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Synopsis:

“Anything can happen once upon a con…

When geek girl Elle Wittimer sees a cosplay contest sponsored by the producers of Starfield, she has to enter. First prize is an invitation to the ExcelsiCon Cosplay Ball and a meet-and-greet with the actor slated to play Federation Prince Carmindor in the reboot. Elle’s been scraping together tips from her gig at the Magic Pumpkin food truck behind her stepmother’s back, and winning this contest could be her ticket out once and for all—not to mention a fangirl’s dream come true.

Teen actor Darien Freeman is less than thrilled about this year’s ExcelsiCon. He used to live for conventions, but now they’re nothing but jaw-aching photo sessions and awkward meet-and-greets. Playing Federation Prince Carmindor is all he’s ever wanted, but the diehard Starfield fandom has already dismissed him as just another heartthrob. As ExcelsiCon draws near, closet nerd Darien feels more and more like a fake—until he meets a girl who shows him otherwise.”

Review:

I think that this book was the perfect contemporary read for me! Everything about it was great in my opinion.

I had been hearing a lot about this book since it was released. It was something that honestly really intrigued me but, as someone who doesn’t read a ton of contemporary, I never had the chance to pick it up. When it was announced as the book pick for September for the book club that I am a part of on Goodreads, I knew that it would be the perfect time to pick it up.

I am so glad that I did,

I loved how we got not one but two perspectives in this book. Elle was definitely a character that I could relate to. She’s a geek, she runs a blog. I saw so much of myself in her. I loved how dedicated to the Starfield fandom she was. She was everything that I wanted for a character going in and more.

I also loved Darien. He had this kind of bad boy personality that is one of my biggest guilty pleasures when it comes to books. I think that he was one of the best main characters that I have seen in a contemporary book in a long, long time.

As far as the romance in this book, I really enjoyed it. I love slow building romances especially when it comes to contemporary and this book was no exception. I think that the author did a great job when writing this romance. I liked how Elle and Darien didn’t know who each other was until the very end. It was a little cheesy at some points but overall I think that this romance was done really well.

As far as the plot, I think it was very strong and really well done. Considering this book is a Cinderella retelling, I loved how the author incorporate elements of the original fairy tale into the plot of this book. It was one of the main things that kept me interested in the book. I will say that the plot was slow at times but I did enjoy it overall.

Overall, this book was great. I have only read one Cinderella retelling in the past (and I had a bad experience with it) so I’m glad that I gave this book a chance. I will definitely read more from this author in the future after reading this book. This book will probably be on my favorite books of the year list!

RATING: 4/5