A rom-com set on a Bachelor -like reality television show. A cute book, but it felt a little rushed and lacked some of the connection I had with other, similar novels. But, an ok weekend read.

Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of Fan Favorite.

I liked the premise of an “older” contestant who used to love the bachelor going on the show. I do feel like it was hard to root for any of the main characters.

I thought the ending was a little rushed. Also Edie’s obsession with finding love was a bit cringy

This one was fun! The fmc Edie goes on a dating show in hopes of reconnecting with her childhood best friend who is the show’s lead. As an avid reality tv watcher, the “show” was basically the Bachelor! It was a fun setting for a romance to take place with the dates & the other contestants in the story.

I did struggle to get through this one. I didn’t care for the mmc & I wish that the story flowed together more cohesively.

Thank you so much to GCP for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

If you like reality TV, especially dating shows like The Bachelor, this would be right up your alley. I enjoyed the comedic aspects and behind-the-scenes scenes related to the production of the show. I enjoyed the character development but the one thing that fell a little bit short for me was the development of the romance between the main character and the show runner. Their interactions didn’t seem totally organic and not like enough time and connection to really fall in love with each other, especially considering what he had to give up in order to be with her. I liked the characters and enjoyed the book more as a satire of reality dating shows than for the romance.

I wanted to LOVE this book, but I did like it. The beginning started off pretty crazy, and it immediately hooked me. I fell for Edie’s narration and her personality. Yes, it is overplayed to write the hot mess down on her luck FMC, but I will eat it up every time because it’s ME! Those characters will always be the most relatable. I liked the plot of the story, and the idea of Edie vying for a second chance with her high school sweetheart turned hunky celebrity on a TV dating show. However; the story fell flat for me in certain aspects.
The three main characters were annoying at times, and their developments throughout the story didn’t feel natural. The producers drove me crazy, but perhaps that’s how they’re supposed to make you feel compared to how they are in real life. The banter was fun and Edie is for sure a strong FMC and enjoyable to read about.

This was fun! And who doesn’t love a bachelor-esque romance book! The 3 povs were a little confusing to start because they didn’t start right away! It was fun!

Edie is kind of obsessed with finding love at the moment. When she sees her first love is the new lead of a popular dating show, she takes this as a sign they should be together. The producers can’t wait to capitalize on Edie’s story to amp up the ratings. But life is more complicated than reality TV and Edie finds herself wondering if Charlie is still a good match. To complicate things, Edie seems to have chemistry with showrunner Peter who seems to alternate between being a jerk and being a candidate for Edie’s one true love.

This was a fun and charming read and I think readers who also love reality dating shows will find a lot to enjoy about the story.

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

I was really excited to read this book as a long time fan of the Bachelor and I’ll say I liked it, I didn’t love it. This book had a lot of strengths and was mostly enjoyable, there were just some things I couldn’t get over.

The tone of this book was great! I liked how funny and sarcastic the writing was! It kept me engaged enough to keep going. It seemed like every character was funny in their own different way which made the comedy in this book really strong.

It was so hard to like any of the characters in the beginning it made it hard to want to continue the book. I saw the vision of making them redeemable in the end, it was just a bit too much. It wasn’t even necessarily about the characters themselves, maybe just the way they were presented to the reader through the lens of other characters? I especially had a hard time with how Edie was presented in the first portion of the book. It made me sad how frequently she was described as a mess, frumpy, and too old to be worth anything at 35.

As a fan of the bachelor, a lot of the experiences described within The Key felt way too similar to experiences past contestants on the bachelor have been open about. I love drawing inspiration from something and making it yours, but this was so close to the bachelor it came off as inauthentic at times.

I can honestly say the end of this book did surprise me, and I really liked it! I always love an unexpected twist at the end and thought this ending was well done. It moved pretty quickly but doesn’t everything on reality TV?

I was also here for all the messy drama throughout the book! I love reality TV for this reason and this book certainly delivered on the drama.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Forever Publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

What an adorable debut novel! This book was easy to get into and featured one of my favorite things- a relatable fmc! She's smart, confused, clumsy, and stubborn. The premise was fresh and not really something I had read before. It's a second chance romance set on a reality show and the relationships were messy in the best ways with a peek behind the curtain at reality shows.

Gosh, I had really high hopes for this one. As a fan of ONE TO WATCH by Kate Stayman-London, I felt like the premise was right up my alley. I was born and raised on reality dating shows like The Bachelor and was ready for this to blow me away. The book I got, however, was so cringeworthy that I almost found myself putting it down several times throughout the book. The MC was so beyond annoying that there was nothing redeemable about her (and you could tell Gunn was trying really hard to endear her to the reader). I wanted so badly to love this one but I simply can't recommend it.

Fan Favorite is the perfect romance comedy beach read for this summer! This book was laugh out loud funny. Fans of pop culture and reality shows will love this debut novel by Adrienne Gunn.

As someone entering pop culture just as the first season of The Bachelor premiered, Fan Favorite's premise spoke to me - a mid-30s, still single born-and-bred Chicagoan Edie is still waiting for the love she's always dreamed of. Unfortunately, after the relationship she thinks will truly turn into the real thing dies, she's crushed - until she sees her childhood best friend and boyfriend Charlie on The Key (a show akin to The Bachelor). In a fit of mania, she reaches out to the producers and manages to get herself added to the cast in an effort to reunite with him and seal their fate together. But when she gets there, awkward and loveable Charlie Bennett is now adventure bro Bennett Charles, and she's the only non-20's, non-tiny, non-tan contestant on the risers at the end of each night. Meanwhile showrunner Peter is trying to stitch together a happy ending and for the childhood pair, and finds that perhaps his cold heart might be thawing around Edie's warmth.

