Author: Kate Stayman-London
Genre: Romance
Publisher: Dial Press
Publication Date: July 7, 2020
Book Description: 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.
Rating: 4 Stars
Review: This was such a fun contemporary romance novel. I am just loving all the positive attention plus size woman are getting this summer.
Bea is a plus size influencer, and she extremely successful in that realm, but not very good in the romance department. She is approached by the show Main Squeeze (think Bachelorette) to see if she can find love with 1 of 25 men. She reluctantly agrees and this starts the story.
This book was cringeworthy at times, and also made me laugh so many times. I loved watching Bea’s confidence grow throughout the book. It was a solid read and a lot fun. The audiobook is stellar. The narrator really nails all the voices in this book and there are a lot of characters.
Obsessed Bookaholic 