Spoiler Alert by Olivia DadeMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Spoiler Alert was a sweet, full of heart steamy read with a couple that you won't be able to stop yourself from feeling and cheering for. April Whittier is a geologist who can't wait to start her new job in San Francisco because the new job won't require her to hide parts of herself. One of April's favorite
activities is writing fan fiction about a popular tv show, Gods of
the Gates. She's carved out a great online community and is friends with other writers on there, especially with someone who beta reads her fics. Unbeknownst to her, her beta reader is none other than Marcus Caster-Rupp, an actor who stars in Gods of the Gates.
How could he hold the interest of a woman like her? He couldn’t.
Marcus writes fan fiction of his tv show because he is displeased and disappointed with the direction and effort he feels the showrunners have put into the scripts, especially the last season. If anyone found out though, he could be sued by the studio and the career he's built up as a hardworking, trustful actor would be in jeopardy. The part of his career he wishes he could out is how he acts dimwitted in interviews. This started from not being able to read a passage from a book in an interview because he has dyslexia. However, when he sees a woman post a picture on Twitter of herself cosplaying a character from his show getting hateful comments, he breaks character a little bit and asks her out for everyone to see. When April and Marcus first meet, neither knows they're already friends online, Marcus then figures it out on the date but he doesn't say anything fearing for his career, the reader then knows this is hanging over their relationship.
“But I want to know you. Marcus Caster-Rupp, not Aeneas. I want to know your story. I’m attracted to you. Because what’s hidden, what’s real, is always more interesting and important to me than appearances or performances.”
The richness and the realness of the characters is what drew me into the story, everything is so heartfelt. Marcus is 40 and April is in her late 30s and while I thought they overall could still be read younger, April's attitude about having insecurities, especially about her weight and Marcus' insecurities about his intelligence and worthiness, affect people no matter what age they are. The foundation for April's character, how her father is hateful towards her and her mother's own insecurities and issues with weight, obviously played a big role in her character make-up. What I enjoyed was how the author didn't make it the focus and while I might sound like I'm contradicting myself because I call it her foundation, the story is not defined by weight, April's got it figured out, it's getting others up to her level. There's joy, mundane, and sexiness, which I think often gets left out in regards to characters that are, what April calls herself, fat. Marcus' issues fell a little more flat for me, his parents didn't feel as flushed out as April's mom, I'm not sure his shyness was completely felt, and he just overall didn't connect as much as April.
She didn’t understand yet, but she would. He loved her, loved her, and she was his reward. Touching her was a gift to him.
These two were such a lovable couple, their common interests and personalities made it easy to see and feel why they would be together. The middle had a good amount of bedroom scenes, maybe one or two too many for me, but if you like sexytimes, you get your moneys worth here. I would have liked a couple more scenes with April and her new work friends, Marcus with his bestfriend Alex, also an actor on the show, and descriptions of the city, just to help define them and the world outside of the April and Marcus bubble more. If you were a Game of Thrones tv watcher or reader of the Song of Ice and Fire books, you'll clearly recognize the duality between what fans had to say about G.O.T. and Marcus' show. Being a fan of the G.O.T. show and books, I think that added to my enjoyment of this story; very therapeutic to think Lena Heady is out there writing fanfics in which Cersei does not die by a fallen ceiling.
Intending no harm, people often blundered. Sometimes they blundered because their personal histories hadn’t taught them to be sensitive to certain issues. And sometimes they blundered because— Sometimes they blundered because they had trust issues.
This story had some pain but it also had wonderful sweet joy. I loved how the author wrote characters that weren't perfect but were forgiving and recognized the importance of talking, honesty, and understanding. April and Marcus thought about the hurt they caused and owned their own insecurities, add in some stripteasing, and what a couple. Marcus also delivered a line towards the end: “Ms. Whittier seemed uncertain on the matter, so let me clarify for you.” that had my cheeks heated (“let me clarify for you” !!!) and hurting from grinning so hard, so no weak endings here. Marcus' friend Alex is clearly next up (at least he better be) and looks to have an enemies-to-lovers possible relationship with his studio appointed minder, I can't wait.
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