Name: Bookish and the Beast
Rating: 3.89622641509434 (106 reviews)
ISBN: 9781683691938

Ashley Poston

In this adaptation of "Beauty and the Beast," the teenaged star of a popular science fiction movie franchise hides out in a small town, following a tabloid scandal, and meets the bookish Rosie Thorne who is still grieving over her mother's death.

Bookish and the Beast

I love Ashley Poston’s books so much. They are palate cleansers in the best kind of way, just so wholesome and cozy and queer and filled with fan references.

Content notes: grief, loss of parent (prior to story), brief references to teens smoking and drinking/drugs/partying.

One tiny note - I think the two narrators pronounce Vince’s last name differently, so that was a tad confusing.

Liz Griffin

I love Ashley Poston’s books so much. They are palate cleansers in the best kind of way, just so wholesome and cozy and queer and filled with fan references.

Content notes: grief, loss of parent (prior to story), brief references to teens smoking and drinking/drugs/partying.

One tiny note - I think the two narrators pronounce Vince’s last name differently, so that was a tad confusing.

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 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 Rosie and Vance's paths collide and a rare book is accidentally destroyed, Rosie finds herself working to repay the debt. And while most Starfield superfans would jump at the chance to work in close proximity to the Vance Reigns, Rosie has discovered something about Vance: he's a jerk, and she can't stand him. The feeling is mutual. But as Vance and Rosie 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. Series Overview: Your favorite fairy tales take to the page as geeky, funny, and adorably romantic contemporary YA novels. A handsome sci-fi prince falls for a passionate fangirl. Hollywood's geeky leading lady swaps places with an ordinary con-going girl who could be her twin. Hijinks, hilarity, and sweet love stories ensue. Perfect for contemporary YA fans, geeks, cosplayers, and any readers who believe in the magic of fandom.

Beatrix Haase

4.5/5 

Very much so enjoyed this book, I'm excited to see what she does next :) I'll give my full review as soon as I figure out my schedule.

xoxo,
Bea

Steph L 

A fun YA romance 

Truth be told this is my favorite book in the series so far. I loved every moment of this book from the soft aspects of Beauty and the Beast to the romance. Rosie was bookish and I really loved her character and her story. We don’t really get to hear much from Vance in previous books, but I loved seeing him as a a main character and love interest.

mighty dragon 

actual rating: 3.5 stars

i don't really dig the bad-boy trope so it's probably why this one doesn't hit as much as the previous two for me. it's still cute though.

Princess Twasam 

This book was really good. It’s a modern beauty and the beast retelling as shoe by the title but it doesn’t really push the concept of beauty and the beast which I like because It’s just hints all throughout the book. The characters are regular flawed teenagers and are easy to both love and want to punch at the same time. It’s a nice and easy read and The side characters are absolutely amazing. We love Space Dad. All in all, I would totally recommend this book if you like the slight force proximity, misunderstood celebrity bad boy meets small town girl tropes. 

Courtney ✿ @librarycutie

this was so cute! i’m so glad we got a book about vance, he deserved a redemption story and it was so good and worth it!

Wynne Aretae

this series is just my favorite thing ever. it's 100% nerd culture, more than i know even, and i love it for that.

Jessica Williamson

4.75 Stars

Y'all I loved this one! I mean, no one is surprised by the plot or anything, it's all laid out pretty clearly for you. But I loved it! This was the perfect, book-related, YA, RomCom that I needed in my life right now. 

Surprisingly although there wasn't much of the con vibe to this one, I didn't miss it. I think hearing Rosie and Vance talk about the books she loved made up for it. It even made me cry. 

If you've liked the rest of the series, you'll probably enjoy this one too!

cover 5; characters 4; plot 4; pace 5; writing 4; Enjoyment 5; cry *

laura

I simple adore this read. I loved how ashley crafted another read in this series. I loved how this book took the beauty and the beast myth and transformed it. I really loved both rosie and vance . This book also explored some of favorite elements bad boy in Hollywood falls for a small town girl. A problem they need to solve. So much tie back to the star field series that was created. This book made me laugh out loud so much and really reminded me of the first book in this series. I really loved he romance and friendships in this read. I also liked the cameos of the other characters in this series. I hope we get a fourth book! Such a good read.

I have fallen in love with this series! Definitely will be reading again at some point! Now I want a starfield series!

This book was fine. If you are a sucker for cutesy romances at all times, I have no doubt you will probably devour this book happily. But personally, this was the weakest book in the series. 

