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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A fast, furious read, one that is brimming with wit but also packs a serious punch. The compelling narrator — Bea Schumacher — won my heart immediately, and Stayman-London’s storytelling sizzles.
This book caught me off guard! I truly had no idea who Bea was going to end up with (if anyone), and that tension combined with the lovely, bubbly, clever writing made me keep turning pages as quickly as I could until I reached the end. The romance itself is a little less of the focus of this–there are lots of dates and romantic moments, but you’re really following Bea and her journey to complete self acceptance and openness of heart. Very, very sweet.
Bea Schumacher is an irresistible heroine, and One to Watch will win you over just as quickly. Its clever skewering of reality TV tropes is balanced by a sweet sincerity and a real belief in true romance. The Bachelor should be so lucky as to land a Bea of its own.
A delicious and whip-smart page-turner about the complication of being a complicated woman in the world today.
One to Watch is a powerful story about the love we have for ourselves and others. It’s a vibrant, tender, stylish, sexy, and outrageously joyful book, and I couldn’t bear to put it down for one second.
One to Watch is a delightful women’s fiction/romance book that follows Bea Schumacher, a plus-size fashion blogger that after raging about the unrealistic portrayal of women on the fictional Bachelorette style show, Main Squeeze, is tapped to become its next star.
By being on the show Bea is surrounded by the typical Man Candy one expects on these shows. self-deprecating Bea is not sure what is real and what is for the benefit of the TV. Bea has a hard time navigating the truth. Bea is hit hard by the fat shaming and hesitant kisses, side jokes and excessively romantic dates.
These types of reality show are not in my viewing genre. Bea character has some valid points as to why these shiws just aren’t good. The quintessential one size fits all, whitewashed, fairytale romance that they like to portray. Bea’s story allows us to see the ugly, sometimes manipulative, behind-the-scenes planning that goes into these types of shows.
I didn’t expect myself to get be rooting for as many of the men as I did. Once it gets down to the final five or so, they all have interesting qualities that make for compelling love interest. My favorite moments were the ones where Bea was being Bea. The raw apologetically truth. I wish there had been more moments of this Bea in the book. Bea is an incredibly awesome, powerful presences.
If you are a forward fashion person you find so many incredible outfits described in these pages. This book was filled with a whole cast of supporting characters that I adored, Lauren the producer, Bea’s best friend and her family of rowdy, any of this group could have their own spin off story!
This was a 4/5 read for me. If you love the bachelorette series this is a great book version. Plus 25 contestants make for an pretty unpredictable Meet Cute!
Wonderful premise of placing “regular” people onto “reality” shows. I’m not a fan of reality tv shows; but, if they included everyday people, and not only the 2% of the population that society deems beautiful, I might be more inclined to watch these types of shows.
In One To Watch, our girl, Bea, is a woman who isn’t your typical size 2 reality TV show participant and that’s a beautiful thing. Bea is a successful blogger who calls out reality tv producers for only including the “beautiful” people and ignoring the fact that most of the society do not look like the participants of these shows. Her blog post goes viral, so much so that she’s offered to become the bachelorette on the next show’s next season.
I enjoyed watching Bea’s, and some of her suitors’, growth as they overcame preconceived notions and truly learned about themselves and each other.
I received an ARC from Netgalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This was a well-written, entertaining book. Bea, a plus-size fashion blogger, is cast to be on a reality dating show. As the first representative of plus-size women on the show, Bea hopes to inspire others like her, but she is not expecting to find a match, as she is still recovering from a broken heart. As the filming proceeds, she starts to open her mind to the possibilities. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to others.
The idea of the book is brilliant – a plus sized heroine appearing on a Bachelorette-esque reality show – fantastic! Bea is super likeable. Being a plus-sized woman is no easy road, and I’m sure being a woman of size in the public eye can be utterly soul-crushing. I thought Kate Stayman-London did a great job of showing how Bea is able to mostly shrug off the awful things people say to her over social media, but that some of the hate directed at her manages to get through her armour. Even though she’s generally pretty confident, when the hate seeps in, she starts to doubt herself.
The men on Bea’s show are all interesting characters. Without spilling any details, I liked that even the man who ends up being a real dog, and betrays Bea in a pretty epic fashion, still seems like a human being. Even though he was a total ass, he truly did like and care about Bea. It would have been really easy to hate him, but he’s written so that you can see the nuances in his personality. He’s kind of a douche – and he did something really awful to Bea, but he is written as a real person, not just a villain. It becomes obvious that his awful behaviour toward Bea has nothing to do with HER – he would have acted the same way with any woman, no matter who she was or what she looked like. It made the character feel more real, if not more likeable!
