I recieved an advanced reader copy from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

So, this book is about movie star, Marcus Caster-Rupp, and geologist, April Whittier, who meet each other online doing fanfic about the show that Marcus works on. They keep their real identities secret, but develop a close personal friendship. By chance, April gets fat-shamed on Twitter, and Marcus being a nice guy offers to take her on a date. He actually realizes that she is his close friend Unapologetic Lavinia Stan, his closest Fandom friend. He ends up allowing her to dig deeper into his life and personality, and they become involved in a relationship.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked how both characters had family problems with their parents and how they had trust issues and insecurities. I was happy to read about a plus size curvy woman, and ecstatic to read about a man who loved that body. Body positivity is such an important topic, and I thought this book broached it in a really impressive way. The last 55 percent of the book was STELLAR. Beautifully written.

My only problem, which is a personal issue, is that I don't understand fan fiction, and so the beginning was a slower read for me because I couldn't get into the story at first. Thankfully, I stuck with it and it really became a book I couldn't stop reading about the halfway mark.

I think this book will resonate with readers searching for body positivity and main characters whose bodies are still perfect even though they might have rolls or cellulite. I'm excited to read more of Olivia Dade!

Adorable and nerdy and refreshingly real! I adore how steeped in fandom this book is and the inclusion of the snippets of fics is amazing. April is an incredible, well-developed character and I enjoyed following along on her journey as a confident plus sized girl surrounded by judgey, awful people (including her parents!).

My only teeny tiny bone to pick with Spoiler Alert is that I was never head over heels for April and Marcus' relationship. Early on I LOVED their interactions online, before they know each other IRL, and they have fantastic chemistry during their early in-person interactions. But once they are together and start sleeping together, their relationship falls on the dull side. Nearly all of their interactions after that point are sexual or sex-adjacent. We hear about dates they go on, but I'm a bit miffed we don't see them on-page.

But that's a small quibble in the face of such fun, important stuff Spoiler Alert tackles!

Spoiler Alert was my first book by Olivia Dade. I had mixed feelings about the protagonist, April. I LOVED that she was geologist, and a curvier gal. She was super confident, which seems weirdly hard to find a main character. She was almost *too confident* when she gets asked out by A HOLLYWOOD CELEBRITY??? But whatever, I was there for the ride. I really ended up totally in love with her and Marcus. Such a great plot, and writing, and all over fun!

This one is for all the curvy girls who's ever had a crush on a movie star. It is also for all the fanfic writers, the fandom members, the con-goers, and anyone who loves to laugh and cry as they read themselves to a happily ever after. Ms. Dade's characters are complex, deep, and funny. I fell in love with the whole cast of the fictional TV series in the book, Gods of the Gates, and I can't wait for the secondary characters in this novel to get their own stories. However, in this book, it is Marcus and April who are in the spotlight--literally--and I loved spending time with them as they fell in love and as that love was challenged. Ms. Dade perfectly shows that we never know what goes on inside other people and that to be truly happy, you have to live your life authentically and be true to yourself. Also, the only way to love is to give yourself truly to a relationship--all of you, the bad and the good--and the only one to truly be loved is to open yourself up and be vulnerable. To be able to tackle such deep issues in a funny and witty rom-com shows amazing talent. I can't wait for the next books in this series!

All-around great! I wish there were a little more about Olivia's work as a geologist--it was fun to see her in action at the beginning of the book, so it was disappointing that when her job changed, we lost that and all her work talk shifted to being about social connections with her new coworkers. The POV changes were used very effectively as we saw misunderstandings taking shape--and I appreciated that April was given space for a realistic, hurt, angry, not-so-quick-to-forgive reaction to learning about Marcus's lies. Also, I enjoyed the interstitials and I wish that I could really watched this TV show and read these fanfics! However, one problem was the utter absence of any racial diversity, at least mentioned--there's definitely a "default white" setting here, with maybe a name or two hinting at POC characters without doing anything to fill that in (eg. Bashir at the beginning felt very much a like a token).

Rarely do I wait any time at all before writing a review. But as I finished this last night I was tired and wanted to sort through how I felt upon finishing.
There’s so much to like about this book. Body positivity. Consent. Fun-nerdiness. Dealing with your emotions rather than spraying them all over your nearest and dearest. It’s a pretty incredible book.
And while I didn’t connect with either character, it didn’t matter. As a human being, empathy and kindness are paramount. It’s a joy to read something that increases awareness without feeling preachy or smothering.
It was a book that didn’t have me in my feels but did have me saying “damn, I’ve got to do better.”
I look forward to finding this author’s older works and digging in for some personal eye-opening.
*thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to offer my unbiased opinion*


<a href="http://alleskelle.com"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1531392914r/25962167.jpg?v=1531392917324"width="400"></a>

Spoiler alert: This is one of the most well done fandom books that I’ve read in awhile.

Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade follows April, a fan-fiction writer of a popular Greek-inspired show, who goes on a date with the leading actor, Marcus Castor-Rupp, after a tweet of her cosplay goes viral. While April and Marcus grow closer, Marcus harbors a secret that could ruin their relationship and his reputation. Marcus, like April, writes fan fiction that slams the television show that he stars in and his online persona regularly interacts with April, but she doesn’t know it.

I have read several books that involve fandom and they usually fall short for me. In most of the books, the main character harbors an unhealthy obsession with whatever book, show, or movie that they enjoy. This could include dehumanize actors in the show or using unsafe methods to find their haters in real life among many other unhealthy depictions. While fandoms can, and often do, have a dark side, I find that the positive side of fandoms are rarely featured.

Fortunately for me, this book takes an opposite approach, which was one of the aspects that I enjoyed most in this novel. While there some aspects of this book that did fall flat for me, I overall enjoyed my reading experience and I think this book has many elements that will appeal to many different readers.

As I mentioned earlier, one of my favorite parts of this book was April’s involvement in her fandom. In all of April’s interactions, she never dehumanizes the actors on her favorite shows and delivers thoughtful criticisms on the shows problematic elements. For example, when April goes on her initial date with Marcus, she is open and upfront about the fan fiction that she writes. Additionally, after she meets him in person, she changes the way that she describes the appearance of his character in her work, because after interacting with him personally, she doesn’t want it to seem like she is inserting him instead of the character into her work.

Another aspect of this book that I enjoyed was the body positivity in this book. April is plus-size and receives a lot of hateful comments after her date with Marcus. However, April always stands up for herself and sets clear expectations for how she should be treated. I appreciated how this extended to her fandom as well. April feels connected to Lavinia, her favorite character from the show, who is often put down for her appearance. A lot of times in books with fandoms, I don’t understand why the main character is so attached to a book, show, or movie. However, in this book, the connection is clear and meaningful.

I also enjoyed the background that readers receive on April and Marcus, especially regarding their parents and childhood. While April was belittled by her parents for her appearance, Marcus was treated as unintelligent by his parents because he had dyslexia. As the book goes on, April and Marcus begin to set clear boundaries with their parents of what they will and will not tolerate. I don’t often see this in adult books, but it is very much part of the adult experience, so I appreciated its inclusion within this novel.

While I did enjoy aspects of this novel, there were some issues that impacted my reading experience. For me, this book moved extremely slow. I found myself putting this book down and picking it up multiple times because some of the scenes seemed to drag on way too long. Additionally, I found many of the scenes and interactions in this book extremely repetitive, so it felt like it took awhile for the story to progress. When the story finally seemed to get moving, the ending was wrapped up quickly and abruptly. Additionally, I found too much of the end to be focused on a different character, who I imagine to have their own spin-off, which has been one of my pet peeves this year in adult romance books bound to become companion series.

Overall, Spoiler Alert is a fun book with a good message and a positive depiction of fan culture. I give this book three out of three stars.

A romance centered around fanfic with a fat female lead- yes please!

April Whittier is a popular fanfic author in the Gods of the Gates fandom (a GoT look-a-like), but she keeps her personal and fandom lives completely separate due to her job. That separation quickly explodes after she decides to post a cosplay photo of herself as Lavinia, one of the show's leads, on Twitter which catches the attention of fat-shaming trolls and Marcus Caster-Rupp, one of the show's stars, who decides to ask her out to spite the jerks. Marcus plays a brain dead pretty boy in real life but is secretly Book!AeneasWouldNever, another popular fanfic author in the fandom, something that is completely against his contract. Soon after meeting, Marcus learns that April is Unapologetic Lavinia Stan, his fandom friend, but is too worried about potential consequences to say anything about the connection even as they grow closer until he's in too deep with a secret he doesn't know how to share. April and Marcus both have to work through insecurities as they develop together, and I really appreciated that April's issues weren't all weight related (a nice change from other books featuring a plus-sized lead).

I really liked Marcus and April and how they interacted, but a big secret in a relationship is one of my least favorite plot devices, so that definitely frustrated me throughout the story. Marcus' cast mates were amazing, especially Alex, who I just learned is getting his own book (yay!!).

Overall, Spoiler Alert is a super cute and sweet romance, and I highly recommend it.

Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade is a love letter: a love letter to the fanfiction writers; to the people who don't fit society's ideals; to the outsiders who are struggling to be themselves. This is a story about self-acceptance and the often-bumpy road you have to travel to discover it.

April writes fanfiction for an immensely popular TV series; one day, she takes a leap and posts a picture of herself dressed up as one of the characters. The problem? She's a bigger girl, and the internet critics won't let her forget it. Enter Marcus, one of the stars of the TV series and a man who is also often judged by skin-deep standards. Marcus asks April out, and loves who she is both inside and out. Marcus can also be his real self around April, not the public figure he often portrays. But when April realizes that Marcus has been keeping a huge secret from her, will their love and acceptance of each other be strong enough to bring them back together or is their romance destined to be shorter than the one-shot fanfics that April writes?

I really enjoyed Spoiler Alert. I loved how open and honest it was about body shaming, all without once calling April "plus size." Dade touched on many sensitive topics, including fat shaming and learning disabilities and addressed them with delicacy and poise through her characters. Neither April nor Marcus dismissed the other one's issues and, when it mattered most, supported each other through the tough decisions that we often don't want to handle on our own.

Dade's writing was sharp, the characters at times painfully real, and the ending everything you could want. I can't wait to read the next book in this series.

I inhaled this book in two days. The book was sweet, the characters were flawed but lovable and the depiction of the world of fandom was endearing and accurate. Our two main characters know each other online but not in real life. Marcus is a famous television star who keeps his online fandom persona a secret and April is a geologist and fangirl of the show Marcus stars in. When they meet, sparks fly.

April is a fat woman who is happy with her body. There is some conflict around this topic, but it’s handled very well. It warmed my heart to read a romance with a main character who looks like me and who is comfortable with herself and who is found attractive by a partner. Books like this are few and far between.

I usually read historical romance, but this contemporary rom-com about an actor Marcus asking out fan April who's secretly his online fan fiction buddy caught my eye. Marcus quickly realizes that he wants much more from April than a one-time publicity stunt, but they both have personal and family baggage that they have to overcome.

It took me a while to get into this book, as it felt like it's own fan fiction as a novel. There were a lot of clichés, and I didn't really like the "online" inserts between every chapter. In the end, it was entertaining, and I'm left wondering about Alex and Lauren (who are starring in the next book).

had a lot of great elements, and was great to read a book about adult cosplayers. However, this book started with bold ideas that quickly fell into heavy tropes, and it bogged the book down at parts. Yes, the character is "overwight" but instead of bringing in a woman who embraces, it became all she herself could focus on, as though it's impossible to be fat AND happy. Also, this belief that coworkers and employers would fire and/or shun her if they ever knew about her cosplay and fanatic, felt dated.

However, there are many great elements to the book that persevere, like great banter interesting characters, and an overall decent story.

A global hit of a TV show. A Lavina/Aeneas fan-server. An actor who never stops playing a role. A cosplaying, fanfic-writing geologist. A whole lot of smutty and angsty fanfic. And a tweet that went viral...

For the last seven years, Marcus Caster-Rupp has played Aeneas on the hit television show, Gods of the Gates. But now the series is wrapping it's final season and Marcus is at a lost as to what to do next with his career. Mostly, because he's been playing two roles for the last seven years: Aeneas, and Well-Groomed Golden Retriever, dumb but handsome and talented. He feels like he can only be his true self when he's writing fanfiction under the moniker Book!AeneasWouldNever, and talking with his best friend and beta reader, Unapologetic Lavina Stan. Too bad they can never meet. After all, it would end his career if it was found out that he was writing fanfiction--and a whole lot of it being Fix-It Fics...

When Unapologetic Lavina Stan, AKA April Whittier, decides to get brave and post a picture of her cosplay-in-progress, she was not expecting her Tweet to go viral. But it does, for all the wrong reasons. Immediately, April's picture gets cruel, fat-shaming responses, some of which tag the show's star, calling on him to further ridicule April. However, to April's surprise, Marcus not only gets up and arms, slaying the trolls on the internet as easily as he does the enemy on TV, but he does the unthinkable. The thing many a fangirl has dreamed about.

