Internet, I have read some damn good books lately, and I am here to share their joy with you. Some mild spoilers will ensue - if you're really spoiler-phobic, I advise hitting that good ol' scroll.

One Con Glory, Sarah Kuhn. Alert Nerd Press.

I started laughing two pages into this book, and did not stop, although by the end I was also interjecting adoring coos.

Spiky, anti-social Julie is a geek of the first order, with definite opinions on comics, Buffy, and Deep Space Nine. But her deepest love is reserved for Glory Gilmore, the heroine of a cancelled comic. Julie has owned four Glory Gilmore action figures, and they were all destroyed or given away - the last was stolen, by her appalling boyfriend of the time, who likes to tell people all about his "male feminism" and gasp "Oh goddess!" during sex - not because he's a Neo-Pagan, but because he's a total poser.

You have no idea how much I enjoyed hating this guy.

Anyway, Julie, in her role as a reporter on geekdom (I shit you not, she's a FEISTY GIRL REPORTER) hits a con where she will be able to bid on one of the few remaining Glory Gilmore dolls at a fan auction. She has to interview a hot TV star from the show based on the comic in which Glory appeared, but YAWN surely he is just a Hollywood pretty boy whose pretensions to geekdom are some agent's clever plan to get him to appeal to the proles, right?

Wrong. Jack Camden is so much of a geek that he bids against Julie and wins Glory Gilmore.

Hijinks ensue. Said hijinks involve, among other things, delightful drunkenness, morning-after amnesia, Guitar Hero, Dance Dance Revolution, the beginnings of dealing with some inner demons, and me doubled up on the couch cackling to myself.

One Con Glory is sharp, witty, well-paced, feminist geek girl good times. My only criticism is that there isn't enough of it - it's a novella, not a novel. I'd really like to have more plot, and more character development of the awesome, but sketchy side characters, particularly Layla Lee, whose obliviousness to all geek happenings and devotion to fine art photography is intriguing.

But this book is a fun express, and it speaks my language. Sure, gorgeous-yet-geeky-and-famous Jack who never slept with any congoers before Julie is total wish fulfillment fantasy, but do you know how many wish fulfillment fantasies cater to me?* Hot geeky boys for angry geeky girls are not a dime a dozen in romantic fiction! I am taking this one for all he's got!

Totally recommended to het romance fans, particularly those with a geeky bent. Unrecommended to those who object to cussing and non-explicit sex scenes.

Oh, and for the record, Sarah? I'm a HUGE fan of Scott/Emma.

You can find out a little more about One Con Glory, or read Julie's blog for total frees.


*"Karen", you say, "you are a straight able-bodied educated cisgendered middle class white woman. Reflect." And certainly, I get more wish-fulfillment fantasy than many. But still.