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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As a big fan and member of Bachelor Nation, I am obsessed with all things Bachelor. This book immediately stood out to me as one I wanted to read because of the setting of a reality show, very much like a Bachelor season.
I love that this heroine, Bea, as the lead of Main Squeeze, is a real-life type of woman. She’s not the typical, tiny young female that’s featured in most of these shows. I love the shows, but cannot relate to the contestants because I don’t look like them. This book was a welcome change because this lead was more realistic; someone I could relate to. Bea agreed to be on the show to bring attention to the need for women of different sizes. She wanted to expand on her social media following as a plus-size blogger, but did not plan to find love. This book brought out some of the problems any woman that’s not the tiny model-type would sometimes fear. She suffered negative feedback, some of the suitors competing for her affection were not sincere and were in fact turned off by her size. This book dealt with that realistically as she worked her way through the process to “not” find love, but also changed Bea as she realized even her expectations were different, too. I love the message that this woman could be confident enough to take on the role and still be her realistic self. I loved this so much!! One to Watch is One to Read, in my book!
I loved everything about this book, including its stellar main character and how realistic this peek behind the scenes of a reality TV show felt.
Completely charmed by this readable version of the Bachelorette and fell madly in love with the heroine. Highly recommend this romance!
The prologue to this story was great and I liked the premise so I was excited to read it, but it very quickly devolved into a long and dull reenactment of The Bachelorette. I liked that Bea came to some self-realization by the end, but I had to slog through tons of whining and other repetitive stuff in order to get there. The writing style was mostly ‘tell’ and no ‘show’ so that the characters were flat and they had no chemistry.
This book should have been half as long as it was. I only finished it because I wanted to see who Bea would choose in the end. Two stars for the fun and creativity of the media content, but I had to push myself through the dialogue and prose. There are some life lessons in there but due to execution the story just didn’t hold my interest.
This was an interesting one, and I’m struggling to rate a little bit. I’m not super into reality TV and maybe having more context for the shows would’ve helped me as a reader, I’m not sure. I loved that we had a body-positive, fat woman looking for love, and saying “yes, I deserve love as much as everyone else” and being someone that others who look similar can see getting love. The friends and family were great, and the prose fun. That said, I had second hand embarrassment and bad feelings for so much of the dating portion because of how the some of the men treated her, I understood her hesitance to giving them a serious chance when there was no real reason to trust their motives. I didn’t like how the romance played out and how key players acted at the end, but maybe that’s just the drama of this type of show. I was rooting for her, but never for the romance, so I just was meh about the ending.
This book was so good! I love Bea so much! I had such anxiety for her though! I could relate to her in so many levels. This was my first book by this author but it will not be my last.
I started this book with some trepidation, expecting a major cheese fest typical of reality TV. Maybe not even that great. I am most pleasantly surprised! It is definitely one of my favorite reads for this year.
Bea is a world traveling, popular fashion blogger. And she’s plus sized. A drunken rant about a Bachelorette-type show called Main Squeeze later, and Bea finds herself invited to be the show’s newest star. Hopefully they will see a huge boost in ratings, and Bea will get more attention to her personal business. She’s definitely not looking for her personal happily ever after and enters into the agreement with more than a little cynicism.
I love Bea. Kate continually addresses and explores body positivity, societal expectations, and our biases with finesse. I don’t get the beating-over-the-head sensation or feel like it was a blip on the radar. I feel invested in Bea’s life and future. I look forward to seeing what else Kate decides to publish.
This was a cute twist on the Bachelorette featuring a plus-size heroine. I liked the internal ramblings and the realistic struggles Bea was subjected to because of her weight. It shows the harsh truth behind trolling and online bullying and I loved how a lot of the story was told through things like articles, correspondence and a podcast. Super sweet romance and of course an unrealistically perfect HEA but definitely a fun read.
I’m going to say it: . It’s fun, refreshing, empowering, and overall a breath of fresh air! How many books out there are geared towards loving ourselves despite our weight, or mental health, or anything that makes us DIFFERENT? Hardly any! I can think of maybe a handful or two and that’s it. This one though, it pushes the boundaries and stands out. Our heroine Bea is a plus sized lady, and she is NOT ashamed of who she is. Sure, it’s hard to hear other people bash her simply because she doesn’t conform to beauty expectations about weight, but she believes in herself and she believes in women in all shapes and sizes. So how can she show the world that bigger ladies are important too? , !
