Review: Geekerella by Ashley Poston

Geekerella by Ashley Poston

Publisher: Quirk Books

Publication Date: April 4th, 2017

Rating: 4 Stars

Source: Publisher

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 320

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Summary (from Goodreads):

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.

**I was provided with a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**

Geekerella is an adorable, modern-day Cinderella retelling with a nerdy twist. I am so glad I took a chance on this book and read it. Usually contemporary is not my thing if it's mostly fluff. And my previous attempt to read a book about fandom was a giant fail. But this book just sounded so much fun and I was not disappointed.

This book has all the classic Cinderella components required of a retelling. We have the evil stepmother who makes Elle do ALL the chores and makes her feel like a giant burden. Then there's the evil twin stepsisters who make Elle feel small every chance they get. You have the cosplay ball and the Federation Prince and even the pumpkin that Elle rides off into the night in without her shoe.

I really liked Elle. She runs a blog about the science fiction show that her and her father loved so much when he was alive. She turns to Starfield when she's feeling alone. She seems to do her best to be a good stepdaughter, but nothing she does is ever good enough for her stepmother. She doesn't really seem like she has any friends, all she really has is Starfield.

The only things I really didn't like about her were the fact that she's one of those fandom people that is so unwelcoming to new people. That's so annoying. But it's definitely believable for a book about a high school girl because boy did I ever come across a lot of that in high school.

Also, she seems like she's really shy, but she wouldn't give anyone the time of day to try and be her friend. Like when Sage is trying to talk to her in their food van and she doesn't even give Sage a chance to interact with her before she's like, "OH GOD SHE HATES ME!" Like, I don't know. I was that super shy kid in high school, but I at least gave people an opportunity to interact with me before I decided that they didn't want anything to do with me. I mean, I just think it was maybe a little bit over exaggerated.

Darien Freeman is the teenage soap opera heartthrob cast in the lead role of Federation Prince Carmindor, a fact that Elle seems to hate. I loved Darien. He's a huge fanboy for Starfield and is so excited about his lead role in the film. He always seems to be concerned that he's not going to do his role justice and it's kind of adorable.

The romance in this book was so cute. Elle and Darien begin talking anonymously through text messaging after Darien texts her by mistake. They learn that they're both huge fans of Starfield and bond over that. I feel like fans of concepts similar to LETTERS TO THE LOST will like this book if they're looking for something a lot less heavy. Also fans of hate-to-love relationships would probably dig this book too.

Overall, this was a real gem of a book that I would recommend to fans of Cinderella, great retellings, or fandom stories. Or just generally fans of cute, fluffy contemporaries. I hope that Elle and Darien live happily ever after forever and ever after the end of this book because I loved them together.

Have you read Geekerella yet? What did you think of it?