Goldilox and the Three Weres: Review: Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade

Spoiler Alert
Olivia Dade
Release: October 6, 2020
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Olivia Dade bursts onto the scene in this delightfully fun romantic comedy set in the world of fanfiction, in which a devoted fan goes on an unexpected date with her celebrity crush, who’s secretly posting fanfiction of his own.

Marcus Caster-Rupp has a secret. While the world knows him as Aeneas, the star of the biggest show on TV, Gods of the Gates, he's known to fanfiction readers as Book!AeneasWouldNever, an anonymous and popular poster. Marcus is able to get out his own frustrations with his character through his stories, especially the ones that feature the internet’s favorite couple to ship, Aeneas and Lavinia. But if anyone ever found out about his online persona, he’d be fired. Immediately.

April Whittier has secrets of her own. A hardcore Lavinia fan, she’s hidden her fanfiction and cosplay hobby from her “real life” for years—but not anymore. When she decides to post her latest Lavinia creation on Twitter, her photo goes viral. Trolls and supporters alike are commenting on her plus-size take, but when Marcus, one half of her OTP, sees her pic and asks her out on a date to spite her critics, she realizes life is really stranger than fanfiction.

Even though their first date is a disaster, Marcus quickly realizes that he wants much more from April than a one-time publicity stunt. And when he discovers she’s actually Unapologetic Lavinia Stan, his closest fandom friend, he has one more huge secret to hide from her.

With love and Marcus’s career on the line, can the two of them stop hiding once and for all, or will a match made in fandom end up prematurely cancelled?

Review:
You all, I can't believe I have been sleeping on Olivia Dade's books. I can't tell you how many times that I've been recommended a book of hers by both online book community friends and IRL bookish friends. So when I saw her lastest book on Netgalley and saw that it was a fandom book, I decided to request it just to see if all the hype around this author was warranted. And you all, someone really needs to go kick past Rose Red in the butt because I absolutely adored Spoiler Alert!

ALL THE STARS! This book gets all the stars! It was absolutely glorious and unapologetically fabulous! It’s a love letter to fanfiction and fandom and I loved it so much! Add in the fact that it’s one of the best books I’ve read with a plus-sized main character and it shouldn’t surprise you that this is going to make my list of favorite books of the years. It was glorious! And perfectly angsty, sappy, brave, and soft all at the same time.

I loved April so much! I'm always here for a heroine in STEM but it's even better when you can just tell that the character on the page is actually in love with her STEM field. She isn't afraid to wear what she wants even if it is not the most flattering. She's going to enjoy her food and isn't going to be ashamed for writing smutty fanfic. I want to be April Whittier when I grow up is all I'm saying. Plus, I wouldn't say no to my very own Marcus.

Can we talk about Marcus's character for a second? I love seeing a soft, cinnamon roll hero in romance books that combat the alpha hero stereotype. Don't get me wrong, I still love me a good alpha hero. But we need more love interest characters like Marcus who fight against toxic masculinity and are all around good men with a code of ethics they stick to. I loved everything about Marcus's character even when he was being an idiot because he felt real in a way that makes me want to pull him from the page so I can date him myself. The washboard abs are just a bonus when compared to everything else we learn about him.

Characters aside, I felt seen reading this book. Not only was the fandom and fanfic community represented stellarly, the STEM aspect of April's career and how she has to hide parts of herself to get ahead in her chosen field really resonated with me because I had to do the same thing when I worked in my field before I started teaching. It was also glorious seeing a character who is plus-sized like me getting the guy and the happily ever after. This is why representation matters in books.

That's all I'm going to say about the book because if I'm not careful I'll start shouting about some spoilery bits I really want to talk about with someone. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go read all of Olivia Dade’s backlist. If all of her books have the same heart as this one, then all the hype and gushing about her books in Romancelandia is totally deserved.

Also, can we take a moment to bask in the perfection that is the cover for this book? It’s amazingly awesome and beautiful! I would have bought this book for my personal library for the cover alone. I can't wait to get my hands on Alex and Lauren's book because I am dying to see how that relationship plays out.

ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley.