This book had me really intrigued but unfortunately it fell flat for me. It was a lot of internal monologue and a lot of confusing dialogue. Nothing really happens. This had potential to be a cool Bachelor-esque experience, but unfortunately this was not for me.


I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

THE ONE by Julia Argy is a sharp, insightful story about Emily, a 24-year old contestant, and Miranda her producer, on a popular Bachelor-esque dating show.

Argy’s writing is compelling and light, while covering the nuance of reality TV and some heavy topics, including sexuality, feminism, and gun violence. I really enjoyed this story about Emily and Dylan, Miranda and Wyatt, Sam and Winna and the other girls, I would recommend this novel to romance fans and fans of reality TV, curious to explore the production behind the scenes.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC which I received in exchange for my honest review.

I initially thought The One would be a quick, light read when I read the synopsis, but I was pleasantly surprised how layered and substantive it turned out to be. The book focused on Emily, who was recruited by producer Miranda for a Bachelor-type reality dating show. Since she was recently fired from her administrative assistant job and wasn't sure what her next step would be, Emily accepted the offer as an opportunity and vied for the attention of Dylan, the male star of the season. I enjoyed the various topics this story covered, including the roles and perceptions of women. It never felt preachy, and it was a great addition to an already juicy story.

As someone who has *guiltily watched quite a few seasons of the Bachelor, I found this to be an entertaining take on both the experience of being on the show and the manipulation and creation of it. I liked how chapters alternated between Emily and Miranda, and seeing how one lived the others vision/ creation until the breaking point.

While this didn’t ever get super “deep”, I found there to be some interesting nuggets on gender, religion, and femininism woven throughout.

I personally didn’t find Emily’s character to have that much three dimensional detail, but part of my believes that’s how it was supposed to be in relation to how these contestants would actually appear on tv. With all her “scenes” being emotionally contrived, we didn’t get a lot of glimpses of what the real Emily felt until close to the end.

I don’t think this had enough substance to be 5 stars but it was entertaining! A good beach read!

3.5, rounded up. This is one of several behind-the-scenes-of-the-Bachelor/ette books I've read in the past few years; it's not particularly innovative, but I found myself drawn in by Emily and the other characters because I wanted to know what happened next. As a character, Emily's too wishy-washy for me to connect with, but I ended up liking her by the end. I thought her asides about her Catholic/restrictive upbringing would become annoying after a while, but I appreciate that they give the reader more insight into her life and her choices; conversely, the chapters featuring her handler, Miranda, are sharp and contrast nicely with Emily's view of the show. There is, of course, a twist, which I predicted right away, but Julia Argy's not trying to be subtle about it. I wish the ending had offered more closure, but it's fitting that it concludes the way it does.

I’ve read a loooot of bachelor-inspired fiction, and this is the first one I’ve come across to be written in such a serious, almost somber style. It comes off as almost nightmarish and surreal at points, due to lots of bizarre sensory details. But despite occasionally reading like a horror story in tone, there isn’t actually a ton of action.
That said, the romance is what kept me going through the rest of it. Emily’s emotions around Sam feel so authentic and relatable to me as a lesbian and her narrative becomes so much more focused and real when she’s with Sam.
This is also a relatively short and easy read, so it might be a good one to spend a rainy day indoors with.

I had a hard time getting into this one. I loved the premise, but the beginning jumps right in and was hard for me to get hooked. After the first few chapters I had a better feel of the writing and how the narrative jumps between Emily and Miranda's POV each week for the overall message. It was creative to take a dating show concept like the Bachelor and craft a story around it, focused on the women, how they are portrayed and while it's 'reality TV' the reality is nothing like what the end entertainment product aired becomes and the false world those live in for that short period of time.

Something that might help other readers get into the right mindset could be adding a note from the author as a foreword or prologue with a bit more context on the front end.


Very thankful to have received an eARC.

