Review: One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London

Hiedi Sue
Sep 22, 2020
4 min read

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I have been so swamped with a lot of different things going on in my life. It seems that after losing my mother about a year and a half ago I have buried myself in being busy with life, career, and my side hustle that I have not had time to take care of myself! I originally started this blog to force myself to do my absolute favorite self-care activity......reading!

I have been putting EVERYTHING before myself.....part of that is normal "mom" stuff and the other part is that I didn't want to think about myself and my true feelings! It is time to get back to taking care of me so that I can take better care of my family. So I am working on getting caught up on this stack of books that have piled up in the corner of my office. I had ordered One To Watch several months ago through Book of the Month. I had canceled my subscription when I got too many books piled up that I had no idea if I would ever read.

After some difficult decisions of quitting my side-hustle business to take some much needed time for myself, I decided that it is time to tackle that stack of books!

Synopsis (from Amazon.com):

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.

What I Liked:

This book is super fun! I go back and forth between rom-coms and thrillers depending on my mood. I have all types of books on my shelf but thrillers are life and rom-com's......well they are my guilty pleasure, the types of books that I can chill out, not have to put too much effort into reading, AND I am a sucker for other's finding love (even though, I myself have always been a cynic when it comes to love).

I love that Bea is a public figure, she is not only a plus-sized public figure but in the fashion industry, that is great! Being a plus-sized gal in the midwest, I was cheering her along all the way. Bea discusses that her body type is more typical than the size zero blondes that we see at every turn on TV, magazines, & social media. I do find in my own world that plus-sized is extremely normal and no one makes a big deal, but that is small-town midwest, not in the big city world.

I am the first to admit that given a good reality show that I am not fooled to think that it is actually "reality" but I am a sucker. I will also admit that I am not a huge fan of The Bachelor or The Bachelorette, which is obviously the basis for the book. Not only does Lauren give Bea a shot at finding love on reality TV, it is great to see that she is trying to show her that not only does Bea deserve to find love but also that she deserves to find it by casting a ton of hot guys, not what the world would find "typical" for a girl of Bea's size. I loved seeing that there was a multitude of bad guys in this book but also some really amazing, great guys! Also a couple of great twists throughout the filming of the "reality" TV show (which I so badly wanted to give away). Showing that the reality of television is not always as real as we hope!

What I Didn't Like:

I had a hard time with Bea's attitude at certain points, throughout the book she discusses knowing what she deserves and not settling, then she goes on to discuss her self-worth, however, a lot of her actions show the opposite of her words. I understand this is a normal person, most of us know what we want, know what we deserve, but then when it comes to dealing with reality most of us settle for a lot less than we deserve. I don't want to see this in my main character, not in this book anyway. I guess maybe it is in my own experience with relationships and that a lot of people reading the book like to see the real side of the character in a book, I even feel that way a lot of the time. I can't quite place my finger on why this bothered me in this book but it did. Not saying that is how it did or did not end :)