The only part in the book I didn’t like was the excerpts and snippets from various podcasts and fan blogs, twitter feeds, etc, dissecting Bea’s show. I can understand why they are there, but I found them boring and ended up simply skipping over them.
I enjoyed One To Watch so much that I found myself dreaming about the characters! That doesn’t often happen to me, so I know it really resonated! I have the same feeling about Bea as I do about Aidy Bryant’s character in the Hulu show Shrill (based on the incredible Lindy West’s work). I admire her so much for her strength and courage, but I understand how hard it can be to stop hating yourself because you don’t look like a model. No matter how much you work at it, some bad stuff is probably always going to get through. You need to learn how to work around it.
There is a ton more I would love to say about this book – it really got under my skin in the best way. But I’ll end by saying that if you want to read a really great story about a really lovely girl with whom you’d love to share a bottle of wine, pick up One To Watch.
I’m not a fan of the Bachelor/Bachelorette so I was hesitant to read this one but it was actually pretty fun.
Stunning, Heartbreaking, and amazing!
One to Watch features a plus-size fashion blogger, Bea, who, while in the process of healing a broken a heart, blogs about the lack of diversity – both body and race – on her favorite reality dating show. Her post goes viral and soon so does she but as any plus-size/fat woman knows the more confident you are in your self the uglier the haters will be. Amidst support, affirmations, and just as much hate spewed at her from behind screens she agrees to become the next Main Squeeze and starts a journey of self assessment, healing, heartbreak, and love.
I’m not a fan of The Bachelor type shows so I was a little worried about the whole “dating” multiple men/love triangle, or square or whatever, aspect of One to Watch and if that would keep it from really being a romance story that I could love. True to form, at least what I know from friends and commercials of The Bachelor type shoes, there were a few guys that I found myself rooting for, a few villains I wanted to punch, and some twists that were whoa! In the end there was a love story that I feel in love with and an HEA, or two, that made me sigh.
One of the things that sucked me in from page one of this book, and I read it in 24 hours so I was SUCKED in, was how much of myself I saw in Bea. This won’t be true of all plus-size/fat women because we don’t all see things or feel things the same way (even the use of plus-size versus fat is an issue for some women). This is not a book that all plus-size/fat women will love because not all of us have felt certain ways about our bodies and our ability to love and be loved. Not all of us have had that dream guy who shows interest in us, but only when it’s just us, that makes us ignore that he is low key, or even high key, terrible most of the time. Not all of us have questioned if we are really single because we prefer it or because we are too afraid to put ourselves out there to be hurt.
So some will say this book is harmful to body positivity because of the emotional turmoil it shows that can feel like it negates that positivity. Some will say it’s a testament to being fat and fierce. Some will say it’s not for them because it focuses too much on the “fat thing” or “body issues.” For me, a woman who hasn’t not been fat since grade school, it was all those things at times BUT it was also affirming and amazing because Bea never stops trying and growing and ultimately winning.
I received a complimentary review copy of this book but all opinions are my own.
If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to be on a reality dating show, you will find the book “One to Watch” an interesting read. The story revolves around Bea Schumacher, a beautiful woman who feels insecure about herself and her chance for ever finding love because of she wears women’s clothes size 20 (in other words, she’s what is considered “plus size” in the fashion industry). One day on her popular fashion blog she complains about the candidates on the TV dating show Main Squeeze, and the fact that the men and women on it are all impossibly perfect and gorgeous. She bemoans the lack of diversity on the show, as if those who aren’t white, or above size 14, or prefer same sex relationships, don’t have the right to find the love of their life.
As it turns out, Main Squeeze’s ratings have been dropping steadily and the new producer, Lauren Mathers, decides to shake things up. She invites Bea to be the next contestant on Main Squeeze. At first Bea hesitates, then she decides to take the plunge. She is trying to get over the rejection of a man — Ray Moretti — whom she has loved for years. She thought they had something special, until he proposed to Sarah. Yet, despite his engagement, he sleeps with Bea. She thinks he has decided to break off his engagement so they can be together, but after their big night together, he disappears and won’t return any of her calls or texts. Heartbroken, she realizes that he was just using her. She hopes that being a contestant on Main Squeeze will help her regain her confidence and perhaps lead her to the man of her dreams.
She asks Lauren for a diverse group of men to be in the lineup of 25 that she will date. Under the show’s premise, the candidates will be weeded down over ten weeks until Bea picks one man to be her fiance on the final week.
To her frustration, Lauren most of the men that Lauren selects look like are devastatingly handsome. Some are trainers, one is a French chef, others are accountants or teachers or successful in a variety of other successful professions. Only one of the men fits her requirement of being “hefty.” All of the candidates are excited to be on the show, and surprised when they realize that a plus size woman is the bachelorette. Most of them are attracted to her, except the trainers, who try to talk her into their fitness and weight loss programs, and two other men, who are outright rude and obnoxious about their feelings on Bea’s physique.
