Bookish and the Beast by Ashley Poston
Series : Once Upon A Con #3
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.
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I went in with a lot of expectations and I was disappointed! I loved Geekerella and Beauty and the Beast retellings are like catnip to me. So I was super excited when I read the blurb for Bookish and the Beast!
But sadly despite the efforts this book fell flat for me. The premise is appealing and so are the characters at first glance, but as I went deeper inside, the more forced it seemed.
Vance Reigns is the famous Hollywood actor who plays the role of General Sond in the Starfield movies. Thrust into the spotlight from a very young age, he currently doesn't have much of a good reputation. When a car accident causes another scandal, his stepfather packs him off to go stay in a small town for a while, so that he can be out of the spotlight while things die down.
Rosie Thorne, daughter of a librarian and avid Starfield fangirl is dealing with a lot of issues when she ends up dropping a collector's edition of a Starfield book(that belongs to the owner of the mansion where Vance and his guardian are staying at) into the pool! So, she now has to work there everyday, organizing the books in the library, to work off the debt(seems a little far-fetched I know).
Vance isn't too pleased by her working there and the only perk for Rosie is that she gets to be in her version of heaven(if she ignores Vance).
And on top of all of this, we learn that this isn't the first time these two have met each other. They've previously spent time together at a convention, but since they were wearing masks, they don't recognise each other now.
While I loved the idea of this setup, the fact that we just get only one glimpse into the time that they spent together worked against it.
I'm fine with references to the past and taking things from there, but to develop a meaningful connection between the leads, the author could have done either of these two things :
One, she could've shown us more of that night to make us understand why they liked each other so much OR
without showing that night there could have been a realistic development where the two characters learn more things about each other after their meeting in the town.
But, neither of these things were done and I wasn't really invested in the relationship between Vance and Rosie because I didn't feel the connection!
They were perfectly fine as individual characters with their own sets of issues, but relationship-wise it was just meh. Vance was broody and a little self-abosorbed at times! It takes a long time for him to pull his head out of his ass and realise that there are people who genuinely care for him, instead of mooning about the fact that people only use him for his 'fame' 🙄
Rosie was cute and funny! Her obsession with everything bookish was definitely relatable!
They are portals into places I’ve never been and people I’ll never be, and in them I have lived a thousand lives and seen a thousand different worlds. In them I can be a princess or a knight of valor or a villain— I can be coveted, I can conquer on evils, I can defeat Dark Lords and destroy the One Ring and unite a Federation on the brink of collapse. In them I’m not simple, going-nowhere, unabletowriteastupidcollegeessay Rosie Thorne.
The only other thing that worked for this book was the cast of secondary characters who were both interesting and diverse. Rosie's dad and her best friends were quirky and funny! I also loved Sansa, Vance's dog!
I didn't have any problems with the nerdy, fandom references like the other readers did, but if you aren't a fan of these kinda books then it's better if you skip this one.
I hope we get to read more books like Geekerella from this author, because her writing is beautiful and original! It's a shame that this one didn't work out for me!
*I was provided with an ARC via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review*
Ashley Poston loves dread pirates, moving castles, and starry night skies.
She graduated from the University of South Carolina with a BA in English, and went on to work at both Kodansha USA and Bloomsbury Publishing. But the dazzling bright lights of New York City couldn’t keep her away from old country roads, so she moved back home to pursue a full time writing career.
When not writing, she can be found playing Dungeons and Dragons and writing fanfic. She lives in South Carolina with her bossy cat, and they are firm believers that we’re all a bunch of weirdos looking at other weirdos, asking for their username.
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