2025 Read: #31
Rating: 3.5 ⭐
MY THOUGHTS 💭
✨ The premise of this one sounded interesting and I liked it but I didn’t love it like I thought I might
✨ It was quite slow to start with the set up and I ended up taking a break from this book for like two weeks at around 20%
✨ When I came back after seeing a positive review, I did grow to enjoy it more but the overall book just felt a touch too long
✨ The learning to be a werewolf part and Alex’s history with the show Devin starred in were both interesting

DNF at 25%. This book just was not for me unfortunately. I didn’t like either of our main characters and I found the dialogue quite cringey. The storyline was just odd 😥. I’m sure there’ll be lots of people who enjoy but I just couldn’t get into it.

Fan Service by Rosie Danan is a delightful mix of paranormal romcom, fandom culture, and reluctant allies-to-lovers romance that keeps you hooked with its wit, sizzling chemistry, and supernatural intrigue.

Alex Lawson has always felt more at home in the online world than in real life. As the creator of a wildly popular fan forum for The Arcane Files, she’s become the go-to expert on all things supernatural—especially werewolves. The only problem? She secretly despises the show’s leading man, Devin Ashwood.

Devin, on the other hand, is a washed-up actor whose life has been spiralling since the series ended. But waking up naked in the woods with no memory of the night before? That’s a whole new level of disaster. The full moon, claws, and fangs don’t exactly help his case. With nowhere else to turn, he seeks out the one person who might have answers—Alex.

Forced into an uneasy partnership, Alex and Devin must navigate the strange new reality of his condition. Their banter is sharp, their mutual disdain is entertaining, and their growing attraction is impossible to ignore. As they work together to uncover the truth, things get even more complicated—because fighting off supernatural urges is one thing, but fighting off feelings? That’s an entirely different battle.

With laugh-out-loud humour, sizzling tension, and a refreshing take on both fandom culture and paranormal romance, Fan Service is a fun, fast-paced read that will appeal to lovers of snarky dialogue, reluctant alliances, and a touch of the unexpected. Rosie Danan delivers a unique and entertaining romcom with a bite—literally.

This is going to be a favourite for 2025!
Fan Service is such a fun read. The writing is fantastic, the spice is strong, the MMC needs to work on communicating haha.
This book is part real life, part fantasy, part fandom, and 1000% has all the vibes of early 00's CW shows. amazing!
Danan has created a love letter to fandom culture & a must read for all the ao3, fanfic readers!!

If you’re someone who has been part of a fandom (think supernatural CW shows) and had the classic day dream where the heartthrob that plays your favourite character comes to you (since you’re obviously the chosen one) for help, because they in fact are turning into the supernatural creature they play on screen — this the book for you. It is funny and nerdy and messy. I really loved that the characters were older too! Their interactions, even within this bizarre situation felt authentic.

I did struggle with the writing sporadically, there were some editorial things that needed to checked but over all it’s a good time!

Thank you for the ARC! —this is more like 3.5 ⭐️

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

As a fan of Teen Wolf and Supernatural in their heyday, and a fandom consumer if not active participant, this book premise was right up my alley. An actor who played a werewolf in his younger years suddenly finds himself turning into an actual werewolf?? Perfect, no notes. He then goes to the creator/moderator of the highly detailed fan wiki for said show for help, because his werewolf experience is exactly like the extremely specific lore from the show? Love that. The moderator hates him for something he said about her ten years ago? Well, there needs to be some sort of conflict aside from him being a bit of an asshole actor.
Danan is a great writer. The scene with the dunk tank? Iconic.
Devin and Alex are fun, complex characters, though not always likeable. They seemed fairly real, which is a feat considering one turns into a wolf! They both really just needed a hug.

