One to Watch

 

Star rating: 4.5/5

Bachelor Nation, rejoice - Kate Stayman-London's debut novel brings everything we love about the Bachelor into book form. 

Summary:

Bea is big and beautiful. She runs a successful fashion blog in which she focuses on plus-size fashion and body positivity. She and her best friend love to watch "Main Squeeze," a reality tv show in which suitors vie for one person's heart (sound familiar?), but she writes a blog post critiquing the show's lack of diversity regarding race, sexual orientation, and body type. Her post catches the show's attention, and the producers ask her to be the next Main Squeeze. 

She is extremely skeptical, and she has recently had her heart broken by her best friend. She agrees to be on the show solely for further her fame and career, but much to her surprise, she finds herself falling for many of the men. 

Review:

This book could not be more perfectly timed - I mean, who isn't missing the mayhem of Bachelor in Paradise right  about now?! I absolutely adored this book. Bea is just so lovable, strong, badass, and good. Just genuinely good. I loved this book's focus on acceptance, not just of body type, but of sexual orientation, gender identity - everything. This book's concept may seem fluffy on the surface - and sure, some of it is, there's nothing wrong with fluff! - but the content is also deep, meaningful, and important. This book is about more than a woman's journey to find love - it's about her journey to learn to love herself, and to know what she deserves. 

Reasons for not giving this 5 stars: many parts of this book felt unnecessarily cruel. Yes, I know what world we live in. I know if there were a plus-size woman on the Bachelor that she would likely receive a lot of the same hate that Bea did, sadly. But there were times in this book that some of the cruelty she encountered just felt like it was there to add drama and shock-value. Also, Lauren is a totally manipulative brat, and she and Bea just stay friends?! No thank you, not a good message to send. I also predicted a lot of what happened in the end pretty early on. 

Overall, this book is funny, heartwarming, and total page-turner. If you love the Bachelor as much as I do, this is definitely the book for you!