I am going to preface this by saying that I am not a huge 'cutesy' contemporary YA romance reader. But up until this point Poston has surprised and captured me with her Once Upon a Con series. Alas, all goods things must come to an end. 

Up until this book, the books have been paced really well - quick and engaging, loads of fun and quirky moments. While Bookish and the Beast still retains that quirky style of writing, it is much slower. Both in plot and the romance. Which is just something that just does not work for me. 

On top of that, this book seemed to rely much more heavily on typical YA tropes i.e. enemies to lovers, misunderstood bad guy. I don't have a thing against tropes, but this felt like just a typical copy & paste YA, with nerd references thrown in. 

Again, if these tropes and romance is your thing - pick it up! But this book just wasn't the one for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Becca Futrell

3.5 rounded up!

This book is missing some of the magic from the first two but I still loved it and I love Vance.

Abi Baker

i really liked the first two books in this series so the fact that this book is so exceptionally mediocre, bordering on full on bad, is just such a disappointment.

i wasn't expecting the amount of lgbt+ rep in this book which i guess was a nice surprise (all 3 major male characters are queer and one major character is non-binary) but then that was paired by the most stereotypical character archetypes that it probably cancelled out anything good. fyi, there is a latinx character in this and to show that they're latinx they're constantly cooking (tamales, enchiladas etc.) and the only spanish they use in the entire book is 'dios mio' and 'mijo'......yeah.

other than poor characterisation, the main characters in this book had ZERO romantic chemistry. i didn't feel it once in this. they meet and fall in love in one night without knowing who the other person is, not exchanging names or numbers, anything like that (totally believable) and then they meet through a convoluted 'meet cute' and are forced to spend one month together reorganising a private library??? and of course they fall in love all over again within that month because why not? the problem isn't so much the timeline of the book, but that it takes about three interactions for them to fall in love and none of it feels real or believable. i just didn't get it. 

other things that niggled included how obvious the batb characters were in this, the near constant references to things and how vance doesn't recognise how privileged he is at any point in this. 

tl;dr: pop culture references + underdeveloped characters + basic beauty and the beast retelling = this book

Lady Seven

** spoiler alert **
            2021 RESOLUTIONS: 2/50

I looooved Geekerella. The Princess and the Fangirl was Ok… so I was really looking forward to this one because Beauty and the Beast is my favorite disney-tale and I really enjoy the geeky twist that Poston puts on her retellings.

Is hard to talk about the plot because since this is a retelling, we already know the key points of the plot. Let’s check the tropes that need to fit in for this to be a beauty and the beast retelling:
Bookish girl (Check) A Gaston (check) the beast in the shape of a hot and spoiled british actor? (Check) a library over which they bond? (Check) A scandal and the happy ending (Check).
so everything is good and normal with the plot, I was a little afraid this was going to be an insta-love kind of thing because of how it started but lucky for me, even if it’s just a month of development before they completely love each other, at least they took a month to know each other!
Everything that needs to happen… happens. As usual with this kind of book the characters are what's key to make the reading enjoyable or not. And on that end I have no complaints! (a small one… so very personal and so very small that is not complain at all and I shall keep it to myself).
So, who are the characters? Rosie. Our FL aka the Beauty, a badass… to badass sometimes. She suffers a little from the desease “Speak/do first and think later”. Still, such a lovable young girl trying to find her feet after her mother passed away. With her amazing “Space dad” -he’s not an astronaut, this is just a nickname-, and two bff's she has the best supporting crew I've read in while.
speaking of the bff’s. They are…. something else. xD I really loved them. If my memory serves me right they’re exactly as bff’s in high school should be: nosy and supportive. 

“so, how’s Quinn and Annie’s Homecoming plan coming along?” “I think they’re making buttons to hand out that say QUEER HERE TO ROCK and HOMECOMING IS SO GAY” I say, pouring the rest of my coffee into the sink and grabbing my bookbag. “I can only assume I know which one you came up with”. He snorts “I’ll gladly take half credit for both”. “Like a true hero” I reply, kissing him on the cheek.
Dialogue between Rosie and her Dad, Bookish and the Beast.

If that Quote doesn’t make you love them, here’s another.

