Samantha is somewhat on the plump side. Thin and athletic growing up, once she started college she began to blossom, a little too extensively. Now twenty-five and working at a community outreach clinic full-time while simultaneously studying psychology in graduate school, Samantha hopes to save the world one individual at a time, and hopefully somewhere along the road find unconditional love, if it actually exist. Meantime both she and her father are continually berated by her bigoted mother for their weight. Mom fixes greasy fried and starchy dinners, and then refuses to let either of them eat anything but salad and vegetables.

In an effort to help her class apply its acquired knowledge, Samantha is instrumental in persuading her professor to allow each student to volunteer one day's time at her clinic in lieu of a term paper. Sexy and scholarly fellow Asian student Bruce determines to partner with Samantha, as he intends to get to know her as well. Bruce has had his eye and mind on Samantha since they met six years earlier in the psychology program, but as he was dating a fellow Korean to keep peace with his family, he elected not to push his envelope just yet by approaching Samantha. Now, however, he has his task cut out for him, because convincing Samantha of her beauty and desirability has come to be an almost impossible feat.

The Defense constitutes a fantastic one-novel cheering section for all of us who don't fit the mode of the Perfect 1O. Author Stacy Lynn Schlegl deserves readers' commendation for going to bat for the non-perfect among us, and for championing loving the human race in its entirety without judgmentalism or prejudice and bigotry. In addition, a strong story line and lovable, appealing characters make The Defense a book that readily earned its place on this reader's Keeper Shelf.