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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
(2.5 stars, rounded up)
Content warning: grief
Small-town girl Rosie Thorne has her share of high school drama plus the grief from losing her mother a year before the book begins. But before you think you're in for a twisty high school drama, let me warn you that this book is about as original as the main character's name. Rosie accidentally ends up in a house inhabited by actor Vance Reigns and is hired to organize the vintage sci-fi books in the library.
Characters from previous Poston's Once Upon a Con series installments show up in this novel. Vance Reigns was the unlikable Hollywood bad boy chosen to star in the Starfield movie's sequel in [b:The Princess and the Fangirl|39725622|The Princess and the Fangirl (Once Upon a Con, #2)|Ashley Poston|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1542265229l/39725622._SY75_.jpg|61408547], and the main character Imogen makes a few appearances. Darian Freeman and his girlfriend Elle "[b:Geekerella|30724132|Geekerella (Once Upon a Con, #1)|Ashley Poston|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1476734515l/30724132._SY75_.jpg|50652411]" Wittimer also appear.
The novel is sold as a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, but Rosie and Belle only have books and the lack of a mother in common. Rosie's love interest is an unlikeable character (Hollywood actor Vance) from [b:The Princess and the Fangirl|39725622|The Princess and the Fangirl (Once Upon a Con, #2)|Ashley Poston|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1542265229l/39725622._SY75_.jpg|61408547] who is vilified on social media but is secretly a big softie. Oh, and there's a library in a "castle house."
This book focuses a lot less on the Starfield/sci-fi convention known as Excelsicon than previous entries in the series. Rosie mentions attending the previous summer, but the book takes place in small-town North Carolina, not at the Atlanta convention.
Vance is introduced as a character in the previous series installment The Princess and the Fangirl. Vance's name is pronounced "reeg-ins" (with a hard g) in the previous installment and alternates between "reeg-ins" and "rains" in this novel. The book's synopsis says "Reigns," which to me is pronounced "rains." Not knowing the character's actual name is confusing, but I can't comment on what the series looks like in print. Vacillating pronunciation in this installment alone is rather unfortunate, with "rains" cropping up several times.
Representation: nonbinary side character, bisexual side character, Latine side character
I received an electronic galley copy of this title from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I also received a digital audio recording of this title from Penguin Random House Audio as a librarian review copy. I read the latter edition.
Read the review here: https://guenevol.wixsite.com/novelmaven/post/bookish-beast
Content warning: grief
Small-town girl Rosie Thorne has her share of high school drama plus the grief from losing her mother a year before the book begins. But before you think you're in for a twisty high school drama, let me warn you that this book is about as original as the main character's name. Rosie accidentally ends up in a house inhabited by actor Vance Reigns and is hired to organize the vintage sci-fi books in the library.
Characters from previous Poston's Once Upon a Con series installments show up in this novel. Vance Reigns was the unlikable Hollywood bad boy chosen to star in the Starfield movie's sequel in [b:The Princess and the Fangirl|39725622|The Princess and the Fangirl (Once Upon a Con, #2)|Ashley Poston|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1542265229l/39725622._SY75_.jpg|61408547], and the main character Imogen makes a few appearances. Darian Freeman and his girlfriend Elle "[b:Geekerella|30724132|Geekerella (Once Upon a Con, #1)|Ashley Poston|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1476734515l/30724132._SY75_.jpg|50652411]" Wittimer also appear.
The novel is sold as a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, but Rosie and Belle only have books and the lack of a mother in common. Rosie's love interest is an unlikeable character (Hollywood actor Vance) from [b:The Princess and the Fangirl|39725622|The Princess and the Fangirl (Once Upon a Con, #2)|Ashley Poston|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1542265229l/39725622._SY75_.jpg|61408547] who is vilified on social media but is secretly a big softie. Oh, and there's a library in a "castle house."
This book focuses a lot less on the Starfield/sci-fi convention known as Excelsicon than previous entries in the series. Rosie mentions attending the previous summer, but the book takes place in small-town North Carolina, not at the Atlanta convention.
