THIS BOOK WAS GOLDEN! I’m still smiling like a maniac over the absolute gem that this story is! Fan fiction, hidden identities, body positivity, dyslexia positive, amazing friendship, and sweet as sin romance? This book packs it all folks! The best part? You get to read from both Olivia and Marcus’s POVs. I have to say though, Alex was by far one of my favorite characters. I loved the formatting of this book because you get to read snippets of fan fiction that both Olivia and Marcus wrote, but also snippets from the TV Marcus is on and snippets from movies he’s worked on, which adds to the charm of the story. I can not get over how wonderful it is read about more characters who are body positive and characters that have disorders such as dyslexia and how they deal with it. This book was fantastic and I am so so excited to read the next book about Alex and Lauren’s story! Ahhh this book just makes me so happy! PLEASE READ IT!

Spoiler alert: Olivia Dade's new book might just make you squee.

April Whittier has a secret. By day she's a hard-working geologist, by night she's a fanfic-writing, cosplaying shipper and stan of one of the most popular shows on TV.

Marcus Caster-Rupp has a secret. The world knows him as the handsome but dim star of that popular TV show, but no one knows that for years he's been secretly writing fanfiction to 'fix' the problems with his own series.

When April's cosplay photo gets fat-shamed on Twitter, she never expects the star behind half of her favorite OTP to offer her a date to make up for it. And Marcus never expects to discover that the attractive fan sitting across from him at that dinner is none other than his fellow fanfic writer and online BFF...

Spoiler Alert leans hard into all the self-aware goofiness that a story about fandom surrounding a fictional series almost necessarily entails, with tongue-in-cheek fic or script snippets in between chapters, but it has nothing but sincere, earnest love for the world of fandom and everyone who finds their best and most creative selves in it. The entire book reads like a fanfic itself, and I mean that in a positive way - it's absolutely a fangirl's fantasy, that the vain, less than brilliant star turns out to be quite intelligent, kind-hearted, surprisingly thoughtful about things like rejecting misogynistic scripts, totally aware of the issues fans have with his show's adaptation, and not only that, but already in love with the fangirl. (Come to that, the fantasy continues a bit with the idea that April can afford and find a two-bedroom apartment in San Francisco, sans roommates, with minimal effort. Color me jealous, and not just of her fairy tale romance.) But if it's a dreamy fantasy, it's aware enough of that to be...fun. Just sheer fun. It's steamy - whew, is it steamy - and swoony in all the right places, with several excursions into angstland as April deals with the fat-shaming not only of strangers on the Internet but of her horrible parents, and Marcus comes to terms with his dyslexia, his public persona, and his own parents' emotional abuse. And both have to figure out how to deal with their trust issues, and overcome those obstacles that stand in the way of their relationship made in fandom. Those obstacles and issues may feel a bit more dragged out than is strictly necessary, but it's a quick and engaging read nevertheless.

In the end, Spoiler Alert finds its charm and appeal in the best that fanfiction has to offer, from swoony sweet fluff, to plot-what-plot smut, to downright misery-ahoy angst - and puts it all together in one satisfying package that wouldn't be out of place on AO3.

* Thank you very, very much to Olivia Dade, HarperCollins, and Netgalley from an EARC of "Spoiler Alert" in exchange for an honest review.* Oh my gosh I loved Spoiler Alert SO MUCH! I normally dont read Contemporary fiction , but I do have a weakness for Fandom -based Contemporaries. So, to start out with I love both April and Marcus. (Although,I'll admit, April is just a teeny tiny closer to my heart.) April is witty and smart and compassionate. (She's also a Geologist, which was my dream job when I was little, so HELL YES to the rock talk!) Marcus was complex and adorable. I thought that is was genius to have the chapter broken up with snippets of fics from the "Gates of the Gods" fandom mixed in with DM's. It was a really nice mix. Also, can we talk about that cover? AMAZING! This was my first time reading Olivia Dade, and after reading "Spoiler Alert", I will definitely be checking out more of her work!

Okay, so I loved this book. I loved this book so much. It is EVERYTHING. It manages to make like the coolest of concepts (fanfic writer dates guy playing half of her ship who also secretly writes fanfic and is her beta bestie) and marry it with deep character arcs and storytelling AND hot love scenes and humor, and again, it is basically everything.

April is badass and brilliant and fabulous and so perceptive. And while her arc isn’t as large as Marcus’ it’s equally as important. Watching April figuring out how to deal with her parents and her complex feelings for her mother especially without sacrificing her sense of self was just excellent. And her honesty at every turn (Even when it came after taking a step back and re-evaluating—especially when it came after taking a step back and re-evaluating) was just so brave and gorgeous and inspiring. And then, in the end, getting to have her inspire Marcus was…fabulous. And you just want all the good things for her. Like in every aspect of her life.

Okay, so let’s talk about Marcus. Marcus’ arc was Capital-C Complex, all the guilt and all the secrets and all the play-acting to protect himself both personally and professionally, until there was almost nothing left of the personal except for his few closest friends and his online life, and yeah…Marcus. The way he buried himself deeper and deeper and how it came from not only issues with trust but from a feeling that he was never enough, was so heart-wrenching.

