ARC Review: Bookish and the Beast (Once Upon a Con #3) by Ashley Poston
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Series: Once Upon a Con #3
Author: Ashley Poston
Published August 4th 2020 by Quirk Books
Goodreads Synopsis
In the third book in Ashley Poston's Once Upon a Con series, Beauty and the Beast is retold in the beloved Starfield universe.
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.
Goodreads
Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher. This in no way impacted on my view.
I never for one minute imagined that I would be approved for a review copy of this book, no matter how much I loved the previous books, so when my copy arrived, and on my birthday too, I couldn't stop myself from starting it as soon as I was able to, and devoured the entire book in less than a day!
This time around, we have Vance's story. Now, I didn't know what I would think, because I wasn't keen on him in the previous book, The Princess and the Fangirl. After crashing his car into a lake, with Elle there too, he's sent to a small town, basically in exile. All he can do is count down the days until his 18th birthday, when he can get himself home. He comes across local girl, Rosie, when she quite literally falls in front of him, straight into the swimming pool at his borrowing castle-home, taking a first edition Starfield novel with her. To pay off her debt over the book, she has to reorganise the library in the house - more like a dream rather than a chore - but Vance is being awful, and makes everything awkward. For Rosie, she's coping with the loss of her mother the year before, and being close to all these books - some which remind her of her mother just by being there - and trying to get over the cosplayer she met at the ExcelsiCon Ball last year. The more and more that Vance and Rosie spend time together, the more they see the real people, and could they just be the two cosplayers who spent all night together at the ball last summer?
As apprehensive as I was about whether I would like Vance or not, that soon wasn't an issue because his chapters were insightful, and real, and I ended up loving him. Not as much as Rosie, mind. Rosie is my favourite of all of Poston's heroines, and I adored her chapters. She was wacky and real, and didn't take any of Vance's crap, which was refreshing for both me and for Vance, who is used to people pandering to him. The secondary characters, like Rosie's best friends Annie and Quinn, her dad (Space Dad), and Vance's uncle, Elias, were also fabulous, and made the story. The chemistry between Vance and Rosie, too, was off the charts, and they might be my favourite couple of the series.
Being the final book (I think?) in the Once Upon a Con series, it was perfect to see characters from the previous books in cameo positions, especially Imogen who has become a proper friend to Vance after their disastrous pseudo date in book 2. Everything that I needed to be tied together, definitely was, and I could not have asked for a better conclusion to this series! I haven't read Poston's other series, but reckon I'll buy them as soon as I can. This is definitely a series every geek or book lover should read!
Dates Read:
March 6-7, 2020
Rating
5 Stars
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