Book Review – Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade

Title: Spoiler Alert (Spoiler Alert #1)

Author: Olivia Dade

Publisher: Avon

Publication date: October 6th, 2020

416 pages

4/5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis

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

“But I’m not looking to be fixed. I want to be loved and liked and desired not because of my size, not despite my size, but because I’m ME”

Olivia Dade, Spoiler Alert

As a fat woman, I don’t often get to read romances about other fat women who are happy and content with their bodies exactly how they are. It’s refreshing to see more of my body type in literature and romance novels especially, because often fat women are seen as not worthy of love or that their partners are with them despite their weight. And that just isn’t the case.

Even from the beginning Marcus was clearly interested in April for herself and was attracted to her exactly how her size was, even if people were confused by that as he is a famous actor. The body diversity representation was my favorite part of this book. Though of course, no body positive book can be presented without *someone* who wants to change you – and this book is no exceptions. April’s mother triggered me to the moon and beyond with her comments about April’s weight. I look forward to a time when fat women are represented without having to have ~emotional trauma~ from a family member in reference to their size. But I digress.

Outside of the body image plot line, I enjoyed the general romance to this book. It was fun and steamy and included fan fiction which I don’t really read or write but find to be very interesting. I really enjoyed the background characters as well, and the journey that both Marcus and April had with their families.

I especially look forward to reading Alex’s book with Lauren, All The Feels publishes in October of this year!

Happy reading, folks!