Book Review: Sweet by Emmy Laybourne

People would kill to be thin.

Solu’s luxurious celebrity-filled “Cruise to Lose” is billed as “the biggest cruise since the Titanic,” and if the new diet sweetener works as promised—dropping five percent of a person’s body weight in just days—it really could be the answer to the world’s obesity problem. But Laurel is starting to regret accepting her friend Viv’s invitation. She’s already completely embarrassed herself in front of celebrity host, Tom Forelli (otherwise known as the hottest guy ever!) and she’s too seasick to even try the sweetener. And that’s before Viv and all the other passengers start acting really strange.

But will they die for it, too?

Tom Forelli knows that he should be grateful for this job and the opportunity to shed his childhood “Baby Tom-Tom” image. His publicists have even set up a ‘romance’ with a sexy reality star. But as things on the ship start to get a bit wild, he finds himself drawn to a different girl. And when his celebrity hosting gig turns into an expose on the shocking side effects of Solu, it’s Laurel that he’s determined to save.

Emmy Laybourne, author of the Monument 14 trilogy, takes readers on a dream vacation that goes first comically, then tragically, then horrifyingly, wrong.

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You know how in health class you learn about the dangers of drugs; about how they are EXTREMELY addictive and how you should stay far away from them? Now imagine 85% of 500 people, all on one boat in the middle of the ocean, taking a drug(I mean supplement) that is WAY more addictive that meth and/or cocaine. To everyone stuck on that cruise, I say good luck.

In this book we follow Laurel, a curvy girl who only went on this cruise for her best friend; we also follow Tom, who is doing the press for the release of Solu. Together, they have to survive the cruise that went terrible.

I really liked Laurel. She knew that she wasn't skinny, she knew that she could loose fifteen pounds, and she knew that she was curvy. Even better? She accepted it. She didn't hate herself, she embraced it. I really admired her about that. Even better, I liked how Tom didn't care that the was a little heavy. He liked how she was on the inside, which I thought was a great message. 

I thought that it was really interesting how far the people on the cruise would go to get Solu. I had to put the book down once because of the things everyone on the cruise was doing. While Solu may be a made up drug (I'm sorry, supplement), but people in real life do go to extreme lengths to get another fix of whatever they are on. It doesn't hurt just them, it hurts the people around them too. I thought that it was really cool how you could pull a deeper meaning out of this book, which is something I haven't been able to do in a while.

Overall, I loved this book! I was really able to connect with Laurel, and was happy that I could find a deeper meaning. I highly recommend this book.

5/5 Points

A new favorite!