Happy Saturday y’all! Earlier this month you voted for me to read Geekerella by Ashley Poston, and I’m SO glad that you did. This is a fun book, full of fangirling, fandoms, and a little romance too. If you enjoy contemporary romance, I highly recommend this sweet YA.
Geekerella by Ashley Poston
Published by Blackstone Audio on 2017-04-04
Length: 320 pages
Reviewing eARC, Audiobook from Netgalley, My Book Shelf
Rating:
Reading Challenges: 2018 Audiobook Challenge, 2018 Blogger Shame Challenge
Cinderella goes to the con in this fandom-fueled twist on the classic fairy tale.
Part romance, part love letter to nerd culture, and all totally adorbs, Geekerella is a fairy tale for anyone who believes in the magic of fandom. Geek girl Elle Wittimer lives and breathes Starfield, the classic sci-fi series she grew up watching with her late father. So when she sees a cosplay contest for a new Starfield movie, she has to enter. The prize? An invitation to the ExcelsiCon Cosplay Ball, and a meet-and-greet with the actor slated to play Federation Prince Carmindor in the reboot. With savings from her gig at the Magic Pumpkin food truck (and her dad’s old costume), Elle’s determined to win…unless her stepsisters get there first.
Teen actor Darien Freeman used to live for cons—before he was famous. Now they’re nothing but autographs and awkward meet-and-greets. Playing Carmindor is all he’s ever wanted, but the Starfield fandom has written him off as just another dumb heartthrob. As ExcelsiCon draws near, Darien feels more and more like a fake—until he meets a girl who shows him otherwise.
Geekerella by Ashley Poston is a sweet, fun contemporary YA romance centered around fandoms. Elle is a girl obsessed with the cult-classic show Starfield. When the show gets a movie reboot, she is all kinds of excited until she learns that the soap star Darien Freeman is playing the lead. What Elle doesn’t realize though is that Darien is just as big a fan as she is.
I really liked Elle. She’s a quiet, nerdy girl that reminds me a little of myself at that age. At 17, she’s an orphan being raised by her stepmom (or as she calls her the “stepmonster”) and lives with her two stepsisters. When the book opens, Elle is lost or at least she feels lost to me. She is going through the motions of her life, living for others instead of for herself, and missing her dad as the 7th anniversary of his death approaches. When she watches the morning news show that announces the soap star playing her beloved Federation Prince, she takes to her blog and becomes viral overnight.
Darien is a misunderstood guy. He plays a teen heart throb on a CW soap that he describes as the next “OC.” However he is really nerdy and a little shy. He plays a persona when he is in the public eye that doesn’t match who he really is. Like Elle he seems lost and overwhelmed. During the morning show, he is surprised to learn that he will be attending ExcelsiCon with his costars, participating on the Starfield panel and signing afterwards. Because of a bad experience/memories, he hasn’t attended the con in years, especially not since becoming an actor. So he looks up the number to the head of the con and calls it. Instead he gets a wrong number and a girl at the other end.
The plot of this story really revolves around Elle and Darien attending the ExcelsiCon. Elle wants to attend because it was created by her dad and it’s where he met her mother. She also wants to attend to remind herself where she comes from and who she is. Darien wants out of the con but resigns himself to attending. After the wrong number, he begins texting back and forth with Elle, never learning who she really is (the blogger who hates him), and she doesn’t learn his real name. I liked the sweet build up of how they begin to know one another and fall for each other. It makes the love-at-first-sight thing more believable.
I loved the parallels the author makes to the original Cinderella. It’s written well for modern-times, yet Elle is still our Cinder and Darien the prince. There’s even a ball 😀 However the story reminded me ALOT of one of my favorite author’s books Cinder & Ella. So much so that I had to wonder if this author read it. Now there is NO plagiarism. It’s not that at all. But maybe more like it inspired this one. I had a hard time relating and liking these two characters as I compared them to Brian and Ella. Probably just me though 😉
Overall I really enjoyed this book. I listened to it on Audible, really more like I binged it in one day. Eileen Stevens is fantastic. I’ve listened to some books just because of her. She really brings Elle to life with the inflections and nuances that place her as a southern girl. Tristan Morris narrates Darien’s chapters and I got distracted by his pronunciation of “dalek.” I know it’s a little thing but it’s dah-leck not day-leck. Aside from that he brought Darien to life for me too. If you enjoy sweet, contemporary YA romance that is clean, I highly recommend it. Also if you are in a fandom, you will appreciate the fictional fandom Poston has created.
This really sounds so cute and besides dark twisting of fairytales, I also love when they modernize them. I really like the sound of this! Great review, Lillian!
Michelle @Because Reading recently posted…Five Finds on Friday! 5 books I recently found and added to my TBR.
I’m glad you enjoyed this one! It didn’t work as well for me, but like you, I also inadvertently compared it to Cinder & Ella, and unfortunately it pales. Great review!
Yes! I tried so hard not to compare it but I failed. Darien is no Brian (or Kyle)!
Great review! I’ve honestly never listened to an audiobook before but your review makes me want to try. I loved this book too it was so wonderful.