Olivia Dade, a rising star in the romance novel industry, wrote two of the most delightful romance novels of the pandemic. Spoiler Alert and its sequel, All the Feels, take place during the end of a long-running fictional television show A’la Game of Thrones. They follow many themes/jokes Game of Thrones fans will relate to: Showrunners ruining the end of a book adaptation, rushed plotlines, and the rise of fanfiction. All that – but make it romance.
Let’s break them down…
Spoiler Alert focuses on a fanfiction-type romance. Mistaken identities run supreme.
Marcus, the star of the long-running show, is well known as a… dunce. A hot dunce… but a dunce. He’s secretly smart, and he desires to truly make his career longstanding. He deals with his dual identities by writing fanfiction focusing on “fixing” the arc of his character.
April, a longtime fan of the show and a fanfiction writer herself, is moving in her career to be more stable and less on the move. For the first time in her life, she wants to focus on just… making friends and being happy.
The two meet due to social media and start a publicity stunt romance, but things turn real. Marcus realizes April is his online best friend, and April has no idea. Fearing losing his job, Marcus doesn’t tell her but starts a romance under false pretenses. EEK
Now to the sequel…
All the Feels, on the other hand, is more of an enemies to friends to lovers type romance. Alex also stars on the long-running show, but he has a bad habit of bad press. Lauren, between jobs and on a mental health journey, is roped into being Alex’s minder by her asshole of a cousin who runs the show. Hijinx ensue.
The network forces them to live together and Lauren must keep Alex out of the media. Their hatred turns into friendship and bonding, then more grows. Alex isn’t quite the party boy Lauren was lead to believe, and Lauren may actually be interesting.
Now to why Ms. Olivia Dade is so delightful…
One of the main themes/topics Olivia Dade covers, and remarkably well, is that her heroines are, GASP, not skinny. “Traditionally” celebrity-hot men are attracted to her plus-size protagonists, and they live full lives that are not FULLY about them being overweight.
Another thing which should be the bare minimum, but isn’t… Dade actually writes her two main plus-sized characters as full people with their own personalities. NOT THE STEREOTYPICAL ONES THAT MOST AUTHORS WRITE. April and Lauren are NOTHING alike. In fact, I’m not quite sure I believe they would be friends.
April is funny, creative, and nerdy. Lauren has confidence issues but is such a giver she would suffer for everyone to do the right things. THEY ARE DIFFERENT.
April has hang-ups on her body, but Lauren ultimately does not. Lauren’s own body image issues focus on her crooked nose, not her waistline.
Marcus and Alex each make some microaggressions about the women’s bodies, but other than that, the romance is about the personalities and not the bodies. Criticism does exist in the books, they are realistic, but it isn’t the whole story.
As a woman who is not a size zero, this is extremely relatable.
What about the not-perfect parts?
Olivia Dade is talented, but she doesn’t write perfectly (who does?).
Spoiler Alert has some pacing issues where the relationship isn’t always believable due to the speed with which it goes. The characters seem to fall in love VERY quickly. While with Marcus that makes sense, he knows that he’s connected with April for years, with April it feels a bit forced.
As a side note, I struggle with rooting for relationships based on lies, but that is a personal struggle in my reading. The characters are fun, so I can look past it.
All the Feels struggles with some stilted dialogue and re-trodding a bit of what Spoiler Alert covers. About half the book takes place during Spoiler Alert, so you already know about a HUGE turning point in the book if you’ve read the first book. It does hurt the drama a bit. Plus, it’s very obvious in the previous book that Alex is into Lauren…
Now, one other minor pet peeve I have are the ways that sex gets described in books. I hate the term “her sex” or “his sex” or “their sex” to refer to genitals. Again, minor pet peeve, but it bothers me.
Who should read Olivia Dade’s books?
Other than that, I find both books delightful. If you wrote or read fanfiction, give this a read. If you were disappointed with Game of Thrones, give it a read. Even if you DO NOT read romance, but you’re curious, these are a good entry point. I recommend these books to anyone who wants a fun romp of a romance. While they both have dips in their writing that leave the reader wanting, they are a fun read.
