This was a fun retelling of the Prince and the Pauper, sort of fandom style. I have never read Geekerella and this story still reads well as a stand alone. I would like to go back and read Geekerella now after getting to know these characters! I don’t know much about fandom or cons but still found this to be quite entertaining. The two main characters Jess and Imogen were fun to follow in this book. If you like fandom, you’d love this retelling.

Okay so first of all, I haven't read Geekerella yet! But I wanted to read this for the F/F romance and I was lucky enough to get approved for it. Reading Geekerella is definitely not necessary but reading this book made me want to read it. I think those of you who have read it will enjoy the references to it (which were a bit lost on me).

I love books about cons, and fandoms, and meeting people you met online, and internet culture, and all that. This was more or less what I had thought it would be. Actually, it kind of was more than I had expected, in both good and bad ways, but I overall loved it.

First of all, you need to keep in mind this is a loose retelling of The Prince and the Pauper. I haven't read it, but the modern setting made it kind of hard for me to really believe that thousands of people online and IRL would see photos of one girl and think she's another, especially when one is a kind of famous actress. I mean, fandom twitter is better than the FBI at investigating so the premise of them both looking very alike and being able to effortlessly pass for one another was kind of a miss for me, but once I accepted to go with it I could sort of forget about it and it didn't bother me so much.

The two MCs in this book are Imogen, fangirl who wants to save her favorite character, Princess Amara, from being killed off the franchise, and Jessica, actress playing said Princess Amara and currently under attack by a big part of the fandom, which she wants nothing to do with anymore. She's actually glad her character is being killed off.

Things happen and they "must" exchange roles in order for Jess to investigate about a missing/stolen script. I say "must" because I thought the reason behind this exchange was not entirely believable for me, and there were too many risks from the start. But anyway, once they found themselves in each other's shoes I could let it slide, and it's not like I'm reading a cute contemporary for it to make absolute sense.

Jess gets to meet Harper, a Black fanartist and Imogen's online friend, and spend two days with her. Jess is a closeted lesbian and Harper is also queer, and they have a really cute and endearing romance. Because this book takes place within a single weekend, things were a little fast, but I didn't mind and I just enjoyed reading about them.

Imogen, under the guise of being Jess, spends her days with Ethan Tanaka, Jess's Asian-American assistant, and they start off by hating each other. Their romance was cute if a little bit overdramatic, but I love that they're both big nerds, and at least he knew about her being Imogen (as opposed to the other romance, where Harper initially thinks Jess is actually Imogen because they'd only met online).

I love when contemporary books throw a few pop culture references here and there, and I expect a book about fandom to have a lot of them, but I just didn't expect them to be quite so many. I understood almost all of them to some degree but I wouldn't have minded them being toned down a little. But I forgive Ashley Poston because she mentioned Yuri On Ice!!! and Zuko's redemption arc too.

Anyway, even with a few issues here and there that didn't make this a full five stars for me, this was a really fun read that I think a lot of contemporary readers will enjoy!

I adore this series with all my fandom loving heart. We need this kind of celebration and love in our lives. Ashley clearly knows and understands fandom on a deep level; her prose is thoughtful and loving even while she's poking fun at our foibles. I would read fifty more books in this series if it was possible.


I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, the need for fandom knowledge is strong with this one! I know that that's the whole point of this series, but I worry that it will turn away casual readers who may not be too sure what a kamahameha is. However, it shouldn't, as this is a sweet retelling of The Prince and the Pauper dressed up in cosplay. I loved the little references ... the ones I got, anyway, I'm sure I missed some ... and it was nice to return to the world of Starfield. (It did irritate me a little that absolutely everyone curses in Starfield's vernacular. How about a frack or a shazbot thrown in there for variety?)

A brilliant read I will definitely be recommending, and I hope there's plenty more to come in this series.


Receiving an ARC did not affect my review in any way.

This was honestly so adorable!! I can’t recommend this book enough, the characters and story were really good. Seriously pick this up especially if you loved Geekerella

I actually liked this one even more than Geekerella. Imogen and Jess go on such a fun and interesting journey and the whole book is just supercute. I can see the constant references annoying some people but they worked for me in this context. Plus a great diverse cast and a serious prod at fanboy culture. This was great.

