Following on from Geekerella, The Princess and the Fangirl focuses on focuses on Jessica Stone - Darian Freeman's co-star in the Starfield revival. At Excelsicon, she receives a copy of the script for the sequel, and then learns that someone is leaking parts of it on Twitter. Believing she has the only copy, she sets out to find out who she believes has stolen the script she had and meets Imogen who is running a campaign to save Princess Amara. Imogen and Jess trade places and learn a lot about what it means to be the other as they race to find out the source of the leak and discover more about themselves in the process.

While this book had many references to characters from the previous story, it took a while to get into. I liked that you got to learn what happened to Darian, Elle and the Magic Pumpkin through what the others said, but I didn't feel as connected to these characters. Having said that, I found myself warming to Jessica Stone throughout the novel after not being a big fan of hers during Geekerella.

As a fan of all things Doctor Who and Harry Potter, I did quickly become immersed in the world of ExcelsiCon and loved the references made by Imogen.

I really love how nerdy Ashley Poston is and I think I'll be reading everything she publishes! Once it comes out in paperback I'll be buying a copy to match Geekerella!

I would give this book 3.25 stars.

This was a really cute, really fun, really enjoyable read with great diversity.

I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as Geekerella but would definitely still recommend.

I love that this is a companion to Geekerellla. I loved the adventure and story that Jessica and Imogen go through. I love how this follows a fan girls life as I really relate to that lifestyle. A fun and lovely read

Trigger warnings: Sexual harassment
Representation: LGBTQ+ - m/m romance between side characters, the main character has two mothers, f/f romance, Asian character - Ethan, black characters - Darien & Harper (who likes girls),

This review may contain some spoilers for Geekerella.

As a fan of the first book in this universe, [book:Geekerella|30724132] I was very excited to hear about the sequel prior to finishing Geekerella last year. My expectations were pretty high since I loved Geekerella so much. However, I am going to stick with Geekerella being my favorite novel set in the Geekerella & Starfield universe.

The Princess and the Fangirl is a retelling of the tale, The Princess and the Pauper. This retelling is set during the duration of four days at the convention, Excelsicon (formerly seen in Geekerella). We follow a dual POV from Imogen Lovelace, a beloved Starfield and Princess Amara fangirl, who is known for her fame online as the creator of the campaign, #SaveAmara and Jessica Stone, the actress who plays the role of Princess Amara in Starfield.

When pages from the Starfield script start getting leaked on Twitter, Jess must stop the person behind the account immediately to save her career. She meets Imogen after she mistakenly impersonates Jessica on a panel and Jess learns she has found her doppelganger. They both agree to trade lives at the con and it really helped their character development.

Throughout most of this novel, I really wasn't a fan of Jess's character. She was so snarky and stuck-up, I just couldn't handle reading any more of her character. Nevertheless, I persevered and I'm glad that I did. Jess has remarkable character development and I enjoyed it so much. At the start, Jess doesn't get the point of fandoms and loving a character since she isn't so keen on being Princess Amara because she believes the role isn't important. But, by the end she develops so much and learns how to love herself and her character by seeing how much other people cherish her character and she means a lot to many fans.

As a fan of Geekerella, I really appreciated the cameos from all of the characters in Geekerella! They were all over the con!

Ashley Poston included a vital piece of fame and being in the spotlight by showcasing how Jessica Stone was treated by her male cast because she was a woman. There are many scenes where Jess is sexually harassed by men because of her appearance.

There's a lot of queerness & diversity going on in this book so if you're looking for a retelling with queer characters. Imogen has two mothers, her brother is a gay football player with a boyfriend, Jess reveals that she likes girls, characters from Geekerella appear who are in a f/f romance.

Overall, I did enjoy this novel but I got a little frustrated throughout because of the characters decisions. Since they do trade lives, they don't really have open communication and they have to lie to the people around them. Then, the lying gets overlooked and they are forgiven too quickly. However, the ending really redeemed itself!

I LOVED "The Princess and the Fangirl."