I went into this book thinking "another Bachelor reality-type romance-yay!" and was really pleasantly surprised. This book is not that-I mean, you could say that there is romance involved- but it's really more like Bachelor-themed literary fiction.
Emily gets fired from her administrative assistant job for poor performance and is scouted within days to join "The One' as a castmate to win the love of Dylan. Emily has no other plans and is not sure what to do with her life so she readily accepts. She really doesn't know who she is and is looking for the show to help her to build a brand-both so that she can be an influencer to make money and so that she will know who she is as well.
At the beginning, I had a hard time getting into this as Emily was so moldable and seemed pretty vapid. This story was really layered though and it took a while to peel back who Emily was. Emily was using what the typical archetypes on the show were to mold her personality to them and it allowed her the time and the introspection to understand who she was and what she wanted. If I had a complaint, it would be that the story ended when I could have used maybe an epilogue??
For those who love The Bachelor, I would recommend reading just for the behind the scenes characterizations. The production information was so detailed that I had to think that the author worked for the show. The POV's switched back and forth between Emily and producer Miranda.
There were definitely some dark elements that were included and topics like sexism, feminism, and sexuality were explored in a brusque manner.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for my honest review.

I enjoyed the premise of this book a lot and so much of the writing was super strong! However, I feel it fell off at the end a bit and it was hard to get to know the main character, Emily.

Contemporary Fiction

This novel has a major identity crisis and I did not care for it.

Emily is approached by the producer of a television show like The Bachelor, but this program is called The One. The premise of the shows are the same, except The One hands out golden necklaces instead of roses. Emily is in a house with a bunch of women all trying to date one guy. She, apparently, has no original thoughts or feelings herself and is constantly influenced by her producer and the other contestants.

She is told she needs to speaks to women empowerment, so she tells the producer a story about walking home from a party in college and being followed and how a group of guys in a dorm saved her, but once the threat was gone, they kind of became another kind of threat. This could have been powerful, but the author has Emily dismiss the story and not share it.

The author also has Emily become involved with someone else during the pursuit of The One. It may have been a valid plot twist if there had been more development of the characters and the backstory and even the main plot line. I just didn't get the point of this book. It wasn't entertaining and it really wasn't serving any grand purpose.

I really don't like being this negative about a book, but I really didn't like it. The best thing I can say about it is that it's just under 200 pages.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this novel.

The One by Julia Argy is a fantastic story! It was a great reading experience and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A book based on a Bachelor type premise was all the info I needed to request this one.

This story centers around Emily and her “handler”, Miranda. It felt like I was behind the scenes witnessing the girl drama throughout this book. Told sometimes through Miranda’s POV, it was an interesting and eye opening look at how much a reality series is actually directed and choreographed.

Emily was a likeable enough character, but I never really felt like I got to know her. Her friends were the same way. They didn’t have depth to their characters. Especially true with man in the center of the drama- but I didn’t really expect to get to know him well.

I thought this was a fun read, and if you enjoy watching reality shows, I think you’ll enjoy it too. Thank you to NetGalley and GP Putnam and Sons for the ARC to read and review.

The One is the story of Emily as she enters a Bachelor-like reality show. I just couldn't get interested in Emily or this story and found myself not terribly compelled by the story or the characters. I think I just didn't care that much about what happened to Emily or Dylan.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

For anyone that is a fan of The Bachelor/ette, this is the book for you. It takes you behind the scenes and gives you a perspective that is very clearly from someone who has read about and learned about the Bachelor franchise. In this book, Emily doesn't know about the show (called The One) nor does she know the lead, Dylan. She's fired from her job and almost immediately is literally pulled off the street by a headhunter for this reality show. She accepts because, why not?

She isn't sure if she's falling for Dylan or not but that's hardly the point. It's a deep dive to what goes on in the house with all the girls, the behind the scences, not the glamorous dates. The female frienships that form, the questions the producers ask, it all is much more interesting than the actual dating show.

Emily is being groomed as Dylan's future wife, but she is just putting on an act - isn't that the point of the show?

