As a reality TV producer, I love books set in the same world but this one just didn't do it for me. I never understood why Emily joined the show and none of the characters were ones I wanted to root for. I know others loved it so maybe I missed something.

Thanks to Dutton/ Penguin Random House and NetGalley for the copy to review.

This was a slow, snoozy read in a way that totally worked for me. There was a point about a third of the way through where I needed something to happen, and IT DID. I enjoyed the slow, almost sleepy style of story-telling juxtaposed with the setting of the polar opposite “biggest twist ever” “jaw-dropping” “never seen before” drama of a reality dating show. If you’re looking for a romance - this ain’t it. If you’re looking for a happy, or even satisfying ending - this ain’t it. But - it was IT for me.

I very much hope the author never sees this review. I think authors are amazing and I have never finished writing a book. I don’t know what it takes. This feels to me more of an issues in editing than in the writing.

THAT SAID this book was so bad. Here’s my best attempt to list the issues.

1. The book has no idea what it’s doing or where it’s going. It’s a romance. It’s an LGBTQIA+ romance. It’s a female empowerment story. It’s a commentary on reality tv. Oh and there’s a mass shooting! It’s got religious trauma. Let’s tackle some class differences! It’s got sexual inexperience and consent issues. Think of something, it’s probably got it. If a book wants to tackle all these things, it needs something that connects them all. This didn’t.

2. There are two narrators. The first is Emily, the female contestant on “The One” and the second is Miranda, her PRODUCER. What??? Is this a romance novel? Why is Miranda’s story there at all?! It was underdeveloped and I was left fully unsatisfied.

3. At the end of the book I cannot say I enjoyed anything about reading it. I didn’t learn anything, I didn’t have fun, I wanted it to end. I realized while reading it that it was so confusing and so disjointed that I just had to keep going. I sped it up to 2.5x to finish faster and was STUNNED when the narrator thanked me for listening. That’s it? Wow.

This book was like four different plots that could’ve been good if written independently, but absolutely didn’t work when written in 300 pages all at once.

I’ve read a lot of books loosely based on The Bachelor show premise, all with slightly different angles, and ultimately didn’t feel like this story was unique or exciting enough to compare to the others.

Emily is a contestant on the dating show The One, plucked off the street and thrown into the competition. The book follows essentially the season of the show as the group of girls slowly whittle down week by week. We also get some insight into Miranda, Emily’s specific producer.

It felt like this was trying to be a savvy behind the scenes view of production, but there was nothing particularly interesting about Miranda or salacious or groundbreaking about anything she did. And Emily as a protagonist was difficult to understand: I think we are supposed to believe she’s sheltered and somewhat naïve, but she really just comes off as boring. And there are so many women (with minimal defining characteristics) that it’s really challenging to keep everyone straight.

I kept thinking there might be some grand reveal, but by the time the “twist” came along, my heart wasn’t in it. If you’re a huge fan of The Bachelor and want to relive the show in book form, you’ll probably enjoy this.

I really tried with this one, but I felt like I was dropped into a book in the middle, as opposed to the beginning. There was little context and I was confused about what was going on. I couldn't finish this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A Bachelor-esque dating show romance from the perspective of a contestant with occasional interludes from her producer? Yeah, okay, I know how this is going to go. Wrong! Julia Argy managed to bamboozle me and entertain me in a way I did not expect from this book -- part romance, party jaded-mid-twenties diary, part society microscope. I think that a lot of people are going to take this too seriously and thus not like it, but I think that part of it is meant to be a mirror and also a joke. And I felt in on the joke, which means this worked for me! i was happy with the ending but also surprised because I did not really expect to find a slimmer of happiness for anyone involved. If anything, I wanted much more of Miranda.

4 stars.

I received this book as an ARC and this is my review. This story is a behind-the-scenes look at a reality show - similar to The Bachelor. The characters are flawed and some are unlikeable. It has some fascinating views of people who are going after the same goal - with different motives. I recommend this story to readers who are interested in day-to-day happenings in a popular reality show.

