ARC Review : Geekerella by Ashley Poston

Title : Geekerella
Author : Ashley Poston
Genre : YA contemporary, retelling
Release Date : April 4th, 2017
Publisher : Quirk Books

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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 receive an eARC via Netgalley in exchange of honest review. Thank you Quirk Books for the book!

I believe writing a retelling of a popular story is tricky. I mean, most of the readers are probably already know the original story, so you have to writing something that's not that different from the original one, but still can surprise the readers. Sounds hard, right? Fortunately, I think, Ashley does a fantastic job in writing Geekerella. It's basically a retelling of Cinderella (lots of resemblance with the original story here), with a dash of fandoms, con, and fangirling in general. Eventhough I already read/watch Cinderella retelling many times, this book still manages to keep me up all night trying to finish it!

Our main character here is Elle Wittimer, who is a fangirl and obsessed with this TV show called Starfield. I relate so much with her--eventhough she like cosplaying and writing fanfiction and I didn't--in terms of feelings, wanting to go to cons but can't (in my case, there's no evil stepmother but there's distance and money instead), and also we both find it hard to open up to people. I feel like reading a book about me, more similar than when I read Fangirl. It's actually quite scary how similar it is. Beside Elle, there's also her kickass co-worker, Sage (who I assume is the fairy godmother here). Sage is freakin' awesome, with her unapologetically manner, and yet she's also caring toward Elle. I'm so glad Elle has Sage because Elle definitely need some love after years living with her stepmother and stepsisters.

I haven't talk about the love interest yet, so here we go *cue swooning*. Darien is a POC teen actor, but more than that, he's a fanboy. Just read this quote, when he met his costar, who is also his idol :

"Jessica Stone. The Jessica Stone. My costar. As in, indie film poster child, beloved by the internet for being sexy and cute and funny, sure to snag an Oscar one day Jessica Stone. I think I saw her last movie in theaters fifteen times, and not just because it was based on a graphic novel. Don't fanboy, I order myself. Don't fanboy."

I mean, how cute is that? There's a lot of fanboy moments beside that, and everytime I read them I always grin because it's so cute. The romance between him and Elle is also adorable, and (mostly) the reasons why I can't stop reading because I can't wait for these two to finally meet. And don't worry, there's no insta-love like the original Cinderella, because they get to know each other first through anonymous texts.

Overall, Geekerella is an adorable, fresh retelling of Cinderella that you don't want to miss! I really really recommend it to everyone.