Reviews

The Princess and the Fangirl by Ashley Poston

eileenrwerst's review

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hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

thebookofmomlife's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

heco1206's review

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lighthearted reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

ladytiara's review

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4.0

The Princess and the Fangirl is a truly delightful retelling of The Prince and the Pauper set at a sci-fi fan convention.

Jessica Stone is an actress who just played the legendary character of Princess Amara in a reboot of the sci-fi franchise Starfield. The princess appeared to die at the end of the movie, and Jessica wants nothing more to do with the franchise because she wants to be taken seriously as an actress. Imogen Lovelace is a major Starfield fangirl, and she's spearheading a campaign to save Amara from being killed off. The two meet at ExcelsiCon when Imogen is mistaken for Jessica and ends up inadvertently taking her place on a panel. Jessica is livid at first, but then she loses her script of the Starfield sequel and pages are linked online. Worried that this will hurt her career, Jessica enlists Imogen to pose as her so Jessica can go undercover at the con and figure out who stole the script.

This book was so much fun. It's a really entertaining look at fandom culture and cons. Jessica and Imogen are both great characters. Jessica seems a bit unsympathetic at first, but her desire to leave Starfield behind makes a lot of sense when you see the harassment she has to put up with on a daily basis. Then there's Imogen, whose love for Starfield is so pure, but she has to face up to some of the uglier sides of fandom.

There are two cute romances. Imogen has to work with Jessica's assistant, who she finds very annoying, but also maddeningly attractive. And Jessica finds herself attracted to Imogen's friend who think she's Imogen (the con is the first time they're meeting in person). The book has a lot of diversity: a f/f romance, one love interest is African-American and the other is Japanese-American, Imogen has two moms, and her brother is gay.

This is a companion novel to Geekarella, which I haven't read. This book stands on its own, and you don't need to have read the first book, but The Princess and the Fangirl has some spoilers for Geekarella.

I received an ARC from the publisher via Amazon Vine.

potaciousjamie's review

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3.0

It was good but harder for me to get into than others in the series

punziereads3's review

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lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

captainsillypants's review against another edition

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inspiring lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

curious_artifact_reads's review

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funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

evermoreliterary's review

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2.0

Listened on audio- and enjoyed the audio narrators as much as the first, and it had a better quality of production (no repeated sentences like Geekerella had).

Other than that, unfortunately, I just didn't get the feels in the same way as I did in Geekerella. The characters lacked a "pull" for me. I didn't like Jessica in the Geekerella, nor did I like her here. I had hoped this would change my mind about her! But no, and I'm sad about that.

Parts of this just didn't make sense. How an actress can get away with lying about her real age, in modern times where Twitter sleuths are a thing.. Nah. Girl was 14 playing an 18-year-old? IN HOLLYWOOD? Hollywood, where it is common practice for 30 something to play teenagers? So much so that when a real teen plays a teen they feel *too young*? And we are supposed to believe a 14-year-old easily got away with pretending to be 18 for a role and no one questioned that. Nah Nah. It bothered me every time it was mentioned. It seemed like an easy way to age down a character to write a YA novel centering her and IMO she was a bland character, to begin with. Would have much preferred a novel about Elle's coworker and sister from book one!

I still like the way Ashley Poston writes, and her stories are fun! But these characters were pretty... eh. And I needed more from them.

disneypatty77's review

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4.0

3.5 enjoyed it but just okay.