Name: Melissa Palmer's review of Puddin' by Julie Murphy
Item: Puddin'
Rating: 4
Author: Melissa Palmer

Julie Murphy

The irresistible companion to the #1 New York Times bestseller Dumplin’, soon to be a major motion picture starring Danielle Macdonald and Jennifer Aniston! Millie Michalchuk has gone to fat camp every year since she was a little girl. Not this year. This year she has new plans to chase her secret dream of being a newscaster—and to kiss the boy she’s crushing on. Callie Reyes is the pretty girl who is next in line for dance team captain and has the popular boyfriend. But when it comes to other girls, she’s more frenemy than friend. When circumstances bring the girls together over the course of a semester, they surprise everyone (especially themselves) by realizing that they might have more in common than they ever imagined. A story about unexpected friendship, romance, and Texas-size girl power, this is another winner from Julie Murphy.

Puddin'

Shandi

Melissa Palmer

Book #6 Read in 2019
Puddin' by Julie Murphy

This is a companion to the hit young adult novel Dumplin' and it stands up to it in quality. This book focuses on Millie as the main character and she is struggling on standing up to her mom about her dreams, her desire to date a boy etc. I recommend this book to high school girls especially.

Alexa M

Jeannette Ordas

Silly and light, good for summer. Teens probably do not talk like this so it definitely does not seem very realistic, but bonus points for a good message or three.

Courtney 

I loved this, such a cute enemies to friends story and the progress we see in Callie is SO amazing 🙌🏻 I understand that she was mad at Millie, but I am happy she got around to help her get into journalism camp

Millie Michalchuk has gone to fat camp every year since she was a little girl. This year she has new plans to chase her secret dream of being a newscaster. Callie Reyes is the pretty girl who has the popular boyfriend. When circumstances bring the gi

I was fully expecting this to be a queer romance between Millie and Callie based on the cover and the fact that my library added a romance sticker to the spine. If they had just left off the romance sticker, I would have had no problems. But that's problem with my library, not the book.

I'm sure, based on my previous reviews, it will be absolutely shocking to discover that I was very very into the platonic relationships in this book. The absolute life-changing effects that friends can have is in full force here and I was invested in every second of it. The break-up between Callie and Millie is every bit as devastating as any romantic break up would have been, and their make up was empowering and satisfying for both of them. I was so proud of both of them for the stands they took at the conclusion. 

I really appreciated that while romance happened, it was absolutely not a main focus, and rather just something that happened in Millie and Callie's lives (which again makes the categorization of this as a romance novel as some grade A bullshit). And the fact that Amanda is a biromantic ace? I damn near jumped for joy over that particular revelation and subsequent storyline. Surprise ace characters are always a joy for me. Especially since the nature of Millie's weirdness over Amanda's coming out was emphasized in the narrative as being about Millie's unreasonable feelings about knowing everything about her best friend, rather than about any negative feelings towards Amanda or asexuality. 

All in all, this book had A++ friendships on multiple fronts and I definitely recommend it.

Flavia Louise

I liked Dumplin' well enough but wasn't too sure about this one. But I ended up REALLY liking it quite a lot.

Elena

2.5/5 stars

- Honestly this is a good rating at first I for sure thought that I was going to rate it 1 star but it was honestly probably the best out of the whole entire series 
- I hate that both of the love interests start with an M like it was so complicated to keep up with who was who
- The dads were the only characters I liked I kinda what a romance between Callie and Millie's dads that would be a very interesting story
- Also I could have probably predicted the whole plot so the characters had to make up for the plot but they did not

Bec Drayton

This book was intriguing enough to keep the pages turning but Milie and Callie didn't feel as realistic as Willow Dean. Their problems were trivial and dumb. I liked the appearances of the older characters, but overall the ending, writing and story was a little unwhelming. I felt really meh about this book

Tiffany Robinson

The only thing I liked about Dumplin was Millie so I thought I would give this a try to see if it was better then the first book. It was and I really enjoyed this! I liked that it was told through from both Millie and Callies point of view since they were so different. I loved the friendships in this book!

Charlotte Rayfield

I love this Book! More than the first and the romance and friendship was amazing!

A #1 New York Times Bestselling AuthorThe Dumplin' SeriesMillie Michalchuk has gone to fat camp every year since she was a little girl. Not this year. This year she has new plans to chase her secret dream of being a newscaster -- and to kiss the boy she's crushing on. Callie Reyes is the pretty girl who is next in line for dance team captain and has the popular boyfriend. But when it comes to other girls, she's more frenemy than friend. When circumstances bring Millie and Callie together over the course of a semester, they surprise everyone (especially themselves) by realizing that they might have more in common than they ever imagined. Puddin' is a story about unexpected friendship, romance, and Texas-size girl power.Age Range: 14-17 | Grade Level: 9-12 | Lexile Measure: HL730L

Becca Futrell

Okay, so — this is alright? I definitely liked it better than Dumplin’. I had my problems with most of the characters, but by its end, it definitely redeemed itself. Somehow, Willow Dean got even more unbearable in this book; which is wild since she doesn’t have as much scene time.

Caitlin Berger

What a great book!! I love the various ways in which Murphy incorporated social justice themes and how she wrote really well-rounded and REAL characters. She is definitely leading the way to a new and wonderful era of YA novels :)

Danielle 

Andrea Pozo

Megan During

Tish

Cat Josephson

aurora

The irresistible companion to the #1 New York Times bestseller Dumplin’, now a Netflix feature film starring Danielle Macdonald and Jennifer Aniston, and a soundtrack by Dolly Parton! Millie Michalchuk has gone to fat camp every year since she was a little girl. Not this year. This year she has new plans to chase her secret dream of being a newscaster—and to kiss the boy she’s crushing on. Callie Reyes is the pretty girl who is next in line for dance team captain and has the popular boyfriend. But when it comes to other girls, she’s more frenemy than friend. When circumstances bring the girls together over the course of a semester, they surprise everyone (especially themselves) by realizing that they might have more in common than they ever imagined. A story about unexpected friendship, romance, and Texas-size girl power, this is another winner from Julie Murphy.

Shandi &
Puddin' by Julie Murphy

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Shandi &Puddin' by Julie Murphy

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Shandi &
Puddin' by Julie Murphy