Geekerella by Ashley Poston

Geekerella (Once Upon a Con, #1)

by Ashley Poston

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 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. But when she disappears at midnight, will he ever be able to find her again? 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.

Reviewed by Leigha on

3 of 5 stars

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A teenager lives a Cinderella life in this cute, if not all that clever, young adult romance.

I should love this book. I SHOULD LOVE IT. It’s a romance, it’s nerd culture, it’s movies, it’s cons. How can I not love it? But despite all it’s many (and I do mean many) awesome call-outs, I didn’t love it. I blame it on one thing and one thing alone – the fairy tale retelling.

I’m not the biggest fan of a fairy tale retelling, especially the more popular Disney-fied stories. While ever rendition of Cinderella is a bit different, they all have the same beats – girl lives with neglectful family, girl meets boy under false pretenses, boy loses girl to curfew, boy and girl live happily ever after. I just…I’ve read it a million different times. Very rarely do I find a book that makes it interesting or new.

It’s too bad I didn’t like the structure because I really love the idea of a love story set at a convention. I actually met my husband standing in line at Doctor Horrible’s Sing Along Blog at DragonCon in Atlanta (which is what I suspect ExcelsiCon is modeled after). Love stories can and do happen at conventions all the time. I’m looking forward to more fiction fawning over con life, but hope more of them will refrain from this structure.

If you’re not into nerd or fandom culture, this book will probably lose you. The setting isn’t explained at all. But, perhaps that’s the point? This book is not targeting the Chloe’s (or even the Cal’s) of the world, it’s targeting the Elle’s, the Sage’s, the people who voraciously (and sometimes viciously) live for their fandom.

tl;dr While a cool premise and setting, I disliked the fairy tale structure of the novel.

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  • 29 December, 2018: Reviewed