Story for the Week
A couple of weeks ago, I found myself in the middle of nowhere. Technically, it was Cascade, Wisconsin. The population totals just over 700, and the clerk’s office only opens three days a week. The nearest McDonald’s is attached to a gas station 20 minutes from where we stayed.
When we drove around during the day, we saw beautiful and scenic colors. You could tell we’re on the cusp of autumn in the Midwest. At night, it felt like the type of town where directors film serial killer movies. So yeah…the middle of nowhere.
It all started when one of Corinne’s friends from her semester in Liverpool mentioned coming down to visit. Abby attends college in Wisconsin. The last time we saw her, she met us in Milwaukee, which was still a pretty hefty drive for her. I suggested we rent an AirBnB somewhere a little closer to her. We invited Corinne’s friend Jakub (featured most recently in The Thrill of Stealing My Daughter’s Friends) and decided to make it a long weekend.
I’ve met Abby before, and clearly I know Jakub. I mentioned to Corinne that I thought they would get along great because they have very similar personalities. Let me tell you…I was NOT wrong. Two peas in a pod, brother from another mother, go together like peas and carrots. Whatever phrase you want to pull out would describe Abby and Jakub.
They became immediate friends. In fact, Raena (another friend from Liverpool also featured as a stolen friend) mentioned to Abby that she posted more pictures of her and Jakub than of her and Corinne. She wasn’t wrong either. Abby and Jakub loved that we brought Oreo and Isadora; Corinne, not so much. When we drove into Milwaukee for dinner, Abby took Jakub around the SafeHouse on their mission while Corinne stayed at the table with me. But when we watched the 2024 musical version of Mean Girls, Abby and Corinne were side by side on the loveseat belting out the songs.
We celebrated all three of their birthdays. Jakub’s had been a few weeks before, and Corinne and Abby are a day apart. We bought what turned out to be a terrible cake that got dumped. Jakub and I managed to avoid food poisoning when the burgers we bought at that gas station McDonald’s turned out to be almost raw in the middle. 🤢 (It was the only thing open.)
Despite being in the middle of nowhere, we managed to discover an amazing little cafe called Spoonlickers. It serves coffee, tea, ice cream, and all manner of things apple-related since it’s attached to an orchard. And our AirBnB host had left us a basket of s’mores supplies, so we finished off the weekend with a campfire.
There was lots of storytelling, lots of laughter, and lots of love.
We joked quite a bit about how Abby and Jakub were going to be even better friends with each other than either of them is with Corinne. So one of the stories I told was about the book reviewed below. The main female character Cerys (Corinne) worries that her best friend Jake (Jakub) has replaced her with a new best friend Max (Abby) now that they go to different schools. The names made for a funny coincidence to set the tone for an amazing weekend.
I’m looking forward to doing something again soon with all of them…maybe this time somewhere not quite so remote. 🤔
Book Review
⭐⭐
2 Stars for The Fangirl Project by Beth Reekles
358 pages
Publisher: Random House Children’s Books | Delacorte Romance
Publication Date: November 4, 2025
I received an advance copy of this title from NetGalley and Random House Children’s Books | Delacorte Romance.
Publisher’s Description
When Cerys’ secret crush Jake moves to a new college, she realizes she’s running out of time to take their relationship from platonic to romantic. She’ll do anything to get out of Jake’s friend zone, even if that means finally diving into the huge fantasy fandom he loves so much. Though she absolutely can’t see the appeal in Of Wrath and Rune, if Jake loves it, then Cerys will too.
When Jake introduces Cerys to his shiny new friend Max, who goes to all the fandom conventions—in cosplay (cringe)—Cerys realizes she’ll need to do a lot more to grab Jake’s attention than just read a few fanfics. But Max, with his dimples and dry humor, always seems to be hanging around, getting in the way.
Cerys is determined to become the ultimate fangirl to finally get on Jake’s radar. What she doesn’t expect is that she might actually like Of Wrath and Rune…and might like DMing with a suspiciously familiar guy in the fandom even more.
************
Main Characters:
- Cerys – in her first year of college (based in the UK, equivalent to junior year of high school in the U.S.), dealing with a new school without her best friend Jake as well as her parents always fighting and on the verge of divorce, a talented artist, reads and watches mostly romances, has a huge crush on Jake
- Jake – Cerys’s best friend, in his first year of college, his family moved before the current school year so now he lives about an hour bus ride away from Cerys, on the soccer team at his new school, has been trying to get Cerys to watch or read Of Wrath and Rune for a long time
- Max – goes to school and plays on the soccer team with Jake, Jake introduces him to Cerys as his new best friend, completely obsessed with Of Wrath and Rune and cosplays as one of the main characters when they attend conventions
- Evie – used to attend school with both Cerys and Jake, now attends the same school as Cerys, hangs with a popular group of girls, Cerys doesn’t want Evie to find out about her crush on Jake
- Daphne, Nikita, Chloe – Evie’s group of friends who meet together at a coffee shop in the morning before school, Cerys would really like to become a part of the group but feels she needs a way to fit in
- Anissa – used to attend school with Cerys and attends the same school now, kind of a loner and considered weird, Evie’s group of friends makes fun of her
I really wanted to love this book, especially since I enjoyed Beth Reekles’ It Won’t Be Christmas Without You (For My Husband, We Miss You). That was a feel-good holiday story, and I was hoping for another feel-good young adult story. While I am not a fan of fantasy stories or cosplay, I the description still intrigued me.
