Bon Bons to Yoga Pants by Katie Cross brings us book one in the Health & Happiness Society series, and it starts off following Lexie Greene. Lexie has always struggled with her weight, overeats to cope with stress in her life, and has become immune to hearing she has a pretty face and her mother’s urges to lose weight. At twenty-two years old and on the cusp of meeting her online crush for the first time at her sister’s upcoming nuptials, Lexie gets inspired to slim down, change her look, and be good enough to meet Bradley. She joins the Health & Happiness Society and finds encouragement to go to the gym and count her calories, but of course, it’s never that easy. Lexie struggles to watch the pounds get lower on the scale, binge eats after a stressful day, and finds the gym to be humiliating. But she is determined to be good enough, pretty enough, and thin enough to meet Bradley, so she continues on her quest to becoming a better Lexie.
Bon Bons to Yoga Pants truly fascinated me because it was more than just reading a story; it was taking a journey – and a very personal one at that – with Lexie. Katie Cross did a fantastic job at taking me into Lexie’s world, to understand that, when we first met our main character, she truly believed being beautiful translated to being thin. It was really quite moving to see her become more confident, not only as she lost weight, but as she understood there was so much more to being a beautiful person than just what pants size she wore. An added benefit in my opinion was the little health lessons I learned along the way about eating clean. I am very excited to read more from this series, and I highly recommend it.