The weeks go by, and there are the usual dates in exotic locations (including on a yacht and in a riad in Morocco), the men meeting her family and she meeting theirs, and the whittling down of men each week. When there are only three men left, Bea is faced with a tough decision, because she finds that she really cares about all three, and they generally seem to like her. (For a while, she felt that all of the men were only pretending to like her so they could stay on the show.) She invites the men — separately — to spend the night with her so they can get to know each other better. The outcome of that question throws the show — and Bea’s decision into a new trajectory. (I don’t want to spoil it by giving too many details.)
Now she’s left with one man–Sam–until Ray shows up, pleading to Bea to take him back. He realized how much he cares about Bea and has broken off his engagement to Sarah.
Bea always dreamed of the day that Ray would profess his undying love to her, but now that the day is here, she’s surprised that she has mixed feelings. She realizes that she’s grown wiser during the course of the show, and sees Ray in another light — as someone who enjoyed being with her, but felt she didn’t fit his image of a perfect spouse. The thought hurts her and makes her wonder if Ray is the man of her dreams after all. Can she overcome these feelings so she can reunite with Ray? Does she want to forget his past mistreatment of her? Or should she move on and select Sam, the remaining contestant from the show, as her fiance? And what about her lingering feelings for Asher — one of the remaining two contestants on the show, who walked off the show before he could find out if Bea would pick him or Sam?
Read the book and you’ll find out!
My overall opinion of the book? The beginning of the book put me off a bit. I didn’t like the style that the author used for the first 15% of the book. In the beginning, the story was told with a flashback to 10 years earlier, then a leap forward to present day, illustrated through text messages, email messages and articles in in blogs and rumor rags. That was a bit off putting, but it grew on me. Once the story turned into a narrative built around Bea’s point of view, it pulled me in and I was hooked.
I definitely recommend the book if you’re looking for a fun read built around reality television, or if you want a story that shows how the heroine grows and becomes a better version of herself. It’s also uplifting to have a main character who isn’t model perfect, but an average woman who is admired for her personality and spunk!
The good character and storyline development kept me totally engaged throughout the entire book! I look forward to reading more from this author!
One To Watch stars Bea, a popular, plus-sized fashion blogger. As the book opens, Bea is in the middle of getting her heart stomped on. A few months later, she calls out a reality TV show called The Main Squeeze, (modeled almost exactly on The Bachelor/Bachelorette) on her blog for its reliance on super thin “gorgeous” women who are not at all representative of the average woman. This leads the show’s new producer to come up with the idea of making Bea the show’s newest Bachelorette. On the one hand, Lauren, the producer, is hoping the “hook” of a plus-sized lead will shake up the franchise and lead to controversy, great theater, and higher ratings. On the other hand, it seems like Lauren really does have at least some desire to challenge the status quo and make the show more inclusive and welcoming of other body types. Bea’s family and best friend have been after her to get out there and date and Bea really does want to spread her body positivity message more widely, so she agrees to go on the show.
From there, the book follows the structure of The Bachelor pretty closely with initially 25 guys being introduced to Bea, then over the next 6 weeks being whittled down to 10, then 5, and ultimately to just 2. I love romances that involve some kind of reality show and I think this book did a great job in mirroring what we see on TV IRL when we watch these shows, right down to the cringeworthy moments, the manufactured drama, and the real confusion that contestants often feel as they are caught up in the TV fantasy world. There were a few times when my heart broke for Bea at the way she was belittled by a few of the guys because of her appearance, but she was a fighter who came back strong no matter what they threw at her. To balance out the meanness, there were also guys who were genuinely kind, thought she was gorgeous, and fell in love with her. Through it all, Bea slowly figured out what she truly wanted in her life and the end was fully satisfactory (although not without a few final twists and turns).
I loved this book for so many reasons, but the top one was the body positivity that was presented throughout the book. Although some people were cruel to her, Bea had a loving, supportive family to lean on, good friends, and a satisfying career, no matter what happened on the show. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
One To Watch by Kate Stayman-London a five-star read that is most certainly one to watch. When I realised what this one was about, the reality Tv aspect and social media I wasn’t sure I would enjoy it, as I cant often be bothered with either, but I loved this the multimedia was done very well, the text exchanges were real, like honest to god what you would put and not what you usually find in a book, where you get an edited down version, throw in some great transcripts, blog posts and emails and other stuff and it just have a great story across so many platforms. Throw in a body positive main character and you have a winner, if there wasn’t so much body shaming from them it would have been perfect. I have it five-stars as I enjoyed it overall, even with the issues.
