One to Watch

In Kate Stayman-London’s new novel One To Watch, Bea is a plus-size fashion blogger and reality show addict. Her favorite is Main Squeeze, basically The Bachelor, with loads of drama and no plus-size singles competing to find televised true love. When she posts a rant about the lack of women who look like her, on her favorite TV show, she winds up with an invitation to be Main Squeeze‘s next bachelorette.

Bea’s still into her almost-ex, an unavailable man who’s either deeply wounded or kind of a selfish ass (and didn’t we all spend our twenties trying to figure out which was which?), and she’s a little unsure about the whole engaged-in-2-months premise for herself.  But the producer convinces her that she can grow her brand, represent stylish plus-size women, have some lux reality-show trips, and maybe… possibly… find romance.

Sections of the book are told through text conversations and podcast transcripts, and usually I find this style a bit gimmicky and hard to read.  It works well here, perhaps because the story about blogging and reality TV is already so internet-ish, or perhaps because the chats felt real. The blog comments and social media parts were particularly well done, with a mix of Bea’s fans cheering her on in the comments, and self-appointed doctors informing her that she’s about to die of selfish fatness.

Overall, I had so much fun with the blend of real and manufactured drama of the reality show, and Bea’s the kind of character you can’t help rooting for.  I enjoyed the scenes of Bea’s plus-size fashionista life (I loved this in Big Summer, too), and her friendship with Marin also felt legit. I have some comments on the way Main Squeeze went down, but these are definitely One To Watch spoilers, so don’t click until you’ve read the book!

This is my Review of the Month for the review collection on LovelyAudiobooks.info