Book Review: Role Playing by Cathy Yardley
Hey all, Sam here.
Okay, I have a feeling that I’m going to end up having a bunch of bonus blog posts that are book reviews coming. Because I’m getting quite a bit of reading done…and I’m planning on having a reading day on Monday, where I’ll basically just read and blog prep the whole day. Because even with as much as I’ve been reading, I still want to read more.
I finished another book this morning and I’m already a decent chunk of the way through another book. I’m in this lovely cycle of opening up a new book basically minutes after closing whatever I’ve just finished.
It’s just a great feeling.
Now, today’s review isn’t a NetGalley read, although I had requested this book, but was denied. Oh well. It was still on my anticipated releases list, and I’m glad I ended up squeezing it into my reading schedule.
Let’s get started.
My Thoughts
Maggie is an unapologetically grumpy forty-eight-year-old hermit. But when her college-aged son makes her a deal―he’ll be more social if she does the same―she can’t refuse. She joins a new online gaming guild led by a friendly healer named Otter. So that nobody gets the wrong idea, she calls herself Bogwitch.
Otter is Aiden, a fifty-year-old optimist using the guild as an emotional outlet from his family drama caring for his aging mother while his brother plays house with Aiden’s ex-fiancée.
Bogwitch and Otter become fast virtual friends, but there’s a catch. Bogwitch thinks Otter is a college student. Otter assumes Bogwitch is an octogenarian.
When they finally meet face to face―after a rocky, shocking start―the unlikely pair of sunshine and stormy personalities grow tentatively closer. But Maggie’s previous relationships have left her bitter, and Aiden’s got a complicated past of his own.
Everything’s easier online. Can they make it work in real life?
Rating: 5 stars
So…I have a trial of Kindle Unlimited going right now, and I snagged this book on there, even though all signs pointed at this being a book I would love and therefore should have a physical copy of. And yes, now that I’ve finished it, I do absolutely plan to get a paperback copy of it. I’m just trying to curb my desire to go on a huge book buying splurge just because I haven’t had a book spree in months.
Okay, so I really enjoyed this book. Maggie and Aiden don’t meet in person until like 35% of the way into the book, and then they don’t actually decide to try a romantic relationship until like 80% of the way through…so honestly this is like a cute slow-burn teammates-to-friends-to-lovers style story…and it was just delightful.
I wasn’t prepared for how well I would connect with both Boggy and Otter (Maggie and Aiden’s online personalities), I also, somewhat stupidly, didn’t realize that we would end up having one half of this pairing being someone who was A-spec, and it just made me end up connecting with and loving this story that much more. Because in a lot of ways my experience was similar. Just not really having that drive, that desire, for sex or for relationships, and being okay with that, but also spending so much time feeling like there has to be something wrong with you because everyone else keeps pushing sex or joking about how you’re prudish or picky or whatever.
And then there’s that moment when the term Asexuality or the term Demisexuality or Gray-Ace or whatever A-spec term comes into play…and after finding out what that means, there is this “lightbulb moment.” Things click into place and everything fits and makes more sense.
It was just beautiful to get to experience that in fiction as well.
Maggie and Aiden are both wonderful characters, and I could feel that they both had been through a lot, had lived lives that were filled with all sorts of ups and downs, but at nearly 50, they still had plenty of time to do some living, and to try things, and to keep on adventuring.
I understood their comfort with a somewhat hermit existence. I understood their desire to escape into a fantasy world after having a bad day…and having that need to just log in to a game and go full on raging murder-hobo because you need to vent in a somewhat healthy (or at least a not really destructive) way.
This story felt real and deep and full to me. I fell in love with the characters and the story so quickly, and I actually ended up sad that the story was over once I finished it. I think it took me less than 24 hours to read it (sadly I had to take some breaks for work and for sleep and all that). The story itself was probably only a few hours of reading time for me, but I absolutely loved the whole book, even when there were characters who were being frustrating or annoying or petty or bigoted or whatever…I just knew our couple would be brought closer together and would eventually be okay, together.
It was a great geeky romance, and I definitely recommend it.
Well, that is all from me for today. My weekend starts after work tonight, and I’m hoping to do a bunch of reading over the next two days, because I need to do some reading in order to get my blog posts ready. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
