He Loves Lucy

Author: Susan Donovan


Lucy Cunningham is an ad exec who's just landed the biggest account of her career. Unfortunately the client is a fitness club and the campaign involves trying to lose 100 lbs in one year by working with their star trainer, Theo Redmond. The upside? She earns $1,000 for every pound she loses. With that kind of money she can realize her dream of opening her own ad agency. The downside? Having to get up at 4 AM every day, keeping a food journal, giving up Milk Duds and being tortured by Trainer Ken, or "Theo-dorable" as apparently every woman in town calls him. She's going to give it her best and hopefully not embarrass herself by drooling all over Theo. The guy is smoking hot, looking perfect in every way, but shallow jocks who's greatest concern in life is making sure they don't run out of hair gel just are not her type. Certainly not since that humiliating fiasco with a football player back in college that caused her to put on all the weight in the first place.

Theo Redmond had to drop out of medical school when his parents died, leaving him with custody of his 16 year old brother, Buddy, who has Downs Syndrome. Now he works as a personal trainer at the Palm Club during the week and as a bouncer on the weekends to make ends meet. This ad campaign that Lucy Cunningham cooked up bight just be his way back in to med school. He'll get $1,000 for every pound he helps her lose. With that kind of money he can pay for school and help for to care for Buddy. It won't be easy, losing 100 lbs in a year with nutrition and exercise is unusual, but if he can keep Lucy focused and motivated they just might make it. Unfortunately, spending so much time working closely with Lucy, whom he's liked from the first, is making it hard for Theo to keep things strictly professional. He's got to though because aside from the no-dating-clients rule, once he starts med school again he won't have time for a relationship, and the last thing he wants is to hurt Lucy or make her hate him because he's never around.


I really like that Theo liked Lucy and thought she was pretty before she started losing the weight and that he found himself attracted to her well before she all that weight. I thought Lucy was great, when she wasn't making making assumptions and obsessing over the slump buster thing. I loved Buddy! He was so positive and well adjusted. I liked the way things worked out between Lucy's sister, Mary Fran, and her husband. I thought it sucked that Lucy's brother, Dan, and her supermodel friend, Gia, didn't too long. I guess it was kind of a far fetched pairing. I liked that Dan took it so well. Normally I try no to put many spoilers in my little chatty bit, but as far as the lead characters were concerned, I didn't have much to complain about. I enjoyed the book quite a bit. Here was a story about an overweight heroine who wanted to lose the weight, put in the hard work, and did it. I don't think that you have to be thin to be healthy, happy, or beautiful, but if being overweight is making you feel unhappy or effecting your health, then something should be done about it. I think reading a book where the heroine sets out to do just that and gets it done, is inspiring.