Book Review: "One to Watch" by Kate Stayman-London
“One to Watch” by Kate Stayman-London
Synopsis: 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. - Dial Press
Rating: 4.5
Trigger warnings: fat shaming, fat phobia
Review: Like many millennial women, I subscribe to a lot of newsletters to stay up-to-date on what’s happening int he world (cable news exacerbates my anxiety), and one of my favorites is by Hitha Palepu. She’s been raving about “One to Watch,” so when I was given the opportunity to receive it early from Book of the Month, obviously I jumped on board.*
Honestly, this is one of the better written romances I can remember reading, and y’all know I am the resident SFOL expert. I loved the premise, I loved the characters, I loved the author’s style — everything about it was just fantastic. And I say that as someone who assiduously avoids the Bachelor franchise.
I know I’m not the only one who has accidentally said something they didn’t mean after one too many cocktails, but I have never accidentally started a viral moment and ended up as a reality TV contestant. Yes, really, that’s how Bea — perpetually unlucky in love, but lucky in most other things — ends up as the leading lady on a thinly-veiled copy of the Bachelorette. We get to go through her adventure with these men, as she starts to have feelings (stupid feelings), but we also get to see her grow into herself. It’s a wonderful story that gave me the warm fuzzies, and I was genuinely surprised at how it ended.
Finally, I know I have talked about it before, but I have body image issues, and so I’m particularly sensitive to how non-traditional bodies are represented in literature. I would be remiss to not mention that some of the participating men’s comments to Bea during the course of filming were hard to read and at times made me never want to try to date again. I want to flag this because I know it can be triggering to those of you in this boat. I also want to mention that, unlike many books about women, there is no self-loathing from Bea or any desire to hop immediately on a diet to make herself more appealing to these garbage men — it’s all external.
*Note: I cancelled Book of the Month last month after their treatment of one of my favorite book bloggers - this was in my final order.
TL;DR: A sweet and smart romance that tackles some weightier issues while remaining a great summer read.
If You Liked This, Try These:
“Big Summer” by Jennifer Weiner - mine and Shannon’s review here! - Bookshop | Kindle
“Get a Life, Chloe Brown” by Talia Hibbert - my review here! - Bookshop | Kindle
and on the non-fiction front - “This is Big” by Marisa Meltzer - my review here, Moira’s review here - Bookshop | Kindle
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