[Review]* Geekerella by Ashley Poston

Cinderella goes to the con in this fandom-fueled twist on the classic fairy tale.

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. 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 the 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.

Summary & Cover taken from Goodreads.com

Length: 320 pages (Paperback)

Source: Publisher

Genre: YA Romance

Series: N/A

Available Formats: Print/E-book/Audiobook

Buy Links: AMAZON.CA - AMAZON.COM - KOBO - AUDIBLE - Indigo

ADD TO GOODREADS

I've reviewed a lot of books over the last 6 years on my blog, but one genre that seams to be under represented on here is Contemporary YA. That's because I'm not the biggest fan of the genre because so many of the stories seem the same to me so when I got the review request for Geekerella I was both excited and hesitant. Excited because I loved the synopsis on the back. Who doesn't love cosplay? Hesitant because I was slightly worried that it the quirkiness of Elle would be mentioned a few times and then be left sitting in a pile of used plot devices. But dear reader I am beyond pleased to say that Geekerella blew my mind. In a completely awesome, unexpected, so much more than I expected kind of way. 

Elle is hands down, not a doubt in my mind one of the best main characters in a young adult novel that I've ever read. She's everything I wanted in a modern day Cinderella. She was sweet and sassy, quirky and in your face about what she does or doesn't like and I loved her for it. She's a straight shooter, no holds bar type of girl who while she can be shy doesn't let it define her and she's all about her fandom and cosplaying. Basically she is who I wanted to be in high school but didn't feel free enough to be. I thought that having a geeky Cinderella was amazing. Nothing against the traditional Cinderella, but it was nice to see her getting a bit of an alternative spin and a very well written one.

Darien was a great male lead. I was a little iffy about him in the beginning because I had the same reservations about him that Ella did but halfway through and he had my inner teenage girl swooning. He was the perfect imperfect prince charming and I loved seeing his own insecurities come out. As a whole the two of them were just adorable.

Ashley Poston did the old fairy tale justice by giving it a funny modern twist. It was cute and sweet with out being toothachingly so and had just amount of edge to make the characters seam realistic. I love how no character was really perfect, because no one is in real life and it was nice to see geek culture represented so well. My only issue with the author is since Geekerella just came out there's an unknown wait for her next book (which I'm hoping there will be!).

I highly recommend this for my fellow lovers of fairy tale retellings, geek girls, and cosplayers. This one is one of my favourite YA reads and I think everyone should give it a try.