Bookish and the Beast

The Once upon a Con Series, Book 3

By: Ashley Poston

Narrated by: Caitlin Kelly, Curry Whitmire

Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's Summary

In the third book in Ashley Poston’s Once Upon a Con series, Beauty and the Beast is retold in the beloved Starfield universe as bad boy Vance Reigns meets his match in fanfiction writer Rosie Thorne.

Rosie Thorne and her father have been short on luck - and money - for years. So when she loses her grocery store job in a heated moment of smashing the patriarchy, she knows she may be forced to give up on her dream of leaving her small town for a prestigious college creative writing program.

On the other hand, Vance Reigns has been Hollywood royalty for as long as Rosie’s been clipping coupons and secretly writing massively popular fanfiction. 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.

Rosie and Vance’s paths collide in a chance encounter, and suddenly cataloging the Starfield library at Vance’s manor house is Rosie’s only shot at saving money for school. And while most Starfield superfans would jump at the chance to work in close proximity to Vance, Rosie has realized something about Vance: he’s a huge jerk, and she can’t stand him.

Still, there may be more to Vance than meets the eye. As Rosie and Vance begrudgingly get to know each other, secrets are revealed that could change their minds - and their hearts - forever.

©2020 Ashley Poston (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

Pandering

One of the most obviously pandering books I have ever read. I am not done with the book yet, but so far it's just so unnatural and felt like she was just checking all the boxes to make it as PC and progressive as she possibly could, to the detriment of telling a story.

Cute Book

As much as I adore this series I have to say this book was my least favorite although it has so many things that could make it so amazing
In this book we will follow Rosie and Vance, Rosie lives in a small town and she os very sad that her mother died that she is barely functioning to save up for her college and what not .. also she is a nerd and a bookworm
and Vance is the actor who plays the villian of the show Starfield but his real life is not going well, so his father decides to put him in a house in a quiet area (Rosie's town) until everything is back to normal again .. they meet and the story picks up from there

the book had so many right things going for it but mostly I didn't like Vance overall

As for the narrators I liked the girl performance a lot .. but the guy wasn't that good to be honest

Terrific and geeky fairy tale retelling

I loved the story, the characters, and the world of the series. The narrators are quite good too -- but one inconsistency drove me crazy. The pronunciation of one of the main characters' last names changed throughout the books. In print, it's Reigns, and sometimes, it was said as "rains", but more often, as "re-gins" (hard g sound). It makes no sense -- why wouldn't the production/editing process catch and fix this? It was very distracting, in what was otherwise a really enjoyable experience.

Least favorite in the series

This was my least favorite from the Once Upon a Con series, but it was a lovely story still.

This is a Beauty and the Beast take with a modern tale to go along with the stories we've already enjoyed that go around the first two books. The idea is that some rich actor kid who has been a bit of a trouble maker ends up going to a place in the middle of nowhere to just relax and not cause any more issues. Honestly the problem with this book is that there is not enough build up of characters. There is a little, but I feel like I barely had the ability to connect to these characters compared to the other two books. There wasn't enough meat to it. It was not bad though. I had been looking very much forward to reading this, and now I don't feel too badly about that.

REACH FOR THE STARS IN BOOKS

A UNIQUE ADDITION TO THE SERIES, STAYING CLOSE TO THE TALE OF BEAUTY AND THE BEAST . THERE WERE SEVERAL ASPECTS IN THE BOOK THAT I DIDN'T REALLY CARE FOR,
1. IS THAT ROSES FATHER IS GAY AND RAINBOWS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THAT.
2. THERE IS A SCENE WHEN THE BEAST COMES DOWN FROM THE SHOWER WRAPPED IN NOTHING BUT A TOWEL THAT DOES NOT REMAIN ON HIS BODY, THOUGH NOTHING WAS DESCRIPTIVE THAT WAS NOT SOMETHING THAT I WAS EXPECTING IN A AUDIBLE BOOK MEANT FOR TEENS,
3 THE NARRATORS DID A FANTASTIC JOB WITH THE CHARACTERS IN THE STORY, AND THE 5 STAR RATING IS FOR THEM.!!!!!

Amazing

Amazing amazing amazing amazing amazing amazing amazing amazing amazing amazing amazing amazing amazing amazing amazing amazing amazing so beautiful I love this book 😍🥰🥰😗😘🥰😌😚😚😚😌😚😙😍🥰😘😘😘😍😍🥰😘😍😍🥰😘🥰😍😍😍🥰🥰🥰😍😍😘😘😍😍🥰😘😍😍😍😘🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

Fun twist on a favorite fairy tale

I enjoy these fairy tale twist. This version is no different from the others in the series. If you like the other books in the series you'll enjoy this book. One thing that was a distraction for me is one of the characters is identified binary. Since I am not use to a person being called them, they...etc, it took me a bit to get use to how they were talked about because I kept thinking they were talking about multiple people. But besides being a distraction for me, they are one of the characters I really enjoyed in this book. I also enjoy how the author weaves in her other characters into her stories making it fun to hear what is happening in some of our favorite characters from the other books.

Worth a listen

We all know the base plot line and the tropes that go with it. Where this story shines is in the fringe touches. The only drawback is the female voice actor. Her voice sometimes becomes slightly higher and more nasally. It is most notable at the beginning and almost made me stop listening. Thankfully I didn't because then I would have missed some really good parts.

Feels like propaganda

The story is fine, if unimaginative. But does the author really want young girls to aspire to follow the footsteps of a penniless girl with no aspirations who majors in English at NYU?? What about doing something that won't put you in debt for the rest of your life. SMH...

hallmark movie vibes

Y’all I’m the biggest fan of the hallmark Christmas movies. Like I love the cheesy scenes and tropes. This movie obviously isn’t at Christmas time but it’s gives the cheesy romance vibes that the movies do. It’s an easy read, two perspectives. Famous boy forced to a small town after getting in trouble, he ends up having to sort books in a library with a nerdy girl. It includes lgbtq+ which is always a thing I’m happy to see in books. If your looking for a simple cute romance book this is def for you!

Easy, quick cliché romance but not much more

I went into this knowing it's a cheesy teen romance and didn't expect more thus I was not disappointed. If you're here for the feels you'll get that as well as some eye-rolling at the pure cheesiness of it all!

I liked the main character, she's your typical, clumsy beautiful "overlooked" heroine. Her portrayal of grief was beautifully done and I quite liked her character overall. She was relatable in parts.

Vance is a bit annoying, I get he's the bad guy who's really not that bad but he overdoes the whole "no-one expects any better of me so why should I" thing - a bit too dramatic. Also not much of a backstory on why he's a douche other than he's rich?

I love Rosie's friends but they're just supporting characters, it would have been really nice to delve into them a little bit. As well as her father for who bits of information are thrown out and then never explored.

It truly annoys me how she goes on about them having no money which is fair... she still seems pretty privileged and not what I'd class as poor though? Getting that much take-out, not having actual worries about bills/food etc. It seems like being poor is a label she uses on herself without acknowledging it. The Garrett guy also has no backstory he seems to want to date her and not take no for an answer... both v realistic toxic guy traits but the whole over-done publicity thing never made any sense.

Also, a bit to note because I couldn't ignore it (also SPOILERS) at the end when Vance thinks she's betrayed him he talks about the clip being leaked and goes on to say well at least no texts have been or he's waiting for texts to be (something of that nature in his inner monologue) it states clearly earlier that he never gave her his number and then she lost her phone so there would be no texts??

Cute listen

I found this book was really cute. It surpassed my expectations. It can be ref as a stand alome, but I would recommend reading the other books too.