Summary
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GENRE
AO3 TAGS
After having her heart broken, Jo Rainier is eager to start fresh in a new town in Kansas. When she walks into her local library’s first-ever game night, she expects to roll some dice and maybe even make some Monsters & Mythology friends. But instead of finding a friendly group of gamers, she stumbles upon a gorgeous librarian seriously in over his head.
Felix Navarro is desperate to save his job so he can take care of his aging grandfather. He hopes a game night will boost the library’s patron numbers—and its budget too. The only problem? He’s a buttoned-up pragmatist who’s never roleplayed a day in his life. Luckily for Felix, Jo is an experienced MnM Game Master, and she’s willing to teach him… especially if that means time alone together.
As they gather at the gaming table, Jo uncovers Felix’s soft heart (not to mention his killer forearms), and Felix finds himself falling hard and fast for Jo’s charm, wit, and creative mind. The spark between them grows into a flame when they wind up sharing the only available hotel room at an MnM convention. But back home, not everything is fun and games. As their connection deepens, old wounds left by Jo’s toxic ex begin to surface, and Felix’s earnest affection suddenly feels too good to be true. If they want to create something real amidst a world of fantasy, Jo and Felix will have to roll the dice and take a chance on love.
Hot Takes
What Liked
Jems
LAWD Y’ALL I never thought I’d see the day when I would read a contemporary that I genuinely could not put down. There’s so much to love in this book, from the realistic representation of past relationship trauma, good faith efforts to communicate between two people, to responsible way both characters stepped back to evaluate their own issues before continuing in their relationship (and I haven’t even gotten to the spice yet). Truly, this book was beautiful and fun to read—I can’t say enough good things about it!
Apers note: Listen, I have been reading romance for so long that I can only barely remember a time where I wasn’t reading romance and I can only really name one or two contemporaries where I thought anything past “Yeah, it was fine and I definitely read it” until now. The bar is high friends, the bar is high.
What We Didn’t Like
Apers
Now I know what you’re thinking “Apers usually dislikes contemporary more than Jems, so I bet this will be good” but sorry this is a very rare 5-star contemporary and I’m not just saying that because the author is my friend. The only thing I didn’t like was that it wasn’t immediately obvious who the next book would be and that there isn’t a next book already out. A lot of my notes were me yelling at Elle that she wrote a perfect book for me. I mean, it has forced proximity AND only one bed?? Blessed.
Jems note: Seconding Apers on this one: we have a 5 star contemporary on our hands! Really there wasn’t anything I didn’t like about this book, though I would have liked more of Felix’s romantic backstory (since the man is clearly skilled in several departments).
Review
Apers
Now, as alluded above, the author is a friend of mine but Jems and I are not about to rate a book highly just because of that because we are professionals (mostly we are snobs). HOWEVER, five stars. This book had everything a librarian like me could want and if there was a librarian like Felix in any of the three systems I’ve worked in, I’d know about him by now I’m sure.
Jems
(Don’t even get me STARTED on if Felix was in my library system 🤪) This book is a five stars for so many reasons, and since Apers didn’t mention it, the writing itself was part of it for me. I am pretty picky when it comes to writing styles (again one of the reasons I didn’t like “Deal with the Devil” and Apers did), and contemporaries often end up missing the mark for me. However, this book nailed it! The writing was descriptive and engaging while still being fun and approachable—an amazing debut!
Apers
At first I had this down as four peps and then I got to the scene that introduces toy play which bumps it right up to five peps for me. It was only the one scene that brings it to five peps, which is pretty standard for a book one to be a little less spicy than later books (if this turns out to be a series in which case taps mic is this thing on? Elle when do I get the next one??).
Jems
Ok I think Apers is under selling the absolute HEAT of the spice in this book. The chemistry alone between Jo and Felix was hot but then the spice itself???? AAAAAAAA it was so passionate and just downright erotic. The way they wanted each other and how they drank in every piece the other gave them just 🥵 (also that vibrator scene alone nearly put me in the grave).