BAH THIS WAS SO CUTE!
I loved Geekerella and this sequel was a delight that lived up to the first book! I love the nerd/geek references made by the characters and I love this realistic view of conventions! That said - I've never switched places with a famous actress at the cons I've attended - but everything from the atmosphere on the con floor to the wondrous combination of fandoms and love is perfect! While this book features several new characters, all of our favorites from Geekerella make an appearance, so don't worry! I wish Starfield was a real show!

Jessica Stone feels stifled by her role as Princess Amara, so when she accidentally throws away the script to the sequel, she’s not sure how she wants things to go down. Imogen Lovelace is Jess’ doppelgänger, but she is the architect behind an entire movement to save Amara. When Jess proposes a plan to switch place with Imogen so she can find her missing script, Imogen agrees hoping that she can complete her mission: #SaveAmara.

I thought this was a sweet book. The characters seemed realistic and fun. My only grief is that this book seemed to have a disproportionately high number of gay characters. It sounds like every other person at this con is gay and statistically, that is highly improbable.

This is another stellar book from Ashley Poston! Much like Geekerella, it's another modern twist on a beloved fairy tale. But her take is fresh and engaging, one that appeals to readers looking for something a little different. I immensely enjoyed this book. It's on my 'must buy list' for 2019!

I absolutely loved Geekerella and have enjoyed sharing it with my students who are into geek culture/cons/cosplay/etc and to be able to read The Princess and the Fangirl now made me so incredibly happy. I can't wait for it to come out and to put it on my shelves and to share it with my students who also loved Geekerella!

I want to thank Netgalley for giving me access to an Earc in exchange for my honest review.

I’m gonna say straight away that this book blew my mind!
I absolutely loved it.
Geekerella is now one of my all time favourite books so I was so excited to get to read this book!
I had high expectations and I was seriously impressed.
I loved the whole idea of the prince and the pauper retelling and what makes this book unique is it’s about two girls!
I loved Imogen the minute I met her in this book.
Jess took a while to grow on me but I can honestly say After reading this I am a huge Jess fan!
It’s stays true to Geekerella with many amazing references and appearances from past characters like Elle and Darien which made me so excited.
Overall this book stole my heart.
I read it in one sitting from start to finish i literally couldn’t put it down.
I would recommend this book to anyone so I gave it a fully deserved 5 stars.

The Princess & The Fangirl Review

To preface this, Geekerella by Ashley Poston is one of my favorite books of all time. But, I was not a fan of Heart of Iron by her. But, I was eager to get back to ExcelsiCon and see cameos of the characters from book one.

I was dumb and did not realize that this followed Jessica Stone, a character from the first book. I thought we were going to have two new characters and that it would be more of a spin off rather than a sequel. So once I started the book, it was a bit of a shock to realize that we were following Jessica. Who if I’m being honest was not one of my favorite characters in Geekerella. I also thought this was going to be a f/f romance between the two main characters and it isn’t. There is a f/f romance, but it a lot more subtle.

My main critique of this novel was the timing did not match up. The epilogue of Geekerella left us eight months after the events of ExcelsiCon and Princess starts a month after the epilogue. Meaning that Princess takes place nine months after ExcelsiCon. Which means that this ExcelsiCon is only nine months after the one from Geekerella. Which does not make sense to me. Con are usually exactly a year apart. Unless this was a special edition or a special one it does not make sense for the Con to be nine months after. Maybe I am doing the math wrong or there was something mentioned earlier on, but it does not make sense to me.

I did end up liking Jessica as a character (towards the end) and Imogen was decent character, but I did not connect to them like I did Elle and Darien. Every time we saw Elle and Darien I sort of wished they were the ones telling us this story. Imogen was a solid character, but I am still not sure why she was so okay with switching places with Jessica, even though a couple chapters before she was SO EXCITED to meet her internet friend Harper. She was so casual about Harper suddenly, it felt odd.

I loved all the fandom references and how they are just interwoven into the character’s vocabulary. What was great about this book was how Poston discusses the dark side of fandom, like the online bullying of women who come into major franchises (I loved how she mentions Daisy Riley & Kelly Marie Tran by name). This was probably what made me understand Jessica’s character the most. She hates fandom and it is understandable why. But, we also see the good side of fandoms through Imogen, who’s moms’ have a booth at the Con and who is a major fangirl.

