I really enjoyed reading this book from start to finish. The main character stumbles upon the TV show, The Bachelor by accident and becomes an obsessed fan, which is an easy thing to do. He is a single guy himself but does not think he should be on the show, it would have ruined this book. Instead, he learns how to act on dates and how to make a date memorable. This book does get hella serious in some points, which was also needed instead of being another cheesy book about the Bachelor nation series.

I also like the main character identified himself to Brad Womack during his second season as The Bachelor, that was 2011. I was still a pool lifeguard at the time, doing awful dates on Match,com and thinking about massage therapy school. A bit of nostalgia there. An enjoyable book!

Recommended rom-com with a dash of seriousness. Very relatable.

Thanks to Netgalley, Andrew Palmer, and Random House Publishing Group Hogarth for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 7/20/21

DNF
Read 48% and decided not to finish since it had been a struggle to get that far.

Thanks for granting me access to book
I will not leave review on any platform.

I'm a die hard Bachelor franchise fan! I've been watching since Desiree's season and that show got me through the chaos of college and life in general. It's a show that you can easily get lost and hooked on because of the fantastical world of riches, the desire of falling in love and the feeling of empathy towards those getting their heart broken. When I saw Andrew Palmer's "The Bachelor" on #NetGalley I had to get my hands on it (I mean what's a better way to get in the mood for the new season next Monday, eeee get your wine ready!)

🌹🌹🌹

Synopsis: "Reeling from a breakup with his almost fiancée, the narrator of Andrew Palmer’s debut novel returns to his hometown in Iowa to house-sit for a family friend. There, a chance flick of the TV remote and a new correspondence with an old friend plunge him into unlikely twin obsessions: the reality show The Bachelor and the Pulitzer Prize–winning poet John Berryman. As his heart begins to mend, his fascination with each deepens. Somewhere along the way, representations of reality become harder and harder to distinguish from real life. Soon he finds himself corresponding with multiple love interests, participating in an ill-considered group outing, and trying to puzzle through the strange turn his life seems to have taken."

I went into this book blind, immediately thinking this book would be a man's fictional journey as Bachelor but I was wrong (yet in a sense I was right) Its a character driven book with our narrator living the hardships of a "real life" or "normal" Bachelor (and might I add he's experiencing these things right alongside the perfect and charming star of the show) Palmer shows us through our protagonist how hard falling in and out of love truly is which many moments of comedic satire and heart break. Love and marriage is more than the rich commodities that reality TV depicts with its mansions, cars, hot tubs, helicopters and vacations, its about the raw human emotion, truths and moments we go through on a daily basis.

As stated by Berryman, a poet our protagonist becomes enthralled with during his journey, "Neither of us is primarily interested in how long it will last-for each the present is rich and valuable when we are together and would be intolerable if we were not- that is the point." I think that Palmer shows us that love is fragile, it takes time and patience because love can be found at peculiar times in our lives. The book is very deep and shows the reader the rawness of love in its earliest and hardest points. It's about love in a relationship, love we find when we're dedicated to our craft and love that we find in ourselves.

Thank you NetGalley, Random House Publishing, Hogarth Press and Andrew Palmer for early access to this wonderful book. If you're a fan of The Bachelor or want a deep look into love, this book is available everywhere on July 20th!

I was instantly sold by the premise of a man becoming obsessed with the Bachelor. Especially in the context of that obsession coming as a coping mechanism for a rather serious breakup. Admittedly I thought it would involve a little bit more of that dynamic though. Instead, the book delivers a lot of post break up introspection and moving back home following career success but love life demise vibes. Not my normal type of book to pick up but I still enjoyed it nonetheless

The Bachelor was a humorous and insightful expose on the Now Generation and will be enjoyed by many.

I received this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher, Random House. The opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Confession, while I haven’t watched every season of The Bachelor, I still on occasion tune in, so how could I resist this title? And it’s as fun as the best couple storylines which taps into the heart of why millions still watch. No I’m not confusing this fictionalized story for a show breakdown but it makes you feel as if you are behind the scenes of one person’s journey and has you rooting for true love. So in a way this story mirrors the actual show. Fiction vs “reality”.

Not sure what exactly this is about...he just rambles on about nothing of relevance...sorry to say I can't finish this...bored to tears and confused about the story in general!

This book was not what I was expecting and was not for me. As a big fan of The Bachelor, I was excited to dive into this book. It was really difficult to get through and was rambly throughout.


Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As a huge fan of The Bachelor franchise, I expected to really love this book. Unfortunately, I couldn't get that into it. While I liked all of the commentary about The Bachelor, the actual plot of and storyline with our main character I found a bit dull. The parts including The Bachelor were very specific so anyone not familiar with that season would probably be very confused. I had hoped there would be more of a connection with the show to his own life other than the fact that he dating a few different woman only to end up alone. Interesting concept, but I think it could have been done differently.

This is the story of a man who's trying to find himself but gets caught up with the Bachelor TV show instead.

I'm sorry to say that I did not like this at all. The writing was strong but often self-indulgent and rambling. The plot was nearly non-existent, and as someone who has never watched even one second of The Bachelor, I couldn't make heads or tails of the drawn-out descriptions of contestants, episodes, dates, and rose ceremonies. There were long tangents throughout that would describe entire episodes in detail; this would be followed by long descriptions of John Berryman's life and relationships; this would be followed by long descriptions of secondary characters' pasts.

