Audiobook Review – Geekarella (Once Upon a Con, Book 1) by Ashley Poston, Narrated by Eileen Stevens, Tristan Morris (3/5 Stars)

Reading Level:Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: 10 hours and 32 minutes
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Release Date: April 04, 2017
ASIN: B06XY3Y4PV
Stand Alone or Series: 1sr book in the Once Upon a Con series
Source: Borrowed through Audible Escapes
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Geek girl Elle Wittimer lives and breathes Starfield, the classic science-fiction 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 has ever wanted, but 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. But when she disappears at midnight, will he ever be able to find her again.”

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the “Once Upon a Con” series. I already read the third book in the series “Bookish and the Beast” and enjoyed that book more than this one.

Audiobook Quality (4/5): The audiobook quality was good. Elle and Darien are read by different people and alternate POVs throughout the story. Both narrators do a decent job reading and I have no complaints about the audiobook quality.

Story (3/5): While I applaud Poston on doing a fairy tale, geek culture mash up, I just found it to be a bit boring. There is some cute cross over between Cinderella and this story, but the whole thing was predictable and just kind of bland. It seemed very long for what it was.

The premise is that Elle lives in a house with her mean stepmother and her two stepsisters and works in a vegan pumpkin shaped food truck during the day. Elle’s dad was super into the sci-fi story Starfield and started ExcelsiCon which celebrates Starfield. Elle desperately wants to go to ExcelsiCon this year and win the costume contest. Meanwhile Darien is a huge Starfield fan and used to love going to cons, that is until he got the role as Prince Carmindor for the new Starfield movie, now he is overwhelmed and tired of dealing with the fans and awkwardness and just wants to be able to skip the con. When Elle and Darien accidentally start texting each other things change in a big way for them both.

Characters (3/5): The characters here were a bit lackluster for me (I enjoyed the characters from Bookish and Beast a lot more). Elle just seems so passive all the time, I didn’t find her inspiring or really interesting at all. Darien was better, but he was still pretty whiny about his situation…which is a situation he could have really done good things in.

Setting (3/5): The setting was so-so. Basically typical southern small town for most of the story, then a small part of it takes place at the con. The setting isn’t really the point the of the story.

Writing Style (3/5): In general the writing was okay but not great. I have found this to be true of almost all of Poston’s book. They are readable and there isn’t anything technically wrong with them. However, I never really find myself sucked into the story or dying to know what happens.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this was okay and kind of a cute read. However, I also thought it was really predictable and boring…it felt really long for what it is. I love cons and I love fairy tale retellings, but somehow this missed the mark for me. I did like “Bookish and the Beast” better than this book, it was just a bit more unpredictable and interesting. I think Poston’s “Heart of Iron” series is much better than this contemporary romance series.