I loved the female friendships, the inside look at The Bachelor (without it actually being a memoir in any way) and how the girls related to each other. If you devour Bachelor content, don't miss this one.

this was a cute book and i really enjoyed reading it

thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for an advanced copy of this book!

Emily never thought she would go on the reality show The One. When she gets fired and runs into a production recruiter though, she is suddenly in a mansion with 20 something girls all vying for the attention of Dylan. While she awkwardly tries to fall for him, it quickly becomes clear that she is supposed to win it all….

So I think everyone knows my guilty pleasure tv show is the bachelor. So books that are similar to the bachelor? Sign me up! I loved the behind the scenes of this one, and we get what I really feel we miss on the tv show, the female friendships. I absolutely adored the women that Emily grew close to throughout filming, it made me want to just hang out with them all! If you are a bachelor fan I highly recommend grabbing this one! Especially while we are in the waiting period before Charity’s season starts!

Emily is a contestant on the reality show "The One", which is a "The Bachelor" style show. The perspective bounces between Emily, and Miranda, one of the producers on the show. I'm not a reality show person in real life, but I do enjoy the behind the scenes information, both of the contestants and the producers.

This was a fun, deeper book than I was expecting, I thought it would simply be fluff, but it has a depth that I didn't expect when reading the synopsis.

Thank you Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons for the ARC!

“The One” by Julia Argy

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC. If you love the Bachelor this book is for you!! While I do typically love these books I felt it was flat in areas. The main character did not have much personality and as she was figuring herself out throughout her journey not much changed. I enjoyed that this book was behind the scenes and focused on the contestants and producers, but not the lead.

Emily is stopped on the street from a producer of the show The One. She had recently lost her job and felt like she had nothing to lose. Emily’s producer Miranda believes that Emily could be a winner. She needs this for her career. She will coach Emily to be the front runner. Emily quickly becomes close to a group of the women in the house. She feels closer to them than the lead Dylan. She has never had a serious relationship and grew up in a very religious household! Throughout her journey she learns things about herself she wasn’t expecting. Will Emily find love?

I don't watch reality tv. I think the last reality show I watched was Joe Millionaire because nothing about the shows hold interest for me. I find the vast majority of people on the shows to be vapid, fame-seeking, unintelligent people and I'd rather spend my time reading or watching shows that hold some semblance of value to me. That being said, I know there are people who love the escapism and petty dramas that come from reality shows--much like the soap operas of the 80s and 90s. Unfortunarely for this book, I'm not the right audience.

The One is about Emily, a young woman who is plucked off the street by producer Miranda and into a reality dating show. Both characters have different agendas--Emily's on the show because she has nothing better to do and Miranda is trying to stay relevant.. Julia Argy does a great job of lifting the veil so the reader can see how much is scripted or planned in a reality show, and offers tidbits on what a reality show is really like. Argy attempts to weave themes of feminism and women's roles in society throughout the book, but overall, the attempts are just flat.

Overall, the idea was interesting, but the execution was dull. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

Julia Argy's The One follows Miranda a producer on the show of The One, a reality show similar to the bachelor, and Emily - a new, fresh-faced contestant who was plucked off the street and asked to screen test. They are joined by Dylan who is the bachelor on the show, and a handful of other women who are vying for the title of "The Wife" by the end of the show.

I have never had much interest in this version of reality show, but I thought it might be interesting to watch this plot unfold and perhaps get a peek of what may happen through the course of one of these shows. The book did not disappoint, as it unspooled each day of shooting, occurred in front of the camera, as well as the things happening outside of where the cameras might be filming.

I enjoyed getting to see the differences between the characters, as no two contestant were the same. We didn’t get to know them all, but a handful stood out and provided a lot of drama and depth to the story.

Will I rush out and watch the Bachelor? I will not, but this was a book I inhaled in less than 24 hours, aboard a cruise ship. Wonderful book for vacation.

Thank you to NetGalley and G. P. Putnum's Sons publishing for the opportunity to read this book, in exchange for my honest review