3.5 STARS (rounded up). This is a great summer read for anyone who is currently missing their Bachelor fix…or finds themselves rolling their eyes at how EVERYONE LOOKS THE SAME when they actually do get to watch the show.

Bea, a plus-size fashion blogger, goes viral when she publishes an article criticising the lack of body diversity on the bachelor-esque Main Squeeze. Then, she’s asked to star on the next season of the show and we are treated to a brilliant cast of characters, from the truly awful to the too good to be true. Bea’s just recovering from her own broken heart, though, so is she really open to love? And can someone like her even find love on reality tv? Bea’s season of Main Squeeze is shared with us in an episode-by-episode fashion with some text messages, emails, and blog posts thrown in to provide some outside perspective and a behind the scenes look.

One to Watch was a fun read with a ton of laugh out loud moments and a ton of hilarious references to the Bachelor (hello, Reality Stefan!). I loved Bea and I loved getting to know the suitors vying for her heart. However, at 400+ pages, I’d say the book was just too long for a rom com and, towards the end, I just really wanted to be finished.

It’s definitely an enjoyable read, though, and one you can easily get through in a weekend. So definitely add it to your summer reading list if you’re a fan of The Bachelor or Unreal.

A big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for a review.

Firstly - this book was SO good, if I could give it 6* I would. I felt soo seen on so many levels. I also couldn't put this book down and read it in two days (silly Real Life and Sleep getting in the way of reading this in one go!)

Okay so first - lets just talk about REP!!! There is so much rep. Plus-size rep. Being happy and healthy regardless of your size. Step-parents and found families. Being Bisexual and not hiding from it. Being a proud lesbian. Realising that you just aren't sexually attracted to anyone. Being nonbinary. Being bullied. Standing up to bullies. Getting over a past love. Being shielded and wary. Post Natal Depression. Plus size designers!! (and asking why more people DON'T design for us). Man I could go on. Honestly I could. Oh!! Kids being kids! Especially when they have been hurt and how they move forward! Family comfort! Different family types and styles - both biological and found.

Also, the fact that this whole premise came from our MC going onto a show with the intention NOT to fall in love was fantastic. Obviously meeting one guy she liked, and then another, and then things got messssy. But man, I was hooked. Each date and each conversation just left me vying more and more for my personal favourite.

A stance that I felt it was encouraged to have due to the mixed-media format of the book. Between twitter feeds, blog articles, reviews in papers and all sorts - you felt pulled in and like you could be a member of the audience that was watching the show. Which was totally fun - I found myself arguing or agreeing with the opinions shown which was such a fun, new concept that I don't think I had seen before. Also, due to the MC's enforced media black-out during filming, she mostly knew nothing about it all - so it was interesting feeling and seeing the dates through her eyes, unblinded or tainted by the media.

ps. The media can suck :( But go bloggers and a nice hats off to reddit in there too. ^_^ I enjoyed how real this book felt.

Also - in case I haven't mentioned it before - its nice to see someone in a book realising why a past fling / ex / love / sweetheart - is an ex. All to often they just jump in and hope everything had changed when it often hasn't and they don't talk about it at all.

ps. if you don't love Gwen and Linus by the end I'll be sad. <3

This was a lovely read, funny but also sad at times reflecting the world we all love in. We are all influenced by tv and magazines in some ways and this book shows us how some people are pushed out because if their size or they don’t conform to the current ways.
I myself feel it’s live and let live, we all must be able to decide for ourselves how we choose to live, eat or behave as long as it doesn’t effect those we love or our friends.
I enjoyed this books on many levels. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Obviously based around reality show The Batchelor, this was a captivating plot as much like reality TV itself it quickly sucked you in with its superficial drama, love/hate characters and intrigue about who'd eventually be crowned the winner aka 'Main Squeeze'. I was hooked trying to work out, like Bea, if any of the guy's were genuine or not, vibing Sam, hating Jefferson and trying not to be charmed by bad boy Luc. Annoyingly though it was also quite repetitive with the constant reminders that Bea is a plus size girl - granted a key part of the story but I'm not sure we needed reminding quite that much.

