Bookish and the Beast

A tale as old as time is made new in Ashley Poston's fresh, geeky retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

In this third book of the Once Upon a Con series, we meet Rosie Thorne--a young woman feeling stuck. She's stuck on her college application essays, stuck in her small town, and stuck on that mysterious General Sond cosplayer she met back at ExcelsiCon. But most of all, she's stuck in her grief over her mother's death. Her only solace was her late mother's library of rare Starfield novels, but even that disappeared when she and her dad sold it to pay off hospital bills.

Then there's Vance Reigns--he's been Hollywood royalty for as long as he can remember, with all the privilege and scrutiny that entails. Vance's world comes crashing down when a tabloid scandal catches up to him and he's forced to hide out somewhere the paparazzi would never think to look: Small Town USA. At least the house he's stuck in has a library. Too bad he doesn't read.

When their paths collide and a rare book is destroyed, Rosie must work to repay the debt. But while most superfans would jump at the chance to be anywhere near Starfield's handsome hunk, Rosie would rather be anywhere but. Vance is a jerk, she can't stand him, and the feeling is mutual.

But as this pair of opposites begrudgingly gets closer and their careful masks come off, they may just find there's more risk in shutting each other out than in opening up their hearts.