Spoiler Alert: A Novel

Olivia Dade

Oct 2020 · Spoiler Alert Book 1 · HarperAudio · Narrated by Isabelle Ruther

About this audiobook

National Bestseller

Olivia Dade bursts onto the scene in this delightfully fun romantic comedy set in the world of fanfiction, in which a devoted fan goes on an unexpected date with her celebrity crush, who’s secretly posting fanfiction of his own. 

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?

Ratings and reviews

I agree with one commenter. it's a little choppy at the beginning but once you get into it, jumping back and forth makes much more sense. I've been meaning to get into reading more fanfiction and I didn't know how to do it. This book was actually very educational for that purpose. I am also connected to the story as I am also dyslexic. ... and fat... so I guess thank you to the author.

4 stars — I definitely enjoyed this story, but I think my hopes were higher for it…which happens sometimes you know? I enjoyed both of our characters. They were flawed, and made epic mistakes at times, but deep down they were both really good genuine people. You wanted to root for them, both as individuals, and as a couple. April was sassy, and as with so many heroines — vulnerable yet strong. Marcus was adorable, eager, confused, earnest. And together they had great chemistry, from friends to more. I loved the fun moments they had together, and how well it balanced with more serious moments. Unsurprisingly (even from the blurb), the conflict was entirely predictable, and I’m not always there for ‘secrets coming out’ stories…but it was okay, I appreciated the resolution more than I was expecting. For example, April didn’t need someone to tell her to think about the situation some more and look at it from different perspectives. Yes, she was prompted by some events, but she drew her own conclusions and did her own thought experiments. And Marcus always knew it was wrong. I kind of was hoping he might have a more *on page* look at why he made the decisions he made, and how he wanted to change from then on, but it was still satisfying. One of the things that truly drove me crazy about the writing is that there would be long expositions in the middle of dialogue — that is NOT my jam. I think I’m even less of a fan of that writing technique when listening to the audio. At least if I was reading, I could flip back a few pages and refresh. Obviously, not going to bother most people, I’m very particular about wanting to know everything exactly. I’m a bit of a weirdo. Even though we didn’t get a lot of secondary character interaction, I appreciated the friends they each had in the background. From the people on the fan fiction site, to Marcus’s fellow cast members (shout out to best friend Alex, I do think I’ll need to read his story), to April’s new and quirky co-workers. The family situations were really interesting as well, and even though neither of our MCs explicitly noticed the parallels, I did. They both had parents whom they loved, but who were toxic to them. It was interesting. Both of their individual struggles actually really hit for me. Marcus’s story reminded me quite a bit of my brother, as he has undiagnosed dyslexia, and always thought he was stupid…and he’s recently discovered the world of audio books and is enjoying reading for the first time. And while I don’t have a LOT of fat shaming experience, I definitely feel the strain of society’s views and opinions of fat people. And I’m pretty tired of it. It was nice to see a story with a diverse body heroine where, while her size was a part of the story, she was in fact loved by her self, and by Marcus, as she is. It was refreshing. Now I just need a few more stories where the heroes are body diverse… Seriously. They don’t all need abs for me to love them. The strange highlight of this story were the little snippets of other stuff at the end of every chapter — sometimes it was bits of fan fiction (often relating to what had just happened in that chapter). Sometimes it was scenes from movies that Marcus had appeared in. And in general, both of those kinds made me LAUGH OUT LOUD. There were also snippets of DMs between BAWN and ULS, and that helped to understand their previous relationship. So yeah. It wasn’t the abject hit I was expecting, but I still thoroughly enjoyed myself. And I can definitely see checking out Alex’s story, though perhaps not on audio.

So sweet and so to the heart! I do wish there were more spicy love scenes, though. Lol.

About the author

Olivia Dade grew up an undeniable nerd, prone to ignoring the world around her as she read any book she could find. Her favorites, though, were always, always romances. As an adult, she earned an M.A. in American history and worked in a variety of jobs that required the donning of actual pants: Colonial Williamsburg interpreter, high school teacher, academic tutor, and (of course) librarian. Now, however, she has finally achieved her lifelong goal of wearing pajamas all day as a hermit-like writer and enthusiastic hag. She currently lives outside Stockholm with her delightful family and their ever-burgeoning collection of books.