by Rosie Danan
narrated by Aaron Shedlock & Brittany Pressley
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Fan Service by Rosie Danan is a fun paranormal romance that’s also a love letter to fandom.
I had a lot of fun with this one; I laughed out loud a lot! I borrowed the audiobook from my local library and followed along in my physical review copy. There’s some mixed media elements in the form of text threads, wiki articles, and various notes/lists, and I always love seeing that in books. I especially loved her group chat with her friends.
The audiobook has dual narration in addition to its alternating POV, something else I really love in a romance! Both narrators did a great job; all of their character voices felt distinct to me. I was already really vibing with the author’s sense of humor, and their execution of it was perfection.
Alex built an online fan forum for The Arcane Files, a long-running werewolf detective show. She used to have a huge crush on its star, Devin, until a fateful convention where he dashed her teenage heart.
Nearly two decades later, Alex is in her mid-30s. She’s bisexual (yay for seeing people like me in books!), vegan, and a bit of a grump/black cat. Devin is in his early 40s, and somehow actually turning into a werewolf. He’s also a sunny golden retriever who is very big on enthusiastic consent.
A blurb on the back of the book mentions “horny suffering” and they’re not wrong. The pining is great in this book, and I thought the handful of spicy scenes were pretty well-written too.
While there was some miscommunication throughout and a smol third-act breakup nearer the end (some of my least favorite tropes) I still had a lot of fun reading. The final ~100 pages may be the weakest part of the book, and while I enjoyed the epilogue overall I think I wanted a little more from it. Devin also didn’t feel like he was acting his age, but on the other hand I felt like that might have been on purpose because he was a former child-actor/a himbo/etc.
Still, I’m going to have to try more books from Danan because I tabbed the heck out of this book and I don’t do that very often.
If you were a part of any internet fandom, you should absolutely try this book! I was definitely deep into Buffy the Vampire Slayer and other paranormal shows of that era. As a paranormal romance reader, this was a hit for me.
This was the deepest kind of friendship, in her opinion. Sharing stuff you loved, the stuff you got weird over, with someone else. Hoping they might get weird over it too.
Rep: queer (bisexual, gay, nonbinary), vegan, goth, fandom
Tropes: meet disaster, slow burn, forced proximity, enemies to lovers, grumpy/sunshine, black cat/golden retriever, age gap (~8 years), small town
CW: homophobia, bullying; abandonment, emotional abuse, child abuse (prior to book)
I received a complimentary review copy from Berkley Pub and NetGalley. All opinions contained herein are my own.
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