Mary: Okay, so here we are, not doing any kind of YA book club or anything, just talking about a ROMANCE novel we’ve read. I think—and Emily correct me if I’m wrong—that romance is one of those genres that neither of us would pick up first, but we sometimes get one we really enjoy. When Emily mentioned that this particular novel was essentially about a fat woman who gets asked to appear on The Bachelorette (helpfully retitled Main Squeeze), I knew I had to jump in and read along. 

One to Watch follows Bea, a plus size influencer and blogger who has built her career in the fashion industry on her body positivity and confidence. After a rant about the dating show Main Squeeze blows up online, the showrunners ask her to appear on the next season of the show. But, does Bea really have the confidence she needs to fall in love? And what will she learn about herself along the way? 

Emily: Yeah, I’ll agree that I normally don’t gravitate towards romance, but I have been reading more of it lately. Oddly, I have enjoyed a lot of YA romance (see: Sandhya Menon), but when it comes to adult romance, traditionally I’ve just felt like adults should have bigger concerns than who they’re dating. But since I’ve started reading more romance, I’ve realized that’s not a fair assessment of all romance novels. I am still pretty picky about romance, but I’m willing to give it a shot. But yeah, I picked up this one because I like romance stories that feature “unconventional” romantic leads (older leads, traditionally marginalized voices, etc), so this appealed to me because I like the idea of a fat positive romance. But I also, of course, had to pick this up because I am very much caught up in Bachelor Nation. 

Mary: Oh my gosh, it screamed Bachelor, which I loved.

A lot of One to Watch felt true to me. The way the men behaved on the show felt dead on (playing along to get popular and have a shot at spin-off shows, then turning on Bea and insulting her body when the time was right), and I wasn’t surprised at how fans reacted either. That being said, the most real thing was the amount of internalized fatphobia Bea carried around with her throughout the entire novel. 

Even though other characters doubt Bea’s attractiveness (especially randos on the internet), no one doubts her more than Bea herself. She constantly thinks she’s too fat to be considered attractive, that her body means she’s not deserving of pleasure, and that she shouldn’t participate in some of the more scandalous dates, like going on a yacht in a swimsuit. While all of these thoughts and inner turmoil seem totally realistic—and frankly, something I also experience even as someone who has studied weight and representation in media—that doesn’t mean I liked it. 

Wouldn’t it have been cool to have our fat protagonist feel good about herself? Wouldn’t it be nice to not have internalized fatphobia be the major throughline of the novel? I really struggled with this while reading.

Emily: I struggle with that too, and I read a lot of reviews of this book that claimed this book was not fat positive because of how much negative attention Bea gets and gives herself. But on the other hand, is that not reality for a lot of people? Sure, maybe there are lots of people who feel totally confident in their bodies, but there are plenty of us who can identify with Bea’s struggle of wanting to present herself in a positive light and be a role model for people who see themselves in her while at the same time still struggling with self-doubt. I have read romance featuring fat characters where the realities of being fat in contemporary society aren’t mentioned much at all, which is great. But this book, from the start, is confronting the way reality TV, specifically shows like The Bachelor, perpetuate the idea that only certain bodies are deserving of love. And that’s an idea Bea has internalized. It would seem a little false to me if that internalized fat phobia wasn’t explored. 

Mary: I agree. Sometimes being realistic isn’t fun, and that’s okay. I didn’t think this book was perfect, and some of the negative things men said to Bea definitely made me wince, but Bea’s journey to accept herself—even though she projected a confident front—felt right.

Let’s talk about the twists and turns in the book! There were quite a few, weren’t there?

Emily: Yeah, I did appreciate that this book was difficult to predict, at least until the very last few chapters. Because one of the things about romance novels is that they tend to be pretty predictable. I don’t mean that as a bad thing necessarily. Part of the joy of romance is knowing that you’re following a trajectory and you’re just waiting to see how you get there. 

Mary: Definitely! I never doubted that Bea would end up happy with someone, but I really had no clue how we were going to get there for a while. 

How is this novel working for you as a romance, Emily?  