Marcus asks April out on a date.

And she says YES. (And the fangirls rejoiced!)

What should be just a one-time thing that is half-publicity stunt, half-real blind date should stay a one-time thing. That is, until Marcus learns that April is, in fact, Unapologetic Lavina Stan. His beta reader. His best friend.

His One True Love?

"Spoiler Alert" is not only a fantastic romance, it is also a delightful tribute to fandom and all of the good, bad and ugly that comes with it. Adult women in particular play a large role in fandom, and can be overlooked. Or, as April did early on in the book, hesitate to share their fandom interests for professional reasons and social expectations, instead treating fandom as something secret and almost shameful. In this case, it was amazing to see an adult man represented as well, especially in shipping and fanfiction circles. In that matter, it was nice to see the two different writing styles and preferences of April and Marcus and the broad scope of fanfiction. More importantly, that fanfiction comes from people writing what they want to see.

With the romance aspects of this novel, everything felt incredibly real. The awkwardness of getting to know someone, making clumsy mistakes, accidentally hurting or misreading your partner, etc. April and Marcus have the unusual aspect of paparazzi finding them on their dates, but they often treat it as an adventure more than an inconvenience. Seriously, though, it's so cute how much they love each other. Cute, but echoing of a very much IRL relationship.

Now that I've been "spoiled" by "Spoiler Alert", now all I can do now is wait with eager anticipation for the next book, focusing on Marcus' best friend Alex and his "minder", Lauren!

The first chapter of this book felt promising and I hovered at about 4 stars through the first few chapters, but it took an immediate, sustained nose dive into a fiery, 1-star crash.
Based on the art of the cover and the synopsis, I was expecting a cute, funny, body-positive romance with winks about fan culture (I, also, have an AO3 account and know what OTP means), and a story with genuine heart. Don't judge a book by its cover, right?
Instead, this was barely concealed modern AU fanfiction of a REAL PERSON! NC-W is so transparently the object of this self-insert fic that it made me cringe--the author even posts about him on Twitter and the parallels between Marcus and NC-W/Jaime are overly obvious. There's nothing wrong with writing fanfiction about a real person (in theory, I suppose), but it needs some transformation to become a novel about fanfiction. Where does the fanfiction end and the story begin? This feels like a book for Braime/NC-W fans, and not a book for "fans"--I was someone who was growing up as the LotR movies were coming out, and I was a hardcore Legolas/Orlando Bloom fan (yes, I had the cardboard cutout, yes I had a Mrs. Bloom tshirt, YES I refreshed the lotr.net homepage until Orlando Bloom said "hello this is Orlando Bloom, welcome to Lord of the Rings dot net") and it didn't resonate with me the way other books about fanfiction/fandoms do.
The characters are essentially the same person--holding onto childhood and adolescent trauma inflicted by their parents, unable to communicate their feelings and needs, parroting self-deprecating Internet politics about saying the right things. Neither of these adults are ready to date. The amount of sobby "betrayal" is juvenile and honestly borderlines on emotional abuse. Pause on some of the scenes with tension (the gym/buffet catastrophe, the birthday lunch with April's parents), and think about how they'd come across if the genders were reversed.
Yes, the emotions and the experiences are real. This had a honest portrayal of what it's like to be fat, in real life, in fandoms. And what I assume is an honest portrayal of having a learning disability in a literature-obsessed family. Those aren't bad things, and definitely have a place in our writings about fandom. But this is just wish-fulfillment, without the self-awareness that could have elevated it to a novel that invokes empathy.

I am genuinely confused by the number of 4/5 star reviews of this book! Guys, it was not good. You can't write real person/self insert/AU fanfiction and call it a novel. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is a real person! He doesn't deserve this.

Plus size representation in contemporary romance novels is a good thing, but come on-- there is more emotional depth in Taylor Swift songs. These characters simply had no personality. April was ~fat and liked fanfiction, that is it. She is a nearly 40 year old woman who is ~~~hiding the most important part of herself, which is apparently an obsession with a GoT like show. Marcus, also 40 human years old!!, is the most sensitive of sensitive people hiding dyslexia ?? and the secret shame of being a hot smart person ?? and his family hating him because they know _latin_ and his show is an abomination to the canon. And he writes fanfiction too in his spare time about his own show and about his own coworkers which is deeply damned weird. He uses words like "modern AU" in real life. And speaks and thinks like he was written by a woman who was very into tumblr at one point in her life.