Kate Stayman-London is an American author and normally that's not something I'd even really notice (perhaps other than the setting) but which was very evident here. Perhaps because it's a very contemporary storyline and narrative but there were lots of modern cultural references that I just didn't understand. Likewise words that I had to look up such as "confucius" and "canonically" - not that it really mattered but I'm just saying. 

It was also written in a very contemporary style with lots of tweet, blog, email and media interview excerpts. I'm not entirely sure how I felt about it. On the one hand it worked with story and made it really believable as it genuinely did feel like something real I was reading about online. But, it was also slightly jarring at times.

I think this book is probably a bit Marmite - fans of reality TV will love it but if not then you probably won't. I do and so this was a welcome and much-needed entertaining, trashy, escapism. Totally enjoyable.

Meet the stylish, plus-size fashion blogger Bea Schumacher. Full of life, with incredible friends, a wonderful family, Insta famous and … single and broken-hearted.

She loves watching America’s most watched TV show, Main Squeeze where perfectly sized women and men participate in the hope of finding true love and spending that happily ever after with prince-charming/ size zero dream girl (is it all for real or is it all a constant battle for TV ratings and relationships created on set are just fake?). Our Bea is sick of media induced perfection and lack of body diversity so she sets off drunk tweeting about it. Her tweet gets shared and becomes viral overnight, bringing her an offer she never expected: Main Squeeze wants her to be its next star, surrounded by men fighting for her undying love and affection.

Bea agrees but promises herself and everyone in the crew that under no circumstance she will actually fall in love, her participation at the show being purely a business plan to spike up her career and also to inspire all plus size and not perfectly shaped women to believe in themselves and love themselves for who and what they are.

When cameras roll and production yells: ACTION, it’s all about to change and Bea realizes that life is more complicated than she thought. She is surrounded by amazing and attractive men, some absolute jerks and some with a heart of gold. But who will she believe? Who is who? And also, is Bea ready to receive real love and stop self sabotaging? Can she forget Ryan,the man who she loved since forever and hurt her more than anyone else?

Don’t you want to find out? I did! It was an emotional roller coaster and I couldn’t put down this absolutely funny and real and feel good novel. It is outrageously stylish, it is inspiring, sexy, tender but also so damn vibrant. It is exuberant and smells of flower, romance and Paris and all things that cross your mind and body when you think of love.

I am so grateful I got the chance to read it before pub day on July 7th. Now I can shout out and rave about it on all my social media and to all my friends.

ONE TO WATCH by Kate Stayman-London is the perfect lockdown, summer, all seasons read that you won’t want to miss.

This is definitely a book to watch or should I say read.

I love how although there is the subject of fat shaming in this novel, it manages to blend it into the story in a way that is meaningful without taking away from the other part of the tale which of course is all about Bea and her love life.

Kate writes with passion, it oozes off the pages.

The mix of everything that the generation of now are used to, reality TV, social media, blogs.

It is all highly relatable.

And that ending, pure perfection.

One to Watch is a story with all the feels, a brilliant combination of highs and lows, the laughs along with the more serious matters. There is great attention to detail throughout each chapters and the emotions experienced by the characters felt very true.

I loved it from start to finish and would happily read it again.

Imagine the actress Rebel Wilson. She’s my Bea Schumacher. I want this book to be made into a film. It tackles all issues. Body images, body positivity. Being alone, finding love? How we perceive the stereo type of what an attractive woman looking for love should be.

Bea is a blogger who’s been in love with Ray for years but it’s never been reciprocated until one night. Then he ups and leaves. Frustrated, she airs her view on finding love. The producers of a dating game show Them Main Squeeze’ get in touch with her after seeing the public have taken an interest in Bea.

