this book has a great concept and i can't say the author didn't delivery it, especially regarding the format, in which all episodes of the reality show are narrated from the pov not just of its main star but also of media outlets, podcasts and twitter users. the plus size rep and the discussion of what it means to be a fat woman searching for love on national television felt pretty accurate as well.

however, the romance - and consequently the connections between the parties involved - were barely there (no tension, no banter, nothing). that's my main source of Feelings in a contemporary (actually i was expecting the greatest trope of all time: romance with plot), so i didn't grow any real attachment to the story and its characters. the fact that none of them conveyed the qualities with which they were described didn't help either (the mc really wanted me to believe she liked all the remaining men when only one of them had something resembling a personality). if it wasn't for that i could've easily ignored the extremely predictable twists and the mc's incoherence in the last 20% of the book.

tw: fatphobia, rape threats, cheating.