Vance is introduced as a character in the previous series installment The Princess and the Fangirl. Vance's name is pronounced "reeg-ins" (with a hard g) in the previous installment and alternates between "reeg-ins" and "rains" in this novel. The book's synopsis says "Reigns," which to me is pronounced "rains." Not knowing the character's actual name is confusing, but I can't comment on what the series looks like in print. Vacillating pronunciation in this installment alone is rather unfortunate, with "rains" cropping up several times.
Representation: nonbinary side character, bisexual side character, Latine side character
I received an electronic galley copy of this title from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I also received a digital audio recording of this title from Penguin Random House Audio as a librarian review copy. I read the latter edition.
Read the review here: https://guenevol.wixsite.com/novelmaven/post/bookish-beast
If you follow my reviews, just know that I'm writing the same review for The Princess and the Fangirl and Bookish and the Beast. I give both of these books 3 stars because even though they aren't as memorable as the first one, I still really enjoy this series. It's a fun lighthearted ride.
The storylines are fairly trope-y in a sense that it's what you would expect out of any John Hughes movie. The characters could have been differentiated a little more personality-wise because the voice of the protagonists all kind of bleed together. That may have been a more obvious notice for me since I read the 2nd and 3rd books back-to-back. But throughout it all, I still love the cheesiness of it and I really appreciate how much fun the author has writing these books. You can feel how much she loves Ellie, Imogene, Jess, and Rosie and how she wants them to have happy endings.
The storylines are fairly trope-y in a sense that it's what you would expect out of any John Hughes movie. The characters could have been differentiated a little more personality-wise because the voice of the protagonists all kind of bleed together. That may have been a more obvious notice for me since I read the 2nd and 3rd books back-to-back. But throughout it all, I still love the cheesiness of it and I really appreciate how much fun the author has writing these books. You can feel how much she loves Ellie, Imogene, Jess, and Rosie and how she wants them to have happy endings.
My teenage self would have probably liked this a lot more than my adult self did - then again I'm not the target audience for this book and it shows. I still enjoyed the beginning and the premise, although I haven't read the previous two books because Geekerella seemed a bit cringey as I'm not a fan of startruck/fandom tropes and that part of the book I didn't enjoy at all. The whole Star Wars reimagined thing felt trite and childish and as the book developed and then the extremely predictable and overdone ending hit I realised this wasn't doing it for me. Maybe half of the blame should go towards the audiobook format, since the voice actors weren't my cup of tea - exchanging the British and American accents successfully was not in the cards and as always it would have benefitted from having the male and female actors reading their own lines in the other's POV chapters.
A Beauty and the Beast retelling to forget.
A Beauty and the Beast retelling to forget.
Audiobook. The beast was so good. And Gaston being included as Garrett. Loved it. So sweet.
Thank you to Quirk Books for sending me an ARC of this book.
After reading Geekerella and Princess and the Fangirl and absolutely loving them, I had no doubt at all that I would love this, and I was definitely right in thinking that. Once I started reading it I didn't want to put it down, and I didn't want it to end.
So one of the things I love most about this Once Upon A Con series is how predictable they are, usually I'm not a fan of that in books, but these are the perfect books to know what's going to happen. In Geekerella it's obvious that Elle and Darien are the endgame, in Princess and the Fangirl you know that Jessica and Imogen are going to become friends (and you know a certain love match between two characters is going to happen aswell) and then in Bookish and the Beast you know exactly how things are going to pan out at the end with Rosie and Vance - but you don't know what it'll take for them to get to that point. I like how in these books you get the two points of view and you get to see parts of the characters that the other characters don't see until later in the book. With Vance he shuts himself off from everyone and just seems like a 'bad boy' type who doesn't care what people thinks, when in fact he's the opposite.
I want to recommend these to everyone because they're amazing, but if you don't like cliche stories, or you don't like re-tellings, then you likely won't be a fan of these... but you should know you are missing out!
After reading Geekerella and Princess and the Fangirl and absolutely loving them, I had no doubt at all that I would love this, and I was definitely right in thinking that. Once I started reading it I didn't want to put it down, and I didn't want it to end.
