Book Reviews

Spoiler Alert (Spoiler Alert #1)

Spoiler Alert (Spoiler Alert #1)

By: Olivia Dade

Blurb:

Marcus Caster-Rupp has a secret. While the world knows him as Aeneas, the star of the biggest show on TV, Gods of the Gates, he’s known to fanfiction readers as Book!AeneasWouldNever, an anonymous and popular poster.  Marcus is able to get out his own frustrations with his character through his stories, especially the ones that feature the internet’s favorite couple to ship, Aeneas and Lavinia. But if anyone ever found out about his online persona, he’d be fired. Immediately.

April Whittier has secrets of her own. A hardcore Lavinia fan, she’s hidden her fanfiction and cosplay hobby from her “real life” for years—but not anymore. When she decides to post her latest Lavinia creation on Twitter, her photo goes viral. Trolls and supporters alike are commenting on her plus-size take, but when Marcus, one half of her OTP, sees her pic and asks her out on a date to spite her critics, she realizes life is really stranger than fanfiction.

Even though their first date is a disaster, Marcus quickly realizes that he wants much more from April than a one-time publicity stunt. And when he discovers she’s actually Unapologetic Lavinia Stan, his closest fandom friend, he has one more huge secret to hide from her.

With love and Marcus’s career on the line, can the two of them stop hiding once and for all, or will a match made in fandom end up prematurely cancelled?

Review:

I started reading Spoiler Alert in the early afternoon. At the first thinly veiled Game of Thrones shade, I couldn’t put it down. I’ve never seen a single episode of Game of Thrones, but I heard about so much of the behind the scenes stuff that I was almost as mad as the rest of the world when the show ended the way it did. Reading as Dade completely lambasted the showrunners was food for my soul.

Marcus is the star of Gods of the Gates, the popular TV show adaption of the book series of the same name. After years playing the character Aeneas the showrunners are ruining his character, along with everyone else’s. His way of venting is to create fanfiction. It’s adorable.

Marcus has crafted a public persona as being the loveable, vain, golden retriever. While in real life, he’s incredibly smart and shy. Combine that with his dyslexia, and he’s found it easier to create that persona than show the world how intelligent he is. He focuses on his exercise routine in interviews and not his character’s emotional journey. Unfortunately, the role he’s created for himself is chaffing, and he’s ready for change. He’s just not sure how to go about doing it. When he meets April, he’ll do anything to be with her, and she does not waste her time on people who hide who they are from her.

April is a geologist. She’s smart and driven and has spent years hiding a part of herself to avoid harming her professional career. She is also ready for a change and has taken that plunge before the book has even started. Next on her list, meet up with her fanfiction friend that she’s pretty sure she’s fallen in love with, though she’s unwilling to admit it.

Both of these characters are fleshed out considerably. You see their friendships and professional lives. Plus, all they’ve created on the fanfiction website. They both have issues with their parents. The problems stem from their parents not accepting them for who they are and preferring to force them to be what their parents want. It’s incredibly sad on both sides.

Moving away from the serious stuff, Spoiler Alert is freaking hilarious. I took a couple of pictures of pages and sent them to my friends because they were so funny I had to share them. In between each chapter is either a text conversation, excerpt from a script, or snippets of fanfiction. So often, they had me laughing out loud and running to find my husband so that I could read them to him.

There was a ton to love about Spoiler Alert, and I’m eagerly awaiting the next book in the series. I also plan on looking into Oliva Dade’s backlog because I need more books like this in my life.

5/5

Well Played (Well Met #2)

Well Played (Well Met #2)

By: Jen DeLuca

Blurb:

Stacey is jolted when her friends Simon and Emily get engaged. She knew she was putting her life on hold when she stayed in Willow Creek to care for her sick mother, but it’s been years now, and even though Stacey loves spending her summers pouring drinks and flirting with patrons at the local Renaissance Faire, she wants more out of life. Stacey vows to have her life figured out by the time her friends get hitched at Faire next summer. Maybe she’ll even find The One.

When Stacey imagined “The One,” it never occurred to her that her summertime Faire fling, Dex MacLean, might fit the bill. While Dex is easy on the eyes onstage with his band The Dueling Kilts, Stacey has never felt an emotional connection with him. So when she receives a tender email from the typically monosyllabic hunk, she’s not sure what to make of it.

Faire returns to Willow Creek, and Stacey comes face-to-face with the man with whom she’s exchanged hundreds of online messages over the past nine months. To Stacey’s shock, it isn’t Dex—she’s been falling in love with a man she barely knows.