She signs up for the show. 25 men vying for her hand in marriage. Beas confidence is knocked on the opening show when one of the contestants takes one look at her and walks off. As the weeks go by she’s down to the last few men. All have positives and negatives and for one she wonders if she could find her happy ever after.

An absolute belter of a book. One that shows that a plus size woman can have feeling and want to find love. Hats off the author. I want an Allison in my life (read the book).
This book will leave you with a smile on your face and with Bea Schumacher as your heroine.

Put aside your prejudiced and enjoy a fantastic book. Not a take on the reality love show but about differences, confidence and insecurities. That said it will make you smile and cheer Bea on. I was totally gripped and could relate to so much. Brilliant book. Pick it up and escape from your reality.

'One to Watch' tells the story of Bea, a plus-size fashion blogger, who makes reality TV history when she appears as the main contestant on a game show.
Bea shows her strengths as well as her vulnerabilities; she is relatable, perceptive and brave.
A witty, engaging read that I highly recommend.
I want to thank Netgalley, John Murray Press and Kate Stayman-London for a pre-publication copy to review.

This was exactly what I needed, I am currently in the middle of reading a very intense literary fiction book and needed something a little more lighthearted to take out in public (largely because I did not want to cry in front of my grandad) and this absolutely hit the mark, I managed to fly through it in the space of a day and once I had picked it up I found it near impossible to put down.

<i>One To Watch</i> follows Bea, a plus-sized blogger, who becomes the leading lady on the reality TV Show Main Squeeze after criticising the lack of plus-size representation on the show. Bea is recovering from a previous fling and so enters under the assumption that there's no chance she'll fall for any of the men vying for her attention, but drama and romance ensues.

This book was beautifully delivered and hit that sweet spot of fun and drama, alongside dealing with much heavier topics. In this case, this book focused on the body positivity movement, and plus-size representation in entertainment, we dealt with Bea's own relationship of her body as well as looking at the way that some people felt they got to have a say on her body as well. I felt this discussion was well delivered, clearly shown through other characters without feeling like we were being told exactly what was going on, the issues that are present in today's society were clear in this topic. Also, while this was not focused on as much, props to this book for its asexual/aromantic and gender non-conforming representation.

I really enjoyed the way this book was told with snippets of blog posts, magazine articles, twitter conversations, and fan reactions. While at some points I was disappointed that we didn't get to see this play out in 'real-time' it was fun trying to piece the pieces together to figure out exactly what had happened, and exactly what that was going to mean for Bea.

The reason this book wasn't quite a 5 was that I did feel it was somewhat predictable, while there was many will they won't they moments, and many close contenders, I found the ending wrapped up a little too sweetly and I could see it coming from a mile off. This didn't ruin my enjoyment of the book but did mean it didn't quite blow my socks off.

All in all, this was a super enjoyable lighthearted read, with some really interesting social commentary on how the media treats plus-size people. I think it has some great plus-size rep and is really worth a read if you just want some romance and drama from a character perspective we don't usually get to read.

I received an ARC of this book via John Murray Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Description

OMBEA! Bea Schumacher is a devastatingly stylish plus-size fashion blogger with amazing friends, thousands of Insta followers – and a massively broken heart. 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 Ben! But Bea is sick and tired of the lack of body diversity on the show. Since whenis being a size zero a prerequisite for getting engaged on television?

Although Bea has sworn off men altogether, when Main Squeeze ask her to be its next star, she agrees on one condition: under no circumstances will she actually fall in love.

But when the cameras start rolling, Bea finds herself in a whirlwind of sumptuous couture, Twitter 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. Bea has to decide whether it might just be worth trusting these men – and herself – for a chance at her own happily ever after.

My thoughts

I have a love-hate relationship with reality TV dating shows, for sure. The way they portray “love” is problematic, the cast aren’t representative of every group of society and the “real” scenarios they depict are – more than likely – down to producers poking and prodding at footage. This is exactly what One To Watch focuses on, except with a new kind of contestant at the forefront.