Emily: Honestly? With all of this being said, this book is doing a lot of stuff that isn’t straight up romance. Sort of like the actual show The Bachelor, a lot of the earlier part of the storyline is all focused on drama and the romance seems shoehorned in at the end. And the steaminess factor in this book is very low. We barely see any physical interactions between Bea and her main love interest, Asher. We do see her sleep with another contestant, but it’s a very fade-to-black moment. What did you think?

Mary: Yeah, it wasn’t really steamy, and definitely felt tame in that regard. Then again, do we ever see what really happens in the fantasy suites? I also agree that the book is doing more than just romance. It kind of felt like a YA novel to me, not because the characters were young but because it seemed like everyone was trying to find themselves. Bea had to come to terms with her own feelings and realize she deserves love. Asher had to, idk, deal with his identity as a father AND a sexual human. 

I think the romance part of the book was sweet, but it wasn’t, like, hot. Which, again, is disappointing. Let fat people be hot!!

Emily: Totally agree!!

Mary: I know I’m being harsh on One to Watch, but I did really enjoy it. It was a particularly good listen on audiobook, too. In between chapters following Bea, we get Twitter threads, emails, and group texts, which really made it feel like a true season of a reality show. I liked hearing what the public had to say about Bea, even when it hurt. What did you think about the mixed chapters? Interstitial chapters?

Emily: I read it rather than listening to it, but I enjoyed that aspect of it. I know this book is a few years old now. I bought it when it first came out, but I’m just now getting around to picking it up. And a lot of that has to do with how much hate this book got in reviews I read. Like, I try not to let reviews bug me too much, but this one was getting a lot of backlash, I feel. And yeah, like you said, this wasn’t a perfect novel. But was it trying to be? I felt like it was trying to cover some pretty difficult topics, and some of it succeeded and some of it was a little cringe. But overall, I feel like the message in this book is a generally positive one, and it was a lot of fun. 

What do you think about the criticisms that have been thrown at this book, Mary? Would you call this book a fat positive romance? Is that what it’s trying to be? 

Mary: I think a lot of times when there’s a book doing something different it has a lot of expectations put on it that it otherwise wouldn’t get. Like Julie Murphy’s Dumplin’—which I love—is not a perfect book, but it’s doing some interesting things for fat positivity or body neutrality or whatever we want to call it. But because it was one of the few books talking about fatness at the time, people really held it to high standards. I think the same thing might be happening with One to Watch. I wasn’t particularly offended by anything in it, and like I’ve said I think that Bea’s struggles with her own body make a lot of sense. However, do I think that this book is doing something revolutionary? Not really. It’s definitely fun, and I’m always happy to see fat characters portrayed in realistic, interesting ways, but I don’t think that One to Watch is necessarily breaking new ground.

That being said, I’d argue that that’s a good thing in this case. Let this romance novel about a fat woman be a romance novel, complete with a cheesy ending! 

The thing that stood out as most important to me, throughout the whole book, was that one half-hot sex scene where Bea realized that yes, men can desire her and yes, she does deserve pleasure. I think that we don’t always get to see fat characters embracing their sexuality and really enjoying it, and that kind of representation seems important. Like, if we saw fat women embracing their own hotness, not as a joke or code for something more malicious, it could be a good thing, I think. I would have like to see something like that when I was younger, for sure. 

Really, just a diversity of bodies feeling hot would be great! 

Emily: I agree! What did you rate this one?

Mary: I did give it a 3/5 BUT not because of any conflicts with fat studies or whatever. Honestly, I was just really annoyed at the ending, which felt way too long. I felt like the book was building up to something different, and then felt disappointed when we just got chapter on chapter of resolving the love story in a way that felt, frankly, forced. When I don’t like an ending specifically, I rate harshly, and I did here. I think that I might bump it up to a 4, though, because I really did enjoy it. What did you think?

Emily: I gave it 4 stars. I tend to rate books like this on a different scale because I expect different things from them. No, this wasn’t earth-shattering, but it was entertaining and managed to be somewhat surprising, so I think this is a book worth giving a chance! 

Anyway, that’s all for this little bonus book review. Catch Mary and me here later in the month when we return for YA BOOK CLUB!