After adoring Danan's last quirky paranormal outing Do Your Worst, I am delighted to report she's done it again with Fan Service - a contemporary romance firmly grounded in the real world but there's just a touch of the unusual going on. Well, given the MMC is a wereworlf, maybe more than a touch.
Many reviewers have said that this book is a love-letter to fandom, especially that of beloved American tv channel CW paranormal shows like Buffy and Supernatural, and it's true. Devin is at first glance a cheeky, charming and always-agreeable golden-boy hero who played a werewolf on tv. He was Jensen Ackles in my head!
Some years after the show has ended and he's looking down the barrel of what might be the end of his career, suddenly Devin turns into a werewolf. The reason why is a bit of a hand-wave (in the time-honoured tradition of fanfic) but what's a guy to do but seek out the owner of the most comprehensive fan wiki for his tv show? This leads him to Alex, a black-cat bi girlie and an outsider in her Florida small-town where she stands out with her tattoos, piercings and black clothes. Her previous crush on Devin destroyed by an awful convention encounter in her teens, she nonetheless agrees to help him in return for payment.
The dynamic between these two is what kept me reading - they saw bits of themselves in each other and the dual POV was perfect for letting us see them get to truly SEE the other person and their deepest wounds. They are both hurt by their parental relationships in the past, Devin by a mother and father who exploited and financially abused him as a child actor and Alex by a mother who fled when she was young. Devin loves that Alex still has a generous heart (for her dad, animals and the young trans kid at her beloved community center) despite her prickly exterior. And Alex comes to see beneath Devin's charming facade is a boy who was taught people would only love him if he was pretty and perfect and useful at making money.
There's some funny and silly moments of course - he's a werewolf battling to get control of the beast inside him - but there's plenty of romance, tension and delicious spice as well. There is one Primal Play scene in the woods that had me absolutely SWEATING. And the fact that he's obsessed with her smell - it's adorable and sexy.
Recommended if you liked shows like Teen Wolf and paranormal romance - but especially both.

FAN SERVICE by Rosie Danan (arc)
⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
Publication date: 11 March 2025
——
This was definitely a love letter to all those who have been in a fandom and obsessed over their favourite tv show.

This was campy and fun and all around a good read. I think Devin and Alex were both great characters however I felt they could have been aged down a bit to make the story flow more and Devin was low key mean so I felt a slight disconnect.

I thought the premise though stood out against other paranormal romance and I love a good werewolf (hi I was always a team Jacob) and was an unexpected fun read.

𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝑯𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆 & 𝑵𝒆𝒕𝒈𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒑𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒊𝒏 𝒆𝒙𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒏 𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘

Read if you like: paranormal romance, workplace romance, he scents her emotions, cuddling naked for warmth, fangirl x celebrity, 8 year age gap

Alex is isolated in her home town and has every reason to keep her heart guarded. She’s definitely black cat energy and is hard to impress.
I wasn’t a fan of Devin, was he a 20 year old in a 42 year old body?? He was very much giving LA actor with his selfishness and wanting to repair his image. He didn’t care about anything else but trying to get his reputation back and trying to reboot an old show because he had nothing else going for him. The little comments he kept making that hurt Alex had hurt ME!! I wanted an apology or for him to make up for it but that never happened. They slowly fell for each other and brushed over it all. How could she fall in love when he constantly made comments that shut her down? 😭

I felt that it was a very slow moving book, it was around the 50% mark where I started to get into it. But how can you believe in their romance when you see Alex say “you’ll die alone” idk that’s pretty brutal?? I just wasn’t convinced that they were right for each other at all
Also a werewolf romance without any knotting??? *sighs in disappointment*

What I did like:
- the trials were a cool idea
- Consent was done great

Thanks for the opportunity to read this one, Hachette.

I liked Rosie Danan’s writing. It was easy to read and I’d definitely give her books another go.

I really loved Alex. I thought she was a wonderful MC, a little damaged, scared to be hopeful, full of more love than she gives herself credit for. She felt very relatable as someone who’s spent their whole life deep in the fandom trenches.

But I HATED Devin. The more I read of him, the more he annoyed me. He read like a gross frat boy who needs to grow up instead of a 42 year old romantic lead. There was nothing swoony about this man and as a result I had zero investment in their relationship or the main werewolf plot.

I won’t be reviewing this elsewhere as I don’t like sharing negative reviews!

Thank you Hachette for this ARC you wonderful humans!
Truthfully this fell a little flat for me. It was very fun, the premise was hilarious, and I felt compelled to read on for the most part. However it was VERY millennial, the jokes weren't as good as they could've been, and the reaches for emotional depth felt like just that, reaches. I enjoyed my time in this universe and with these characters, but they felt juvenile and some parts were a little unenjoyable for me, hence the 3 stars. I think if the relationship felt more developed emotionally I would've enjoyed it more. I didn't buy the romance like I could've.

I devoured this as fast as Devin devoured the raw steak.