Bea is funny, sassy and successful but – as the book unfolds – we see her online persona being chipped away and a real, vulnerable person come out. There’s no denying that I liked Bea, but this feeling lessened a bit when she started actually playing the game and falling in love. I would’ve just been happy for this book to be a plus sized woman putting two fingers up to reality TV dating shows, her haters and the world that – consciously or not – stands against her. This wasn’t where her character went, unfortunately.

Stayman-London was bang on about her discussions on body positivity and sexuality, especially how they are two things that are always subject to change and criticism. We’re so used to reading one opinion on things like this so it was good that both sides were discussed and double standards were called out. I wish more writers called out things that need discussing, that’s for sure.

Whilst I couldn’t deny the reality TV basis of this book was appealing, if predictable and annoying at times, I wasn’t a fan of the writing style. I liked the dialogue filled chapters and the extracts from Bea’s blog, but I just felt like the magazine articles, WhatsApp group chats and everything else wasn’t as enjoyable to read – and wasn’t really needed – compared to the rest of the book.

Saying that, One To Watch is one to …well, read. An enjoyable, interesting book, which would be perfect whilst lounging poolside – or even whilst watching a dating show!

One To Watch will be published on 7th July 2020.

One To Watch is definitely one to read! Bea is a well known and successful fashion blogger who is asked to be the main star of a reality dating show Main Squeeze, where she gets to date and hopefully in the end gets the chance to be engaged to one of the men.
Sounds pretty simple, but Bea is a plus size woman and has never believed true love is destined for her and her last romantic encounter has left her destroyed.
We get to see how the guys and Bea interact with one another, this also includes some ugly behaviour from some of the shallow men who find Bea’s size something to ridicule.
You feel totally invested in Bea’s journey and are rooting for her.
The way that the story is told through different narratives, keeps the book fresh and almost as though you are watching the reality show and how the media deal with the dramas of reality shows.
If you like the premise of dating reality shows and want to see a main character that isn’t seen as the ideal airbrushed version that many people are today, then I recommend this book.

What a fun read!

Any fans of Love Island or the Bachelor, or just general romance fiction fans will definitely enjoy this book! It focused on Bea, our main character, who is a plus-sized fashion blogger. She posts a piece about reality TV show 'Main Squeeze' which highlights how it shares the message that only women of a certain look/ body type can find love. The new lead producer of the show, Lauren, decides to take the show in a new direction and cast Bea as the next main squeeze!

Parts of this book were hard to read as some of the 25 men who were selected as Bea's were complete scum and judged her solely based on her weight. It dealt with a lot of Bea's own insecurities as a plus-sized woman and the struggles of judging whether the interest of the male characters was genuine or not. There is a lot of focus on her self-doubt and self-esteem, and some of these scenes could be triggering. However, I felt the author handled this in such a sensitive way and we went on Bea's journey understanding how amazing she is and how deserving she is of the best in life!

I could not predict where this book was going to go for a lot of it, but had assumed the ending would be that way - which I was very happy about! It was such an enjoyable read with an addictive plot, even though I did find some of the scenes which were told in tweets or captions of people's text discussions of the show could be a little confusing initially.

The whole time I was reading this book I was thinking - YES, I would watch this show - and also, it would make a great movie. Bea was a great character and I loved her so much. I also loved how inclusive and representational this book was! Plus sized characters, suitors of diverse races, asexual/ aromantic representation, and non-binary representation. It was so great for this and the kind of romance novel that 2020 has been waiting for. I definitely recommend this book and I NEED a film of it!

I wish I could say that I loved « One to Watch » by Kate Stayman-London… Sadly, it fell really flat for me. Maybe I should have known better and stayed away from a book inspired by the Bachelor TV show, which I’m not a big fan of. As much as I wanted to like Bea, the main character, her somewhat dubious behavior, and poorly handled relationships in the reality show context left a bad aftertaste.