Review:

I’ve mentioned it before, but one of my favorite tropes is falling in love through text. I love it in movie or book format. It’s just so romantic. I was excited to read Well Played not only because of the premise but because I enjoyed the previous book Well Met. Sadly, Well Played was not as good.

Stacey, or Beatrice when she’s at the Faire, was the heroine. She’s plus-sized, which I enjoyed. There was a scene where she was trying on a bridesmaid’s dress, and I really connected with what she was feeling. The book starts with her in a funk. She’s stuck and not sure what to do with her life. It had been thrown off course when her mother had a heart attack, but years later and Stacey hasn’t recovered. Enter the “hero.”

One drunken night, dejected and depressed, Stacey sends a message that starts a yearlong communication. She falls in love only to have the rug pulled out from beneath her twice. Each time the man apologizes and just fucking walks away! UGHHH!! Are you kidding me?? Twice! TWO TIMES!!! It’s Stacey that has to fight for their relationship. She’s the one that makes the grand gesture. She’s the one that reaches out. It is soooooo frustrating.

I knew a twist was coming. I even knew what that twist was going to be. I was hoping for something huge from the hero as an apology, and the only thing we got was a nice letter. It was a major let down. Even their happily ever after (more like happy for now because I don’t see the relationship working long term) didn’t make things better. There was no longevity to any of it. That could just be me with that particular complaint.

I plan on reading the next book because I like the setting and Well Met, but I was very disappointed in this one. My favorite trope, one I’m willing to give a pass on things that would typically bother me, and I can’t move past the lack of passion on the heroes side.

2/5

Written in the Stars

Written in the Stars

By: Alexandria Bellefleur

Blurb:

After a disastrous blind date, Darcy Lowell is desperate to stop her well-meaning brother from playing matchmaker ever again. Love—and the inevitable heartbreak—is the last thing she wants. So she fibs and says her latest set up was a success. Darcy doesn’t expect her lie to bite her in the ass.

Elle Jones, one of the astrologers behind the popular Twitter account, Oh My Stars, dreams of finding her soul mate. But she knows it is most assuredly not Darcy… a no-nonsense stick-in-the-mud, who is way too analytical, punctual, and skeptical for someone as free-spirited as Elle. When Darcy’s brother—and Elle’s new business partner—expresses how happy he is that they hit it off, Elle is baffled. Was Darcy on the same date? Because… awkward.

When Darcy begs Elle to play along, she agrees to pretend they’re dating to save face. But with a few conditions: Darcy must help Elle navigate her own overbearing family over the holidays and their arrangement expires on New Year’s Eve. The last thing they expect is to develop real feelings during a fake relationship.

But maybe opposites can attract when true love is written in the stars?

Review:

I was not expecting to love Written in the Stars as much as I did. I figured if I were lucky, it would be cute, but I expected to be put off by the astrologist. As much as I enjoy looking at the occasional horoscope, it’s not something that I believe in. I expected Elle to be super flighty and borderline stupid. I had low expectations that Bellefleur would be able to sell the relationship. I was wrong.

Elle is an astrologist, but you never get the impression that she’s anything less than passionate, driven, and smart. She knows who she is as a person, and she likes herself. She does what makes her happy, and she’s found a way to make a living at it. She’s living the dream, except for being unable to find her soul mate.

Meanwhile, Darcy is two years out of a bad relationship. She’s closed herself off, and the last thing she wants is to fall in love. She keeps going on dates only because she loves her brother so much and wants to make him happy. Even that has its limits, though, and she convinces Elle that faking a relationship will help them both. If it weren’t for the obvious sparks flying between the characters, the fake relationship wouldn’t have worked because there was almost nothing in it for Elle.

They were beautiful together. In the In Death series, there’s an older couple, Dr. Mira and her husband, Dr. Mira (I don’t remember their first names, lol). They’re both brilliant but pretty different in personality. However, you never doubt how much they feel for each other. I could see Elle and Darcy becoming like them. It was adorable.

There is nothing on Goodreads about this being a series, but there were a couple of characters that could conceivably be written about, Darcy’s brother, Elle’s roommate, and Darcy’s best friend. I would definitely read them if they’re written. Especially since I’m hoping there’ll be peeks at Elle and Darcy. The book ended a bit abruptly, and I want to know more about what happens to them.

