Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - One to Watch

I want to preface that this book lacked trigger warnings. Like you can assume some fatphobia (internalized and external) in books with plus sized main characters, but this definitely should’ve had some kind of warning.

I have to say I was EXTREMELY disappointed with this book. It’s marketed as this plus-sized, body positive Bachelorette-esque romcom and that is not what we got AT ALL. Starting off I saw a lot of people recommending One to Watch if you liked If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy. I also saw a lot of people recommending this book over If the Shoe Fits. And I definitely love Murphy’s plus-sized, body positive Bachelor-esque romcom over One to Watch.

I’m not going to do an in-depth comparison of the two books but I will say if you ACTUALLY want a plus-sized women who is confident in her body and has a heartfelt romance with chemistry, then definitely read If the Shoe Fits.

I felt like my own insecurities as a plus-sized woman were exploited in this book. I was anxious and irritated and upset throughout the whole book. So if that’s the vibe you’re looking for, then I guess by all means, read this book. But if you’re a plus sized woman and you struggle with self-esteem and body image issues or you’re currently struggling with the idea you’re lovable because of your size, don’t read this. Like seriously it would be an act of self-care to avoid this book.

So our “heroine” is plus-sized fashion blogger, Bea Schumacher. Bea’s described as being on the taller side of the average for women, apple shaped, and a size 16. Which is the average size of American women, so she’s really mid-sized. She’s also white and cishet. Bea’s currently in the throes of heartbreak over a guy she’s “been in love with” for 10 years, Ray, her “best friend”. Now Ray and Bea used to work together, and he’s never expressed interest in her except on drunken night when he kisses her before he moves to the other side of the country with his fiancé. Then he visits Bea and they sleep together (EVEN THOUGH HE’S ENGAGED) and then he ghosts her for 9 months.

Now she and her friend, Marin, love the Bachelorette-esque show…um….hold on let me look what it’s called…oh, the show’s called Main Squeeze. And yes, I JUST finished this book after finishing it in a day, and I forgot the name of the show the main character is on during the whole book. That should say something. Anyway, Bea and Marín love this show despite its complete lack of diversity (all white cishet and conventionally attractive people on it). Bea tears into the show for this and is eventually asked to me their next “Main Sqeeze” (aka their Bachelorette). She demands that the contestants be diverse in race and body size. And in the end there’s one plus sized guy (who’s personality was creepy…so way to go with presenting plus size people as desirable people. I mean he served a purpose on how even plus side dudes are dicks to big women) and 24 other men from athletically lean to gym rat buff (is it really so hard to have a bear of a man? You know the strong ones that are a little soft?). And of course there’s some black and Asian contestants thrown in there.

Throughout the book Bea deals heavily with fatphobia. One contestant fetishizes her, one doesn’t even meet her as he takes one look at here at the meet and greet and he just leaves the show, three of them want to “fix her”, one pretends to be interested until he’s booted off and really rips into Bea and her body, and a bunch of them outwardly mock her (call her a “cow” and look at her with disgust). There were literally 4 men on that show that weren’t revolted by her or fetishizing her. And one was asexual and aromantic and the another cheated on her!

The ENTIRE time she doesn’t think any of these men like her and they’re only there to get on the spin-off shows and/or build up clout. And honestly, even I was questioning their genuineness. She was advertised as being super confident and comfortable in her body, but she absolutely was not! She constantly accused these men of lying when they told her they wanted her. It just stressed me out and I genuinely could not see any chemistry between her or any of the guys. I liked Sam but he was immature. And I thought Asher was uptight and intense after knowing Bea for five seconds. I like some of the contestants and side characters individually, but couldn’t see Bea with any of them especially given her severe insecurities.

The three final contestants are Luc, Sam, and Asher. Luc is a Frenchman. Sam is black. And Asher is Jewish and Chinese. But shit, you wouldn’t remember that Sam or Asher were POC after they’re first mention. All the talk about how problematic the show is and how it’s had a problem with racism and homophobia in the past, yet the author couldn’t write two characters of color with more substance? Or avoid stereotypes with 2 of the queer contestants?

Oh that’s right! It turned out that Luc is bisexual and one of the other contestants is asexual, then Asher’s kid in gender non confirming. But all of these things are just mentioned in passing and just seemed thrown in there just for the sake of it being there. Not to mention that Luc’s bisexuality is played off as contributing to his promiscuity and unfaithfulness. Then there’s Marin who I JUST remembered is a lesbian. She’s just a side character that has like 3 scenes in the whole book. And her sexuality isn’t really mentioned after her introduction. Then at the VERY END she gives a flirty smile to Bea’s stylist???