Devin is an actor, once a child star then TV werewolf on a show with a cult following. He’s now middle aged and is trying to get The Arcane Files back on the air so he doesn’t feel redundant. When he goes viral for “transforming” into a werewolf in public exactly the same as what happened in the show, he seeks out the moderator of TAF fandom and goes to a small town in Florida. Alex, the former moderator of the site thinks Devin is joking and what ensues is a series of trials designed to help him control the wolf come the next full moon.

I loved this. I am a fantasy reader rather than pure romance and this was right up my alley. Alex had a rough childhood but it made her into a tough exterior, exactly what Devin needed as she sees through all his bullshit. Devin has lived a lavish lifestyle but his childhood was far from perfect and I loved how Alex uncovered his softer side, his insecurities and managed to fall for him on a deeper level rather than the surface famous actor. This book was equally funny (the scenting was hilarious), tender, emotional, scathing, heartwarming and dark. I loved the references to both FanFic and Fan led websites and the nods to geeks everywhere.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Australia and New Zealand for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Fan Service is something special—a love letter to fandoms, a fresh take on shifters, and the perfect mix of humor, mystery, and slow-burn romance.

Devin, a Hollywood star with no real life outside of acting, starts going through some things and reaches out to his fan wiki’s moderator—who just so happens to have crushed on him as a kid. Now at 34 and 42, their reconnection is hilarious, emotional, and ridiculously swoon-worthy. The slow burn? Perfect. The way he worships her? Even better.

If you love:
✨ Age gap romance
✨ Golden retriever MMC/black cat FMC
✨ Slow burn with huge payoff
✨ “Who did this to you” energy
✨ Paranormal elements in a contemporary setting
✨ Fandom culture done right

…then you need this book. Huge thanks to NetGalley and Hatchette for the ARC—solid 4.5 stars!

4 Solid Stars. 2.5 Spice Rating

The book follows the MMC Deven Asherwood, a 42-year-old actor, whose career is now stunted after playing the fictional detective werewolf, Colby, for 13 seasons. It seems Devin is having a hard time saying goodbye to Colby and his show ’The Archive Files’ when wolfy things begin to happen [pen to him. Devin seeks out Alex, the small-town outcast who just so happened to be a long-time fan of ‘TAF’ and the number one hater of Devin Asherwood, for help. As they begin to tame the beast within Devin, sparks fly.

Tropes:
- Supernatural Romance
- Second Chance
- Small Town
- Protective Man
- He Growls
- Things get Knotty (with rope... get your head out of the gutter)

I have to admit going into this book, I was a bit nervous. I had fallen in love with Rosie Dana’s ‘The Roommate’; however, I didn’t enjoy her most recent book ‘Do Your Worst’. Thankfully, I can say my reservations were called for. This book had me hooked.

As an AO3 and Werewolf Wattpad girl, ‘Fan Service’ was my exact cup of tea. Most Werewolf and supernatural books are established with the reader already having a base understanding of the world - which I think makes it a tad difficult for new readers, however, Danan’s lore was able to introduce new supernatural readers whilst also keeping old readers interested in the new lore.

I found some issues in the age of the MMC, Devin, as he was 42 and acted like a 20-year-old most of the time. I think some of his childish behaviour is explained through his lack of actual childhood and real-world experience, I just feel as if some of it was perhaps too much. As a love interest, Devin slayed. I did love him and his cutesy moments of possession and jealousy to protect our girl Alex.

I do feel as if this book would have, however, slapped as an October/Halloween release. BUT is still an amazing Supernatural Rom-Com.

Thank you NetGalley and Rosie Danan for this arc in exchange for my honest review!

3.75⭐'s rounded up!

I was so excited to dive into this early! After finishing The Empyrean series, I desperately needed a palate cleanser, and this was exactly what the doctor ordered.

Fan Service struck the perfect balance between romance and comedy, with just the right amount of heartbreak sprinkled in through some truly gut-punching one-liners.

Devin is one of those characters you want to hate—and honestly, you kind of do—but you also can't help loving him. He’s goofy, a little bit of a jerk, and utterly clueless when it comes to communication. But at the end of the day, he’s just a guy who was never taught how to love properly, and how can you really hold that against him?

Alex, on the other hand, was incredibly relatable, especially as someone who grew up immersed in online fandom culture. I saw so much of myself in her—sometimes a little too much. Her struggles with loneliness and navigating friendships hit close to home.

