Game of Hearts

Longview Romance #3

by Ellie Roth

She can count on one hand the number of times they’ve been in the same room. Frankly, she was hoping to keep it that way.

When police officer Britney Connally’s latest job in anti-magic Longview ends with her enchanted and in the hospital, she’s determined to prevent it from happening again. Since her goal is to join the elite Magical Crimes Division, a unit that pursues the worst magic-using criminals and protects vulnerable magic users, avoiding enchantments and the havoc they can wreak is a priority. Unfortunately, her quest for a solution leads her straight into a bargain with one of her least favorite people.

Elena Zhao is a natural enchanter—not that she spreads that fact around. But when Britney wants to build up a tolerance to enchanting, Elena sees it as a golden opportunity to finally compete in Sunset Falls, an enchanting competition. Even if Britney is diametrically opposed to everything Elena stands for, she’s sure they can cooperate long enough for Elena to win the games and Britney to join the MCD—and get out of Elena’s life for good.

As the cold winter days blossom into spring, Britney and Elena slowly realize that they have more in common than they first expected. But with Sunset Falls and Britney’s deadlines for the MCD looming, will they be able to make the clean break that they wanted or end up finding more than they ever imagined?
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Game of Hearts is a contemporary LGBTQ+ romantic fantasy that features a modern world imbued with magic, a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance, found family vibes, tragic backstories, mild to moderate steaminess, major angst, and a happy ending for our protagonists. Can technically be read as a standalone, but is best enjoyed after Just Like Magic and Winner Take All.

*Content warnings available on website.

526 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 1, 2024

About the author

Ellie Roth is a contemporary LGBTQ+ romantic fantasy author who writes about love interests earning their happy endings and found families building a more hopeful world for themselves. She can mostly be found in a New York town that no one can pronounce unless they grew up nearby, slouching over her laptop and probably giving herself back problems. Her hobbies include writing, working out, and scrolling through Tumblr to indulge her latest fandom obsessions.

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Reviews

[Tony Farnden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Game of Hearts (Longview Romance Book Three) is Elena’s and Birdie’s turn in the limelight. I’m not sure if this would work as a stand alone but there is probably sufficient back story so it might. What I will say is that not to read the first two books would be a shame as they are all quite wonderful with a great bunch of characters that get on so well together (ignoring the three dubious characters / baddies who are great in their own ways.)

The story is set mainly in Longview, the anti-magic capital of an anti-magic state in the USA. It is also about the various magic contests / competitions that take place. This time it is mostly about the lead up to the most problematic of the competitions, the Sunset Falls, aka ‘the Enchanting Games’. Enchantment has had a bad name for the last twenty three years due to a disastrous event now called the ‘Blue Scare’ where some criminal enchanters attempted to abduct a number of competitors and members of the audience. Natural enchanters have gone mostly under cover until recently when the Sunset Falls started up.

Elena Zhao is a natural enchanter meaning she is better at enchanting people than doing displays of magic. Think of enchanters as sort of hypnotists who make use of magic rather than suggestion. Elena wants to compete this year and has the support of Chris, Anwer and Mehmet. There is a problem in that she needs a model, someone to enchant, for the competition. This brings Birdie, that is Officer Britney Connally into the picture. Things have been uncomfortable between the two since ‘Winner Takes All (Book Two)’ and things get even more uncomfortable when Birdie offers Elena her spare room to stay, at least until past misunderstandings are dealt with and unknown facts are revealed.

There is now a chance for them to move on and act on their attraction. Things are never that simple and other things get in the way and push them apart. The remainder of the book is all about resolution and building something wonderful they did not expect to ever take place in their home city.

‘Game of Hearts’ is a wonderful read with rounded characters who care about more than just themselves and are willing to fight for what they know to be right. Elena and Birdie are the focus of the story but no one else is forgotten, Chris and Anwer are getting ready for their wedding, Mehmet and Shiki are doing what Mehmet and Shiki do, Shay and Paisley are still training for magic competitions, and Michael Vernon is still a threat that needs to be taken down.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Jessie J melka · Rating 3 out of 5]

🪄Game of hearts 🪄

By Ellie Roth

Review by Jessie melka
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“I’ve waited ten years. I can wait a little longer.” “Speak for yourself. The sooner Michael Vernon is behind bars, the better.”

And honestly, the most exciting thing about this relationship is there mutual hate for Michael I mean if I were them as an absolutely power couple I would have gone 100% butcher of Baltimore on his behind

I had no idea how Elena could just talk to Michael without ripping his head off in front of everyone

And the fact that Britney is the only one who can model for Elena is so freaking good. I mean, let’s go Queen get it

Maybe Elena wasn’t trying to reject Britney at the gala, she realizes with a jolt. Maybe they’re just moving at different speeds. Maybe Britney was going too fast for someone who’s used to hiding her real self from the world.

The enemies to lovers and slow burn in this is driving me absolutely insane i’m was also getting a kind of will They won’t they vibe in the start but then Britney did a full 1-80 and it kinda threw me off there for a minute and the slow dance my heart skipped a beat

Also is it just me or is Elena kind of a bit of a nerd I love that though it’s so cute when she’s talking about her block and her work

Britney and sikis friendship is so adorable. I wish I had something like that in my life they are just so wholesome.

I have got to say it was kind of hard getting through this book because you know that feeling right before you hit a reading slump yeah that was me doing this read and I totally don’t think it did this book justice so I’m totally gonna reread it again later on I tried to pay attention as much as I could, but I was just hitting that slum really hard

Overall, I am so happy that I actually finished the series. It was totally worth my time and I think it’s worth your time too.