So one of the things I love most about this Once Upon A Con series is how predictable they are, usually I'm not a fan of that in books, but these are the perfect books to know what's going to happen. In Geekerella it's obvious that Elle and Darien are the endgame, in Princess and the Fangirl you know that Jessica and Imogen are going to become friends (and you know a certain love match between two characters is going to happen aswell) and then in Bookish and the Beast you know exactly how things are going to pan out at the end with Rosie and Vance - but you don't know what it'll take for them to get to that point. I like how in these books you get the two points of view and you get to see parts of the characters that the other characters don't see until later in the book. With Vance he shuts himself off from everyone and just seems like a 'bad boy' type who doesn't care what people thinks, when in fact he's the opposite.
I want to recommend these to everyone because they're amazing, but if you don't like cliche stories, or you don't like re-tellings, then you likely won't be a fan of these... but you should know you are missing out!
Cute but a little too juvenile for me; I just love a beauty and the beast remake tho hehe
Like the author, I adore Beauty and the Beast, so when I saw this retelling of my favourite fairy tale I couldn't resist.
Our heroine, Rosie, is the 'Bookish' part of the title, while Vance is the 'Beast'. Due to an unfortunate accident involving a pond and an expensive book, Rosie finds herself organising the library at the house where Vance has been 'sent' by his parents - he considers it a punishment.
While the story was in essence a contemporary form of Beauty and the Beast, it has definitely been written for the teen/YA market as there were numerous references and terms that were new to me.
The author also brought in a touch of inclusivity with LGBT+ characterisation, much of which wasn't explicitly pointed out (why should it be?), although I was left a little confused by Vance's sexual preference.
I have to admit, the story fell a little short as I was really hoping Rosie would tell Vance to get lost - he came across as a spoilt brat, wallowing in his self-induced petty problems, and I did not like him. Even after the big reveal, I couldn't understand why Rosie wanted to be with him - one night of him showing his 'true self' did not erase a lifetime of selfishness.
So, I have mixed feelings about this book. I love the theme, adore all the characters, except Vance. Had Vance shown some redeeming qualities I would be fully on board with the romance nd the book.
Our heroine, Rosie, is the 'Bookish' part of the title, while Vance is the 'Beast'. Due to an unfortunate accident involving a pond and an expensive book, Rosie finds herself organising the library at the house where Vance has been 'sent' by his parents - he considers it a punishment.
While the story was in essence a contemporary form of Beauty and the Beast, it has definitely been written for the teen/YA market as there were numerous references and terms that were new to me.
The author also brought in a touch of inclusivity with LGBT+ characterisation, much of which wasn't explicitly pointed out (why should it be?), although I was left a little confused by Vance's sexual preference.
I have to admit, the story fell a little short as I was really hoping Rosie would tell Vance to get lost - he came across as a spoilt brat, wallowing in his self-induced petty problems, and I did not like him. Even after the big reveal, I couldn't understand why Rosie wanted to be with him - one night of him showing his 'true self' did not erase a lifetime of selfishness.
So, I have mixed feelings about this book. I love the theme, adore all the characters, except Vance. Had Vance shown some redeeming qualities I would be fully on board with the romance nd the book.
I loved this book so much! Beauty and the beast is my favorite. Of all the beauty and the beast retellings/inspired books I’ve read, I don’t remember any of them having a Gaston character, which I really enjoyed in this one. I also loved all the references I caught from the Disney movie, and it made my heart happy.
I hated Vance in the Princess and the Fangirl, but he really grew on me in this book, in a way that I dare say reminds me of Zuko. I love him and Rosie together, and have to admit, I’m a bit of a sucker for the enemies to lovers tripe. I also really loved seeing his relationship with Imogen, which I was not expecting in the slightest.
Ashley Poston did it again. I love her writing, and I can only hope she’ll grace us with more Once Upon a Con books.
I would give this book 6 stars if I could.
I hated Vance in the Princess and the Fangirl, but he really grew on me in this book, in a way that I dare say reminds me of Zuko. I love him and Rosie together, and have to admit, I’m a bit of a sucker for the enemies to lovers tripe. I also really loved seeing his relationship with Imogen, which I was not expecting in the slightest.
Ashley Poston did it again. I love her writing, and I can only hope she’ll grace us with more Once Upon a Con books.
I would give this book 6 stars if I could.