This is a heart-pounding novel that will captivate readers from start to finish. The author skillfully crafts a suspenseful narrative filled with unexpected twists and turns, ensuring an enthralling reading experience.

The story introduces readers to a diverse cast of characters, each with their own motivations and secrets. As the plot unfolds, their lives become intertwined in a high-stakes game of danger and deceit. The author expertly maintains a sense of suspense throughout the book, keeping readers guessing and eagerly turning the pages to uncover the truth.

One of the book's greatest strengths lies in its ability to create a palpable atmosphere of tension and unease. The author's vivid descriptions and attention to detail transport readers into the world of the story, making them feel as if they are right alongside the characters, experiencing the thrilling events firsthand.

The One is the story of Emily's experience being cast off the streets onto a reality TV show, vying for the affections of Dylan with the goal of becoming his wife, while making unlikely friendships and discovering herself along the way, The story itself was very good, but the ending was rather dissatisfying, with a few loose ends left untied.

Book about a reality dating TV show and the people in it and the people running it. Interesting premise, but I disliked the main character (and most of the others too) and the premise of the show. Also found some parts of it to be implausible.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free e-ARC of this book.

I am thankfully too old and too fat to be on a reality show like The One but there is no way I would ever willingly do something that didn't allow me to read books or listen to music. I can understand the social media ban but why couldn't they have books and music?
I don't get the hype of these types of shows and find them quite boring, but The One makes them slightly more interesting. I would have liked more if Miranda's perspective as well as at least one more chapter or an epilogue.

Favorite quotes:
"he visits them on weekends to sit in their Jeeps, sniff tree resin, and pray to the Lord. “You know, what people in Colorado do.”

“Do you know why the show is called The One?”...“Aristotle said that people originally had four eyes, four arms, and four legs, but only one soul. Then they did something bad and Zeus chopped them in half, and now we’re all bumbling around looking for the one, the other half of our soul.”

"this was her way of reminding herself that she was her own home."

Ever since I was a child, I have been obsessed with buffets.

I love weddings and hotel breakfasts and all-you-can-eat restaurants where you pay by the pound.

When you do something dumb, you have to do it all at once.

I fell asleep imagining how many miles away the closest woman was locked in a basement.

Emily Boylan is a 24-year-old woman who ends up vying to marry the bachelor on a reality TV dating show. Thrust into the spotlight, this sheltered, "nice" woman has to navigate this altered reality, while trying to learn who she really is.

This sharp novel makes some great commentary about the manufactured aspects of love-packaged-for-entertainment and how this cultural phenomenon adversely portrays women. The POV alternates between Emily and Miranda, Emily's producer. I didn't connect much with Miranda's story. Emily's story is more compelling, yet I still felt like her character wasn't as fleshed out as she could have been. A big piece of Emily's story is her strict Catholic upbringing--yet it's not mentioned much in connection with a big reveal halfway through the novel. All in all, I liked its exploration of sexism and culture this novel explored, but didn't find Emily as vibrant as she could have been.

This was a fine, fast read, but felt (for me personally) like didn't quite live up to its juicy premise.

The book's real strength is its behind the scenes view of a reality show like "The Bachelor." I loved the descriptions of how reality matched up to the narrative being built on screen and how tediously boring being on a show like that can get.

I also enjoyed that it put the whole notion of a group dating one person under the microscope. None of them truly know this guy... and yet they're being encouraged to proclaim him "the one." If "the story" is being created solely by the producers, how could any of these women know what's actually in their hearts?

I thought Miranda's chapters were less strong. Again, while I appreciated the industry sneak peek and thoughts about her role as an aging female producer, I still felt like her character seemed underdeveloped. She saw Emily as a moldable doll, so they more we learned about Emily's interior thoughts, the less relevant Miranda's input seemed to the overall plot.

