying issues that caused her to gain the weight in the first place.
However, I don't feel like Loretta ever really understood that and I would have expected her to eventually have some sort of revelation.
This book started out with a bang and ended with kind of a whimper, Even two might be too much, This book was not good, The main character was unlikeable and the story was weak, It was supposed to be about a woman who loses a lot of weight and starts her own catering business but really it was just a bunch of random anecdotes strung together by a judgmental attitude.
I was hoping for an ending that indicated that the main character had reached some sort of enlightenment and mended her ways but that didn't happen either.
A big disappointment. Having finally received the book yesterday, after winning the drawing in November, I started reading it last night.


Meh. I've gotten about halfway through, and I've come to the decision that it's hard for men to write women characters.
The premise is interesting: A woman's life changes a lot after having gastric bypass surgery and losing overlbs.
However, Loretta is very naive, doesn't see what's happening right under her nose, and she tries too hard to get her overweight relatives to change their lives, too.
The idea that some people are content with their state, whether overweight or not, never occurs to her.
She's happier thin, therefore everyone else will be happier thin, too,

The recipes in the back of the book look good, I want to try the one for lemon drop cookies, This book was awful! Typically I only give booksstar of I disliked it so much I couldn't finish it, which has only happened once and that was in Elementary school.
However, I made an exception with this book, This is also the first book I've really taken the time to put a review down for.


I called most of the plot "twists" and was repulsed by the manner of language in this book.
Who calls their best friend fatso and repulsive and everything else this writer says Let does Also, nois not skinny and yes is probably fat however, grotesquely obese to the point they need help up is not realistic, for a person who is'" unless they have absolutely no muscle mass.
The way this author writes makes it seem like anyone with any extra body fat is gross and repulsive.
Which a healthy body fat range isfor women and a little lower for men, Throughout reading this book I repeatedly thought that whomever wrote the book was a narcissistic shallow douchebag pretty much from chapteron.
I completely get why women are constantly questioning their appearance and body image and it's because of writings such as this and the image that today's society places on looks.
I absolutely would never suggest anyone read this book, A complete waste of time and piece of garbage, I could not like Loretta, the main character, Her disdainful attitude toward "fatties" kind of stuck in my craw, Maybe I am just sensitive about my weight but I found her rude at some points also a bit of a slut.
I am happy that she finally wised up and loosened up, Her recipes were worth the read, I was interested to read this book for several reason, I like books that purport to be "southern" and this one's blurb talked about southern cooking, I love to cook, and often like the books that tell stories involving food, and cooking which I almost typed as "fooking", but that's something entirely different.
James Villas is a renowned food writer and cook book author, so at least that aspect of the book promised to be hopeful.
I like stories about people who transform themselves, not necessarily physically, but emotionally and mentally, and this book hinted at that.
So, when I was sent the book via the wonderful LibraryThing Early ers from Kensington Publishing, I was pleased.


I think I expected something simpler than Villas actually served up, This is the story of Loretta Crawford, and her life after her gastric banding, When the book starts, Loretta'slbs, surgery, recovery, and marriage are already at leastpounds in the past.
She is determined to lose more weight, reshape her life and find elusive love and happiness, Loretta's misadventures with various men who come into her life, with her somewhat hapless family, her friends and even her seemingly masochistic wish to become a caterer are what fill the pages of the book.
There are recipes at the back,

While there are some fine moments in the book, I was put off by a few things.
First of all, I kept wondering what Loretta's reasons were for the surgery, Not that I question having it, but her motivation wasn't clear: Humiliation because her man left her Disgust at her size and inabilities to do simple activities To improve her health To start a new life To attract another man I just wasn't sure.
While I think that those who choose to have any type of gastric surgery, be it a gastroplasty or a banding etc, have tremendous courage, I would hope that motivation might be more than getting a date or sex partner.
But I suppose whatever motivates is a good thing, For someone who was once so large, Loretta seemed really hypercritical of other large people, But I guess that's pretty common among converts to anything, Your way is best, and those who don't see so are somewhat benighted, Loretta's love life also was a little quirky, At one point, I got confused the author uses the euphemism of "lighting his firecracker" for hanky panky, and Loretta calls a woman a fireplug I had to reread the sentence to make sure the woman wasn't a transsexual.


But perhaps the biggest thing that bothered me was the use of Texan as Southern.
Maybe I'm more of a Steel Magnolias kind of person when it comes to Southern and Southern cooking, but Texas, though southern, is a whole different kettle of grits than the deep south.
Kind of like milk chocolate and dark chocolate are both the same thing, but are really quite different.


All in all, I'm glad I read the book, Loretta's a good cook, for sure, and I think basically a good person, Given all the family secrets and stories that emerge and the back history, it's easy to see why the book is titled Hungry for Happiness.
I came away feeling that Loretta was a survivor and would find just the right recipe to make her life complete.
.