Review: Eight Inches to Make Johnny Smile

Eight Inches to make Johnny Smile - Al Stewart, Claire  Davis

Well, this was cute, sweet, and a little heartbreaking.

Shy Mat is overweight, like really overweight. His parents are not helping with his already low self-esteem.

“How’s the job going?” Mum asked, making him cough slightly as he swallowed the cake whole.
“Fantastic,” he lied. “I really love it.”
“Well, thank heaven for that. Me and Dad thought you’d likely never find a job, the size you got to.”


But everything changes when Mat joins Weight Fighters. He immediately feels accepted within the group. No one makes derogatory comments about his weight and it even seems he’s found a friend in Johnny, the man who set up the group.

But Mat has a very hard time believing Johnny could be interested in more from him. That is until Johnny kisses him one night…

I really liked this, but it did feel underdeveloped. It’s only 40 pages, so not a lot to cram an entire story (romance) in. This could have easily have been an entire novel, instead of a short.

I really liked shy Mat and how he finally found the strength within himself to start losing weight.

But I did feel as if the last chapter (a sex scene without any introduction) was added simply to add some smut to this story. I would have liked it better if it was integrated into the story more or completely left out.

But besides that, this was a very enjoyable read.