Bea’s journey on Main Squeeze is not an easy one. You’ve seen The Bachelor, right? All these men vying for one woman’s attention. What’s not to love about that, right? But for Bea, things are a bit harder. Some men aren’t there for the right reasons and some are fine with humiliating her and making themselves a villain for their vile opinions. Those who are there for the right reasons have a hard time too because Bea is not the easiest person to love as she is deeply insecure despite her reasonings for being on the show in the first place. As the show progresses though, we see Bea change and we see her fall for a few people who have the best of intentions. Question is, who will she choose?
One to Watch is a delightful, funny read! This book took a hold of my heart and didn’t let it go until the very end. There were moments I wanted to cry for Bea and moments I was rooting for her. But most of all, I laughed along with the shenanigans, the side characters and other things that make this book truly unique: the news articles, the “game” bracket, and all the cute little things that popped up throughout the book.
My friends, ! Powerful, uplifting reads with amazing characters and unique plots! I truly hope the author continues to write books like this because I am obsessed right now and want to scream at everyone to read it! and I recommend it to all readers!
This was set in the world of Reality TV where plus-size blogger Bea Schumacher was cast as the Main Squeeze (essentially the bachelorette) after going on a rant about the lack of diversity on the show. This book was so fun! It was told through mixed media (blog posts, articles, text messages), and through prose, and it kept me hooked. Although I had a problem with some of the villains, I was rooting for Bea throughout the story, and I think the epilogue tied up the story nicely.
Great book and if it was a show I would have totally watched . Great characters based on reality tv experience . I loved it !
Kate wrote such an amazing character when she created Bea.
The character’s stubble between self assurance and her heart struggles certainly punched me in my gut.
Some of the situations Be a goes through her gut wrenching, but she comes out stronger, but wow, I did feel for her.
Totally worth the book hangover to find out how it all plays out.
When plus size lifestyle blogger Bea Schumaker gets drunk while watching the reality show Main Squeeze, she sets in motion plans for the rest of her life. Tired of the unrealistic people the show highlights, she tweets about the lack of body diversity on the show. Her tweets go viral and the company behind the show notice. Out goes the misogynistic head producer and in comes his former assistant. When new head producer Lauren reaches out to Bea, she asks that Bea become the next star of Main Squeeze. Bea and Lauren reach a compromise, you see, Bea’s just sworn off love after the man she’s been in love with for years uses her and then stops contacting her. Lauren’s all in for Bea wanting to use the show as a platform to show that plus size women don’t need to be scorned and treated badly.
When Bea meets the bachelors though, it’s a whole other story. Since they’re doing things differently this time on the show, it’s a live broadcast when the bachelors meet Bea. America gets to see all the cringes, looks, fake smiles, etc. when they’re introduced to a woman who’s technically one size bigger than the national average size. When one of the guys look at her and walk off, I wanted to find and hug her, even though she’s a fictional character. You find out later that Lauren set that up, and I wanted to punch her for putting Bea through that.
Settling into the show, there’s definitely a few guys that you root for, and a couple that you want to hog tie and drop off a bridge. I especially enjoyed the joke her family played on a couple of the bachelors.
I flipped through so many emotions while reading this story. You see, I’ve been plus sized all my life. I’ve had men walk away after seeing me, I’ve had men with a fat fetish, I’ve had the one’s disappear after, I knew Bea’s feelings. I’d lived Bea’s life (without having it all play out on social media, I’m older). I’d had to put the book down after Asher walked away. But I needed to know the ending, so I went back. I read it through. I absolutely loved it! I told my husband that the author either was or had been plus sized, or she had friends/family that was. The author wrote this story with compassion, with love, with respect. Even when the worst of the names were being called, you knew that the author was respectful of the topic. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and I’m so glad that I was allowed to read an ARC of it. Such a great job!
**I received an ARC of this story and this is my honest and voluntary review.
Honestly I wasn’t sure what to think of the Premise of this book .I like the reality show it could be based off and I’m plus sized.I started to read with a bit of trepidation , realizing this Author hit it spot on! I loved Bea and how honest this was to the plus size community.I loved this book happy took a chance on it.