Basically, this all just felt very long, though it wasn't particularly lengthy. But when nothing is happening and the subject matter does not interest me, there was nothing to glom onto, and I ended up skimming much of the Bachelor and Berryman portions without the feeling I was missing anything.

I don’t know about this one. I’m tempted to DNF and move on. I do appreciate the ARC from Netgalley and Random House but I’m having some moral issues continuing.

The Bachelor by Andrew Palmer is not a carefree novel that involves the TV show and some wacky shenanigans occur throughout. Rather, it is narrated by a lonely guy who has moved back to his childhood street who enjoys literature, basketball and watches the Bachelor with a keen eye. It’s more of a memoir where he compares himself to the 2011 season of the Bachelor and drives around Des Moines. He also goes on lengthy tangents about biographies of literary heroes that are boring.

I had to stop when he began detailing the life of a fiancé of one of the contestants, Emily. He wrote about this person like he was just another character in a novel and I felt incredibly put off by that. Especially because most of the book is written satirically. Does the man’s family know about this novel? It wouldn’t be a huge deal, but the fiancé tragically died in a plane crash and never met his unborn daughter and while Emily spoke of him on the show, it just feels gross to read about this man’s family - how his dad became a prolific salesman and race car owner all the way to the young man’s untimely death.

I’m a quarter of the way through and the book was already dull. Now, it just feels icky. I won't be posting to a public site, but these are my honest opinions.

The Kirkus review of Andrew Palmer's "The Bachelor" provides an excellent synopsis and perfectly encapsulates my thoughts on the novel, so I've borrowed an excerpt (in quotation marks) to support my review: "While staying at his mother’s friend’s house, [the unnamed 29-year-old protagonist] becomes enthralled with the reality TV show The Bachelor and with the life and work of the poet John Berryman. As he reflects on art, love, reality, and relationships, the narrator gradually rejoins the world through platonic and romantic relationships with a series of women, including an ex-turned-friend, the house’s sexually liberated owner, a would-be poet, and a bookish recent graduate. When circumstances bring him to a housesitting job at a mountaintop California mansion, the protagonist discovers a tentative way forward from his self-created impasse. Some readers may question the narrator’s conceit of himself as an analogue to television’s Bachelor; are these many women solely present for the male hero’s enlightenment? Thankfully, Palmer’s female characters are interesting of their own accord, not merely in relationship to the young man telling the story, and instead of a bed-hopping serial conqueror, the hero, blocked, confused, and frustrated, can be a sad sack. Interspersed with the main narrative are reflections on love, vocation, performance, illusion, and reality occasioned by the high art of John Berryman and the mass culture of reality television. While these analyses may deter plot-oriented readers, these intriguing, amusing, provocative, and insightful passages contribute to the book’s success as a novel equally concerned with the heart and the mind. A quietly accomplished and unusually constructed novel that marks the debut of a significant talent."

I appreciated Palmer's musing, at times satirical, character-focused writing style, and I found the parallel to The Bachelor reality TV show to be a clever plot device. However, I found the protagonist so dull and tedious, it detracted from the overall reading experience for me. Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House, Hogarth and Andrew Palmer for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I could not get into this book. I read probably a quarter of it and never really found the plot. I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I will not post a public review.

Review coming soon. Thanks to Andrew Palmer, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC; the opinions are mine.

Pub Date 7.20.21
#The Bachelor #NetGalley

I am sorry, I could not get into this book. My Kindle says I'm 15% in and I cannot go any further. It is not entertaining to me and is really hard to get into. I will not do a public review of your book, as I don't want it to turn other readers off of it. Good luck with the release of your book in July. I hope the perfect audience finds it.

I went into this book with high hopes as I'm a fan of The Bachelor series (although I'm way too old to be; it makes me glad I'm not in my 20's)! I liked it but found it was hard to go from this bachelor's ramblings about the show, his obsession with the poet, and his own life after breaking up with his almost-fiancee. There was little in the way of plot as he moved from place to place--as I guess young people do--but I was so hoping he'd find his true place (but that just me)! I did enjoy Palmer's writing as it's crisp and humorous so I would read more from him in the future. It's actually pretty impressive as a debut novel so if you love the show (or not) it's worth a read!

Okay, I LOVED this book.. I’m an unapologetic fan of The Bachelor, I I run a pretty large Bachelor/bachelorette group on facebook, So when I saw this on NetGalley I knew I had to request this book.. Thank you NetGalley for allowing to read this before it comes out!

The Bachelor is a very unique concept, And I was surprised because I thought the book would be about the main character wanting to go on a reality show after watching The Bachelor, instead, the book is basically styled like a memoir, and the main character's life is paralleled with his reflections of watching the Bachelor. I'm so glad that it wasn't about someone wanting to go on the bachelor, We have a few of those type of novels and they are vapid and boring.
I have Been watching the bachelor since 2002, We used to VHS and watch them the next day with my friends after Elementary school..

The only thing that I was confused about was when Andrew Palmer wrote this book,because the season the author used was Brad Womack's second season and that was in 2011 and I remember watching when I was a senior in High school! Oh Emily and Brad...

I found this story to be cute. I liked how it was kind of written like a memoir. The thing is the lack of plot. I found this book hard to get through.

This was a cute story about a man who wants becomes wrapped up in poetry and a reality series The Bachelor. I liked the way the story was written, almost like it was a memoir of his time. It kind of reminded me of Daisy Jones and Lillian Boxfish in the way it was telling about his life. But this had a lot less serious tones. Overall it was a cute debut and I enjoyed the characters.