‘Geekerella’: a contemporary Cinderella story

In “Geekerella” by Ashley Poston, dreams can — and do — come true.

When Elle Wittmer’s father died and left her with a Stepmonster and two ugly-inside stepsisters, the 16-year-old didn’t have much say in how things were run.

Stepmonster Catherine could use up Elle’s free time with chores, but she couldn’t take away Elle’s memories. Catherine couldn’t erase the time Elle spent with her dad or their love for the show “Starfield.” And certainly Catherine couldn’t throw out Elle’s memories of ExcelsiCon.

Yep, Elle was practically born a “Starfield” fan, and because her dad started ExcelsiCon, most of her childhood was spent with its actors and other fans. She knew every episode by heart, which is why she was angry that the directors of the new “Starfield” movie hired Darien Freeman, a teen soap opera star, to play the handsome Carmindor.

He was totally wrong for the part!

Fuming, Elle blogged about it before she went to work at The Magic Pumpkin, a vegan food truck where life didn’t stink as bad as it did at home.

But Darien didn’t really want stardom. He longed for his old life, when fan-cons were fun, fans were nice, and people didn’t blog bad things about him. He told his manager, Mark (who was also his father), that he didn’t want to attend ExcelsiCon, but once it was announced on national television, he was stuck. All he could do was hope that his text-crush would be there.

He’d “met” her while looking for the phone number of someone at ExcelsiCon who could release him from that ridiculous obligation. He’d never seen her face-to-face, but he somehow knew her heart.

Remember how captivated you were by “Cinderalla?” That classic tale has grown up now, and “Geekerella” is pretty cute.

Poston gives her heroine a fairy godmother with green hair and a carriage that smells like grease, but the romance is still here: teen readers will be thrilled by a dashing, geeky prince, and they’ll love to hate the evil, beautiful stepmother.

Best of all, there’s a predictably Happily Ever After here that will make you smile. If a just-right ending is just-right for you, put “Geekerella” in your basket. Go ahead. You know you wand it.

“Geekerella,” by Ashley Poston [320 pages, 2017, $18.99].

Terri Schlichenmeyer has been reading since she was 3 years old, and she never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill with two dogs and 12,000 books.