Book 18/30.
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Bea Schumacher is a stylish plus-size fashion blogger who enjoys indulging in her weekly obsession: the hit reality show Main Squeeze. But Bea is sick and tired of the lack of body diversity on the show and after she drunk rants about it online, she receives a call from Main Squeeze to be its next star. Bea agrees, on one condition–under no circumstances will she actually fall in love. She’s in this to supercharge her career, subvert harmful anti-fat 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.
One to Watch would have been more enjoyable if it was 100 or so pages shorter because it is a fantastic concept (the first plus-size woman on a Bachelorette-type show) but overstuffed with a lot of pages that added nothing to the story other than length.
It would also have been even more enjoyable if Bea really was the confident plus sized woman the author was trying to portray her as. Instead what we get is a heroine who puts up a good facade, but internally is deeply, painfully insecure and refuses to believe that conventionally attractive men could be into her. She is so whiny about it and spends way too much time thinking and talking about how she is too fat for these men to actually want to be with her. Not that you can’t have a heroine who has moments of insecurity or is hurt by the nastiness of internet trolls, but this ventured so far beyond that, and with time became tedious to read.
On a positive note, the mixed media format was fun to read.
View all my reviews
** A guide to ratings **
1 star – did not like it
2 stars – it was okay
3 stars – liked it
4 stars – really liked it
5 stars – it was amazing
Lwile the Leo 