This book started out strong for me, but ending up being a "did not finish" because it couldn't hold my attention and I just didn't connect with the story.

As a fan of the Bachelor, I thought I would love this book, as it appears to be a book about someone who WANTS to be on The Bachelor.

But what we actually get is just more of a memoir-style, rambling of someone who maybe said once that he wanted to be on The Bachelor. There was no real plot and I didn't care enough about the MC to say that it was a "character-driven" novel.

Not for me.

Interestingly plotted and enjoyed the scenery - and curious to see follow-up offerings from this author.

Honestly, there was zero plot to this book and I found it rather difficult to get through. Would I advise others to read this? More than likely no.

Coming of age story about love, careers, and figuring out who you are. If you like celebrity gossip and reality TV this will feel like a real treat. I fell in love with the main characters. cried when they cried, laughed when they laughed. i hope this turns into a movie some day.

Huge bachelor fan. This fell flat for me. Jumps all over the place and needs more plot and organization. Good premise.

I have tried 3 times to get into this book and it's just not jiving for me. I love the premise but there's something not clicking about the characters.

This was definitely different than I was expecting but I appreciate what the author was trying to do. Don’t read this expecting Bachelor fantasy though- a man is down on his luck and it’s very navel gazing, but I liked it!

“That is our 'pointed task. Love & die,” says John Berryman, the pre-eminent lovedrunk poet and the central obsession of Andrew Palmer's debut, a book that is partially about romantic love in the age of reality television.

What if you're not a fame-starved Instagram model, and instead a brooding but friendly millennial type, recently void of artistic ambition? We follow the unnamed narrator for a period of several weeks as he ruminates upon his life while approaching his thirtieth birthday. (“At thirty men think reluctantly back over their lives” — Berryman).

Palmer's work is full of insight and romantic mistakes, like reading the best of Andrew Martin, Ben Lerner or Elif Batuman. Palmer extracts the language of love for what it is—its hollowness! Its empty repetition! ("I've never felt this way before." "I think I'm falling for you.") It starts to indict us all.

Berryman’s relationships with women, like the Bachelor’s relationships with contestants for his love, frame the protagonist’s own relationships.

In an era in which reality TV can make two dozen women fall in love with one man in six weeks, where does entertainment end and reality begin? Why do we, season after season, repeat the same mistakes in love and life?

Note: If you enjoy John Berryman’s work and know a little about his life you’re more likely to enjoy “The Bachelor”.

Note Two: “The Bachelor” is not a romance novel but rather literary fiction.

A huge thank you to @Netgalley and @HogarthBooks for the ARC.

As a fan of The Bachelor, I really wanted to like this book, but it wasn't as engaging as I thought it would be,

The book is not a love story nor the main character finds their happy ending like the show likes to make it seem. Instead, it feels like the book is the ramblings of a person's most personal thoughts while recovering from a failed relationship. There are parallels between the main character and the TV show as he watches the episodes every week, but the book fails to capture the charm the show once had. I couldn't connect with the characters, and I was rather bored by their stream of consciousness while watching the show.

I found the writing style hard to get into. I couldn't identify a plot, and the pace is very slow. I gave up about halfway into the book and finished it by skimming the last few chapters.

Overall, a fantastic idea but developed poorly.

I found the writing so choppy, it was almost ineligible. It felt like just a bunch of ramblings and was so hard to get through even one chapter. Just did not work for me.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was just Okay overall. I don't know if I would want more from this author, but despite an interesting concept it fell a little flat.

I don't know -- I really wanted to love this book. I was excited to read it based on the blurb and my undying love for trash tv show and the Bachelor, but it fell flat for me.

Why isn't anyone talking about this book? What an interesting concept and premise. This was a quick read that I really enjoyed!

I thought that I would love this book because I love the Bachelor franchise, however, this was just not what I was expecting and it was not the book for me.

I went into this book thinking it would be something completely different than it was. I never like to give bad reviews, but there really wasn't a lot about this book that I enjoyed. It was too all over the place for me. I had trouble with the story jumping from one storyline to the next within the same paragraph. It just didn't mesh well with me. The story follows a man who is fresh off a breakup and trying to get on with his life. The tv show The Bachelor is woven throughout, but I feel that confused me more than helped move the story along. I do appreciate the opportunity to read this book and thank NetGalley for the eARC. Unfortunately, it is a 2 star for me.

DNF at 52% on this one! I've tried multiple times to pick it back up, but each time I get distracted by the most mundane of things. Alas.

I love the premise of this book. It makes for such an interesting read and the author did a good job.

I loved getting a bachelors perspective of the show back when it was before social media took over reality shows. I loved all the behind the scenes and just hearing about his life since.

Unfortunately this book was not for me. It seemed more of a rambling of the narrator's thoughts than anything else. I enjoyed the Bachelor aspect as I used to be a big fan of the show but I wasn't a fan of the lengthy descriptions of John Berryman.