“Hold that thought. I have someone to kill” I push away from my locker (...) “I hope she doesn’t actually kill him” I hear Annie say to Quinn “I’d be okay if she did” they say “Thinning the competition”.
& also 
Annie presses her hands to gather in a prayer and sighs. “Blessed be the gods of hot people everywhere, we will have truly been graced with an abundance of hotness this Homecoming season if it comes to pass”

they’re hilarious and supportive and as I already said… nosy xD
as for the ML, Vance, he’s also funny when he wants to… but mostly, for me, each of Poston books has that one character that goes through the biggest development (in Geekerella is Elle, in the Princess and the Fangirl both Jess and Imogen grow up a little bit since they were such brats) and here… well, Vance is the beast so he obviously must go through some eye-opening-character-development if we want him to be the love intereses, and he does… and I’ve never been so proud of a fictional character before. He was self-centered, and bratty and spoiled and by the end, he was still those things but a little different and a little better and that is awesome.
One thing that kind of disturbed me is his age? He’s supposed to be seventeen in this book, but when he appeared in the Princess and the Fangirl I assumed he was older and even if he wasn’t older it's kind of disturbing the way everyone refers to his “Love life” LOL the kid is barely seventeen but he himself and every adult around him treat him like he has all the experience in the world? haha 

As I said with Geekerella, this is a light read, full of fluff and everything that makes us, geeks, smile. But here’s a quote from the author because I think I’m in love with Ashley Poston xD

“(...)And this book? It’s all of the pieces of my favorite things. It’s the soft parts of Beauty and the Beast that I love, and the hijinks of a small-town romance.
I wrote this book for me.
So, if you didn’t really enjoy this book, that’s okay! You’ll find one that you love. Like hunting through AO3, sometimes it takes a little time before you find that story that feels like your favorite song. And if you can’t find it? Then write it! Never let anyone tell you different. Stories (...) they bring us together.”
Ashley Poston, Bookish and the Beast afterwords.

K.J. Haakenson

Um so I was in a big reading slump and kept reading 2 or 3 star books. I wanted to read something I knew I was going to like and ASHLEY POSTON DOES NOT DISAPPOINT 😭👌❤️ Bookish and the Beast was so cute and I just wanna be in the Starfield fandom okay?? 😩 I adore the Once Upon a Con series and I am so sad that it is over 🥺

Riley

This book suffered the most in the series from a lack of editing, but it was still a fairly fun read.

Respect for the unapologetic self-indulgence of it all tbh

Belle Ellrich

Looking for something light and airy while also tugging at your heartstrings? Look no further! Bookish and the Beast is the modern-day Beauty and the Beast retelling you didn't know you needed!

Almost two weeks after finishing this novel, I still can’t get over what I’d read.

Bookish and the Beast portrays a story between two absolutely soul-crushing, tear-jerking, absolutely loveable characters we didn’t even know we needed.

I found myself crying throughout this book over the sheer fantastic-ness of it.

For one, I absolutely loved the plot. The plot is unique in that it’s something you could actually see happening IRL, but at the same time, you just can’t wrap your head around how awesome and ironic it is.

Also, if you--like me--have yet to read the first two Once Upon a Con series books, no need to worry!! This book doesn't spoil anything from those books, except for maybe a couple relationships, but otherwise, nothing will be spoiled for you!

Moving on...

Rosie is someone we all can relate a lot too. For one, she absolutely loves books, and if in the presence of a collector’s edition, must touch it. (I relate to this hardcore.) Another thing is that, as a character with a sad back story, she isn’t overbearing in any semblance. A lot of what I see with sad-backstory-characters is that they’re ALWAYS talking about said backstory. Rosie doesn’t do this, and for that, I’m GRATEFUL to Ashley Poston.

Secondly, I love the rebelling teen vibe we get from Vance. A couple of people I know IRL actually act the spoiled and standoffish way he does in this book. Though I can tell y’all now, his reasons were way more valid than theirs ever will be, so LOVE HIM GOSH DARN IT.

Lastly, I loved the issue this book brought up. At Rosie’s high school, Rosie’s best friend--who neither identifies as male or female--is running for Homecoming Royalty. You’ll see quite a bit from the Gaston-wannabe the discrimination he and some of the student body hold for those who are “different” to them, and I felt that was something really important to point out. I see this a lot, especially in my school. Someone will come out as trans, and someone who--like me--was raised in a religious lifestyle, will refuse to acknowledge them as what they want to be identified as. Though this book doesn’t entirely focus on it, I feel that it was still greatly focused on and provided a lot of support to all of those who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community.

For that, I rate this book 5 stars. I can’t wait to suggest this book to my friends, both in and out of the bookish community. I already know that I’ll be hearing lots of happy thoughts from them all, and I’m very excited to witness it.

And before I end this review, I just want to give a BIIIIIIG thank you to Ginny at Anderson's Bookshop (Naperville) for giving me this book. It's now my new favorite, and I can't thank you enough for giving me this to look forward to rereading again soon.

Bookish and the Beast

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