“One true pairing- well, mostly true.”

Book Blurb from Chapters Indigo

Marcus Caster-Rupp has a secret. The world may know him as Aeneas, star of the biggest show on television, but fanfiction readers call him something else: Book!AeneasWouldNever. Marcus gets out his frustrations with the show through anonymous stories about the internet’s favorite couple, Aeneas and Lavinia. But if anyone discovered his online persona, he’d be finished in Hollywood.

April Whittier has secrets of her own. A hardcore Lavinia fan, she’s long hidden her fanfic and cosplay hobbies from her “real life”–but not anymore. When she dares to post her latest costume creation on Twitter, her plus-size take goes viral. And when Marcus asks her out to spite her internet critics, truth officially becomes stranger than fanfiction.

On their date, Marcus quickly realizes he wants more from April than a one-time publicity stunt. But when he discovers she’s Unapologetic Lavinia Stan, his closest fandom friend, he has one more huge secret to keep 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?

Soooo this is essentially fanfiction and I’m not convinced that it didn’t start on Ao3 before it made its way to a publisher. But that’s a great thing in this case. As an avid fanfiction reader, I loved seeing that aspect of my life in a mainstream novel. Especially with fandom being represented by people in their 30s! It made me feel right at home. I had zero expectations going into Spoiler Alert, other than I was in the mood for fluff and I got fluff with substance!

The fluff was fun, a light romance between two well written (sometimes fandom cliche) MCs with some quality steamy bits. The substance was even better. The novel heavily discussed fat-shaming in fandom and really made me take a step back and evaluate my fandoms. We also have a MC with dyslexia and both MCs have parents who are emotionally abusive in different ways. The novel takes time to address each issue with the care it deserves.

The parallels between Game of Thrones and Gods of the Gates are entertaining, especially if you were a Game of Thrones fan unhappy with how the final season went down.

It was overall a really fun book with all the fandom essentials. It melted my heart with the adorable MCs and their swoon worthy, often steamy, love. If you are looking for a quick read, some fluff with a side of substance, Spoiler Alert is for you.

I definitely intend to read the second book in the series (following two side characters) when it comes out in October.

Until next time,