An absolute delight! This book hit on so many different feelings that it has to resonate with anyone who is living and breathing. I am much older than Bea but am a plus-size woman who still has insecurities about my body. This book reminded me so much of how I always doubted others feelings for me. Just couldn’t wrap my head around people actually being interested in me for me. I adored Bea and all of her issues. Am so glad I was gifted this book from the publisher and am looking forward to reading more of Ms. Kate’s writings. If you know someone that needs a boost, then give them this book. It will empower them in ways they never dreamed.
I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher and voluntarily chose to review it.
Bea Shumacher is a plus-sized fashion blogger who is convinced to be the star of a Bachelorette-type show, but the male contestants don’t even see a picture of her until they are introduced during the first episode. One contestant walks off upon meeting her. She asked the producer to choose diverse male contestants. Bea meant body diversity but the producer went with ethnic diversity! Before the show is finished she experiences every emotion imaginable, is made to feel less than inferior by a majority of the contestants, and doubts the sincerity of the rest, but in the end she chooses to be true to herself! This book takes an honest look at how plus-sized women are treated in an industry that believes that size 8 is a plus size and by society in general. This is a well-written, refreshing debut novel and I enjoyed it very much! I will be watching for more books from Kate Stayman-London. I received an advance reader copy from the publisher for my reading enjoyment.
Bea Schumacher is a high-profile, well-known fashion blogger with many followers. She is also a plus-size woman who fashionably sports a size 20. She is alone and broken-hearted, pining for a man she cannot have.
Meanwhile, Main Squeeze, a popular dating show, plummets in the ratings, and they reorganize and restructure. The new executive producer, Lauren Mathers, asks to meet Bea. She wants Bea to be the next Main Squeeze woman to date twenty-five men and choose one to marry.
This is a big decision for Bea, who, even though she puts on a body-positive image, is far from secure in her appearance. She knows that, as Main Squeeze’s new woman, she would be highly controversial and face much derision. But Bea bravely decides to do it anyway, to further her career and to fight for the average American plus size woman.
This is a fun read. It is funny in spots, romantic in others, and painful to read in still others. However, the character development is awesome, and Bea is a character who is easy to like and admire!
I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.
When I started reading this book I didn’t know what to expect, but as soon as I found what the plot was about I really felt in love with everything about the story. One To Watch what a fantastic book, it is funny, it is hopeful, it has empathy and a lot of feelings that will make your heart swell in a good way.
One To watch has also the hard moments where Bea faces the cruelness of society wanting to look always perfect at a certain weight and a certain manner. trying to change her into something she will never be and she will never aspire to be.
Bea is not your typical heroine and that’s exactly what made this book so amazing, she is bold, strong but at the same time has built a persona that will shield her from Bullers that has been a constant all of her life. Bea teaches us that no matter what is your size or how you look like everything comes from within.
She feels like she will never find love, her best friend always takes her for granted always sending her mixed signals that only give her hope but at the same time break her into million pieces.
One To Watch It a story that for many of us will feel close to home, how the world keeps us wanting to show and project views and fashions that only will make us feel terrible about ourselves. it is about embracing yourself no matter how the world is trying to dictate your life.
Bea goes into a TV Show to find something she really wants, scared of what the world may think she is afraid to show her true self but life has a funny way of showing us lessons and this time Bea is ready to learn and show the world how much she has to give.
Bea, it’s a heroine that is here to make us laugh and cry, to show us that we can be vulnerable and embrace who we’re, that no matter how much the world is trying to tell us how we have to act, dress and behave the only thing that matters is to be true to yourself.
The secondary characters bring so much to the story, Asher, Sam, Luc, Marin, Ray all of them give so much depth to the book and Bea’s life. they will make us laugh so hard with their shenanigans especially Marin what a wonderful character.
Overall One To Watch was a very pleasant story that will keep you hooked since the very first pages of the book and will keep you in your seat until the very end.
I heard about this book through a review posted to a book group. I skimmed through a few reviews and read that the book was great and would be appealing to people that do not watch reality TV, even though the story was about a bachelorette-type reality show. I thought the idea of the book was great, so I wanted to give it a try. Almost immediately I knew the book would be a struggle for me. I did not like the format that the author chose to write with. She used several styles, like chat rooms transcripts, text messages, blogs and newspaper/magazine articles inserted between the narrative and dialog. I think I am just too old-school to enjoy this format.
There were moments in the book I really enjoyed. Also moments I really disliked. I am not a fan of reality TV. I do not like the games people play to win. I mainly think I am not the target audience for this book, but I did read the entire book and it held my interest, so I am giving it 3 stars.