I loved "Geekerella," and I love all things "fan convention," and all things "twisted fairy tale," and all things "following-a-star-on-a-movie-set," and, well, this book just checked off ALL the boxes!! How could I NOT love it?!!
Ashley Poston just has a way of writing that makes you laugh and smile throughout all of her chapters. Her characters are so dynamic, their arcs incredibly strong, something demonstrated to SUCH a high degree in "TPatF." where every character was fantastically built, unique, animated and strong. I loved Imogen's geekiness and Jessica's arc of self-acceptance and discovery; I fell in love with Ethan along with (*spoiler alert!*) Imogen and wished Harper was MY best friend too. Poston is a master at creating realistic characters, characters I wish I could befriend and associate with in my OWN life.

Plus, those little cameos of Elle and Darien from "Geekerella?!" I LIVED for that. I love those types of little easter eggs, those callbacks to authors' previous books, and "TPatF" did NOT disappoint!

Speaking of references, one of my absolute favourite things about Con-related novels (see: "Geekerella," "TPaTF," "The Geek's Guide to Unrequited Love," etc) is how many FANDOM REFERENCES are scattered throughout the pages! I'm SUPER into so many con-related fandoms - Harry Potter's been a favourite of mine since childhood, Sherlock is my guilty pleasure and Doctor Who is one of my greatest obsessions - so reading little snippets of dialogue calling back to these favourites of mine is like a little inside-joke between the characters and me. Poston's novels, particularly this one, are chock-full of rich fandom callbacks, and I LOVE that. Each and every reference made me grin, and I was so impressed by how Poston seamlessly blended her unique, imaginative, fictional world and its own fandoms with the real-life fandoms that I know and love.

I'm just BURSTING with praise for "The Princess and the Fangirl." I devoured it in a day and a half; it instantly shot to the top of my "favourite reads of all time" list (not an easy feat!); and I absolutely CANNOT WAIT to read more of Poston's novels, fall in love with more of her characters and become immersed in more of her exuberantly crafted, incredibly realistic storylines! Book 3 in the "Geekerella" Literary Universe cannot come soon enough!!

I adored Geekerella so I was so excited about this book. I really enjoyed it, but I think that I was expecting it to wow me like Once Upon a Con #1.

DNF
Thank you for the opportunity to read this title. Unfortunately, presently I have no interest in reading this title as I am in a YA slump. I may come back to it when I am in the mood in the future. I apologize for the convenience.

Could i be more disappointed than this? NO!
Is this book written by the same writer of Geekerella? How could that be! it felt so superficial, way too rethoric and it just fell flat to me. I loved Geekerella, it was perfect and fun, this was quiet boring and i felt unconfortable way too many times.

Another sweet story from Ashley Poston. It's fun, geeky references and story telling narrative are highly appealing.

I adored Geekerella so when a companion novel was announced I knew I needed to read this as soon as possible! It even includes some of our favourite characters from Geekerella but it's mainly focused on two new main characters and their romances.
The author has definitely packed a lot into the story, I'm not sure if it would have been best to focus more on one of the love stories to ensure it gained the depth it needed rather than lightly display two romances.
I did love the switch between the two characters, it was a fun and upbeat story just like Geekerella. It didn't quite match up to the previous book with all its charm and cuteness but it was a very close second. I will definitely reread both novels whenever I'm in need of a geeky fix.

I have to admit that I haven’t read the first book, Geekerella, and I didn’t get many of the references. That being said, I found it to be an easy, fun and cute read, and I did enjoy it.

The Princess and the Fangirl is a loose retelling of The Prince and the Pauper where a celebrity wants to be recognized as an acclaimed actress and a person and a fan just wants to be somebody. Having played Princess Amara in the movie reboot of cult sci-fi show Starfield, Jessica Stone has been battling the crazy Starfield fandom who has trolled, bullied, and even sexually harassed her. She is thankful that her character has died at the end of the movie and she can now move on to more serious roles and be recognized as an actress with a capital "A". Fangirl and self-proclaimed nobody Imogen Lovelace idolizes the independent space princess and is campaigning to #SaveAmara.

