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 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. In this joyful, razor-sharp debut, Bea has to decide whether it might just be worth trusting these men--and herself--for a chance to live happily ever after.
-summary and cover via Goodreads
Plot: I just want to preface this by saying I don't watch Bachelor/Bachelorette type shows. I totally get why people watch them, and if you love them, that's great! I've just never really been all that interested in them. The whole reason I picked up this book, was because it had a plus sized main character. So I didn't know if I would like the dating show part of the book or not. But I actually really did enjoy that part! And I really, really enjoyed reading this book! I loved reading about Bea's journey, and everything that happened. And can I just say how nice it was to read a book, where the main character was plus sized, stayed plus sized, and wasn't even trying to lose weight? As someone who is definitely not considered thin, it made me really happy to read a book where the main character is happy with how she looks. And I also wanted to mention how much I enjoyed how each chapter opened with text messages or articles or tweets? It was fun to get an "outside" view of what was going on during Bea's time on the show.
Characters: Bea was such a great main character! I liked how even though she was happy with how she looked, she had moments of insecurity, which was really relatable. And even though at the beginning I had a little bit of a hard time keeping track of who all the guys were (That might just be me, I have a little bit of a memory problem because of my Lupus.), by the middle I felt like all the guys had distinct personalities, and I honestly didn't know who she was going to choose. (Side note: Not spoiling, but I was very happy with the entire ending!)
The Cover: LOVE! I love illustrated covers, and to have a plus sized main character on one? Awesome!
Overall: This was an excellent book that I highly recommend! :)
I received an e-ARC of this book from the publisher.
I also don't watch The Bachelor or The Bachelorette, but this book seems like a fun read. 🙂
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