Starlight Book Review – Kate Stayman-London’s One to Watch

Cover of Book – One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London – centered on a deep magenta background with the “Starry Night Elf” Logo in the lower right hand corner | Cover Image Source: Goodreads

Set in the Day Stellar Reading Challenge – 2010s

Set in the Year 2019/ Published in 2020

Trigger Warning –  fatphobia/ fat shaming/ toxic relationships/ misogyny/ cheating/ doxxing

3.7/5 As I anticipated offering the Set in the Day Stellar Reading Challenge (SRC), I imagined the easiest books to find would be those Set in the 2010s (also known as the Tens). Gnomies, I doubt I could’ve been more wrong! I even eased up on the rule a bit for the last decade of this SRC. Yet, somehow, I discovered Kate Stayman-London’s One to Watch, a book set in 2019 and published in 2020. While some reviewers offered less than stellar opinions on One to Watch, I decided to read this book as it focused on some rather Twenty-first Century, even Tens themes.

Click here for more information on this SRC.

“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.”

My favorite part of One to Watch happens to be the beginning when Bea makes friends with a Parisian shopkeeper. I wished the narrative, text correspondence and all, remained with this promising start. I must say Stayman-London nails all the tropes of dating reality TV as far as I’m concerned. In fact, she illustrates how “unreal” this television can be. Bea and other characters, all with their own agendas rather than actually finding true love and a happily ever after (HEA), seemed most authentic. The book left me wanting, however, some more likeable characters. I felt Stayman-London wanted readers to have certain opinions of different characters that I never quite managed. Also, I found most of the characters undeserving of their respective endgames. Nonetheless, I commend this book for being quintessentially 2010s.

Quotes come from book flaps/cover and are featured on color blocks.

Starlight Book Review – Emma Straub’s Modern Lovers

Cover of Modern Lovers by Emma Straub centered on a medium light red-orange background with Starry Night Elf avatar in lower right hand corner | Cover Image Source: Goodreads

Back in the Day Stellar Reading Challenge – 2010s

Published 2016

Trigger Warnings – Smoking/ Drinking/ Death and Suicide/ Sexual Content

3.75/5 When I planned for my reading for the 2010s in the Back in the Day Stellar Reading Challenge (SRC), my original choice ultimately did not meet this SRC’s criteria. Click here for details on this SRC. As 2022 neared its end, I considered myself fortunate that my book club chose to read Emma Straub’s Modern Lovers, a book published in 2016.

* I read Modern Lovers prior to the hubbub with author Straub and a Houston area school district. Any comments on this event with Straub will not be posted.

“Friends and former college bandmates Elizabeth and Andrew and Zoe have watched one another marry, buy real estate, and start businesses and families, all while trying to hold on to the identities of their youth. But nothing ages them like having to suddenly pass the torch (of sexuality, independence, and the ineffable alchemy of cool) to their own offspring… Back in the band’s heyday, Elizabeth put on a snarl over her Midwestern smile, Andrew let his unwashed hair grow past his chin, and Zoe was the lesbian all the straight women wanted to sleep with. Now nearing fifty, they all live within shouting distance in the same neighborhood deep in gentrified Brooklyn, and the trappings of the adult world seem to have arrived with ease. But the summer that their children reach maturity (and start sleeping together), the fabric of the adults’ lives suddenly begins to unravel, and the secrets and revelations that are finally let loose—about themselves, and about the famous fourth band member who soared and fell without them—can never be reclaimed… Straub packs wisdom and insight and humor together in a satisfying book about neighbors and nosiness, ambition and pleasure, the excitement of youth, the shock of middle age, and the fact that our passions—be they food, or friendship, or music—never go away, they just evolve and grow along with us.”

Modern Lovers seemed a great choice for the Back in the Day SRC. Straub wrote a book about characters looking both back in the past and forward to the future. At moments in my reading, I wondered how Straub managed to write a book on the precipice of time. The characters, Andrew in particular, irritated me. Sometimes, I didn’t care much about anyone in the book and that’s reflected in my rating. I would probably pick up another Straub book but there are other authors I want to read first.

Quotes come from book flaps/cover and are featured on color blocks.