Honestly, I thought the book would take the central romance in a different direction. I get why the author made those choices, but it also meant that we only ever got to know Emily's perspective on anything (cause Miranda sure didn't have a clue.) That left me with questions than never really got answered.

So overall, not a "bad" book by any means. It is an entertaining read. Most of my quibbles are with creative choices, not the plot as a whole.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

dnf @40%
from the premise i thought this would be a fun ride similar to One to Watch - instead i was pretty bored, characters were flat and i tapped out when i realized i didn’t care about anything happening

Books that have a fictional reality tv show is one of my special interests. The One definetly scratched that itch.

The One is set up like The Bachelor and follows Emily who goes into the show not really knowing what to expect.

One thing that I loved about the book was the behind the scenes looks where the POV would switch to the producer character.

One thing I wish the book had- another point of view. I would have really loved to know what was going on in Samantha's head throughout the "show".

SPOILER!!!

It's pretty clear that Emily isn't really into "The One" pretty early on, but I really appreciated that Emily fell for Samantha. I wish we could have seen more of that.

The type of show depicted in this novel are ones I DON”T watch. I find them cringe worthy, and absolutely appalling for young girls. Love just doesn’t work this way.

The One also has a main character whose heart is in the competition as she was literally picked off the street to compete. She was challenging to connect, especially the whole reasoning for being on the show. While it does feature a ton of behind the scenes, this story really didn’t go anywhere other than what you’d predict.

Thank you Penguin Group, Putnam, for the complimentary copy.

Emily's life isn't going particularly well so when she is recruited to participate in a reality dating show, she jumps at the chance. It's not that she expects to win the competition or even cares about winning, it's more like she has nothing better to do. In fact, the character is kind of aimless and doesn't really seem to have a plan at all, She is not very motivated and kind of hard to like.

Most of the other female contestants are not very well differentiated and hard to keep straight. Dylan, the guy, they are all vying for is kind of boring, and it's hard to understand why any woman would want him, let alone why he would have a gaggle of women competing for him other than the fact that maybe they just want to get on TV and try to get famous. In fact, some of the women are definitely in it for that.

The other characters in the book are the producers. They are all just pushy and trying to manipulate everyone to push their own contestants over the others to promote their own careers. In fact, there isn't really any character worth rooting for in this book.

The only really interesting relationship in the book is that between Emily and fellow contestant, Sam. However, that is never really developed enough either.

At the end of the book, Emily is more motivated than she has been the entire story, and she finally seems to have some direction and a plan. However, the book doesn't really provide any real closure with regard to anything neither with regard to Sam and Emily nor with regard to the competition. There is potential for something to happen in the future, but whatever that is it is a shame that it is left off the page. It seems a lot more interesting than anything that does happen in the book.

The book is clearly meant to be the author's cynical look at reality shows. While these shows definitely deserve to be taken with a grain of salt, this book definitely isn't the most interesting way to get that point across.

Love bachelor spin-offs and this didn’t disappoint. As someone who watches mostly for the wine and social hour with friends, this gave me a fix being between seasons!

Billed as a romance, this is more contemporary fiction with a reflection on upbringing and choices. The behind-the-scenes look at the manipulation and editing we all know goes into “reality” TV was interesting, as were the depictions of strong female friendships. It was a candid look at how savvy marketing can create desire through supply and demand.

It was slow in spots and glossed over in others, culminating in a rushed and mostly resolved ending. At only 304 pages, I had no problem finishing it, but if it had been longer, I would have DNF’d.

I don’t watch The Bachelor or any other “reality” TV shows, so I’m likely not the target audience.

Thanks, NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons, for the digital review copy.

I'm sad to say this is one of the first books I've ever DNFed. I got about 60% of the way through and still felt absolutely zero connection to a single character. I felt the change in perspective was sloppily done and confusing. The premise SHOULD have been fascinating, and honestly was the most interesting part of the story, but my lack of relationship or investment in any of the players made it fall completely flat.