I really hope you enjoy reading this and that you appreciate the amazing writing in this book
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[Kristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to BookSirens and Ellie Roth for providing me with a free advance review e-copy of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

After police officer Britney Connally has a bad interaction with a magical enchanter at a hold-up, she decides she needs to find a way to stop it from happening again. Meanwhile, journalist blogger and natural enchanter, Elena Zhao, is looking for a non-magical model to pair with in an upcoming enchanter competition. If Britney will pair with Elena for the competition, then in return Elena will help Britney build up her defences against enchantment. Unfortunately, Elena’s blog is well known for criticising the Magical Crimes Division, the very department Britney has always dreamed of working for and has finally been offered an interview with. Can they stand being around each other long enough to achieve their goals?

What a stellar final instalment for this series. Yet again, the characters in this series won my loyalty, to the point I had to slow down my reading towards the middle of the book as I didn’t want things to go wrong for them (I am a wimp!). I was dreading a certain encounter but was happily rewarded by an epic verbal evisceration instead, which left me grinning with satisfaction. Elena and Britney were a great pairing, and while they weren’t as passionate as Shiki and Mehmet from book 2 (“Winner Takes All”), there was a definite warmth that kept me rooting for them (and occasionally wanting to bang their heads together). The rest of the characters were their usual joyous, chaotic selves, and Shiki’s POV chapter was a cherry on top of a cake of a book.

Final thoughts: A brilliant conclusion to a wonderful series.

Who would enjoy this: Fans of the opposites-attract trope, found family, and magical realism.

[Siobhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Game of Hearts is the third, and final, book in Ellie Roth’s Longview Romance series. As a fan of the prior books, I went into this third book with high hopes. Although it was not my favourite in the series, it was another fabulous read and a wonderful conclusion to the series.

For me, the biggest strength of this book was the way it filled in many of the magic details that I felt were missing in the prior books. While there were still some elements that I wish I had understood a bit better, the level of knowledge in this book was vastly greater than the prior books and really helped to tie the details together. It allowed me to be pulled even deeper into the world, and I could not get enough of watching how things would develop. As much as I loved this, the romance did feel a bit too much like the prior books for me to enjoy it as much as I’d hoped. Although I loved the characters together and had fun watching how things played out, even one of the characters in the book made a comment about how their friendship group had the same type of romance drama play out. While it was not enough to lessen my enjoyment of the book, it did stop this from being quite as strong as the prior books. I had been crossing my fingers for something more from this couple, for something a bit different, and it was not quite there. Nevertheless, I did have a lot of fun with the book.

All in all, this was a wonderful addition to the series. It is certainly worth the read if you have enjoyed the prior books – and I certainly recommend the author’s other books if you enjoyed this series.

[Suzanne Irving · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book by Ellie Roth more than I thought I would. To set things in context I read way more MM than I do FF, but this was part of the continuing story so I wanted to give it a try. For those wondering there is not a whole lot of explicit spice, but there is lots of yearning as Britney and Elena go from enemies to lovers. The book has a lot more about the overall plot that would be a bad thing to miss because that overall plot is fascinating and very well written. I especially like how Ms Roth integrates the magic into the regular world and how she explains how the magic works as well as having her characters have to practice. So many books with magic that I have read lately don’t bother explaining things like this and it makes the book feel more realistic to have magic that is not just an easy instant thing.
The only thing I had trouble with (and it’s maybe more a me problem) is that characters are called by their first name, last name and sometimes nicknames as well. I have trouble remembering names and this made things harder for me. It wasn’t bad enough for me to stop reading because I love the story I just had to read more slowly than I usually do, which may not be a bad thing. Lol.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[June · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ellie Roth's books always hook me with the setting first. Then I meet the cast and I have a hard time putting her books down.

I loved seeing how Elena's enchanting works, and the way she kept reading and interpreting everyone else's emotions in her POV was fascinating to read. Britney also quickly became my favorite when I saw how loyal and protective she is over Shiki. Best Friend Birdie Forever.💜

As usual, Roth excels at character interactions, and that's just the best thing to read. I could read chapter after chapter of these people just hanging out. All their dialogues are effortless and full of banter. I think dramatic framing in general is one of Roth's strengths, and while Game of Hearts is one of her lower-tension books (not EVERYONE has to have a super dramatic love confession, okay?😂), it's so full of all kinds of love that it's a great and heartwarming ending to this series.

Also, I SO love hating Michael Vernon. What a slime.


Thank you to the author for the ARC. All thoughts are mine.

[Ruby Ridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was given this book complimentary from Book Sirens in e-book form in return for my honest review. Everything stated in this review is of my own opinion and I was not compensated monetarily for providing this review.
I read this book as a standalone and it worked quite well for me, the backstory is covered well in conversations and comments it just takes a bit of effort to pigeonhole all the characters but really this is a story about two people, the cop and the journalist both with the same goal although they do not realize this at first. That goal being to improve ths lives of the magic users in their community.
The author has come up with a new system of magic and it is well thought out, not just thrown together as is the world they live in.
Ultimately, whether or not a romance novel "works" can be judged by how the reader feels about the main couple and I for one was rooting for Britany and Elena.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Game of Hearts, the third book in the Longview Romance series, was such a wonderful addition to the series, being able to get a glimpse of Elena's side.

I found it to be a little more in depth, while also covering more of the back story of how they all ended up where they are now.

I did enjoy how effortlessly the story flowed with Elena and Birdie's relationship. Their highest of highs and lowest of lows.

Thank you Book Sirens for allowing me to read this ARC for my honest review. Ellie Roth did an amazing job with all three books.

[Juniper · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story offers interesting characters whose relationship to each other never lacks for emotional intensity (slow burn enemies to lovers for the win), but for me the real draw for this book, and indeed the series overall, has to be the world building. This is such a fascinating place, in ways both compelling and concerning, and I like the way magic is woven in.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.