NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Real love . . . as seen on TV. A plus-size bachelorette brings a fresh look to a reality show in this razor-sharp, “thoroughly charming” (Hillary Clinton) debut.“Relatable, incredibly smart . . . an extraordinary debut.”—Jasmine Guillory, New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding Date and The ProposalNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Time • NPR • Marie Claire… OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Time • NPR • Marie Claire • Mashable • “Divinely witty and engrossing . . . Grade: A”—Entertainment Weekly
Bea Schumacher is a devastatingly stylish plus-size fashion blogger who has amazing friends, a devoted family, legions of Insta followers—and a massively broken heart. Like the rest of America, Bea indulges in her weekly obsession: the hit reality show Main Squeeze. The fantasy dates! The kiss-off rejections! The surprising amount of guys named Chad! But Bea is sick and tired of the lack of body diversity on the show. Since when is being a size zero a prerequisite for getting engaged on television?
Just when Bea has sworn off dating altogether, she gets an intriguing call: Main Squeeze wants her to be its next star, surrounded by men vying for her affections. Bea agrees, on one condition—under no circumstances will she actually fall in love. She’s in this to supercharge her career, subvert harmful beauty standards, inspire women across America, and get a free hot air balloon ride. That’s it.
But when the cameras start rolling, Bea realizes things are more complicated than she anticipated. She’s in a whirlwind of sumptuous couture, Internet culture wars, sexy suitors, and an opportunity (or two, or five) to find messy, real-life love in the midst of a made-for-TV fairy tale. In this joyful, wickedly observant debut, Bea has to decide whether it might just be worth trusting these men—and herself—for a chance to live happily ever after.
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Title: One To Watch
Author: Kate Stayman-London
Genre: Contemporary New Romance
**RECEIVED ARC FOR HONEST REVIEW**
I guess you could say this book is written in a way current generations can understand. You know, those who are all about social media and celebrities? Text messages, Tweets, DM’s, etc. You see our heroine goes on reality television so we read the blogs, reviews, and everything else. Also, our heroine is a fashion blogger herself. I have to admit this is a unique and creative way to read a story. But it does speak to the insecurities our heroine has; how can she know who is being real? The men she is dating on the show do they really care? In our society how easy is it to turn off our ethics and morals when we are online? We see that in cyberbullying.
This book is about so much more than a larger woman finding love within and outside herself. It is also about cultural issues we face regarding body shaming, bullying, and hate.
The book was well written but it did take some time to get involved in it and it was easy to put down. Honestly I think it was because of the formatting. Way too much online writing. Face facts, unless it’s in all caps or has an emoji how do you convey real emotion in a tweet or text? In a blog it is possible but not those short messages or even an email. Still it was a decent book.
Thank you Netgalley for allowing me a ARC of One To Watch.
We all have guilty pleasures mine are books and tv series. For fans of the Bachelor/Bachelorette this is your guilty pleasure!
A lot of work, thought, and creativity went into this novel. Main squeeze is a Reality TV show about one person dating 25 people to try and fall in love. All the Elements of the podcasts, tweets, the reunion show really made this book feel like you were watching a tv show.
Kate Stayman-London did an amazing job writing this story. The realism and uniqueness of One to watch is absolutely brilliant. I also applaud her for her character Bea who is a plus size person at size 20 where as she could have said plus size is a size 8.