A tale as old as time is made new in Ashley Poston's fresh, geeky retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
Rosie Thorne is feeling stuck—on her college application essays, in her small town, and on that mysterious General Sond cosplayer she met at ExcelsiCon. Most of all, she’s stuck in her grief over her mother’s death. Her only solace was her late mother’s library of rare Starfield novels, but even that disappeared when they sold it to pay off hospital bills.
On the other hand, Vance Reigns has been Hollywood royalty for as long as he can remember—with all the privilege and scrutiny that entails. When a tabloid scandal catches up to him, he's forced to hide out somewhere the paparazzi would never expect to find him: Small Town USA. At least there’s a library in the house. Too bad he doesn’t read.
When Rosie and Vance’s paths collide and a rare book is accidentally destroyed, Rosie finds herself working to repay the debt. And while most Starfield superfans would jump at the chance to work in close proximity to the Vance Reigns, Rosie has discovered something about Vance: he’s a jerk, and she can’t stand him. The feeling is mutual.
But as Vance and Rosie begrudgingly get to know each other, their careful masks come off—and they may just find that there’s more risk in shutting each other out than in opening their hearts.
Review: Out of all 3 Once Upon a Con books this one might be the one that sticks closest to the book that is is based upon. This is straight up revamped retelling of Beauty and the beast with some modern characters in a modern setting but don't worry we still have bookish goodness and of course all the geekiness of the Geekerella world we have come to know and love.
I loved getting to know Rosie, she really is very like Belle in many ways apart from the fact that she does actually do a bit more of herself, she is a modern woman and she has an amazing group of friends to prove it. She is living that high school life but also living that geek life and I totally feel for her in this novel.
Vance really is the kind of guy you love to hate, but we as readers get a little more insight than most into why he is the way he is. He does make some very poor decisions in life in general but especially with Rosie. Those can be disastrous and frustrating but they can also be very funny and I really was rooting for him the whole way through to show his 'true colours'.
This being an Ashley Poston novel, we have a great big dollop of geekiness and also plenty of diversity to go around so if you are looking for characters who reflect your own group of friends and what you have going on in your own life, you will find it here.
I would love to reread this novel having read the other two books in the series. I think they would read really well as a sit down and read the whole trilogy kind of thing and I really hope that we get more books set in this world!
