Hello friends, happy Wednesday! I hope you’re all having a good week so far. Today I’m posting my review of Ashley Poston’s Geekerella, the first novel in the Once Upon a Con trilogy.

Geekerella by: Ashley Poston: Elle has been obsessed with the show Starfield since as long as she can remember. But when her father died, that part of her died too. Now there’s going to be a reboot, where actor Darien Freeman will be playing the lead, an actor Elle despises. When she learns there’s going to be a costume contest at this year’s convention, Elle knows she has to enter as it could be her ticket out of town. Now, she has to do all this behind the backs of her evil stepmother and sisters because if they found out, she might never be free. This was an entertaining novel and for the most part the reader really enjoyed this, but there were parts that bugged the reader. First off, the world was fun; it was easy to get lost in and be sucked into. The pacing was fast which made everything move pretty quickly, and that worked well here. The whole Cinderella plot felt very cringy because the reader couldn’t get behind how an adult character, who is supposed to be a mother figure, could act the exact same way her teenage daughter was. It felt unbelievable, and a little out of place. The reader understands that she was supposed to be the awful step-mother, but she played more of an awful step-sister in the way she talked and acted. Maybe if we had gotten more backstory and substance to her character, we could have understood the reasoning behind her childish behaviour, but we weren’t given much to go on, other than she’s evil and hates the main character. As for the other characters, it made sense for the step-sister to act in the way she did because she’s still a teenager who has yet to grow up and understand her feelings. The main characters were both complex and had layers to them that really made them rounded and whole; they didn’t feel like caricatures. The whole texting a stranger plot seemed really risky, but for the sake of the overall story, it worked out well and it was good to see characterization and growth in the form of text messages because the two main characters could be themselves without any walls up, it was raw and real, which contrasted from their everyday lives where they couldn’t do that. We can’t forget about the best friend because as quirky as she was, she was so entertaining, bold and full of love, the reader truly loved her; she played such an important role in the main character’s life, really helped her to see the good and it really showed such a positive friendship. We all need friendships like this. As for the overarching plot of the convention, some things felt more believable than others, but it was still a fun read with a lot of ups and downs. The show that the main character was set to be obsessed with felt like a rip off of Star Trek, but again it was enjoyable to read. The fandom the author tried to create was good, it made sense but it didn’t feel original at all. The romance was good; it was sweet with enemies to lovers’ trope. Overall, this was cute, if you don’t pay too much attention to some of the adult characters.