New Release Review | Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade

Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade
Standalone
Contemporary Romance
Avon | October 6, 2020

About the Book:

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?

Spoiler Alert is the type of book I’m always on the lookout for.

I’m a romance reader, and I want to read about women like me, attracting real love. I’m in love with books about body positivity. We are desirable. It’s that ownership of our body, the appreciation of the figure we were graced with, that gave me one of my most favorite characters, Natalie from Cream of the Crop. She said, “Fuck all that noise” to body shaming, and I adore her.

I wanted Spoiler Alert to be more of the same.

The story Olivia Dade wrote was quite different. April has reached a point in her life where she’s happy with herself, and who she is. She’s decided she’s ready to stop hiding the two parts of her life she worries will conflict. Will her scientist friends still respect her if they knew she writes Fanfic? Will the Lavineas Fandom still accept her when the realize she’s “fat”. She’s hidden her image from her online community, and her secondary passion from her friends, and she’s ready to bring all of herself into the light, in a big way.

I expected a Natalie, but April was in the stages of still figuring it all out. Some of her loved ones equated their love with words like “Diet” and “Excercise”, and the words were used in a way that made it feel like she could be better, If Only. She was learning how to say “Stop”.

There were parts of the story I felt were amazing, and others I thought lacked. April loved herself. We should all love ourselves first. We should all be able to look in the mirror and love what we see, even if it’s not the most recent current ideal of “beautiful”. I agreed with April. I admired her, in fact. However, there were times she was so anti-health talk that I felt like she pushed people away. I understand, these weren’t conversations that usually ended well for her, but how about the benefit of the doubt, people! I think there was a second message in the story that was missed. It was, to love yourself no matter what. Period. But, that it’s not wrong to just want to be healthy.

Being healthy does not always equal a size 2. Being healthy is bigger than your size. It’s feeling good when you go for a walk. It’s not being embarrassed when you walk up the stairs and you can’t breathe. April, as a character, didn’t seem to struggle with the physical problems some overweight people deal with. And that’s fine. Truly. However, for those who do struggle with more of the side affects of weight, it’s okay to love yourself while you’re building healthy habits. In order to truly be successful, you have to love yourself.

Maybe this one hit a little close to home. This is a topic I’ve been thinking about for a long time, on a personal level. I think one message was pushing so hard, the other was missed.

Probably, that was her intention.
Plus sized women are desirable.

April was beautiful. Every curve. Including the curve of her brain. She was the total package. Marcus was also beautiful. One is slender, one is curvy. Both were equally perfect.

Despite all my grumps, I still gave Spoiler Alert 4 stars. Marcus and April were hard on each other, but their love was tender. I’ll definitely read the next book in the series.