Man, oh man, do I love a good pop culture convention. It was a highlight of the year to get back together with my nerds (Planet Comicon, I’m looking at you. Not San Diego, New York, or C2E2 with their weak lineups that I was okay skipping/leaving early). That being said, it should be no surprise that I was very excited to see a friends-to-lovers romance set in nerd world come through my list.
The Love Con by Seressia Glass introduces us to Kenya as she’s competing for a spot in the finals of a show called “Cosplay or No Way”. (Yes, the show name isn’t great, but at least it’s not real.) Kenya wins the round and finds out she needs a partner for the last challenge. One of the judges makes a less-than-subtle barb about Kenya being single, so, on national television, she announces her best friend Cameron is her partner.
It’s kinda true in the sense that they live together, work together at a shop they co-own, and cosplay together at Dragon Con (which is on my real life list of conventions to get to). She also kinda wishes they were in a relationship. Cam sees the episode and meets her at the airport, prepared with balloons and kisses… because he secretly wants a legit relationship with Kenya too.
Amid all the costume building and faking love for the show, Kenya also has to deal with her parents wanting her to give up the cosplay foolishness and get an engineering job, meanwhile Cam’s ex isn’t exactly done with the situation either. It’s a bit messy.
I enjoyed The Love Con quite a bit. Kenya reminds me of one of my best friends and I hope Kenya’s journey inspires her. I adored all the nerdy references woven through the story because they were pretty clever. It would’ve felt wrong to not have them and claim to be part of convention world. I feel like black readers will also identify with the microaggressions Kenya faces throughout the story. The romance part isn’t very steamy, so if you prefer scenes on the more implied side, you’ll probably feel comfortable with this one.
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