Publication Date: March 11, 2025
The truth is stranger than fan fiction in the next sexy paranormal rom-com from the beloved author of The Roommate.
The only place small-town outcast Alex Lawson fits in is the online fan forum she built for The Arcane Files, a long-running werewolf detective show. Her dedication to archiving fictional supernatural lore made her Internet-famous, even if she harbors a secret disdain for the show’s star, Devin Ashwood. (Never meet your hero’s—sometimes they turn out to be The Worst.)
Ever since his show went off the air, Devin and his career have spiraled, but waking up naked in the woods outside his LA home with no memory of the night before is a new low. It must have been a coincidence that the once-in-a-century Wolf Blood Moon crested last night. The claws, fangs, and howling are a little more difficult to explain away. Desperate for answers, Devin finds Alex—the closest thing to an expert that exists. If only he could convince her to stop hating his guts long enough to help….
Once he makes her an offer she can’t refuse, these reluctant allies lower their guards trying to wrangle his inner beast. Unfortunately, getting up close and personal quickly comes back to bite them.
Fan Service by Rosie Danan is a paranormal fantasy rom-com. While not my usual genre, it did hold my interest once I got into the story. The prologue, taking us back seventeen years, set the stage.
Alex and Devin have nothing in common except the show he once starred in for thirteen seasons. Alex was the moderator of a blog that focused on everything and anything related to the show The Arcane Files. Devin played the human FBI partner to a werewolf detective who also had a vampire archnemesis/queerbait pseudo-love interest. Even though the show went off the air decades before, it still had a following. When Alex and Devin plan to meet in her small town, where she’s a misfit without friends, she reluctantly agrees to help him.
We get to see her life and come to understand how they gravitate towards each other. But they have secrets and miscommunicate over and over again. Devin needs Alex’s help, and she needs the money he’s willing to pay her. But they seem to be better together than apart, except when he manages to hurt her feelings, which is often. But he does come to her rescue more than once and proves himself to her, her dad, and the townspeople. As he fights his werewolf tendencies and tries to embrace them, she helps him and grounds him.
Several stories are in the mix, and we get to know Alex and Devin a little at a time. Both have layers but seem to get the other like no one else. They’ve both had disappointments in their lives and open up about the difficulties they’ve faced. The story has a good pace, and we’re introduced to many secondary characters, including some who are not so likable. While the story sometimes stretched its limits, there was also a romance brewing that was often sweet and, other times, steamy. The epilogue gives some closure, but I would have preferred it to be a little longer and have a few more details.
Fan Service showcases paranormal elements, caring, and compassion. Alex and Devin seem more comfortable in their skin and lives when they work together for a common goal.
Rosie Danan is the award-winning, bestselling author of The Roommate and The Intimacy Experiment. The New York Times describes her work as “warmly funny and gorgeously sexy,” and a film adaptation of The Roommate is currently in development from Anton Studios. When not writing, Rosie enjoys jogging slowly to fast music, petting other people’s dogs, and competing against herself in rounds of Chopped using the miscellaneous ingredients occupying her fridge.