I did think it was beautiful that Bea was able to realize her worth and accept she was worthy of love and to choose herself. But damn the journey was frustrating as hell. It honestly should’ve ended with her doing her own thing and MAYBE the epilogue could’ve been like “3 years later” and it insinuate that she was going to start something with the guy she ends up with.

After the scenes with Bea’s mom, I really can’t tell if Bea actually wants a family and husband or if she only wants it because her mom pushes that on her and she sees how happy her brothers have made their parents with their wives and kids.

Stayman-London really leaned into the French stereotypes with Luc. Like he’s overly flirtatious, sleeps with anyone with a pulse, and is unable to be monogamous. Just completely ridiculous.

I don’t know how I was supposed to root for Bea after she slept with Ray when he was engaged. Like I get having self esteem issues and allowing someone treat you like shit because you should “be so lucky” someone’s paying attention to you and willing to sleep with you (trust me I’ve BEEN there, but I was also 16-19 years old at the time, Bea’s 30). But there’s really no excuse for this. Like Bea was hoping that something would happen when he visited. And I’ve known guys like Ray, the ones that treat women with low self-esteem like trash then leave them and then only “want” them when the women are happy and in a relationship. It’s because they KNOW how the woman feels about them and the don’t want to be with them, but they want to make sure they’ve got that side piece on lock. I was SCREAMING at Bea for being an idiot about this man. Like it was so infuriating.

Also, Bea is mid-sized, which is a new term and does fall under plus-sized, and it’s not to say she didn’t face bullying, but to not have friends or romantic relationships because of her size? Ridiculous. Plus, there’s a scene that lists Bea’s grocery delivery and 90% of her food was junk food that she bought in BULK. Just screams stereotypical big girl. I’m not saying she wasn’t allowed to eat like a human, but my god! How can you preach in your book that we all come in different sizes despite diet and exercise regiments then basically blame Bea’s size on her diet and the fact she doesn’t exercise PERIOD?

Also, not a fan of the chapterlessness (??) of this book. I rely on chapters to get me to stop reading. Otherwise, I’ll just keep going or stop in the middle of scenes.

That being said, I did like the mixed media format. I’ve seen it before, but I REALLY liked how it was executed in this book.

And I’ll admit, I was here for some of the drama, but so much of that drama (like 90%) was a direct knife into Bea’s back and that pissed me off. Like I get that’s was these realities shows are like (which is one of the many reasons I hate reality TV), but it was just so unnecessary for a a book advertised as a romantic comedy. To be clear, I hate these kinds of shows in real life, but have found I like them in romcom novels, just not this one.

I also think the fatphobia was portrayed accurately. Stayman-London really nailed the passive forms and violent forms of fatphobia.

It gets points for being grammatically correct, it’s mixed media format, it’s accuracy on its portrayal of the various forms of fatphobia, and I guess for eliciting a strong emotional response from me. But I could’ve gone without reading this book.

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jenny_librarian's review against another edition

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

It started all right, but halfway through it went down in giant flames that make me say only two things: romance is a waste of time, and men are absolute trash.

The number one reason I rated this so low is the arophobia. Listen, I understand that many romance novels will have some level of amatonormativity. It's fine, I prepare myself beforehand. I thought this one would be better, because I heard about the aroace rep (which isn't as much rep as it is one of the guys figuring out he's aroace and being kicked off the show that very week, despite being one of only two viable choices at that point...). It's not. The entire book is filled with little digs that will make any romantic person feel like absolute shit. And when I say filled, I mean it's almost on every single page!
And that's not counting the acephobia that is just as present. Bea herself, the very chapter after being completely fine with one of the guys coming out as aroace (probably because she didn't have feelings for him) freaks out and believes none of the guys love her because two of them refused -- with VERY VALID REASONS -- to spend the night. That part alone destroyed all the good the small bit of rep could have done.

As I said, it started well enough. Up to midpoint, I was ready to give this a 4 stars -- with heavy TW. But it turns out that every single man (except one) she kept past that midway point was absolutely awful.

Luc is such a stereotype that I feel bad for French people. He's also the only pansexual character... whom the author also made sleep with everyone. Again, what could have been good rep completely obliterated by shitty plot points.
Asher is jealous and was horrible to her every single time anything happened with another guy. Dude, you can't be possessive on a freaking romance TV reality show! Huge red flag
And let's not even talk about Ray.

The only guy she had chemistry and a truly good relationship with, she let go because... they never argue?

The straights are not okay.

It's a shame that it was such a shitshow because there was some really good commentary about fat women and the way society treats them. The main character was realistic and I was really rooting for her, up to the moment it just dissolved into garbage.

