Thank you to Netgalley for providing an eARC of this novel in 2020 in exchange for an honest review. My deepest apologies for my review being so egregiously late.

This was my second time reading a novel by Ashley Poston (my first being Geekerella), and honestly my biggest takeaway is just how fun these characters and stories are. Typically I don’t enjoy contemporary storylines. I like to be up to my neck in fantasy worlds, unrealistic plots, and wildly unrelatable character experiences. However the best way to describe this story, and its characters, is relatable.

Fan culture plays a huge role in this series. If you’ve ever participated in a fandom yourself you’ll feel right at home among the AO3 references, fan art plastered all over bedroom walls, and squealing in public over the release of a brand new trailer. So often women (and fans) are criticized for what they love, and how they express their extreme admiration for something, but Poston’s books allow the reader to fully embrace fan culture without guilt or shame.

In this retelling of Beauty and the Beast we meet two characters who should automatically be inexplicably drawn to one another. However they respond to each other like feral street cats defending their turf. Instead of a meet cute our MCs are in this for the long game, and we get to watch as they fall for each other at different times throughout the story. Always orbiting one another, but never quite connecting in time. My only true complaint of this novel is that by the time both characters realize what they mean to one another the story ends, and we are left to speculate or imagine what might have happened next as they tackle life as a couple.

This story also deals with the grief over the death of a parent, and our FMC is learning how to navigate the world without her mother. Relationships play a huge role in supporting our characters through some major life changes, with each main character having a solid core group of people who remain unwavering by their sides through it all. We also get a glimpse at how important the father figure role is in each of their lives, whether that figure is the biological father or simply the man in charge of caring for them at this point in time.

This is such a cute story full of homecoming drama, a guy who cannot wrap his mind around consent (definitely not cute), and a castle housing a dusty (yet dreamy) library. I cruised through this sweet story, and found myself cheering for both our characters’ inevitable happily ever after. Fans in fandoms all across the globe will more than likely be able to relate to, and wish they could dive into this enemies-to-friends-to-more young adult romance.