This adorkable book so great. I enjoyed the pacing and the story and the way the characters were so real and human and full of such deep raw emotions. I found myself relating to both the main characters. This is a great book and one I would recommend for sure.

Thank you Avon and Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book. What can I say that hasn't already been said about this book? It's a good story and I hope to read more from this author.

Lovers of fan-fiction/nerdy things and those of us who love a good plus size rep rejoice! You’ve found your next read. This is my first time reading an Olivia Dade book and I enjoyed the heck out of it.

April is successful at her day job, but her favorite thing is writing fanfic for ‘Gods of the Gates’. She’s always kept this part of herself hidden, but now she’s being her true self and letting people know. When she posts a photo of herself in her Lavinia cosplay, she gets a lot of support, but also some jerks commenting on her size. What she never expects is for the start of the ‘Gods of the Gates’ show to comment on her picture. Or to go on a date with him.

Marcus Caster- Rupp plays Aeneas on the show, but he’s known to be daft in real life. But he’s not. He only shows a certain side of him to the cameras. When he gets tagged on twitter in a thread featuring April’s picture he does something out of character and asks her out. Marcus has more in common with April then he ever dreamed of, and the more April gets to know the real Marcus, the more she likes him. Only he’s hiding something rather important from her…

My gosh I loved April. Talk about a positively wonderful plus-size character. So many times I read plus size leading ladies that want to change, but seeing April love herself for her, it made my heart so happy. And I loved that she knew that was the kind of love she deserved and wouldn’t settle for less.

Marcus was a fantastic hero. I understood why he kept certain things from April and his past, it just gutted me. I loved these two together so much! And then the little side story with Marcus friend, Alex… I need that book asap!

This book made the nerd in me so happy. I loved all the little fanfic parts and the cons and that whole aspect, but more than anything else I loved the romance between Marcus and April. It was beautiful, fun, sweet, steamy, and swoony! This was a win for me and I can’t wait to read more by this author.

3.5 stars

TW: emotionally abusive family

rep: fat main character; dyslexic main character

This was a romance obviously written in the aftermath of the disaster that was the final season of Game of Thrones, and it was cathartic to read.

This features a romance between two fanfiction writers: one happens to be the lead character on a Game of Thrones-esque show (based on a fictional book series; writers didn’t know what they were doing after they ran out of books; book series isn’t finished) and the other is a popular creator on a forum for one of the ships in the fandom who doesn’t feel she has the freedom to wave her fandom flag high in real life. They end up meeting outside of the fandom, and he quickly realizes who she is but she doesn’t realize who he is.

This tackled unsupportive families, fandom, fatphobia and body confidence, and trauma while still being a lighthearted romance. The ship they both enjoy has a lot of depth that’s explored (think Brianne and Jamie from GoT) and that also allows discussions in their relationship. Although there is some deception with him not fully revealing who he was, the external reasons he is doing that are justified.

The sex scenes are little more steamy than some romances I’ve read, but not too over the top. There were a few things going on with side characters I didn’t care much about, but the author could be trying to build a series in this world.

If you love fandom, friends to lovers, and supportive couples, you’ll probably enjoy this.

April is a geologist by day and a fan fiction writer by night, focusing on her favorite doomed OTP from a mega-popular television series. When she puts herself out there on Twitter by sharing a pic of herself in cosplay, the trolls come out hard against her because of her size. Marcus, the lead actor of said show, gets tagged into the conversation and, disgusted by the fat shaming, publicly asks April out. They meet, hit it off, and start a relationship, but Marcus is hiding a big secret: he’s a fan fiction writer too, and one that April has been communicating with for years.

I’ve never read Olivia Dade and was so excited to receive an Egalley through Avon (Historical Romance Readers FB group). After finishing I’m now a HUGE fan and must go read everything Dade has written.

The MCs in Spoiler Alert are April and Marcus. April is a geologist. She also writes fan fiction and cosplays for her favorite tv show/book series. The show is a big element of the book. It’s called Gods of the Gates with a GoT meets classical mythology vibe. Marcus Caster-Rupp is a famous actor on the show. He also happens to secretly write fanfic too!

What I love about this series is how a romance blooms AND how each character has to deal with their life’s baggage. April is overweight and is dealing with her parents treatment of her in the past and present. Marcus is dyslexic and is also dealing with her parents. So much body positivity in this book! Marcus does withhold a secret for a big portion of the book.

This book was so so good. There is some serious STEAM too! A fun, laugh out loud funny, emotional, intelligent and sweet romance.

Heat - 4

Spoiler Alert is Olivia Dade’s premier with Avon Books and what an awesome first outing it is. I’m an unabashed fanatic for anything Olivia writes. I’ve reviewed three of Dade’s recent self-published items and have begun reading her backlist, every time someone asks for cinnamon roll heroes, good fat rep, smart romance, low angst, or lead characters over thirty-five she is my automatic recommendation. So excuse me while I fangirl all over this review.

Spoiler Alert is literally the fan service type of story that every marginalized person dreams about. The story is about April Whittier a geologist who loves to watch fantasy tv shows, cosplay, and write fanfic in her spare time. She has a thriving hidden alter ego that writes fanfic for a popular fantasy show. April struggles with confidence and acceptance, not just because of her size but because of her interests. I had to stop reading the book several times because I was crying at how close to home Dade hits with April’s internal struggles. April decides that it’s time to step out of the shadows and posts a picture to Twitter of her full body in a cosplay she created. The attention is both good and bad, but it becomes surreal when the star of the show Marcus Caster-Rupp sees it and invites April to dinner.

What April doesn’t know is that Marcus is also a fic writer. He’s spent years in Hollywood hiding a learning disability behind a golden boy smile. He finds solace online writing fanfics for the show using storylines he wishes would have happened. Their first date isn’t the greatest but April decides to give him another chance, and soon April and Marcus are spending a lot of time together both in the bedroom and out. There’s a lot of secrets that Marcus is holding back from April, and I’ll admit it frustrated me enough to want to knock this book down a half a star. But Dade manages to write such an elegant solution to the issue that I can be that mad at her and I put this back up to a five-star review.

This book was everything my nerdy little heart dreamed about alone in my room staring at pictures of Orlando Bloom in his Lord of the Rings costume. In a less talented author’s hands, this could have been trite and full of overused tropes. But Dade gives us a multi-layered story between two imperfect protagonists who need to face both internal and external hurdles to get to their final HEA. This isn’t some simple girl’s wishful thinking, this is a story written by that girl now a smart and insightful woman who knows that the reality can be better than the dream. This is the kind of inclusive, thoughtful, sexy, and romantic type of story we deserve in 2020 and I beg you to pick it up this October 6th.

Review to post Oct 6th

I REALLY wanted to love this book. Unfortunately, it was a DNF for me. It hits all of my check marks. Fan fiction, secrets, crazy love story....but for some reason (and thankfully I seem to be in the minority) I just could not get into this book. Not for lack of trying, I made it to the 60% mark. I just felt a disconnect with the characters as well as the material the fan fiction was written about. I enjoyed April, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what made me not connect. With Marcus, I totally understood the golden retriever personality to the press, but to me, he still didn't line up with his online persona. Maybe if I hung on a bit longer and got to the big reveal, I would have gotten more connected, but unfortunately, I could not get myself to really get invested in these characters. I do LOVE the cover, though!

Spoiler Alert
A Novel
by Olivia Dade
HarperCollins Publishers
You Like Them You Are Auto-Approved
Avon
Romance | Women's Fiction
Pub Date 06 Oct 2020 | Archive Date 01 Dec 2020

This was a great book when I needed a little change from my normal genre (HF). Loved the book!
Thanks to HarperCollins Publishers and Net Galley for the ARC.

