{"product_id":"the-fangirl-project-isbn-9798217031498","title":"The Fangirl Project","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the bestselling author of\u003ci\u003e The Kissing Booth\u003c\/i\u003e comes a romantic comedy about a girl who joins a book fantasy fandom to win over her crush, only to discover that love is just as complicated online.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen 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 \u003ci\u003eOf Wrath and Rune\u003c\/i\u003e, if Jake loves it, then Cerys will too.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen Jake introduces Cerys to his shiny new friend Max, who goes to all the fandom conventions—in \u003ci\u003ecosplay \u003c\/i\u003e(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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCerys 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 \u003ci\u003eOf Wrath and Rune . . .\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003emight\u003c\/i\u003e like DMing with a suspiciously familiar guy in the fandom even more.\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eThe Fangirl Project\u003c\/i\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"Fandom fans and romance lovers will rejoice!\" —\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"A deliciously tropey romance keeps the tension high in this lighthearted novel about being oneself, pursuing one’s passions, and reveling in life’s many surprises.\"\u003ci\u003e —Publishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePraise for the Queen of Rom Coms:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Beth Reekles became a sensation.\" —\u003ci\u003eToday \u003c\/i\u003eon \u003ci\u003eThe Kissing Booth\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The lighthearted comedy is perfect for summer.\"—\u003ci\u003eTeen Vogue\u003c\/i\u003e on \u003ci\u003eThe Kissing Booth\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A holiday in the sun filled with heart and soul.\"—\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e on \u003ci\u003eBeach Cute\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"An entertaining blend of humor, romance, and drama.\" —\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e on \u003ci\u003eBeach Cute\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A messy romance during a prestigious London internship.\"—\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e on \u003ci\u003eLove \u0026amp; Lattes\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Swoon.\" —\u003ci\u003eBooklist \u003c\/i\u003eon \u003ci\u003eLove \u0026amp; Lattes\u003c\/i\u003eBeth Reekles is the author of The Kissing Booth series, which inspired the Netflix films. She first published \u003ci\u003eThe Kissing Booth\u003c\/i\u003e on Wattpad in 2010, at age fifteen, and it accumulated almost 20 million reads before it was published in 2012 by Random House Children's Books. A self-confessed nerd and rom-com fan, she is now a full-time author living in South Wales and shares movie reviews on her Instagram.-\u003cbr\u003eYour ticket to the Worlds Beyond fantasy con today . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSee you there, CERYS!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI skip through the email, looking for the QR code, but not before my eyes widen at the reminder that “weapons, even makeshift and nonthreatening, will not be allowed into the convention center.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What am I getting myself into?” I mutter.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA glance around makes me even less sure that I’ve made the right decision to come along: there are streams of people walking past with armfuls of posters ready to get signed, wearing questionable wigs and fake elf ears, in T-shirts that look like less-­cool versions of the \u003ci\u003eStranger Things\u003c\/i\u003e Hellfire Club. Some of them are even completely dressed up, like they’re going to a Halloween costume contest. A guy strides by me in brown armor made of papier-­mâché, with antlers the size of my \u003ci\u003earm\u003c\/i\u003e sticking out of his head.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI take a deep breath. \u003ci\u003eThis is all just a means to an end,\u003c\/i\u003e I tell myself, \u003ci\u003eand it’s going to be totally worth it.\u003c\/i\u003e I just have to walk up, scan my ticket, and go find Jake.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI’ve hardly seen my best friend Jake since he moved away at the start of summer and started going to Colleg Carreg for the last two years of school to study A Levels, instead of going to St. David’s sixth form with me in Cardiff. I can just \u003ci\u003efeel\u003c\/i\u003e him slipping further and further away. Every time we’ve made plans to hang out over the past few weeks, the rest of the old school gang ended up joining us, which would normally be fine, except . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eExcept I haven’t been able to shake the full-­blown crush I developed on Jake months ago, and it’s true what they say: absence really \u003ci\u003edoes\u003c\/i\u003e make the heart grow fonder. And how am I supposed to initiate a romantic move on him if he’s only ever going to see me in \u003ci\u003ethat\u003c\/i\u003e context? I’ll be stuck in the best friend zone for life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd, like, what’s the alternative? Tell him I have a massive crush on him and I think we’d be great together, risk total rejection, and lose the best person in my life for good because I’ve made it too awkward between us?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYeah, right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo, I have to find a better way. I have to \u003ci\u003eshow him\u003c\/i\u003e we’re perfect for each other.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHence, The Fangirl Project.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eHence,\u003c\/i\u003e I’m now at some random industrial estate, in front of an old warehouse turned convention hall, surrounded by strangers in cosplay and ready to spend all afternoon pretending I’m totally excited to be here.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere’s a huge banner stretched across the front of the warehouse. welcome, travelers! it declares. to the worlds beyond fantasy con, for fans of \u003ci\u003eof wrath and rune\u003c\/i\u003e!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhy couldn’t Jake have at least picked something, I don’t know, more mainstream to be a die-hard fanboy over? I probably could’ve gotten on board with \u003ci\u003eLord of the Rings,\u003c\/i\u003e I’ve seen the memes about it and even that weird Isengard song video. And I’ve seen all the new Marvel films with Jake, even if I don’t actually know what he’s talking about when he goes on about the different “phases.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut no, he had to go and pick \u003ci\u003eOf Wrath and Rune\u003c\/i\u003e to be his favorite thing. A niche, low-­budget TV show with a cult following and \u003ci\u003eeight\u003c\/i\u003e books—­eight!