by: Seressia Glass
Genre: Contemporary Interracial Romance/Romantic Comedy
Release Date: December 14, 2021
Publisher: Berkley
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A LIBRARY READS PICK
He’s cosplaying as her boyfriend but their feelings for each other are real in this romantic comedy from Seressia Glass.
Sometimes Kenya Davenport believes she was switched at the hospital—how else could a lover of anime, gaming, and cosplay come from STEM parents? Still, Kenya dreams of being able to turn her creative hobby into a career. She finally has a chance to make it big when she joins the reality show competition Cosplay or No Way.
There's just one catch: the challenge for the final round is all about iconic pairs, and the judges want the contestants' significant others to participate. Unfortunately, Kenya is as single as can be at the moment. Luckily her best friend, Cameron Lassiter, agrees to be her fake boyfriend for the show.
Roleplaying a couple in love will force them to explore what they're hiding under the mask of friendship. Can Kenya and Cam fake it until she makes it, or will she be real about her feelings, knowing it could cost her the best friend she’s ever had?
THE LOVE CON is a romantic comedy about Kenya Davenport, a plus-sized nerd who dreams of turning her cosplay hobby into a career. She’s made it to the finals of a cosplay reality show and to win the prize and a chance to make her costuming hobby a business, she must take a camera crew back home with her to film her creating two costumes with her significant other. The problem is, she’s currently single. Desperate to not be disqualified, she blurts out her best friend Cam’s name on live TV.
Cameron Lassiter agrees to be her fake boyfriend for the show, but cosplaying a couple brings unexpected reactions from friends, family, and themselves as fake PDAs for the cameras uncover some real more-than-friends feelings. Kenya has to overcome the pressures of the show and her own fears and conflicting emotions or risk losing her best friend forever.
What inspired you to write this book?
I’m a bit of a nerd, and I love going to Dragon Con and wearing costumes when I can. And I love seeing more and more people who look like me embracing their nerdom and cosplaying as well. We’re often told we can’t cosplay a particular character because we don’t look like them, or we’re the wrong body type and any other negative nonsense. So I wanted to write this story for them, for myself, about someone who lives her dream no matter what other people say.
What was your writing process for writing THE LOVE CON?
I would do 25-minute sprints with an online group and ignore the wordcounts they posted because I write longhand. Writing longhand clears my mind to focus on the story and not the typos and grammatical errors the screen shows. Then to start the next day’s session, I type in what I wrote the day before, and clean it up and expand on the scene. I usually have something droning in the background like the Science Channel or an Ancient Aliens marathon, and reward myself with an episode of a K-drama if I finish a chapter.
What was your favorite part of writing the book? What was your biggest challenge?
Let’s start with the challenges first. I had to write through a pandemic, health issues, televised social injustice, and serving on the national board of a writing organization. It was a struggle to juggle everything and meet commitments. My favorite part of writing this book is seeing Kenya’s relationship with her best female friend, and seeing how Kenya and Cam interact as friends and how those interactions change as they move from the fake to the real.
What do you hope readers will take away from reading THE LOVE CON?
I hope people will feel comfortable indulging in their nerdhood, to go to a con and dress up as whatever character they want to cosplay. That’s it’s okay to chase your dreams, and even better to catch them.
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This book sounds like a lot of fun.
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