Movie star Jessica Stone can t go up onstage at another con and pretend to love Starfield anymore except that she s contractually obligated. She never dreamed she d be playing Princess Amara for life, but people love Princess Amara, and for better or worse, Princess Amara has Jessica Stone s face. But. it turns out, so does someone else. Imogen Weatherby is just another Starfield fan hitting up ExcelsiCon except that she happens to look an awful lot like Jessica Stone (and no, you re not the first one to point it out). When Jess spots Imogen, she has a brilliant idea: swap places. Jessica can live her life out of the spotlight while Imogen pretends to be her on the rest of the con circuit, and Imogen can ditch her crappy barista job and finally get to see something beyond her hometown. But Jess doesn t anticipate actually liking Imogen s life or Imogen s gorgeous best friend, Hana, who might just be the person Jess needs to forget about her ex. And Imogen loves being Jess Stone and might even love this super talented artist, Tamaki, who she keeps bumping into. Except Tamaki thinks she s Jessica Stone. When an obsessive fan finds out the truth and threatens to expose Jess for the fake geek girl she is, it will take both Jess and Imogen to stand up for the truth: That there is no such thing as a fake geek girl. That if you are a fan, then you are accepted. And that even if you aren t a fan, you are worthy. That you are not invisible. That what you love matters. From the acclaimed author of Geekerella, this geeky spin on The Prince and the Pauper is a perfect story for geek girls of every fandom.
My belief has been so suspended it's practically a chandelier by now. This book was fun and fluffy, but in a super unrealistic way. I think that the side characters were great (give me a whole book about Bran please) and I especially loved Harper, but both of the main characters, Jess and Imogen, felt a little annoying at times. I did really like Jess/Harper though, it was the best ship in the book. With Imogen, however, I felt that Ethan and Vance and Jasper were all a bit too much.
It's supposed to be a retelling of The Prince and the Pauper, but I'm not familiar with the story so I can't attest to the similarities. I feel that some of the weakness on the part of the plot had to do with the transposition of the original plot from a time without cameras and the Internet.
There was a lot of fandom-speak in this book, which was probably a given because of its setting at a convention, but it was a lot more prominent than in other fandom-centric books. There were ship discussions and panels and a lot of references to online fandom, which makes sense considering Starfield is very Star Trek-esque, but I imagine it would get a bit overwhelming to people who aren't in fandom. Also, this is the first time ever I've seen AO3 in print, so that was a shock. However, Princess and the Fangirl also does a great job of showing the dark side of the fandom, and how much harm it can do, as well as how much it can affect the people playing the roles of the characters being discussed.
Overall, it's a good fluffy read, and quite a tribute to fandom, but don't go into it expecting a brilliant plot or a classic masterpiece.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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19 June, 2019:
Finished reading
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19 June, 2019:
Reviewed