When the look-alikes collide at the annual ExcelsiCon and switch places each gains a new perspective on fandom. I liked this novel but it was slow going for me. I had a really hard time warming up to Jess. I understood her dislike and confusion to the importance of Starfield, but she comes across so mean and abrasive. Of course her prickly personality is come with her experience of being a young actress who is constantly needs to be on the alert for exploitation, trolling, sexual harassment among other things. Once Jess's walls come down a bit as she revels in normality and hesitantly explores romance with Imogen’s online friend, Harper Hart, she becomes relatable. I really enjoyed Imogen's chapters with her bubbly personality and her desire to be in the limelight and spars and sparks with Jess’ personal assistant, overly serious Ethan Tanaka.

I liked how this book addresses the toxicity of fandom, which we have seen in many popular fandoms. Diversity is heavy highlighted as interracial and same-sex relationships are central—Jess and Imogen are white, Harper is black and female, Ethan is Japanese-American, and Imogen has two moms and a gay brother, but this inclusion feels natural and doesn't come across as the author checking boxes off. I also liked the gender-bending aspects of fandom, cosplay, and cons. The very unlucky situation is acknowledged and entertainingly explored. Readers who have read Geekerella will smile at some of the returning characters. A cute and breezy read.

Well, once again I have to admit that I liked a fluffy classic retelling more than I wanted to.
When I read "Geekerella" by Poston last year I honestly didn't think I would enjoy it, but dang it that book wormed it's way into my cold fantasy-loving heart. "The Princess and the Fangirl" did the same thing.
This is a retelling of "The Prince and the Pauper" told from the perspective of two teenage girls. Jess is an actress on a famous science fiction series, "Starfield," although she's hoping her character's death remains permanent in the film's sequel.
Imogen is a super geek, and a super fan of Starfield. She is also spear-heading a campaign to save Jess's character, Princess Amara, from her death. She also just happens to be Jess's doppleganger, and they end up switching places at a convention.
Overall, I thought this story was pretty cute (yes, it was predictable, but it's a classic retelling for goodness sake, it's supposed to be predictable). It's obvious who the love interests are going to be from the beginning (admittedly this does have a good hate to like romance), but Poston developed them well and they were adorable. The main relationship is between Jess and another girl, and it was so cute, I blushed several times throughout the story.
I also really liked what this book had to say about fans' treatment of movie stars online-particularly that of women in traditionally male centered stories. Jess is treated much like Kelly Marie Tran of Star Wars-terribly by entitled white men on the internet. This is one of the primary reasons why Jess wants her character to stay dead, and we see her abuse online firsthand throughout the book. Jess also mentions that she has it much easier than other LGBTQIA+ people and people of color online, which was an intersectional moment that I appreciated.
Overall, I thought there were a few too many pop culture references in here (at least one on every page), but I really liked this.

I need to preface this by saying that I liked this book, and I will continue to read books in this universe if Ashley Poston keeps writing them. But I wanted to enjoy this book more than I did. I loved Jessica Stone as a side character in Geekerella, and was so excited to see more of her. I think this one felt rushed to me, so I wanted more. All in all great, but personally I enjoyed Geekerella more

This book was the perfect sequel to "Geekerella" and I enjoyed every minute of it!

To get to know Jessica better, and her special enemy Imogen Lovelace. These characters were the perfect fit for this book and I loved how different they were, but how much they resembled each other, not only in appearance. The whole character set with old friends and new enemies was amazing and made the story fast pacing, witty and funny. I also loved, that this book is super LGTBQ friendly and has all the fandom knowledge for the geek in us!

The story line was fast pacing, full of action and still slow pacingly beautiful in the romance department. We have frenemies, enemies to lovers, homosexual couples and all the geeks. What do we need more? The book begins, where "Geekerella" has ended, and while I dislikes Jess a lot in the first book, I now love her to bits, though Imogen is my real hero! In the second book someone is leaking the script for the second star field movie, and while Jess wants nothing more to finally know that her character Amara is dead, is Imogen trying with everything she has to #saveamara. I loved how they wanted something entirely different and still managed to stay together and work together. I loved Ethan and his whole behavior!

Okay I think you all get it: If you need a fast contemporary book with geeks, love and betrayal you need to read this one - because I savored every word!