The author sort of _tried_ it with the geologist angle with April but it went entirely no where added absolutely nothing to the plot except the one time at the museum she was talking about rocks and Marcus got horny. Strong Fat Woman in STEM! but there was absolutely no substance to it. Purely for the internet woke points. She could have been anything and it would have produced the exact same results.

Guys, the sex scenes. I _like_ sex scenes in my romance books. I am mad when they fade to black. But holy smokes absolutely no. For someone who has such hang ups about her body, April sure was quick to hop into bed with him-- the 3rd """date"""? with a allegedly super hot celebrity? sure jan.
It might have worked if they had an ounce of chemistry but alas. Instead it was just DEEPLY uncomfortable and entirely not-sexy to read. Like, squirm away and throw your tablet away not-sexy. If anyone in human existence described me as tasting ~earthy~ I would happily murder them and hide their body under the floorboards. And lord, the author described every bit of April as "round". Her round thighs, her round belly and her round heavy breasts. Please s t o p. She has to have more physical qualities besides being round with red hair.

I'm truly not convinced a celebrity would be fired and ostracized from the acting world for writing fanfiction. Mostly because I don't believe a celebrity would be actually write fanfiction about their own show in real life. And his friend announcing to the world he writes pegging fanfiction-- there are no words about how dumb and unlikely that is.

Listen guys, Fangirl was twee sometimes but it had great characters and plot and heart behind it. This did not. This should have stayed on AO3 where it belongs and where no one else would have to read it.
This made me want to throw myself and my tablet into the sea and possibly give up literacy for life.

Positives: the book cover was cute.
Negatives: literally everything else.

Spoiler Alert checks all the boxes! Steamy romance, fat positivity, women in STEM, fan fiction, and a successful leading man with a learning disability. This book is perfect for Game of Thrones enthusiasts and grown-up fans of Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl.
April and is living every person's dream. A chance to go one a date with the star of both her favorite tv show, and the fan fiction she writes. What seems like a real life fantasy ends up messier then any fic she's ever written.
The most refreshing aspect of this story was how the author described April's body. Olivia Dade didn't play around with fluffy language. April was not "curvy" or "ample"...she was fat! Fat and successful. Fat and beautiful. Fat and deserving of all the love and romance Marcus had to give.

I've had to sit with this one a bit to land on my final thoughts/feelings.

Spoiler Alert is an atypical romance novel whose main characters are plus size (April) and dyslexic (Marcus) who also both write fanfic of their favorite TV show, Gods of the Gates,on which Marcus is the actor that plays the main character, Aeneas, on the show. April is a superfan/cosplayer of Aeneas' love interest, Lavinia.

Are you following me so far?

Let's add another layer of complexity- they each have three identities in this book! They have their online personas as fan-fic writers, character alignment (actor/cosplayer), as well as their real-life identities. Except Marcus also has a personality for the public separate from the private one we get to see while reading.

One day, at the prompting of a Gods of the Gates Twitter request for fans to post their best cosplay outfits of the show's characters, April bravely posts her own photo in her Lavinia cosplay outfit. The Twitter trolls came out... and then Marcus, in a surprise move, compliments April's photo and asks her to dinner.

He takes her out to dinner AND....

...that's about as much as I can tell you without spoiling anything. :)

Overall, I found this novel entertaining and unique. It's not every day that you find a new age romance book that features modern day nerds living with real life issues.

The romance scenes in this are STEAMY AF. Guys, I was reading this in a car trip and was blushing. And you know me, it takes a lot for romance books to make me blush but DANG OLIVIA DADE I SEE YOU!!!!

I finished this book about 2 weeks ago, and if I'm still thinking about it then I know it deserves a solid rating. I would recommend this in a heartbeat if you are looking for a romance book that is different from all the rest.

I loved this! It's such a treat to have a book really get into the reality of fandom and all the nerdy things that people do. I love the concept of making writing fan fic be cool and be sexy and exciting like this book does. It was so good, and I love how the real issue of body shamming comes into play because it shows that people are not their weight and should not be judged for it. They can be cool, sexy, and loved like any one else, pounds be damned.

This was so fun and definitely for fans of "Fan Girl" by Rainbow Rowell. It was the romance I needed with the fan fiction I needed. It was so fun and I can't wait to see people eat this up!

Too much focus on weight and fat shaming. I tried to like this book, but it lost me partway through, so I skipped to the end to see if it got any better. It didn't.