And again, the complexity of it: Marcus is most definitely rewarded professionally especially for playing a particular role, but it comes at a big cost and it’s heavy. On the other hand, he’s also rewarded by something else—he’s safe in that personal. And not only does he not know how to get out of it, but he has to figure out if there’s something he wants more than to be safe, something he’d risk not only the career stuff and the general emotional stuff for, but the safety of it all, and the way it’s done is just lovely.
Because there’s tons of stumbling and missing cues and saying the wrong thing on both sides, but it makes you love them both so much more and root for them in all the ways that make romances fabulous. And this is a fabulous romance.

Oh, and it’s funny like super funny and witty and we really do need to explore all of Marcus’ old, terrible roles. And yeah, I’ll stop rambling. It’s just brilliant. I would read like again and again.
Thank you so much NetGalley for the free Arc in exchange for an honest review (like best weekend activity ever).

Adorable! Read this one straight through in one night, Love April as the lead with all of her complexities and the sex was nicely done. Recommended for those who love Jennifer Weiner and some hot romance.

I have to preface this review by saying that I know for a fact that lots of people will love this book, so definitely take my thoughts with a grain of salt. Sadly, this one wasn't for me. While I appreciate fandom in general, I do feel like the genre of books following fictional fantasy fandoms complete with cons and cosplay and fan fiction is becoming stale (at least for me) and it all feels so been-there-read-that. I went into this mostly because of the fat heroine as love interest (yes please we need so much more of this!!!) aspect, but the romance just really didn't do it for me. It was SUPER instalove, and the immediate and near-constant horny internal monologue of both characters (but especially the male love interest) is one of my biggest romance pet peeves. I also didn't find the fat-rep that spectacular. I love that the heroine is confident in her body and unwilling to be shamed for her size or for what she eats or for how much (or how little) she exercises -- while also being depicted as beautiful and sexy, But so often the author felt the need to keep reiterating her fatness in ways like "because of her size" or "because she was so much bigger than him" or "due to her weight" or whatever and I just felt like OK, we know she is fat and he is not, you don't have to bring it up every time they make any sort of physical connection. The sex scenes were also just not my personal taste and the "sexy" dialogue felt more cringe than hot. Excerpts of scripts and fanfics add unnecessary bulk between chapters. Again, I know there are so many readers who will like this one a lot, but it just was a bit of a miss for me.

It was over-the-top sappy. I like sap, but this happened to be a bit much for me. I didn't enjoy the snippets of fanfic or scripts at the beginning of each chapter. Neither did I think the TV show seemed all that interesting. It had a great body positive message as well as the need to set boundaries.

So. Cute. This sweet tale of mistaken identity and fandom shares some DNA with You’ve Got Mail, but also Game of Thrones. April is a geologist by day, but at night she’s an avid member of a fanfic community devoted to their favorite fantasy epic series. Her OTP is Aeneas and Lavinia, and her stories are joyfully dirty romps. April’s best friend online is a man she’s never met. They read each other’s tales and talk for hours, but he resists her attempts to see each other IRL. Meanwhile, another man appears on the scene.

Marcus plays Aeneas on TV. His public persona is a dim pretty boy, but behind the scenes he’s secretly intelligent and shy. He also leads a double life that he would prefer his fans and especially the showrunners never find out about. When a curvy fan tweets a cosplay photo of herself as Lavinia, she’s excoriated online by fat-shaming trolls. Marcus impulsively publicly asks her on a date, mostly to shut up the haters, but finds himself drawn to the lovely and witty April. But secrets may come between them before they have a chance.

This was an emotional read. Both main characters have complicated relationships with their parents. April is dealing with the realities of being a plus-sized woman who’s no longer content to sit apologetically in the corner. Their romance is bumpy. But I loved it! They’re both interesting and quirky in their own ways, and they work hard at improving themselves and helping each other. I can’t wait to see what happens in the next book.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC to review.

Um, excuse me while I spend the next month reading all of Olivia Dade's backlist, because I'm distressed by the fact that none of y'all mentioned how brilliant she is. Good Looooord.

I truly inhaled Dade's novel Spoiler Alert in mere hours, to the point where I legit almost took my iPad into the bathroom with me when I had to pee because I didn't want to put this book down, but I decided against it solely because I do in fact possess some shame and an ability to stick to societal norms.

There's so much going on in this book, and I'm obsessed with all of it. Legend and icon Olivia Dade delivered us a nuanced and complex unraveling of fatphobia from several angles, a lot of fan fiction humor (and pegging puns), some very WHEW GIRL steamy steam, two love interests in their mid- to late thirties (!!!) without any weird ageist commentary, and so much more.

Let it be known that I'm counting down the days until June 2021 when Alex and Lauren's book comes out. As I was reading, I was like, "I swear to God if these two don't get their own story, I'm creating my own fan fiction site dedicated to them." Bless Olivia Dade.