The Drama Was Five Stars; the Romance Was Three
Contains Spoilers
As a long-time fan of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, the premise of Most Eligible was right up my alley. It’s a cute, quick read that follows Georgia, a music journalist who lands a spot on Love Shack—a reality dating show—under the guise of being a contestant. In reality, she’s there to write a scathing exposé, but her mission is derailed when she realizes the show’s host is Rhett, a one-night stand from a year ago whom she never quite got over. Meanwhile, the actual man looking for love on the show is Roland. While Roland’s arc did add some interesting layers to the story, he was ultimately a character who was quite hard to root for.
For me, the highlight of the book was how well it leaned into the reality TV setting. Georgia is a fantastic narrator; her biting humor and descriptions of the show’s ridiculous situations had me laughing throughout the story. Between the wild contestant personalities and the fascinating peek behind the curtain of a major production, the author perfectly nailed the addictive drama that fans of the genre crave. It truly captured that “train wreck you can’t look away from” feeling of real-life dating franchises.
However, the central romance between Georgia and Rhett didn’t work as well for me. Georgia’s life was essentially upended by a single night with Rhett a year prior, and while they clearly had a strong physical connection, it felt unrealistic for her to be so deeply infatuated with a stranger for an entire year. I also struggled with Georgia’s deceit; while she and Rhett were rekindling their flame behind the scenes, she was simultaneously leaking private secrets about both him and Roland to a friend at a magazine. Purposefully sabotaging the man, you supposedly love for the sake of a story made the “I love you” at the end feel unearned and lacked authenticity.
On a personal level, I really appreciated that there was disability representation in this book. While I wish the disabled contestant on the show had been given more of a spotlight and a deeper arc, I still applaud the author for including it and bringing that visibility to the story. I would definitely try another book by this new-to-me author, as this was a solid three-star read—which, in my opinion, is still a good score.
