One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Real love . . . as seen on TV. A plus-size bachelorette brings a fresh look to a reality show in this razor-sharp, “divinely witty” (Entertainment Weekly) debut. “Effortlessly fun and clever . . . I found the tension impeccable . . . and that made my reading experience incredibly propulsive. Read it in a day and a half.”—Emily Henry, #1 bestselling author of Beach Read and The People We Meet on Vacation NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Time • NPR • Marie Claire • Mashable 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.

Like watching a reality show in book form - an addictive read and lots of fun! Not quite sure whether I'd call it rom-com or romance, since it doesn't really seem to fit into either too well, going by genre conventions: no POV sections for her eventual pick; not first-person or really even all that close third for Bea; the sex on-page (not explicit) isn't with the hero (though I did kind of love that). I'd probably call this general fiction, since it ends up being more about Bea's journey to truly believing she's deserving of love and someone who'll treat her well. Some of the things she goes through on the way there can be tough to read, especially if you've ever been treated badly or made fun of due to your weight - honestly, after the first night of the show, I considered DNF-ing this because I didn't want to spend time in a book where a character my size (or close to, there are no numbers given, which is great) is mocked and mistreated constantly. Luckily, it doesn't go on throughout the book, but just kind of a content warning if that's tough for you.

Loved the diversity and representation, with a couple of nitpicks: didn't love that the ONLY guy who wasn't a muscular/athletic type turns out to be the biggest asshole in the show, and also didn't love Luc basically being the "slutty bisexual" stereotype with a French accent, but loved the ace/aro character, which is definitely underrepresented, so. One more spoilery nitpick: unless I missed it, no one seems to acknowledge that Asher's ex-wife seemed to have a pretty clear-cut case of postpartum depression (maybe coupled with seasonal depression, imagine living in upstate New York and knowing no one else and having two babies?), and maybe it was supposed to be so obvious that no one remarked on it, but ... that complicates the story and her supposed villainy significantly for me, and does the same for Asher's character/decisions as well. ANYWAY. This was so much what I needed right now - from the outfit descriptions to the finale in Paris, this was escapist and delightful. Can't wait to see what's next from this author!

literally justice for luc!!! really tired of american women writing monogamy-challenged french men in their books like that shit is so trite lmfao but also luc did nothing wrong and asher was a boring whiny dork

Fun, entertaining but also lots of heart.

This was such a great read. Fun, entertaining but also lots of heart. I honestly didn't know how this book was going to end or how i wanted it to end.