—­that aren’t even a finished series yet. I have some idea what it’s about, mainly secondhand knowledge from Jake talking nonstop about it when I have managed to see him lately: It’s a high-­fantasy adventure, with fauns, some Robin Hood–­type characters called the Rascals, and an evil wizard or something.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI figure I have enough surface-­level knowledge to not make a complete fool of myself today, and then I’ll try to watch the TV show. It’ll be like homework. All part of my ultimate mission to become Jake’s dream girl and give us something new to bond over so he’ll finally realize it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSpeak of the devil—­my phone buzzes with a text asking if I’m here yet. I wonder if he knows I’m stalling out here, thinking about him? (Although, to be fair, I am \u003ci\u003eusually\u003c\/i\u003e thinking about him.)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis text only serves to remind me how quiet our message thread has become; when I open it, I can see back to texts I sent four days ago, agreeing to come to the convention. My reply sounds bright and breezy, thankfully—­I’d been internally screaming when he invited me after I mentioned oh-­so-­casually how I was thinking of giving his favorite new series a go, seeing what all the fuss was about. I even swapped my usual Saturday shift at work so I could be here.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs I slowly make my way to the ticket scanners, I scroll a little farther back, seeing too many half-­made plans that fell through. Usually because he was busy with soccer, or his family. But one name in particular keeps glaring up at me from the screen: \u003ci\u003eMax.\u003c\/i\u003e They made fast friends after Jake moved, and ever since it’s Max this and Max that, and . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI can’t help but feel like I’m being replaced. Like Jake’s forgetting about me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI shove the phone into my pocket, jaw clenched in determination. I have to change that. I have to get things back to how they were. And, if possible, make them better.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAll right,\u003c\/i\u003e I think, striding toward the doors. \u003ci\u003eShowtime!\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI’m not really sure what I was expecting from a convention, but I’m immediately overwhelmed. The noise of people chatting and someone speaking over a microphone is amplified by the high, corrugated metal ceilings into a cacophony that makes me feel like I’ve accidentally wandered into a nightclub. It’s way busier than I was expecting, with people clustered in huge groups to get things signed or have their photo taken with someone, and spilling out of a curtained-­off section where I figure there must be a panel going on.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere are loads of stalls selling merch, too. Not just \u003ci\u003eOf Wrath and Rune\u003c\/i\u003e things, but general fantasy junk. There’s a huge display of crossbows and swords, which I think is pretty rich, given the so-­called rule against having weapons in the convention hall.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis, I decide quickly, is so not my thing. Jake tried to get me to play Dungeons \u0026amp; Dragons with him and his older brother, Thomas, a couple of times, and I just could never get into it. I don’t care about elves and sorcerers and trolls and faeries, and I \u003ci\u003ereally\u003c\/i\u003e don’t want to spend my whole Saturday hanging out with people who do.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt’s not too late to turn around and get the bus home. I could just say I wasn’t feeling well. There’s got to be a better way to get Jake’s attention than all of \u003ci\u003ethis,\u003c\/i\u003e right?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlso, it turns out it’s not everyone in their costumes and fan-­made T-shirts that looks weird in here: It’s me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the cute blue sundress and brown sandals I picked out especially to impress Jake, I stick out like a sore thumb.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI’m buffeted across the back of the head and the blow trips me forward. Looking over my shoulder, I see a woman in a giant set of painted cardboard wings, one now slightly askew. She straightens it, not seeming to notice our collision. Her friends are busy laughing about something, and then shout in unison, \u003ci\u003e“For glory and destiny! For wrath! For ruin!”\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI fix my ponytail, heart thudding hard.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI don’t know what I was thinking—­I don’t belong here! Everyone can see it, and I bet they’re all thinking it. My throat feels tight and my mouth bone-­dry, a familiar, creeping dread that I’m intruding and not wanted. Except, this time, it’s not people in the schoolyard at break time, or my parents shouting at each other at home, and there’s no Jake to rescue and reassure me. It’s—­\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Cerys! You made it!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI turn in the direction of my best friend’s voice, immediately breathing a little easier for hearing it, and find Jake striding through a gap in the crowds and right toward me. My heart does a little somersault. I know I only saw him two weeks ago just before school started, but I drink in the sight of him, some paranoid little part of me trying to work out if he’s already turned into someone else.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut he looks just the same as always: short sandy-­blond hair styled in that way that looks effortless but I know takes him a solid twenty minutes every morning; tall, lanky frame and bright blue eyes that crinkle behind his glasses; and that huge, loving smile that makes you feel like the center of the whole universe, it’s so big.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHave I changed? Will he notice all the extra freckles on my skin brought out by a late burst of summer sun, the extra care I put into styling my pale blond hair today? The fact that I’m wearing my good bra (the one that actually gives me some cleavage)?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJake envelops me in a bear hug, crushing me against him, which, in turn, serves as a crushing reminder that \u003ci\u003emy\u003c\/i\u003e crush is very much unrequited. This definitely isn’t how you hug a girl you see as a romantic prospect; I’ve seen enough rom-­coms to know. His hand is meant to linger on the small of my back, at \u003ci\u003eleast.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe draws away, and I see he’s wearing one of those T-shirts like most everyone else. It’s a deep forest green, with a large circular emblem that looks sort of ancient-­Roman-­inspired, and sharp, blocky text is splashed across it, reading be ye a rascal, roach?","brand":"Delacorte Romance","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233662906597,"sku":"NP9798217031498","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9798217031498.jpg?v=1767739291","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-fangirl-project-isbn-9798217031498","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}