4 star

!!!!!!!!!!!!* u2wg8qvwiahwvahaaaaaaahhhh!!!!!

*throws stars at Olivia Dade*

Okay, I've had some time to calm down and can actually review this now. I love a good mistaken/secret identities trope. Make it a love triangle where she likes online him and real life him not realizing they're the same person? Yes please. And then add a fat heroine and cosplay and fanfiction and dang, Olivia Dade, my heart is yours forever.

I adore April. By and large she's a very confident, gorgeous person and nowhere at any time in this book does she consider needing to change the way she looks to fit a certain standard of beauty. THANK YOU for giving us a gorgeous, fat leading lady. She does have some conflict because of her size, such as some personal growth journey in her relationship with her family, but a lot of April's story is about coming out as a closet fanfiction nerd, which is great.

Marcus is amazing, but I wanted to smack him upside the head SEVERAL times. In no romantic situation where there is a misunderstanding if the answer ever "lie more." MARCUS. You write fanfiction. You KNOW THIS. Still, I absolutely adored Marcus - he's hot, smart, a total nerd, and he also goes through a lot of growth on his personal journey through this book. It's as much about becoming comfortable with your full, multi-faceted self, being brave enough to be who you are, and setting healthy boundaries and creating space for yourself and your comfort around people who want to tear you down, as much as it is about the (SUPER HOT, AMAZING) romance between April and Marcus.

This was the first book I've read by Olivia Dade, but it CERTAINLY won't be the last. I am EXTREMELY excited to read Alex's book, Slow Burn!

This was a fun romantic comedy that came at the right time with all that's happening currently. This book is a bit different from my usual genre (HF), but I needed something light and this filled the spot. My thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the hell out of this book. This was my first by the author but definitely won't be my last! I immediately got sucked in by the blurb but I was, admittedly, a little nervous at the execution. I shouldn't have been.

Marcus is the star of a big TV show that is a fictional war, gods, historical drama. (picture Game of Thrones) He also, quite secretively, writes fanfic about the show as his mode of expression of disappointment and frustration at his writers. They have strayed FAR and Wide from the fictional books they were set against. April is a secret fanfic writer that often has paired with Marcus's secret online alter writing personal for her stories and also hides her cosplay hobby. She's switching jobs and she alter-persona will no longer be such a hush, hush issue so she decides to post a picture of her cosplay outfit. In some weird stroke of magic, Marcus (the actor) sees people putting April (the actual person)down for her larger appearance and makes a total good guy move and very publicly asks her out. And our story begins! Actual Marcus and actual April start dating. Marcus soon realizes that the online anonymous person he writes with just so happens to be the lovely April he is actually dating but can he trust her that she'll keep his secret or will he lose her when she finds out he's been keeping this secret?

No matter how hard I tried to change my internal image I could not stop picturing Marcus as some sort of amalgamation of Jamie Frasier/Sam Heughan and maybe a little of a Hemsworth brother (probably Chris). But seriously, how cute was this? Like every nerd girl's (and probably even nerd boys too) fantasy to have not only your online anonymous fanfic editor/writing partner BE the actor you are writing about PLUS getting the opportunity to actually DATE the actor! And what a swoon-worthy character Marcus was!

April was awesome as well. I particularly enjoyed how strong and self-assured she was. Well, there were a few moments of self-doubt but she never questioned herself just the people around her. She stood up to her parents and Marcus and the idealized image most people held. She was strong in the face of adversity and I loved it! I may have gotten a little irritated because she went to a place where she asserted herself maybe a bit jumping the mark or too strongly but it came from a place of self-protection and I could totally understand,

The secondary characters were fun and I absolutely want to read more about Marcus' fellow actors and friends.

I absolutely recommend this book. It was cute, it was fun and it was very sexy. Thumbs up to Olivia Dade! Can't wait for more!

*ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

I received an ARC of this book for an honest review. I was very happy to read a book featuring a fearless fat women. Okay-fearless might be a strong word since even though she wants to be fearless she worries what others think just as much as any character does in any story and she gets in her way a lot. I don't know much about fan fiction, and found all the references a bit tiresome after awhile since there's no easy way to look them up as you're reading (Kindle needs to support urban dictionary!). I still don't know what AU means with regards to this storyline.

I've tried to write this review at least four times already and I'm just struggling because I don't know how to tell y'all about this book. So let's start with the basics and maybe I'll have words by the time we get through that.

Spoiler Alert follows a geologist heroine (!!) who is very active (secretively) in the Gods of the Gates (think GoT but with Greek gods and goddesses) fandom and on her last day of her current job, April Whittier posts a picture of her cosplay on Twitter. Marcus Caster-Rupp is one of the lead actors in the show and he sees the tweet and the nasty comments about April's body. One thing leads to another and he asks her out. Meanwhile, April and Marcus know each other as their online personas, but Marcus HAS to keep his a secret because he could be sued for contract infringement(???) or something if it comes out that he's writing fanfiction that is wildly critical of the show. I don't really want to tell you any additional plot points because I don't want to spoil them, but basically, Marcus has a lot of depth that he keeps hidden and relies on his pretty face to help him dodge uncomfortable questions from reporters. April is really only interested in the real him and not the him he presents to the public.

I had some anxiety surrounding the secret about knowing one another online because it's a long while before that comes out. But, in the meantime, the dates April and Marcus go on? The way he falls in love with her and tells her how beautiful she is? The way they relax into a relationship so easily? It's absolute perfection. And then!! There's on page boundary setting that I actually used in my real life!! A concept! This book has so much and I think Marcus is such a gem.

Also, the cast of Gods of the Gate are great and I'm obsessed with Alex and can't wait for his book! Not to mention the great group of people April gets to know at her new office. And also, job transitions later in one's life!!! I mean, truly, the joy this book brought me is just wild. Even when I was anxious about the secret, I just kept reminding myself that Olivia Dade has always taken care of her characters and readers and that was certainly true here.

Thanks to Netgalley and Avon for the opportunity to read and review this book early! I should disclaim that I love Olivia Dade's writing so any bias is due to that and not the fact that I got an advanced copy.

Two words: Adult Fangirl. I'm sure I'm not the only person who felt this way, because there were a million similarities between the two books. There's a fangirl who's kind of a big deal in her fandom, who writes fanfic, and there's the friend who she falls in love with. I'm not complaining, by the way! I big time LOVE Fangirl, so I was thrilled to read an older version of the story that I love love loved when I read it in high school. This one is definitely updated and has it's own plot, though. The heroine is fat, they're both in their late thirties, she's a geologist, and he's the star of the TV show she's a fan of. Here's the biggest twist, though: <spoiler> he's a part of the fandom as well, and is, in fact, her best online friend. He figures it out early but never reveals it. This is actually the thing I have a problem with in this book--he keeps this massive thing from her instead of being honest, and plans to NEVER TELL HER. Like she wouldn't find out at some point in the future?? And he thought, what, that she wouldn't care because they were five years into their relationship?? </spoiler> Sorry, got a bit carried away there. But generally this was a good, lovely story about two imperfect and vulnerable people finding love together. It's sweet and reminds me of how much I loved being part of fandoms back in the day.

Sweet funny nerdy romance - In these tough times, a book to take you away from it all is necessary. This book hit all the notes that I didn't even know I needed. I will be recommending this book to anyone who wants a book to take them away from 2020!

This book was such a joy and delight and I read it in one sitting and I can’t wait for more! The heroine will resonate with sooo many women - for me, the history of body issues was spot on. And it normalized fandoms and a small part of the fanfic world, which still somehow feels taboo to me (even though I was big into an online fandom myself 20+ years ago - dial up internet, what?).

With all that said, knowledge of either of those issues isn’t necessary to enjoy the book. The hero seems too good to be true, but I can only imagine how many people secretly feel like him. And there are some truly shockingly LOL moments I adored (oh, Alex).