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brokenbodybitch's review

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3.75

Don’t get me wrong I love all the little representation in here like the ace guy and the gnc kid and I love how it was so blunt and from what I know about living as a plus person it seemed to be good representation for that however the plot itself was debatably good. I went from loving it to just wanting to get through it around the 60% mark but that could also just be because I hate reality tv and I was not the target audience for that type of plot. The writing style itself though I LOVED, the way it jumped between her point of view and the articles and the podcast or whatever was really cool and fun

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readwithde's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Plus-sized fashion blogger becomes the next "bachelorette" for a reality dating series; what could go wrong?

When I first heard about One to Watch, I was both intrigued and scared: would it be inspiring or another fakeout for this plus-sized reader? I was so scared of it belittling the main issue for the sake of romance that I waited nearly a year to read it, but I'm so glad I gave it a chance.

It takes a special book for me to read it in 3 days or less, but I finished One to Watch in just over a day, less than 30 hrs. Everything was so real, so down to earth; nothing was whitewashed or covered up. Though I initially felt disconnected to Bea, I grew to love and understand her.

Her relationships with the guys was all secondary to me; the real story was the growth each character made in order to be more of themselves, to lean into their unique identity and own that, which is still a needed and relevant topic, even in this highly tolerant era.

The book showcased diversity in race (white, asian, french, black), sexuality (aro/ace, non-binary, bi, lesbian) and sex positivity, social dynamics (farmers, lawyers, coaches, bloggers, celebrities, teachers, doctors), and obviously size.

The story handles all of this with grace and sensitivity and reality, which you wouldn't expect from a romance/rom-com novel based on the premise of a Bachelor-esque reality show. This book challenged me and suprised me, and I hope to become a brave and accepting of my body and identity as Bea became with hers.

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high_lady_of_the_night_court's review

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lighthearted

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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southwestbea's review

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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bodiesinbooks's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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spearly's review

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funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

TW: sexual assault, fatphobia, misogyny, infidelity

“You said yes because you knew some people would object?”
“I wanted to prove that I had every right to be here,” Bea answered. “That I could star in a show about love just like any other woman."

One to Watch follows fashion-blogger Bea, as she is thrust into the public eye as the first plus-size woman to star in Main Squeeze, a reality show akin to The Bachelorette.

This was a nice read. Stayman-London has a way of crafting a very atmospheric, romantic story without getting too technical. For obvious reasons, this reminded me a lot of MTV's Unreal, only sweeter and more satisfying. Still, it's important to mention the obviously heavy themes of fat phobia, fat-shaming, online harassment (including rape and death threats), misogyny, and a very uncomfortable sequence where be a talks about being assaulted in high school.

I loved trying to guess who of Bea's suitors were ~there for the right reasons~. I made a few wrong calls, a few right calls, and Stayman-London definitely threw me at the end there, but it was hella enjoyable!

More important that the romantic side plots, I loved the way Bea came into her own through the story. Even in the beginning, as a body-positive fashion blogger, readers still got a sense of her deeply-rooted insecurities, of how she never allowed herself to be vulnerable, of how she never believed anyone could be attracted to her because it was easier to believe no-one wanted her than to open herself up to being hurt. And yet, despite these insecurities, she was always strong in her convictions, steadfast in ignoring the haters, and, after some trepidation, eager to show the world that being plus-sized doesn't mean you can't get your fairytale ending.

Her journey throughout the show, while yes, was dramatic and luscious to read about, became less about the romance for me and more about the way Bea began to see herself as she started trusted the guys. And, gosh, did she have a good bunch at the end there. Mostly.

Sam was my fave, obviously. If he wasn't yours, then I think you need a re-read!! I was iffy about Luc from the beginning, but I truly felt he played the largest part in helping Bea on her journey to believing she was beautiful. Wyatt was wonderful, and I loved his friendship with Bea, the way he protected her until the very end. And Asher... well, let's just say I liked him fine. I could tell he was genuine. But if I were Bea, I doubt he'd have made it as far as he did.

I will say...

I wish the story had ended with Bea on her own. The whole reconciliation with Asher was, yes, expected (it's still a romance, obviously), but unnecessary. I was more interested to see Bea maneuver through the world with everything she'd learned about herself because of the show. Honestly, I think the strongest ending would have been for Bea to be taking herself out on a date, and to catch the eye of stranger while Taylor Swift's Begin Again starts to play. I mean, if this was a movie. Idk. Maybe I just didn't really like Asher.

But I do understand all the glowing reviews and high star ratings from my mutuals! Definitely worth the read.

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