I saw a review that said it was hard sometime to tell the narrators apart since both parts were told in first person and I would agree with that. I saw another review that said Ashley needs a stronger editor and I would also agree with that. There were parts of this book that could have easily been fine tuned to make the overall product stronger.

Overall, I enjoyed my time reading this novel. But, it will not be one of my favorites. I had a decent amount of minor issues with the plot and characters that held me back. My favorite parts were the ones with our faves from Geekerella. Every time the Magic Pumpkin was mentioned I was so excited.

INITIAL EXCITEMENT & SUMMARY
I adored GEEKERELLA and was SO excited to see a companion sequel. I already need there to be a million books in this series. The first book was basically a love letter to being a fan, attending cons, and geek culture as a whole. I’m not QUITE as into fandom things (for anything really) as many of my friends, but I totally get it.

While the first book was a Cinderella retelling, this was a Princess and the Pauper retelling – the classic situation where two people look like each other and switch lives for a few days. In this case, the actor who plays Princess Amara in Starfield (Jess) switches place with Imogen (a Starfield fan and leader of the “Save Amara” movement). The two switch lives so Jess can track down who leaked the new Starfield script.

STORYTELLING & CHARACTERS
Just like the first book, this was filled with geeky references that I loved. (Sometimes it feels like a little too much, but not bad! – I liked that Jess was not really a geeky character so the references were only during one of the POVs.) The Princess and the Pauper trope was really well done and super fun to follow in a con setting. I enjoyed both Jess and Imogen as main characters. Jess was hard to get used to in the beginning because she didn’t like Starfield; it was off-putting to hear her grouchy inner monologue. This definitely changed throughout the book though. Imogen was hilarious and enjoyable from the start.

The romances for both characters were great – one was F/F and the other was hate-to-love M/F. UGH SO GOOD. One of my favorite tropes for a reason. I always found myself wanting more from them but I think it’s mostly because the book was dual-POV and therefore our time with each girl/couple was split in half. I could have read a lot more pages of this book for sure. On that note, Imogen’s family members were wonderful and I would definitely been interested in learning more about them too.

TL;DR?
If you read and enjoyed GEEKERELLA, I can’t imagine that you’d be disappointed with this read! I enjoyed it just as much as the first – in some ways I liked it even more. The characters were great and the premise was so fun. This felt like a REAL scenario where the Princess and Pauper trope made sense or could be used successfully. If you haven’t read the first book yet, I’d start there so you can enjoy the easter eggs. Anyone who likes cons or is a part of some kind of geek culture will definitely appreciate all the references too.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an EArc in exchange for an honest review

I really loved Ashley Poston's first book, Geekerella, which definitely raised my expectations for this companion novel. I definitely think this book delivered in most aspects however in some ways I didn't enjoy it quite as much as Geekerella. It was really nice to get to see characters from Geekerella show up in this story, however, the main focus is on the two new characters, Jessica and Imogen.

My first issue was with the two main characters. While I did relate to Imogen more I still felt like she lacked how relatable and enjoyable Elle was as a main character. Elle was the main reason I fell in love with Geekerella when I first read it and I can't say the same about Imogen. She sometimes made stupid decisions that annoyed me or overall would just get on my nerves. By the end of the book I liked her far more but it was a rocky start. Jessica wasn't my favorite either. Her attitude and personality were pretty dislikable, but I think part of the story was showing how she'd grown as a person which I can appreciate.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the two main character's romances. I definitely preferred Jessica's because Imogen's felt really forced, unnecessary, and lacking chemistry. By the end of the book, only Jessica's romance actually gave me the same feeling as Geekerella, while Imogen's fell flat for me personally. It's a shame because while Jessica's romance was well developed, made sense, and had a proper build up, Imogen's felt like she was with someone because they were the only other character she could be with and a failed attempt at the "Hate-To-Love" trope. I actually wish this book only centered around Jess's romance and left Imogen without one because it felt so unnecessary.

Now into things I did like! The plot felt similar to Geekerella in the best ways: fast-paced and fun from start to finish. I didn't want to put this book down and I was thoroughly entertained by it. The writing wasn't spectacular but that's not what I was expecting and I think it fits the story well, making it easy to read. I think the reason I'm giving this book 4 stars is that while it didn't live up to Geekerella for me it was still very fun and I enjoyed one of the romances. It was still a very heartwarming and sweet read that I think is worth a try for fans of Geekerella.