This is a fun book to read. While I’m no fan of TV shows like the Bachelor or Bachelorette, I did enjoy this novel. Bea is a plus sized woman, a fashion blogger, and a fan of the show Main Squeeze. She isn’t impressed by the show’s lack of diversity and says so. When she’s approached by the show’s producer to try to rectify that problem, she half-heartedly agrees to be the show’s star for the next season. What follows turns into a bit of a soap opera, but isn’t that what reality TV is?
I loved Bea. It was interesting to watch her slog through 26 men and learning more about who she really is and what she really wants in life and love. I was so glad to see Bea stand up for herself as all women, all people, should, and I was pulling for her to end up with a Happily Every After, even when it didn’t look like she would.
The book touches on some important topics. I thought this fit in perfectly in this time when important topics of diversity are in the news everywhere, every day. Here are some of my takeaways from this book:
1. Don’t judge a person or their character by the size of their body.
2. Women might like to be with men, but they can live a valuable, productive, and happy life without them.
3. Everyone needs love.
4. Friends are important.
5. Trust your gut as well as gathered information when making decisions.
6. Always insist upon being respected by others. It’s never okay for others to treat you badly.
7. Do what you love.
8. Follow your heart.
I can recommend this book whether you are a fan of reality shows or not. This book will leave you with things to ponder. For me, that’s a high recommendation for a book.
I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I thank them, the publisher, and the author for their generosity, but it had no effect on this review. All opinions in this review reflect my true and honest reactions to reading this book
I have never been a fan of The Bachelor but Kate Stayman -London’s “One to Watch” sure makes me want to start. I loved everything about Bea Schumacher!! As a plus size fashion blogger she is fierce, strong, but like any great heroine has some growing to do. Loving yourself in your own skin is challenging and this book portrays just that. The life and strength you show on social media isn’t always the reality.
After criticizing the lack of racial and body diversity on Main Squeeze a show in which one contestant dates 25 people to find love Bea becomes a social media sensation. She is asked by the producer of the show to become the next Main Squeeze. Leading to Bea fighting her desire to find true love while being a positive role model for those in the plus-size community. The opportunity is not an easy ride for her and she is constantly trying to figure out what the reality around her truly is.
It was tough at times reading how negatively Bea saw herself and self-worth. She had a perception of what she thought a man who loved her would look like based on her size. It was great seeing how her interaction with the different men had her changing her perspective and ideas of what she deserved. It was not only a journey to finding love but in many ways finding herself and figuring out how much she truly is worth.
This book was great at showing the horrors that can come from social media. The media has created a standard for what is seen as beautiful and Bea took a stance against this opinion. All shapes and sizes are beautiful!!
Ok. I’m really conflicted about this book. I LOVED having a plus size heroine. Bea is big and beautiful and a fashionista and more than a little hung up on her best friend who she may have slept with even though he was engaged. And then he literally never spoke to her again. What’s a girl to do? Accept the chance to change the way the world sees plus sized girls, what else!
I really did love Bea, for the most part. As a plus size girl myself, I completely understood her fear and pain and anger throughout the story. I think the hardest part for me was reading all of the vicious things people wrote and said about Bea. This is something we all see and go through, but it was really traumatizing.
A plus-sized heroine who isn’t interested in dieting? Loved it. Her love life is a mess so why not go on the Bachelorette? This is a great debut. Enjoy!
I am a reader – not much of a TV watcher but I am aware of the Bachelor and have caught episodes here and there. Bea is a plus sized woman, blogger, fashionista who is chosen to revive the sinking ratings of the TV franchise. I enjoyed the story lines with the main four guys and Bea’s “choosing” as she had been chosen by her stepfather. Ray, ugh. Lauren sure was a calculating producer. Loved the ending.
I want to start with I am not a reality show watcher. In fact I truly find most of them horrible, mean spirited and pretty much awful. I actively avoid them as the world is already filled with enough judgment and negativity that I don’t need to open the door and invite more in. Then I came across this book on Netgalley.com and thought this might be a completely different look at the genre so I requested. I am so glad I was given the opportunity to read this. It was funny, smart, well written and gave voice to a population that for some reason the world thinks is okay to malign, ignore, treat like they are garbage and abuse for sport. There are some wonderfully fun lessons to be gleaned about learning to stand strong, be proud of who you are and no longer accept being marginalized all wrapped up in a really fun read. Do yourself a favor and treat yourself to this book no matter what size you are or have ever been.