Overall, this was such a fun, lighthearted read! If you're looking to sprinkle a little romcom-fantasy into your life, I’d definitely recommend it. A washed-up actor suddenly turning into a werewolf—just like the one he once played on screen—forced to navigate this wild new reality alongside an ex-fangirl who’s struggling to reconcile the man she idolized with the one standing right in front of her? Yeah, sign me up!





Quotes I enjoyed:

“I’d rather be wild than whipped.”

It had taken a global pandemic to make Devin realize how completely unlovable he was as himself. - my boy... this is so sad

If he did have a brain tumor, maybe it would go away naturally. - mood

“Shake what off?”
“Whatever’s going on in your head that’s making you all stiff and scowly.”
“My personality?” - girl mood

“Can I take these off?” He tugged at the waistband of her shorts. “They’re in my way.”

“He stopped over a little while ago to hang out with Lou. That horse is skittish around almost everyone, but for some reason he’s calm around Devin.” “Probably because they’re both high‑strung and too pretty for their own good.”

Okay, the size‑medium T‑shirt he’d picked for tonight might have been a mistake; he was basically a bosom‑heaving pirate wench over here.

this book has:
- dual pov
- supernatural romance
- famous mmc/fangirl fmc
- slow burn
- age gap
- small town

devin, the former lead of a werewolf tv show turns into a werewolf himself and struggles to cope with the changes. he enlists the help and expertise of alex, a former fangirl of the show who used to run a forum about the tv show as his transition seemingly mirrors that of his character's.

actual rating: 4.5 ☆

i honestly wasn't expecting to love this book as much as i did & i'm so glad i was able to receive the arc! it's such a fun and lighthearted book which still touches on difficult topics. i loved the dynamic between alex and devin and the way they help each other heal from their traumas. also it's such a nice little representation of fandom culture.

tw: strained family relationships, child neglect & bullying

thank you to netgalley and the author for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

4.5⭐️

I absolutely ate this up! I’ve always been a fan of werewolves and as someone who used to live and breathe multiple fandoms with multiple crushes on anyone and everyone, I thoroughly enjoyed Alex and Devin’s characters.
Their dynamic was engaging from the start and I loved that they were both able to develop personally with the other’s help. Their communication, tension, and personalities somehow just worked together amazingly.
I can’t put my finger on what was missing from this, but the ending did not feel satisfying. Something was off? Rushed? I honestly don’t know?
It got to the point I think that Devin was relying so much on Alex mentally, emotionally (and obviously physically cause werewolf duh) it felt a bit off? Codependent?
Like, I understood why, it just didn’t sit right with me at the end(?)
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this though!

this book was such a fun time and i loved it! i really enjoyed both of the main characters and their problems made sense to me because they're probably both a bit emotionally stunted because ~trauma~

while there were some parts that actually made me laugh out loud, there were also a few phrases that were used at the start of the book (and then didn't really come up again, thank god) that gave me the ick (too many covid references, the frequent use of the phrases "one hundo percent" and "schnoz").

This was a fun bit of fluffy paranormal romance to fill the cold dark crevices of my soul. I liked it, but I didn't love it. It felt a little bit too cringey at times and I honestly spent the majority of the book completey oblivious to the fact thay the MMC is 42. I also struggle to believe the connection between the two main characters (I know it's a paranormal romance about a werewolf) but it just didn't feel quite realistic enough. The tension and spice was pretty hit though. Even if there was no knotting (sorry to be the bearer of bad news). Will you enjoy this? Yeah, probably. But, you also probably aren't going to remember it once you've finished it and added it to your trophy shelf. Just missed the mark a bit.
3 1/2 stars

Former fandom fanatic Alex Lawson met her hero once - Arcane star Devin Ashwood, who turned out to be The Worst. Many years later, Devin's career has spiraled, and he's having weird episodes: blacking out, waking naked, growing claws - the usual. He tracks down the only person that may know what's wrong with him: former moderator of the online forum she built, Alex Lawson.

Oh my gosh this was so much fun. I've been really into romcoms over fantasy/paranormal books lately, but the paranormal element to this was just perfect!

Even though Devin acts like a manchild sometimes (I mean, he was raised as a celebrity and thinks he's turning into a wolf, he may have a reason) I loved that these two were full adults in their thirties and forties. Alex is our bisexual goth queen, who many of us can relate to being former (or current) products of fandom ourselves.

I loved this one, and if you love a fun romance with a paranormal twist, pick this up!

Thank you to Hachette Australia for an e-arc of this one, all opinions are my own.