Honestly one of the cutest and geekiest books I’ve read all year.
This sequel / companion novel to Geekerella follows Jessica Stone, starlet and space princess of Starfield fame, and Imogen Lovelace, fangirl extraordinaire and creator of the #saveAmara initiative. Jess hates Starfield and can’t wait to move on to other projects. Imogen is still fighting to un-fridge Princess Amara and ensure she can return for the sequel. They have almost nothing in common—except the fact that they look pretty much identical. So when Imogen is accidentally ushered onto a Starfield panel at the con, Jess gets an ideal. A wonderful, terrible idea. The two of them will switch places for the weekend. Imogen will get the chance to live out her movie star dreams and try to convince the fandom that Amara deserves to be saved, and Jess can try to get to the bottom of a script leak that could end her career. That is, if they aren’t found out first. But somewhere along the way Imogen learns that the life of a star isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and Jess begins to realize that sometimes the stories that matter to people aren’t the ones that win all the awards.
Look, this book is just pure, unadulterated adorableness, okay? Jess and Imogen both make really great POV characters, and their relationships with their friends, families, and each other are really excellently written. I also love the budding relationships and romance that each of them find along the way. This book also has more geeky, pop culture references than I think I’ve ever seen seamlessly integrated into one book before—twenty points to Gryffindor for that!
It perfectly encapsulates both the awful and wonderful things about fandom—how toxic it can become, particularly toward the real-life people behind the characters, but also how comforting the stories and characters can be for the people who love them. And how stories and characters can sometimes be much more than their component parts.
If you’re a geek and a fan of rom-com YA, I highly, highly recommend this book.

This book is absolutely adorable. Once I started, I simply could not put it down. I thought Geekerella was the epitome of cuteness, but Poston has really outdone herself with this companion novel. The characters are quirky, adorable, and relatable. The romance is cute and funny, and you will find yourself cheering for these characters (and cringing alongside them) for the entirety of this book.

One of the main characters, Jess, can be a bit difficult to like at times, especially if you consider yourself a fangirl. However, the character does a lot of growing throughout the book and you find yourself cheering her on.

Imogen, our other main character, can be pretty thick-headed at times, but you'll find yourself warming up to her as she warms up to others in this book as well.

Toxic masculinity (fanboy culture) is called out in this book in epic ways. This is huge, and I so appreciated this storyline, since it isn't always brought up in geeky books, but it is so important to address!

Also, this book is super gay. LOVE.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

It was a great read. I loved getting back into the Geekerella/Starfield world again. Loved all the geek/nerd references. I will definitely buy a physical copy of this book once it's out so it can join Geekerella on my bookshelf!

Geekerella was by far one of my favorite contemporary "con" type romances, so I was stoked to realize that there was a sequel.
I requested an ARC of it, and received one, and got even more excited. I knew I wanted to save it for when I was in a slump of sorts, and I'm glad I did.
This book didn't have quite the same amount of charm as its predecessor, but it had it's own kind of charm.
The book was pretty much predictable, but it was such a nice, fun read I didn't mind.
I loved it, and anyone who loved Geekerella will probably love it as well!

Loved this return to the Geekerella universe. Reading the first book isn't essential, although having read it beforehand will be rewarded with little nods and mentions in this new book. I loved both Jess and Mo - both very different yet equally believable characters. Few authors capture syfy random as well as Ashley Poston; I can't wait for the next in the series!

I received a free copy from The Galley in exchange for an honest review. The Princess and the fangirl is a second book in the series after geekerella. I really enjoy geekerella and I was really looking forward to reading this when I realized it was another one in the same universe. The Princess and the fangirl takes on the classic Prince and pauper strangers look like each other to switch places trope. I don't usually like this because it's overdone I feel like at this point but this was very well done. Jessica Stone has played the lead in the movie as Amara and has received hate from the fandom and therefore is happy that she will not be returning for the sequel or so she hopes. When a script is leaked Jessica decides to switch places with imogen who looks exactly like Jessica in order for Jessica to have a time to find the script that she threw away. I like the story and I love Jessica Arc in the story going from someone who didn't understand why people were so obsessed with the movie in her role to understanding what the meaning of fandom really is. On the other hand I feel like Imogene's character is not really as well developed. Overall I think this is a great fun read and I couldn't put it down.