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Spoiler Alert was AMAZING and one of my favorite books of 2020. This book had absolutely everything I could want, a sweet but damaged hero, a plus size confident heroine, fan fiction, secret identities, humor and it was realistic. It was just perfect. I don’t want to give anything away but you need this book in your life, you will not be disappointed. I’m actually getting ready to re read it again before release day because it was that good. I highly recommended Spoiler Alert.

This review was really hard to write. Not because I didn't like the book, but because I did. But there were some problems I wanted and tried to ignore, but kept bothering me. So this is my messy review of a book I would recommend, but to to everyone.

I was never much of a fan of GoT, but I get fandoms. While a GoT type show is the backdrop, this is not a 400p criticism of the shows choices. Rather, it seems to be an apology/ode to Fat people (women in particular) who, honestly, have a tough time in the world not matter who, when or where they are.

Marcus is one of the leads in fake GoT and April is a cosplayer who gets fat shamed online for posting a picture of herself dressed in costume. He asks her out via Twitter, in response to all the meanness. Unbeknownst, they are also BFFs on AO3, exchanging fanfics of the show. Marcus is kind and thoughtful. April is cool and smart and unapologetically herself.

For the first half, I loved this book. Marcus is so sweet and cute and endearing and cinnamon rolly. April is just amazingly cool, smart, forthright and just living her best darn life.

One thing that I'm not sure if I'm totally overreacting to... The author never misses a chance to point out April is big. Round cheeks, round thighs, round face, ok, we get it --- she is entirely composed of circles. Also, Marcus is totally into April, but he's also really into her body. I love this, but I'm not sure if the constant repetition of this is cool and normalizing bigger body types (yay!!), or if it's weirdly fetishising same (doughnut date). In context, it's the former, but it feels forced at times.

The thing I know I don't like was the big ol' lie. Marcus knows they are BFFs online, but April doesn't... He has SO 👏MANY 👏 chances to tell her the truth. This leads to a manufactured conflict? I mean, of course...

Marcus shares all his insecurities, fears and anger with April, and she takes it all on stride, loving and being there in anyway she can. She never gives him a reason to doubt or distrust her, but he doesn't. He keeps this secret about his online identity from her. Even when he sees how much it hurts her. Whyyyyy Marcus? For context, he tells his IRL BFF, Alex. Alex is an impulsive nut who is as likely to start a bar fight as order a drink, but Marcus trusts him with this career ending secret. But not the woman he's in love with whom he shares a million other intimacies. I guess you just can't trust a woman?

I really liked April and I almost wanted better for her... She doesn't need Marcus, but having him in her life makes her happy. Marcus neeeeeeds April to figure out his whole life and I don't know if I like that. I would have liked to see more balance there.

I think the author did a nice job of building her characters, she gave them a lot of background for their motivation and vulnerabilities. She also obviously did a lot of research on April's job and incorporated into the book's structure and story in a way that was original and adorable.

This book has a lot of humor, both in the fanfics and story. I also liked the portrayal of the online community. It means so much to both characters. Their fanfic is as much about a love for the show as it is a creative outlet for their emotions. It's such a thoughtful, loving tribute to "nerds" and I was awed by that.

TL;DR loved the MCs, the nerd culture, the romance, the body positivity was good, but forced at times, and the conflict was not for me and hard to move on from.

This is my first book by this author and the first in a new series. I would be happy to read more and see how Alex fairs in the next book. Thanks to NetGalley for this book.

#NetGalley #SpoilerAlert

Loved the fat rep, and the insecurities the main character dealt with were super familiar. As a romance, I was satisfied, and enjoyed our couple getting to know each other and peeling back layers, but I did get frustrated with the dreaded miscommunication/withholding of information silliness! So dramatic!

I'll definitely read more from Olivia Dade.

I received a copy of this book as an early review copy from NetGalley and Avon. All opinions are my own.