A tale as old as time is made new in Ashley Poston’s fresh, geeky retelling of Beauty and the Beast—now with a bonus Starfield story! Rosie Thorne is feeling stuck—on her college application essays, in her small town, and on that mysterious General Sond cosplayer she met at ExcelsiCon. Most of all, she’s stuck in her grief over her mother’s death. Her only solace was her late mother’s library of … late mother’s library of rare Starfield novels, but even that disappeared when they sold it to pay off hospital bills.
On the other hand, Vance Reigns has been Hollywood royalty for as long as he can remember—with all the privilege and scrutiny that entails. When a tabloid scandal catches up to him, he’s forced to hide out somewhere the paparazzi would never expect to find him: Small Town USA. At least there’s a library in the house. Too bad he doesn’t read.
When Vance’s and Rosie’s paths collide, sparks do not fly. But as they begrudgingly get to know each other, their careful masks come off—and they may just find that there’s more risk in shutting each other out than in opening their hearts.
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Bookish and the Beast is a geeky retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I picked this up to take a break from the heavier themed books I’ve been reading. This is a light-hearted, easy-to-read young adult novel. And the geekiness Once Upon a Con is known for, shines just as bright in this latest installment.
Rosie’s life inexplicably changed when her mother passed away. College looms over her head as high school days are swiftly coming to an end, but she doesn’t know what to do. She feels lost, drifting through each day. Until an accident leaves her face to face with Vance Reigns, the actor for General Sond in the newest Starfield movie. And while it might have once been her dream to meet him, the reality is he is a jerk.
Once Upon a Con does such a wonderful job portraying how fandom brings people together and helps them through life’s hardest times. Rosie loves Starfield and the memories it brings of her mother. And true to style, it also shows the flip side of the fandom. This time readers will witness how the tabloids can bring an actor down. Vance deals with the pressures of gossip and poor choices made public.
I wouldn’t say this is the best retelling, but Vance’s behavior towards Rosie can certainly be described as beastly. Some may say he was too harsh, but Vance is in a difficult spot and angry at the world. I thought his part to play as the beast was great. However, I did expect more of a gradual decline in his behavior as the two began to know one another. It seemed rather abrupt when he went from the beast to realizing his mistakes and trying to be better.
I was not entirely comfortable with the portrayal of Gaston. Garret constantly pursues Rosie about homecoming despite her telling him no multiple times. While she stood her ground, there were moments where she felt she had to go with him. Why? If she doesn’t want to go, and she has made it clear to the boy and her friends it is a no, why internalize saying yes? It was a mixed message that left me unsettled.
I have enjoyed the Once Upon a Con series, despite some of its downfalls. And I hope Ashley Poston will release a new one to continue the series.
Fun, light, fast read. Don’t take it too seriously or read too much into it. This is almost a love story to Beauty and the Beast tropes. Featuring all the requisite scenes, and none of the ickiness associated with imprisonment, it is a fresh take on a tale as old as time. This retelling is chock full of both pop culture references and literary references. From the popular to the obscure, from Howl’s Moving Castle to Pride and Prejudice.
While it was an enjoyable read with some make you smile moments, it also had a few serious continuity issues, which is where you can’t think about it too much. Suspend disbelief. A couple other issues are harder to pass off though including one scene where Quinn was mis-gendered (particularly egregious given this series’ focus on inclusion). Additionally, if you are going to throw about geek culture references as heavily as this book does, GET THEM RIGHT. An MCU reference in particular was a bit off the mark.
This is the third book in the Once Upon a Con series but can be read as a standalone. This book does make a few references to characters from previous books but nothing integral to the plot of this book. I was able to read this book through my local library.,
Rosie Thorne is a small-town girl (Livin’ in a lonely world?) who is mourning the loss of her mother and trying to navigate the last year of high school with the help of her father and her best friends, Anna and Quinn. When she finds a lost dog as she’s driving home from work one evening, she stumbles into the local “castle.”
Vance Reigns is a young “bad boy” actor. After one too many tabloid headlines, his stepfather, a movie producer, exiles him to the castle that Natalia Ford, the director of Vance’s latest movie, owns. He and Rosie meet when Rosie is trying to make sure his dog gets home. Sparks fly between them but Vance believes Rosie could never be interested in someone like him.
These books! I keep saying this but I grin until my face hurts while I’m reading them! Even when the story takes a troubled turn, I smile in anticipation of the eventual Happily Ever After.
