Would you BUY or PASS? Fat Chance by Nick Spalding #FridayFiveChallenge

Welcome to the ‘Friday Five Challenge.’

Would you BUY or PASS if you had only a thumbnail image and five minutes to decide?

Welcome to the #FridayFiveChallenge.  The original idea comes from Rosie Amber, and you can join up at https://rosieamber.wordpress.com

The rules are laid out at the end of this post if you fancy having a go.

Here is my contribution for this week:

Yesterday, I was on my first radio show.  I got to spend two hours in the studio listening to fantastic music and talking about my books.  So I used this experience as inspiration for my Friday Five and searched for ‘Radio’ on Amazon. I found this:

Fat Chance by Nick Spalding

Blurb:

Meet Zoe and Greg Milton, a married couple who have let themselves go a bit.

Zoe was a stunner in her college days, but the intervening decades have added five stone, and removed most of her self-esteem. Greg’s rugby-playing days are well and truly behind him, thanks to countless pints of beer and chicken curry.

When Elise, a radio DJ and Zoe’s best friend, tells them about a new competition, it seems like the perfect opportunity to turn their lives around. Fat Chance will pit six hefty couples against one another to see who can collectively lose the most weight and walk away with a £50,000 prize.

So begins six months of abject misery, tears, and frustration—that just might turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to them—in another laugh-out-loud look at the way we live now from bestselling author Nick Spalding.

My Analysis:

Cover – I like the simplicity of the cover and it tells me at first glance that I’m in for a fun read.

The book blurb – The ‘radio’ link is there so it meets my search criteria.  It sounds similar to the many TV reality shows that we see on our screens, which I tend to avoid.  However, I can see how this theme is perfect for a laugh-out-loud rom-com.

The Stats – The Kindle price is £3.49.  There are 1525 reviews on Amazon.co.uk, 1298 of them are four and five stars.  There are 252 reviews on Amazon.com.

Here is an example of a five-star review from Amazon.co.uk:

This is the first book by Nick Spalding that I’ve read but will certainly be reading more. He has taken a serious subject and turned it into a very funny and yet touching story that grips you from the beginning. You can’t help but fall in love with the main characters Greg and Zoe and feel for them as they go through the agony and ecstasy of losing weight. More through luck than judgement am I an average size but rarely say the word ‘exercise’ let alone do it! Greg’s experience with the personal trainer therefore left me reeling. There were many laugh out loud moments for me, the best being Zoe’s brilliant description of her Ikea visit and what Greg and Zoe did with a prize that they’d won during the competition. I do hope that there is a sequel and soon please Nick

BUY or PASS? – It’s not a book I would normally go for, but I think this could be quite an enjoyable read for the dark and dreary days of January.  It’s a BUY from me.

Fat Chance – buy your copy.

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Take a look at who else has taken part in the Friday Five Challenge:

Rosie took a tentative step into Sci-Fi

Cathy is dashing through the snow this week

Liz

Barb

What is the Friday Five Challenge?

In today’s online shopping age, readers often base their buying decisions on small postage stamp size book covers (thumbnails), a quick glance at the book description and the review. How much time do they spend making that buying decision?

AUTHORS – You often only have seconds to get a reader to buy your book, is your book cover and book bio up to it?

The Challenge is this… IN ONLY FIVE MINUTES…

1) Go to any online book supplier,

2) Randomly choose a category,

3) Speed through the book covers, choose one which has instantly appealed to your eye,

4) Read the book Bio/ Description of this book,

5) If there are reviews, check out a couple,

6) Make an instant decision, would you BUY or PASS?

(then write a little analysis about your decision)