5/5

The Twelve Dates of Christmas

The Twelve Dates of Christmas

By: Jenny Bayliss

Blurb:

When it comes to relationships, thirty-four-year-old Kate Turner is ready to say “Bah, humbug.” The sleepy town of Blexford, England, isn’t exactly brimming with prospects, and anyway, Kate’s found fulfillment in her career as a designer, and in her delicious side job baking for her old friend Matt’s neighborhood café. But then her best friend signs her up for a dating agency that promises to help singles find love before the holidays. Twenty-three days until Christmas. Twelve dates with twelve different men. The odds must finally be in her favor . . . right?

Yet with each new date more disastrous than the one before–and the whole town keeping tabs on her misadventures–Kate must remind herself that sometimes love, like mistletoe, shows up where it’s least expected. And maybe, just maybe, it’s been right under her nose all along. . . .

Review:

I didn’t read all of The Twelve Dates of Christmas before I set it aside. I read about forty percent, and I feel like that’s enough to write a review.

I read the back of the book blurb before I began reading, and I almost wish I hadn’t. It gave away who she would wind up with, so the entire premise of twelve dates meant nothing. It was frustrating and annoying to know what was going to happen and that most of what I was reading meant nothing for the overall romance.

Kate was in her mid-thirties and had never settled down with anyone. Her longest relationship had been for four years and had ended long before the story starts. The book starts right before her first date on a Christmas themed blind date marathon. She’s paid a lot of money to go on twelve dates before Christmas in the hopes of finding the perfect person. Each date that I read had something “wrong” with them. One guy was a no show, one guy was gay, one guy didn’t want kids, one guy was hung up on his past girlfriend, and another guy was as well. It was ridiculous.

In case you couldn’t figure it out from the blurb, Kate winds up with her friend Matt. They grew up together, had a thing during college that ended poorly, and he was in a long term relationship with another woman. Still, Kate rejects every man she was presented with, and Matt’s girlfriend realized he was in love with Kate. So it all worked out beautifully.

I was not a fan.

2/5

A Princess for Christmas

A Princess for Christmas

By: Jenny Holiday

Blurb:

Leo Ricci’s already handling all he can, between taking care of his little sister Gabby, driving a cab, and being the super of his apartment building in the Bronx. But when Gabby spots a “princess” in a gown outside of the UN trying to hail a cab, she begs her brother to stop and help. Before he knows it, he’s got a real-life damsel in distress in the backseat of his car. 

Princess Marie of Eldovia shouldn’t be hailing a cab, or even be out and about. But after her mother’s death, her father has plunged into a devastating depression and the fate of her small Alpine country has fallen on Marie’s shoulders. She’s taken aback by the gruff but devastatingly handsome driver who shows her more kindness than she’s seen in a long time. 

When Marie asks Leo to be her driver for the rest of her trip, he agrees, thinking he’ll squire a rich miss around for a while and make more money than he has in months. He doesn’t expect to like and start longing for the unpredictable Marie. And when he and Gabby end up in Eldovia for Christmas, he discovers the princess who is all wrong for him is also the woman who is his perfect match.

Review:

I love watching Hallmark like Christmas movies. They aren’t “good” movies, and I don’t actually like them, but I love watching them. A Princess for Christmas is a Hallmark Christmas movie in book form. Which means it’s so much better than a movie. All my usual complaints with the holiday films are completely alleviated in this format. It was everything I could have asked for.

Princess Marie is a lovely person, inside and out. Even though she is the heir to the throne of Eldovia, she’s not a snob. She can be a bit nervous and compares herself to her mother a lot, but that’s where our hero comes into play.

Leo is just as lovely as Marie. He’s a bit gruff and very proud, but he’s an honorable man. He’s raising his sister after their parent’s death and has devoted himself to her. He quickly sees beyond Marie’s royal façade to the woman she is beneath and falls for her.

Like any good Hallmark Christmas movie, the issues that will arrive after the happily ever after are, at best, glossed over, which I like. The couple has a happily everything will be alright because we’re in love and together ending. Perfect.

Another trope that’s present is the child that warms the cold hearts of those around her. It’s a good trope, and Gabby played her role well. Leo and Marie also had their best friends who aided in the couple’s romance to a small degree. I’m looking forward to their inevitable romance.

All in all, I’m delighted that Ms. Holiday’s father is a huge Hallmark movie fan and inspired her to write this book. Now, if Netflix or another streaming service could bring it to movie form…

5/5