At first I was a little disappointed in this book - look, another mid-30s, still single, frumpy hapless woman who just can't understand why it isn't working out - how original! As a woman (originally from the midwest no less) on the cusp of 40, I was excited to see a main female character older than 25 but disappointed to see her portrayed as the typical mess; so frequently female characters beyond 30 get to either be career-driven ice queens or emotional messes who can't get it together. Thankfully Edie got her chance to shine as the plot got to "cruising altitude" and she embraced her (very strange) surroundings. I enjoyed watching the evolution of the three main characters and their relationships to each other, and really loved getting to watch Edie own her story and blossom. Her eventual comfort with and even guidance of the other female characters was fun and refreshing to see, and while I was cheering for her to find love, I was mostly just cheering for her. Fan Favorite was a fun read for anyone who is witness to reality television, where sometimes love does happen - just maybe not where you expect it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for this ARC!

I really tried with this book and was excited about the setting. However, I made it to 43% and had to DNF. All of the main characters seem so shallow and unlikeable, I was hoping to see some growth but it just doesn’t seem to be happening or hasn’t happened quick enough.

This book is so good and so relatable for Millennial women! I love how modern and foward this tale is!

This is for the girls who love the behind the scenes look at reality TV. Fan Favorite is more like unReal, the Lifetime drama, than the Bachelor on ABC.

The beginning was rough for me. It was definitely rated R and started off with a literal bang so I had my expectations set from that, but the tone changed quite a bit throughout. Then we got to end and it was so unrealistically sweet that it didn't match the rest of the book.

I loved the humor in this book. The author is so witty with how she phrases things and I loved it!

Another thing I loved was that there were three points of view, all in their late 30s. We have our main female character who is down on her luck, has displaced hope, and is kind of a weirdo. Then we have the showrunner/producer and the male lead who was cast as the bachelor.

However all three of them were super unlikable at first for different reasons, but definitely on purpose.

Anytime there is a 35 year old on the bachelor with all the other contestants being mid-20s influencers, there is going to be drama, but it was disheartening to hear them talk about her looks and how being a normal person is seen as gross. There is also so much producer manipulation, which is so icky to read.

The vibes:
Grumpy x sunshine
Rated R
Reality TV behind the scenes
3 POV
Third person
The contestant previews were hilarious

The way the author wrote things made me laugh, with witty, dark humor, but it took me a while to understand the tone to this book. Overall, I would recommend it to anyone who likes to read about the behind the scenes of reality TV.

Fan Favorite is available in June 2025. Bouncing between a 3 or 4 star for this book every time I think about it.

The whole premise of this book called to me and I was so happy when I was approved for the ARC! I don't watch a lot of TV (reality or otherwise) but am constantly seeing clips on TikTok that make me feel like I know what's going on in the world. Overall I found the book enjoyable but it was jam packed with pop culture references that almost were too distracting. The main love story was predictable in that I knew who Edie would end up with, but I still enjoyed reading the journey all the same.

I would be interested to read more from this author in the future. The writing was very sharp and I enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this arc.

This was a DNF for me. I could not get into this story. Idk if it was the writing style or the characters but I couldn’t get into this book, nor make any connections.

Fan Favorite had a really great concept coming into it. Edie, desperately searching for love, reaches out to the producers of a Bachelor-esque dating show that just so happens to be starring her childhood love, Charlie. In the middle of it all is showrunner Peter who develops feelings for Edie.

I really didn’t like how the author portrayed so much of the other characters’ opinions of Edie. They made her seem like such a dweeb that doesn’t have a shot of getting married or having a happily ever after at the *shocking* age of 35. Being that age myself, it just felt like a slap in the face.

But I stuck it out because I wanted to see Edie get her happy ending even if it didn’t feel earned to me in terms of her love interest.

Thanks as always to NetGalley for the ARC.

El novio de cinco años de Edie terminó la relación para regresar con su ex. Ella no lo puede creer, pensaba que en algún momento se casarían y entra en una espiral de autodestrucción. Comienza a tener citas con quien sea, pero todas salen mal. Siente que el tiempo se le agota, tiene 35 años y no quiere seguir soltera, además de que desea tener hijos. Un día, después de una cita desastrosa, se entera de que su primer novio, Charlie, participará en un concurso para encontrar el amor, entonces, decide presentarse allí para demostrarle que ella es la indicada.


~

Honestamente, la lectura me resultó pesada. La forma en que se retrata an Edie y a las mujeres en general no me gustó; parece que son superficiales, vacías y se pelean entre ellas. Esto mejora, pero no es hasta la recta final y para ear momento ya es demasiado tarde.



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

This was a fun, beachy type of read. Edie was hysterical. I laughed out loud at her inner dialog and antics. Having been married for 30+ years, I have no idea what dating in the 2020s is like and while I am sure a lot of this is tongue-in-cheek, I am sure it's not too terribly far off. I needed a fun light-hearted rom-com after a couple of heavier books and this did the trick!