Now, don’t get me wrong! It wasn’t a total miss for me, and in fact, there were certain things that I liked a lot - for example, the plus-size women representation, the introduction of the asexual character, the lesbian friend (who was very smart about all the relationships I must say) and also seeing a fashion blogger who is not a standard 90-60-90. These were all great. But it definitely didn’t live up to my expectations.

Bea Schumacher is a plus-size fashion blogger. She has a great online presence and thousands of fans all over the world. However, Bea wasn’t always this sparkly outgoing person. She dedicated her life to fashion and plus-size representation, often stumbling all haters along the way. But I could really see that it was important for Bea to stand up for plus-size women, to make the world see how unnatural the models are and that an average woman shouldn’t be afraid or shy about her flaws. Afterall, we all have them.

Bea was chosen to be the next Main Squeeze (i.e. Bachelorette), the first plus-size woman in Main Squeeze ever. This body positivity message carried throughout the entire story and was one of the main focuses of the plot.

At first, I really enjoyed where Bea was coming from and her intentions for getting herself on this show - it was all about spreading the right message. But somewhere along the way, I felt like Bea lost it. She started to focus primarily on the forming connection with the guys, which is the concept of the TV show, however seeing her “mingling” with multiple people didn’t feel right, and most importantly didn’t feel like the Bea we first met.

It seemed as if the TV show’s whole concept of dating multiple people to find The One was winning over the importance of the message Bea was so determined to carry forward.

As I read this book during the same month as « Beach Read » I couldn’t avoid comparing these two books. Especially the writing and humor styles. While « Beach Read » made me laugh out loud, all the jokes in « One to Watch » were flat.

For me, Bea was not a likable character and I think the intention of the author was quite the opposite. I didn’t like her obsession over her previous “relationship” and I didn’t like the way she behaved during the filming of the TV show.

The only character that stood out for me was Bea’s best friend. She always had the best advice and actually seemed like a very strong and independent woman.

I’m not even going to start on the guys… There were only a couple of decent ones and I still don’t understand how Bea ended up with the one who she had 0 chemistry with…

Okay so I'm a huge fan of reality tv and body positivity so I really thought this was going to be the one for me, unfortunately this didn't live up to my expectations.

Bea is a plus side fashion blogger, one night she drunk tweets about her favourite show Main Squeeze lack of diversity in it's casting. One thing leads to another and Bea herself ends up as a contestant with 25 men fighting against each other to propose to Bea. However, Bea is still hung up on her ex so will she open her heart to finding love?

I absolutely loved how this opened up discussions on some serious topics such as body positivity and sexuality. I thought Bea was a great lead and connected with her almost instantly. I also thought the author did a great job with all the characters and liked how each one felt completely different to the next.

However, I really did not like the format of this. At the start and sometimes end of each chapter, there's extracts from interviews, tweets, group chats etc and for me it just really took away from the story. They felt a lot like page fillers in many cases. I disliked this so much that I felt really detached from the actual romances developing.

Overall, it was a fun read and I loved the whole reality tv concept but this one just wasn't for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and John Murray Press for providing me with a copy to read.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book addressing a really important topic and something that is so noticeable to this day. Well written characters and enough varying emotions to make it a great read!

I seem to be reading and reviewing a fair bit of chick-lit recently but not often picking it up otherwise.

Interesting

But, yes, I am back with another chick-lit review and this time it’s One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London. This book is being published by Two Roads press and is going to be out on July 7th!

It focuses on Bea Shumacher, a plus-size fashion blogger and social media influencer. As someone who loves fashion, she’s well aware of what people, especially men, think about larger women. So when drunk one night, she winds up posting a long rant on Twitter about the diversity of dating show the Main Squeeze that causes a lot of viewers to stop watching. To bring them back, Bea is asked to appear on the show herself and though she’s getting over former love Ray and isn’t planning on looking for love, she agrees in the hope of improving her career.