First things first though. I’m knocking this one back to 4.5 stars. One of the things that Ashley Poston does so freaking well, and that I love her for, is inclusion and representation. People are people! Quinn, one of Rosie’s best friends, is non-binary and chooses the pronouns they/them. No big deal! There are gay and bisexual characters and it makes my heart so happy! But then she takes these casual swipes at the band geeks! What?!? It’s a small thing, really, but when one of the things I love best is that all the characters are accepted for who they are in all their esoteric enthusiasms, writing that “there’s a weird smell that I can only assume is coming from the marching band” just hurts my feelings and disappoints me. There were one or two other instances. I was obviously a band geek in high school. I have lifelong friendships from my time in the band. Band members are generally good kids making good grades who probably make up a significant portion of any fandom. We get a lot of grief in high school and pop culture; we don’t need it in a book that otherwise empowers geeks too.
There were also some continuity errors and typos, but the book is so charming and magical that I just don’t care.
On to the great things!
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is my favorite animated movie so this was almost guaranteed to be a five-star read for me–if it was done well. There’s potential for huge disappointment based on that movie love too. Poston knocked it out of the park. All of the fairy tale elements were present in this book in ways that largely made sense in the modern world. The library, the “beast,” Mrs. Potts, the library…. Did I mention the library? Rosie’s descriptions of the library made my bookish heart glow with recognition.
“But there is so much more in those words than just loving books. I love the smell of them. I love the way their bindings look pressed together on a shelf. I love the feel of pages buzzing through my fingers. I love big books and small books. I love words and how they’re strung together, and most of all, I love the stories. I love how books are not really just books at all, but doorways. They are portals into places I’ve never been and people I’ll never be, and in them I have lived a thousand lives and seen a thousand different worlds. In them I can be a princess or a knight of valor or a villain—I can be coveted, I can conquer on evils, I can defeat Dark Lords and destroy the One Ring and unite a Federation on the brink of collapse.”
and
“Nothing quite takes my breath away like the library every time I walk in. It’s the slant of the sun coming through the two large windows. It’s the way the light flickers off the motes of dust that drift through the room. It’s the smell of old paperbacks, filling every shelf like hundreds of secret stories from a galaxy far, far away, beckoning me to settle into every page, explore every planet, fall in love over and over again with Carmindor and Amara and Euci and Zorine and, yes, even Ambrose Sond.”
She has described the feelings of every reader in any bookish space so well!
Another thing that I loved is that Rosie’s friendships are so important to her. In romantic books, it’s easy to focus only on the couple. But Annie and Quinn are Rosie’s ride-or-dies. She tells them all her hopes and dreams and secrets. They actually keep her secrets! Annie and Rosie fully support Quinn’s efforts to be a non-binary Homecoming King. When Rosie is upset, they cheer her up in a scene that feels vaguely Romeo-and-Juliet-ish as they boom her favorite song at her balcony. They change their own plans when she needs them. Rosie says, “[The] best memories I’ve ever had are with my best friends. Like a good bra, they lift me up to stand tall.”
But the point of Beauty and the Beast is the romance and that feels well done too. Vance’s “friends” in LA have sold him out and used him so many times that he has major trust issues, causing him to lash out at anyone who gets too close. Rosie sees who he is under all the bluster but he frustrates her when he continually pushes her away. Their constant push and pull felt real enough to me, allowing that this is a fairy tale retelling. Vance gets a line that makes my heart flutter, “I want to tell her that she is the kind of story I have been looking for, and I want to be a part of it. So, so badly.” What a perfect pickup line to use on a bibliophile!
Readers who believe in fairy tales and happily ever after should absolutely read this loose series and this book in particular. It will leave you beaming with happiness.
This was a really fun story.
It honestly felt like a love letter to Beauty and the Beast fanatics and fangirls/boys/persons. There’s a lot of B&B and fandom nods throughout the entire story and I would giggle when I came across every single one. (The Howl’s Moving Castle one was easily the best)
I love that each of the books in the Once Upon a Con series can read like standalones. Yes, you’ll obviously get far more enjoyment out of cameos if you read them all in release order, but if you only want to read one of the books or only have access to a specific one, you can completely go ahead and read it.
If you’re a fan of retellings in general or a big giant nerd like myself, you’ll love this series. These books are MADE for us.