Early Review – Bookish and the Beast (Once Upon a Con, Book 3) by Ashley Poston (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Length: 288 pages
Publisher: Quirk Books
Release Date: August 4, 2020
ISBN-13: 978-1683691938
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the Once Upon a Con series
Source: ARC from Quirk Books
Rating: 4/5 stars
“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..”
Series Info/Source: I got a copy of this book from the publisher (Quirk books) for review. This is the third book in the Once Upon a Con series. This is the first book in this series I have read, but it stands alone okay. I would recommend reading the first two books before this one if you want the full background of all of these characters,
Story (4/5): This was a fun read that I enjoyed. It’s a cute YA romantic comedy with a lot of fun geeky culture references. I did feel like I was missing something because I didn’t realize this was the third book in a series. I got this from the publisher to review and they said it was a stand alone. It’s a quick, light fluffy read that was definitely a guilty pleasure..I enjoyed it a ton. It is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast done contemporary fiction style and was well done.
This story features a different couple than the previous two books. Rosie is a small town girl dealing with grief over the death of her mother. Vance is Hollywood Royalty sent to a small town to chill after misbehaving one too many times. Rosie ends up helping to sort the library in the house that Vance is staying in and, although he is perfectly beastly at first, things gradually begin to warm between the two.
Characters (4/5): The book does seem to feature a different couple from the previous books, but some of the previous characters are in the story quite a bit and I was kind of confused about who everyone was. Despite this, I really enjoyed our two new characters and had a ton of fun reading this. Rosie is all bookish geek but she still has a lot of backbone, Vance is all brooding bad boy but also has his high points. They were fun characters that were well done and had great chemistry together.
Setting (4/5): I really enjoyed the setting. A lot of the book takes place in an old castle-like mansion in a general small town in the US. It was a fun setting, although the setting wasn’t the driver of this story.
Writing Style (5/5): The book is well written and easy to read. The witty dialogue and the chemistry between the two main characters is perfect. Previous to this book I had read Poston’s Heart of Iron series and this series is very different from that one but just as well written,
My Summary (4/5): Overall I liked this enough that I plan on going back and checking out the two previous books in this series. If you like sci-fi/fantasy pop culture paired with a cute love story you will enjoy this. This was also a retelling of Beauty and the Beast and did a good job paralleling that fairy tale as well. This is just a purely fluffy read, a total guilty pleasure, and I enjoyed it a ton.
