Pop-Up Blog Tour: Fitness Junkie by Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza (Chrissy’s review)

Fitness Junkie
written by Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza
published by Doubleday, 2017

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iBooks, Target, Walmart, Book Depository, Goodreads

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Did I enjoy this book? I did enjoy this book. At first, I wasn’t sure I was going to like it, but once I got into it, I just had to laugh while reading most of it. Some of it made me mad, some parts made me upset. But it was a good read overall.

Fitness Junkie is a satire novel that pretty much makes fun of every fad diet and exercise program out there. Yes, exercise and diet are important, but you have to admit that some of the fads out there are just ridiculous. This book highlights some of the ridiculousness. As for the characters, they weren’t bad. I didn’t like Beau at all. I thought he was a pretentious ass. Janey was a good character, but I wanted more from her. More fight against Beau and his ridiculous request. Janey’s fitness friends were okay. Some had some bad quirks and habits, especially when they start worrying about their toddlers’ weights. Not cool in my book. However, from that same mom came my favorite line, which popped up at the end of chapter 24.

 

All in all, the story moved but there wasn’t a lot of meat to it. I kind of wanted more about Janey’s business role and I would have loved more confrontation in the end, not just the ending that occurred.

 

 

Would I recommend it? Yes, this is a fun summer read that will give you a few laughs.

 

About the book – from Goodreads: From the bestselling authors of The Knockoff, an outrageously funny novel about one woman’s attempt–through clay diets, naked yoga, green juice, and cultish workout classes–to win back her career, save her best friend, and lose thirty pounds.

When Janey Sweet, CEO of a couture wedding dress company, is photographed in the front row of a fashion show eating a bruffin–the delicious lovechild of a brioche and a muffin–her best friend and business partner, Beau, gives her an ultimatum: Lose thirty pounds or lose your job. Sure, Janey has gained some weight since her divorce, and no, her beautifully cut trousers don’t fit like they used to, so Janey throws herself headlong into the world of the fitness revolution, signing up for a shockingly expensive workout pass, baring it all for Free the Nipple yoga, sweating through boot camp classes run by Sri Lankan militants and spinning to the screams of a Lycra-clad instructor with rage issues. At a juice shop she meets Jacob, a cute young guy who takes her dumpster-diving outside Whole Foods on their first date. At a shaman’s tea ceremony she meets Hugh, a silver fox who holds her hand through an ayahuasca hallucination And at a secret exercise studio Janey meets Sara Strong, the wildly popular workout guru whose special dance routine has starlets and wealthy women flocking to her for results that seem too good to be true. As Janey eschews delicious carbs, pays thousands of dollars to charlatans, and is harassed by her very own fitness bracelet, she can’t help but wonder: Did she really need to lose weight in the first place?

A hilarious send-up of the health and wellness industry, Fitness Junkie is a glorious romp through the absurd landscape of our weight-obsessed culture.