Oh, so adorable! What a great retelling of Prince and the Pauper set in the same world as Geekerella including many favorite characters. What a wonderful treat of a read. I would, personally, recommend reading this after Geekerella. I think it flows much better as a sequel and in order to understand and fully appreciate the fandom world Poston has skillfully created. Plus the books together are just so much fun!

I would describe this book as CUTE. I wasn't expecting a Prince and the Pauper retelling and two pretty adorable love stories and I thought it was so fun to read.
It was also a whirlwind story, since it takes place over just a couple of days at a Comicon type convention. Normally, I'm not really a fan of whirlwind stories, but this one is very well written and felt like it handled lots of character growth in a very short time.

Hi! This is my review of The Princess and The Fangirl, i gave it 4/5 stars <3
I absolutely loved Geekerella, and the moment I finished it this week I started this book. This time it’s a retelling of The prince and the pauper.

In this case our princess it’s THE Jessica Stone, the actress who plays Amara on the Starfield movie and that we first met in Geekerella. It’s no secret that Jess is not the biggest fan of Starfield, she just took the role because she thought it would help boost her acting career, getting her new and better roles with nominations and awards. For her, Starfield was just a little step in the way, but it turned out to be a real life nightmare she can’t wake up of. Everyday she receives hate and horrible comments in her social media, it looks like the fandom can’t stop comparing her to the previous Amara in the original series. In adittion she fears that even though her character died in the movie, they may bring her back in the sequel, trapping her in this stupid franchise.

On the other hand we have our ordinary fangirl, Imogen Lovelace, who feels a great passion for Princess Amara. So much so that she created a petition online called #SaveAmara, she has already 50.000 signatures. Every year she comes to ExcelsiCon with her mothers and his brother, but she isn’t expecting at all that her ressemblance with Jessica Stone is going to give her an unforgettable adventure.

Everything begins when Imogen gets mistaken as Jess and ends up on a panel impersonating her. Obviously this upsets the real Jessica a lot, but it’s going to be useful in the future when she wants to be at two places at once to find the person who’s leaking the sequel script. ¿Can Jess save her career while she pretends to be normal? ¿Will Imogen survive being famous for a couple of days?

The chapters alternate between our two protagonists and the truth is, same as Geekerella, I read this book super fast. I love Ashley Poston’s writing style, very light and adorable and easy to read for many hours straight.

I don’t want to compare but I think I liked Geekerella a little bit more. Maybe it was because in this novel, instead of focusing in only a relationship, we follow two protagonists with a love interest each. This way we spend less time with the characters and it’s more difficult to connect. But nonetheless I’ve very much enjoyed the two ships and I think they are so cute !!! A bit instalovy since the book takes place in only four days.

Something I did really like was that it shows the “dark” side of fandoms. Not everything is wonderful and perfect, there’s always going to be people who hate and attack celebrities hiding behind their anonimous users, without realising that behind the screen there are real humans with their own life and problems. I think that’s really important to point out. By the way there’s feminism in this book and a lot of queer rep :)

About the characters, I loved getting into Jessica’s mind and understanding why does she feel that way about Starfield. You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, Jess’ life it´s far from perfect. “Being” Imogen will change her perspective about the franchise and even her own career. She meets Heather, Imogen’s internet friend and that also helps her.

Imogen it’s the opposite of Jess, but at the same time they have a lot in common. She also feels she’s not enough, she has to give her best to try and not live in her perfect little brother’s shadow (which btw he's super cute with his bf). Impersonating Jessica will earn her trust in herself. And there’s also a great enemies to lovers trope with Ethan, Jess’ best friend and assistant.

I won’t say anything else, just that the ending was EPIC and I cannot wait to get my hands on the third book on the Once upon a con series (a retelling of Beauty and the Beast OMGGG). I want this series to continue forever. It’s not necessary to read in order but I would reccomend.

To sum up, The princess and the fangirl it’s another great YA fandom book that explores some complex themes and makes you smile a lot in the process of reading it ;)

This was incredibly sweet and fun and nerdy. I loved the characters, I'm always a sucker for a book set at a con, and the writing was very quick and fun. I also loved the romances and the hate-to-love friendship, and I will definitely be continuing this series. I kinda hope it goes on forever and ever and ever.