One Good Man by Rie McGaha

The opening lines of this book states Allison’s problem perfectly: “Men were all alike. Selfish. Self-centered. Condescending. Arrogant. And they were cheaters, to boot!” Yup, she lost her boyfriend to her best friend. Now, she is not willing to take a chance on her good-looking co-worker. She just can’t believe he would be the One Good Man interested in the Fat Chick…

Allison Hamstead thought it was love, finally, after all the years alone, someone loved her in spite of the fact she was fat! Not that her size had ever kept her from being successful, but it had kept her far from personal relationships. She’d heard all of the fat jokes ever told, all of the things people in her office said behind her back, and she didn’t miss not having a boyfriend, or dates every weekend. Did she? But now she was in love and she couldn’t wait to introduce him to her best friend, Sarah. And what a mistake that had turned out to be! It wasn’t long before the love of her life and her best friend were living together and Allison was humiliated.

Starting over is never easy, but Allison is determined to do so and moves far from Chicago to the warm waters of Biloxi, Mississippi where she accepts a position at one of the floating casinos. For the first time in her life, Allison feels like she’s truly at home. She loves her job, she loves her boss, who is like a father to her, and she loves being a part of all the excitement going on around her. Except for one little thing…

Her boss’s eldest son, Stephen, is probably the most handsome, gorgeous, and sexy man she’s ever laid eyes on…and he knows it! And for some reason he acts interested in her. Then her mother comes to visit and winds up dating her boss. Her accounts start showing large amounts of money missing. And her ex shows up unannounced and says he wants her back. Can anything else possibly go wrong?

Absolutely!

Warnings: This title contains graphic language and sex.

Allison Hamstead’s father left before she was even born. This left her mother to work two jobs to be able to support raising Allison on her own. Allison grew up strong and smart, helping around the house and with the money since her mom was always working. But the one big problem she has always had is her weight. No matter what she does, and she has tried everything, she is fat (she thinking, not mine). Growing up in sunny, beautiful California didn’t help. Lonely and an outcast in school, she basically had no friends; even in college she was the fat chick only good for helping others study. After college, her job in Chicago didn’t seem any different at first. Things changed when she met Sarah at work and found a real friend. Sarah didn’t mind her weight or shopping at big girl stores. Allison learned to dress for her size and found some personal confidence. Then she met Wesley Smothers and things seemed great. Her first real relationship, she even lost her virginity to him. But it must not have been love if she is more upset over loosing her best friend to her cheating boyfriend then loosing the guy!

After having overheard people talk about her behind her back all her live, the last thing she wants is to hear about ‘the fat girl loosing her guy to her friend’ at work. So she makes a spur of the moment decision to take a job offer in Biloxi, Mississippi; she has missed the ocean the past two years anyway. This turns out to be one of the best decisions she has ever made! The job is great, she loves being by the ocean and Mississippi is better then California ever was, and the family running the casino she works for takes to her as one of their own. The owner, ‘Captain,’ may be in his seventies, but they interact and feel like father and daughter, something she has never had. Her only problem is his eldest son, Stephen.

Stephen Collins is a playboy. Oh, he works hard, but he plays just a hard. Handsome, well-to-do, and living the fast life. He always makes sure the women he is with know the situation: one night or weekend only, no relationship, period. But he likes women and they love him. He gets along great with everyone. So he is really confused and doesn’t understand why the casino’s newest employee doesn’t like him from the start. So he sets out to prove to her what a great guy he is and that she should like him. Then he finds out just how wonderful she is and starts to fall for her! But he keeps coming up against her “prejudice” against good-looking men and fat chicks being together.

Captain makes her a permanent employee and invites her mother down for a visit. This is great until they (the Captain and her mom) start dating! Then she has trouble with her computer and finds company money missing. When the Captain and her mom announce their engagement, everyone is too distracted to pay attention to her about the missing money. Even Stephen is more interested in trying to date her than taking her job serious.

Who is stealing money from the company? And will she ever get over her past betrayal? Or the fact that she is over-weight? Stephen has seen the real person inside, but she has fallen into her own issues of outside appearances to see he is a great guy inside as well! At the rate she is going, she will manage to run off the best thing to ever happen to her…

Oh, I may have to stop reading books with characters I relate to so well. In One Good Man, Allison grows up with a single mom raising her, being supportive and helpful around the house while growing up, and having issues about her weight problem. Okay, way too close to parts of my life (not exact and never lost man to best friend, but otherwise I was in deja vu land!)

In One Good Man I may have related to Allison in some ways, but she got on my nerves after a while. I fully understand the weight issues and insecurities, but just how many times does a man have to prove himself before it’s enough? Okay, so she has reason to doubt, both from past experience and because he was a playboy before her, but she still just sounded whiny after a while. But I LOVED Stephen. Falling for Allison comes as a surprise for him; not because she is a big girl, but because he didn’t expect to fall anytime soon. And once he accepts he is falling for her, he accepts it and goes out of his way to ‘court’ her. And I have to say that his getting hurt and mad at her, while some of the things he says in the heat of the moment may be mean, the scenes are real and I like that he is not perfect. Sorry, but I like real characters, especially since he can come back and admit he was wrong and says sorry fast enough not to do lasting damage. Now that is a real man.

One Good Man is put under the BBW (big, beautiful women), contemporary genre. Yes, those categories count, but this is really about accepting yourself for who you are and getting over, moving beyond your past hurts (never an easy thing to do). While Allison takes too long for me, I do like how much she grows up and develops in One Good Man. This is a nice reminder that we don’t have to be perfect to be great women and loved as we are!