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The Princess and the Fangirl (Once Upon a Con #2) by Ashley Poston [arc review]

Did I like The Princess and the Fangirl? Yes I did.
Did I like it as much as Geekerella ? No way...
Blurb:
Imogen Lovelace is an ordinary fangirl on an impossible mission: save her favorite character, Princess Amara, from being killed off from her favorite franchise, Starfield. The problem is, Jessica Stone—the actress who plays Princess Amara—wants nothing more than to leave the intense scrutiny of the fandom behind. If this year's ExcelsiCon isn't her last, she'll consider her career derailed.

When a case of mistaken identity throws look-a-likes Imogen and Jess together, they quickly become enemies. But when the script for the Starfield sequel leaks, and all signs point to Jess, she and Imogen must trade places to find the person responsible. That's easier said than done when the girls step into each other's shoes and discover new romantic possibilities, as well as the other side of intense fandom. As these "princesses" race to find the script-leaker, they must rescue themselves from their own expectations, and redefine what it means to live happily ever after.


3.5 Stars

Ashley Poston once again did a great job at representing every nerd out in the world and I could not love her more for it. Every geeky scene brought a smile to my face.

Imogen was a great character. Lovable, fierce, passionate. Every fangirl out there is likely to connect with her. Her brother was also a fabulous character. Sweet, kind, funny :) 
Her love interest Ethan was an ass to start and I am not sure he redeemed himself in the end. And because I have issues.... I liked him! :)
Jess was a spoiled brat. I didn't like her one bit but she was well written. She was not supposed to come across like a nice person till the end and she didn't. 
I loved the few scenes with Darien as well. The nostalgia was high whenever he was on the page.

Romance wise all couples were severely underdeveloped. Their scenes were my favorite in the book and there wasn't enough of them. 

The YA crowd is often complaining about lack of diversity these days and I am often complaining about the ones done- they feel forced (which in most books is the case. Authors are writing to please an audience rather than because he/she is good at it). In this case however I am happy to say it worked!!! All characters and all relationships were written well and their stories felt real. As I said  earlier there was not enough focus on the couples, but the few moments we got all worked. 

I also loved that the author didn't shy away from the negative sides of a fandom. Both the positives and negatives were on the page. 

The main problem was speed. The plot was awfully slow. It often felt like the author was challenging herself to name as many things from popular fandoms as she could. It was one name drop after another... A whole lot of popular jargon resulting in style over substance. 
Half of that stuff could have been dropped and instead made place for more character development. 

Find the book at: GoodReads - Amazon 





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