Review: The Princess and the Fangirl

The Princess and the Fangirl 
Rating: 4/5 
Buy or Borrow: Buy 
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review! 

The Prince and the Pauper gets a modern makeover in this adorable, witty, and heartwarming young adult novel set in the Geekerella universe by national bestselling author Ashley Poston.

Imogen Lovelace is an ordinary fangirl on an impossible mission: save her favorite character, Princess Amara, from being killed off from her favorite franchise, Starfield. The problem is, Jessica Stone—the actress who plays Princess Amara—wants nothing more than to leave the intense scrutiny of the fandom behind. If this year's ExcelsiCon isn't her last, she'll consider her career derailed.

When a case of mistaken identity throws look-a-likes Imogen and Jess together, they quickly become enemies. But when the script for the Starfield sequel leaks, and all signs point to Jess, she and Imogen must trade places to find the person responsible. That's easier said than done when the girls step into each other's shoes and discover new romantic possibilities, as well as the other side of intense fandom. As these "princesses" race to find the script-leaker, they must rescue themselves from their own expectations, and redefine what it means to live happily ever after. 

You guys know how much I loved Geekerella, and I've been so excited and so looking forward to another book set in the same world! This had a lot of the things I loved from the previous book, the article extracts and the quotes at the beginning of the parts, we had script extracts too! The references...I can't even. The name dropping of some of my favourite games, movies or TV shows, the El Dorado quote had me screeching! But not as much as the Yuri on Ice, Star Wars, Mean Girls and Zelda references and there's so much more! I loved how realistic things are with the industry terms and phrases, and the convention in general. Plus the whole thing with the hashtag to save a character was realistic AF as well, and oh God...the nerd talk you guys. I loved it. I revelled in the nerdiness of this book that made it so authentic. 

Jess we met in Geekerella I believe, (I didn't have time to re-read Geekerella and I have a goldfish brain!) she's so over playing Princess Amara and I can't really blame her for not liking playing the character considering how she's treated, and what's said to her on the internet. She likens herself to Daisy Ridley and Kelly Marie Tran and their situations which I'm sure we all know about and...she aint wrong. I did like that this book examined the darker side of fandom, especially as we usually only see the happy parts of fandom in books like this, and it's a good and necessary commentary. I also got the fact that she didn't want to be tied to one project for forever, and known for that one thing, especially as it had changed how she was perceived for other projects. Yes she was a bit bratty, but I did really love her and get where she was coming from and...I nearly died laughing when she was like "I stan Darien".

Imogen is other POV and our other MC, and she kind of looks a little bit like Jess. She's the one that started the Twitter movement to save Princess Amara and she's the reason I ended up rating this book down a little bit. The issue is, I fully got where Jess was coming from and what she was dealing with and why she didn't want to play the role anymore, and I felt like it was kind of a d*** move for her to mess with Jess's career by giving her own answers and wanting to force the character to be revived. She annoyed me so much throughout the book, she expected Jess to keep her obligations or no deal...but lies about not pushing her Save Amara Campaign. I just couldn't get behind that, knowing what I did about Jess. She also bothered me because at one point she doesn't seem to think Jess is human, like she's surprised she has friends. She's loving the celebrity life and completely ignores what Jess wants but wants Jess to adhere to what she wants. She just came across as really selfish to me and I kind of couldn't enjoy reading her parts at some points. 

Also, she's supposed to be plugged in to the fandom, but she has no idea about the nasty messages and hate campaigns? Yet later she says that she's aware of those "dark pockets of fans". Didn't really add up unless she wilfully ignored it and how it would affect Jess in order to keep pushing her agenda. Then there's the whole thing where she thinks Jess and Ethan are dating but she's like "yeah let's go out with that actor, that can't possibly negatively impact Jess can it?!" I can't with her. I did empathise with her and the way she felt to a certain extent but she just...bugged me. I found her really out of line more than once, and had the audacity to complain about Ethan being out of line. She does eventually realise to be fair, and she did make me chuckle a couple of times. Especially when she was bickering with Ethan, which I shipped by the way. 

Although I did choke when she said "the old guy from Star Wars" and mentioned him sounding like the Joker. Blasphemy, I tell you! 

As for our supporting cast, well...Milo I loved on the strength of his Star Wars puns. Of course we also get to see Darien a lot, bless him, and at least he's got fake Jess's back and could actually tell it wasn't really Jess! Of course, we also get to see Elle and Sage as well and I was living for it because I kinda missed them! We also have to see and deal with Vance and...Y I K E S. It's gonna take a monumental effort for me to like him next book, and I'm curious about how Poston is going to make me back him! 

Geekerella made me want to go to Comic Con so bad, and this one is no exception! I now have a huge urge to go to May's and just bask in the nerdiness, like this book allowed me to do for the entire time it took me to read it. I don't know how to describe what it's like reading Poston's books in all their nerdy glory, it's....comfy. It gives you a sense of contentment, like "ah...here are my people" kinda like how you feel walking in to a Con I guess? 

Anyway, I loved both of the romances, sure there was a spark of the insta about them but you know...they weren't without their problems. I loved watching both girls deal with their issues and overcome them and I could relate to how both of them were feeling. 

There were twists, it was nicely paced although I was a bit sad it took Imogen so damn long to come to realise how Jess felt and what she deals with on a daily basis. I loved familiar faces being brought in, especially with the scheme at the end, I laughed so much at the humour and squealed at all the references to my faves, and Poston's books are never not relatable okay, and I love them! Much like Geekerella, this book reminded me why I love fandom, why I love all the nerdy things I love and put it in to words for me, along with reminding me why I love Cons so much! I'm a bit sad that I didn't love this one quite so much as Geekerella, but I did still enjoy reading this one! 

I'm also incredibly excited for the next book because I'm 99% sure, like I said, that it's Vance...and it's gonna take some monumental effort to make me like him after this book because I kinda want to kick him.