Cerys has a crush on her best friend Jake, and she has created “The Plan” to move their relationship from a friendship to a romance:
“Become an ‘OWAR’ fangirl to convince Jake I am his dream girl and we are actually a match made in heaven.
- buy the books
- watch the show
- remember to call it ‘OWAR’ like a real fan
- go to a convention (cringe)
- ….cosplay??!?? (something CUTE!!! that Jake can’t resist)
- DO NOT badmouth OWAR in front of Jake
- who/what is ‘Roach’??? Find out!
- wear the new T-shirt Jake bought me next time I see him!
- join this fan-forum-chat thing on Discord (whatever that is?) and talk to Jake in it to prove that I really AM all in and therefore the love of his life”
When the book begins, Cerys arrives at Worlds Beyond fantasy con to meet Jake and begin her “performance” as an Of Wrath and Rune (OWAR) fan. Much to her dismay, he also invited his “new best friend” Max.
Max loves OWAR so much that he dresses up in an impressive costume as one of the main characters. When Jake invites Cerys to come over once a week to binge watch the shows, she thinks it will be easy to convince Jake she is a diehard fan and that they’re made for one another. When she arrives the first week and Max is there, she hopes it’s a one-off, but week after week, Max is there. Cerys just can’t seem to get Jake alone.
At her own school, Cerys also tries to insert herself into Evie’s friend group. Without Jake around to keep her connected, she feels lost and needs people to hang out with. She knows that Evie and her friends meet for coffee every morning before class, so she makes a point of showing up at the coffee shop and dropping into a conversation.
Throughout the book, Cerys has two completely different personalities, and neither of them is who she really is—not uncommon for a teenager. As Cerys watches OWAR, she becomes increasingly more of an actual fan, but she doesn’t want her new friends to know. When she uses one of the elements of the show for an art project at school, Anissa (the weird loner) recognizes it. Cerys wants to have someone to talk with about the series, but she’s determined not to let anyone find out. She even goes so far as to join in with her new friend group making fun of Anissa behind her back.
I give a lot of leeway to young adult books. There are a couple of big plot points in this one that I figured out pretty early. Would a teenager figure them out? I’m not sure, but they seemed ridiculously obvious to me. The author reveals both of them at the very end—literally more than 90% of the way through the book. I figured them out 10% and 35% of the way through. Since Cerys narrates in the first person, we find out when Cerys finds out, but Cerys seems pretty slow on the uptake.
She’s also insufferable as a main character. I understand that teenagers are always trying to find their place, figure out what they want out of life. That said, Cerys acts like a 12-year-old a lot of the time, not a 16-year-old. She’s judgmental and manipulative and mean, and I really didn’t like anything about her.
Talking about Max: “He sounds bored, which is a very nice way to treat his new friend’s best friend. He clearly did not choose to take the high road, like I have. What an ass. But if this is the kind of guy Jake wants to be friends with—if this is what he bonds with people over, the sort of thing he loves…it just drives home the genius of my plan: get into the fandom to spend time with him. I’m not about to let Max steal my friend. I’m not going to be usurped by some guy who wears arm guards and a blond wig out in public.”
Also about Max: “It’s just not fair! I’ve known Jake for five years. Max has barely known him for five minutes!”
About Anissa: “Nikita says, ‘D’you see what I mean, though? She’s dead quiet and awkward.’
‘She went to my school,’ I offer up. ‘She’s always been like that, as far as I know.’…My mind is still on Anissa and my stomach squirms. It was a lucky escape this time, I think. I’ll have to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
And when Cerys and Jake finally agree to attend a convention in costume, Cerys bails at the last second in fear of feeling out of place. When she meets up with Jake and Max, Jake isn’t in costume either. Now remember here…she chose not to wear her costume.
“Jake, beside him, is in jeans, and I can see the glint of the circular runic pattern of his OWAR T-shirt underneath his jacket. Anger flares, hot and red, in my chest.
I can’t believe he didn’t tell me he was going to flake on the costume!
Was he really going to let me show up in a medieval ball gown (or, you know, close enough) and not even at least look like an idiot with me? Ugh! I’m so glad I changed my mind.
I can’t believe he would do that to me.
But, then again…maybe this is a sign that we’re so in sync and therefore totally meant to be together.”
And this last point might be minor, but it really bugged me. I spent the entire book trying to figure out how to pronounce “Cerys.” I wish the author had either chosen a different name or given the reader some clue as to how to pronounce it. When I started reading, I assumed it uses a hard C, like “Care-iss.” But early on, one of Evie’s friends asks, “Carys, right?” Cerys corrects her and says, “It’s Cerys, actually.”
So I Googled how to pronounce both Cerys and Carys. Everything I could find implies they are pronounced exactly the same. 🤷🏼♀️ Is Cerys “Sare-iss,” “Car-iss”? When Jake shortens it to “Cer,” is it pronounced “Sare,” “Care,” “Car”? And how is it different from Carys? It even comes up a second time at the end of the book. Pick another name, or tell us how to pronounce it!
I really did want to love this book. It was great in theory. In execution, not so much. 🫤
If you enjoyed this post, please comment below. Subscribe for regular updates, and share it with your friends. If you’re interested in starting a conversation, send an email to booksundertheblanket@gmail.com.
As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using the links on my site.
