Review: One to Watch by by Kate Stayman-London

Expect Release is July 7, 2020

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 favofrite moments were the ones where Bea was being Bea.  The raw unapologetically 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!