This book was an incredibly fun read. I loved Bea as a character and seeing her struggle with her appearance was emotional but you get it at the same time. Her relationship with these super attractive guys is really interesting as she doesn’t really believe they would like her and it’s fun to see her start seeing that she does deserve love. The guys she meets are interesting and varied and they really are diverse. But that diversity doesn’t feel forced. It’s just what Bea wanted and it helped make the world feel all the more like the real one.

There was also a hint of ace/aro representation which I loved.

The book was separated using multimedia extracts from podcast transcripts, twitter threads to articles and slack chats all about the show. I love multimedia in chick-lit and it’s a really clever way of moving the story forward. Especially when it gives you a little preview of what’s coming up ahead.

This book was completely enjoyable and a wonderful example of American chick-lit. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what else Stayman-London comes up with in the future as I definitely want to read whatever it is!

This is not the sort of book I would normally read but it was very well written and extremely enjoyable. Great storyline and a likeable and very believable main female character and all the interesting men she gets to know on the dating show which turns out to be a journey in getting to know herself and love and respect herself for the amazing woman she is. Loved every page and was sorry it had to end. Well deserving of 5 stars.

Bea Schumacher is a body-positive plus-size fashion blogger with a huge following. After a drunken post calling out her favorite reality tv dating show Main Squeeze for their lack of diversity, she finds herself with the opportunity of becoming its next star. With several suitors lined up, she has to determine who is there for an opportunity to be with her and who is there to further their agenda - while pining for a man who has hurt her before that she cannot have.
This was a brilliant story with a load of plot twists, comedic, and heartbreaking in equal measures. The book perfectly discusses body confidence, sexuality, and the double standards of society. This is an excellent summer read for fans of Laura Jane Williams, Mhairi McFarlane, and for those missing their The Bachelor and Love Island fix.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book.

I was very much on the fence when it came to requesting this book as I’m not the biggest fan of reality television shows like the Bachelor and I don’t tend to enjoy when they are the main focus of a book however I had this nagging sensation in my head telling me to request it so I did.

Thank god I listened to my head. This book was everything and I honestly didn’t realise how much I needed this book in my life.

Being a plus size woman myself I know the struggle of finding someone who looks like me in popular shows, especially reality shows which is why I think I don’t enjoy them. This book hit me hard in so many places and I was able to connect with Bea on so many levels. Every insecure thought, every doubt, every moment of overthinking a simple comment is something I’ve dealt with for a large part of my life. It’s feeling confident one moment and feeling incredibly broken the next, convincing ourselves that we’re going to be forever alone.

One to Watch really calls out the media and society for how badly treated people are if they don’t fit to what is deemed beautiful. The media has always placed these people in such a negative light and it honestly makes me sick to my stomach. It’s so painful to read the comments made about Bea from people on the internet and even in the media and it’s horrible that these things happen in real life.

I loved the use of blog posts, text messages and emails were used to help tell this story! If you know anything about me then you know I love a book that uses different mediums to get the story across. Another thing I loved about this book was the diversity of all the contestants of the show and how they all came across realistic. Whilst I didn’t connect with any of them, they were still interesting and unique characters who helped make this story and, in most ways, helped Bea come to love herself more.

The message of body positivity is the core of this book. It reminds us to love who we are and I loved that Bea didn’t change anything about herself in this book. She found love by being herself and she was successful. As I said at the beginning, I honestly did not realise how much I actually needed this book, especially now where I constantly struggle with my weight and my body as a whole. It’s reminded me that I deserve to be loved just as much as the next person. Normally this book would get a four stars from me but this book hit home for me and I related to it on so many levels so it’s hands down a five star read.

Overall, One To Watch was a fun, eye-opening and hard-hitting book that will always hold a place as one of my favourite books of all time. I really recommend reading this book, especially if you need a reminder that no matter how you look you still deserve all the love in the world.

Thank you to NetGalley and John Murray Press for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.