Review: 
 Protagonists: Elle is living a Cinderella life (pre-ball), evil stepmother, two stepsisters, orphaned, the works, but as long as she has Starfield, her parents' favorite show she can make it through. However, it was just announced that the reboot movie will star teen heartthrob and teen soap star, Darien Freeman, the last person Elle wants playing Prince Carmindor. Darien is secretly a HUGE Starfield fan, and to play a character like Carmindor, a character he connects with on multiple levels is his dream. However, due to his father's insistence on keeping his heartthrob image alive, he can't show off his nerdy side and fans of Starfield are calling him a disgrace. When a twist of fate finds Darien and Elle anonymously texting each other, they may be just what the other needs to help them overcome their obstacles. I love both of these characters so much. The funny thing is that while there are definitely parts of their characters that I can relate to, the things I can't personally relate to, make them no less compelling of characters. Their drive to overcome the challenges life throws at them, and persevering when all seems hopeless is inspiring and I just couldn't get enough of these characters. 
 Romance: The romance is phenomenal. I mean, I can't even put into words how it made me feel. The romance starts off friendly which is hilariously juxtaposed with their hatred of each other's alter egos, but then a shift happens and things turn romantic and it's just super sweet. The way they bond over their mutual love for a nerdy show and then as they discover more about each other slowly they begin to fall, it's beautiful. Some of the texts between them made me smile and tear up, some made me laugh hysterically. It wasn't even the Cinderella aspects of this relationship that I liked because let's be honest, there are no real romantic moments between Cinderella and the Prince except for a dance or two. The way these two connect and get each other, the way that it sort of parallel's Elle's own parents' romance just made this book explode with wonder. 
 World Building: So, the big hook for this book is that it's a contemporary Cinderella retelling with a Nerd Culture twist, and I think this book handed both elements beautifully. So, for those who've read my reviews for a while, you know I LOVE a good fairy tale retelling and this is a GREAT fairy tale retelling. I loved how the author mixed all of these fairy tale elements into a story that is truly a love letter to nerd culture. This retelling was pretty standard, but there were twists to some of the classic elements, little changes here and there, that made this retelling truly shine. So, I like to call myself a nerd, and I do get swept away by nerdy things such as comics, mythology, and of course books, but I'm not an "Issue X is the first appearance of villain Y" type of nerd that's super hardcore about one or two specific things. I dabble, but still, this book touched my heart in so many ways. I may not have experienced things like these characters do in this book, but I've heard about them from friends and I'm sure we can all relate to Elle when Darien was cast in the Starfield movie, because I'm sure we've all had that one book to movie or tv series adaptation where we felt a character was miscast. Again, this is a huge love letter to nerd culture and even if you're a dabbler like me I'm sure you'll love it! 
 Predictability: So.... this is a fairy tale retelling and with that territory comes a lot of predictable moments, but I didn't care. Look, in general, this story had a lot of predictable moments, not all tied to the retelling aspect, or even the "it's a book" aspect, but I just didn't care because this story was fantastic. The writing and everything made me not care, and honestly, there were quite a few amazing and unpredictable twists in this book. One twist in particular, which I can't even remember what it was now, but I do remember predicting the twist, but the how of it all was unknown to me until it happened and I remember really enjoying how the author presented that twist. 
 Ending: The ENTIRE third part of this book (this book is broken into three parts f.y.i.) was spectacular, and I may or may not have shed quite a few tears. They were both sad and happy tears because this book is just that emotionally moving. Honestly, I'm not sure what the final climax of this book even was because there were so many moments when our intrepid heroes had to over come great obstacles in the end. Every climactic moment was pure gold, and while this is most definitely a stand alone, I was still left wanting more in the end. Nothing specific, just... more. 
 Rating: 
 This book is everything I ever wanted it to be and more! This was one of those books for me that I went in knowing I was going to love but came out thinking that love isn't a strong enough word for how I feel about this book. Even with a doozy of a plot hole that I picked up on toward the end that I'll chalk up to human error on the part of one of our protagonists. I can't wait to see what this author will write next!!!