I received an eARC of this book which I am super thankful for. Unfortunately, this book just did not go where I thought it was going to go which was a bummer! The idea was super cute but the execution was not my favorite.

Thank you so much for allowing me to read and review your titles.
I do appreciate it and continue to review books that I get the chance to read.
Thanks again!

I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I read this book approximately a year and a half before writing the review. The reason for the giant delay is because I had so many mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, the concept was fun; who hasn't imagined being trapped in the mall overnight. On the other hand, this book felt like a middle grade book and the characters seemed very immature. I also found a lot of the things that were happening to be very unrealistic, and this took away from my enjoyment of this title.

When you give me a book with a premise of a cute nerdy romance, I swear I'll go crazy. It sounds so cute and fluffy and exactly what I would adore. So, I was so excited to jump into getting this book.

And then I read it.
And it was a disappointment.

What a shame.
And what a waste of time.

This book is not a romance. This is a story about people getting stuck inside the mall and all the adventures they encountered just to get out.

Not only that, the small aspect of romance that you can get is just so bad. The so-called hero here is such a bratty kid. He is so pretentious and acts so weird towards this girl he likes, with very sexist prejudices, like a girl cannot become a gamer.

Somehow, in this book, they develop a romance without even getting to talk (?!?!) and I really felt like I was deceived something that I did not ask for based both on the cover and the blurb.

Meh. This book is such a waste of time. Don't bother reading.

Unfortunately, I was left frustrated and disappointed by THE GAMER'S GUIDE TO GETTING THE GIRL. It was such a promising premise but failed, for me, in the execution. Relationships felt forced and unrealistic, and I could not overlook the sexist undertones that permeated the narrative surrounding women and gaming culture.

This story was a quick and cute read. I kind of wished that there was more video game stuff integrated into the story. I get that the main characters play video games, I feel like it would have presented better if the main character used video game terms and stuff moreso in relation to what what happening in this story.

This story was only OK. I found it hard to get into, and the subject matter just wasn't for me because I couldn't easily relate to the characters or at least see where they were coming from.

The Gamer's Guide to Getting the Girl by Kristine Scarrow was a really cute and funny story that will resonate with any gamer.

This is such a unique story. On one hand, it captures the fun and quirky nuances of geeky gamers, appealing to my geeky gamer heart. On the other hand, it pulls on your heartstrings as it deals with devastation, natural disasters and the power of human connection, empathy and compassion.

I loved this aspect of it, how it managed to capture so much and weave it together into one well-done story. What I didn't like so much, however, was the underlaying sexism throughout.

There are quite a few instances where female gamers are explicitly called out for being "unusual" or "rare," as if gaming is something they're not meant to do. The love interest is almost always referred to as "beautiful" and nothing more, as if beauty is all that matters in a woman, and is the only thing that should be noticed. (False). Sexist dialogue was common between the characters, and I just... I winced reading it, and almost DNF'd it faaaaaar too many times. The premise and the plot was enough to keep me reading, but... man, it came close to me giving up on it far too many times.

Unfortunately, the lack of respect for the female characters knocks this down a couple stars. The premise is great, and the thriller/contemporary/romcom genre-defying combination was pulled off beautifully, but beware of the book's final boss: ~ s e x i s m ~

Was an interesting story about a group stuck in the mall. Wished the romance was a little more exciting but was a good read overall.

Quick read. Super fun and loved all the game references. Made for a really good light hearted thriller. Will read more from this author.

I did not finish this book.
Not going to lie, I was super excited to get this book because I have seen an anime similar to it and I was curious to see how a writer would bring the idea to life.
Sadly this great idea just fell flat to me and after making it over half way through the book and not being invested in it and forcing myself to continue I just gave up.

I love the idea, I think it holds a lot of promise unfortunatly it was just not there for me.

I found I was rather frustrated by this book. The protagonist notices the girl in the game store because she's a girl and he's never seen a girl there before. Later Scarrow trots out some statistics about the increasing frequency of female gamers but this isn't reflected in the plot.
The time frame confuses me as well. The desperation of the people in the mall, their ransacking restaurants and the spoilage of food, doesn't fit with the matter of hours they're in the mall. Not to mention the long time between them being trapped in the mall and when the tornado actually hits. I can't work out the time.
Add in the lack of believably in the characters and their lack of development and I call this one a pass.

E-arc received from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest opinion. Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Unfortunately, I think this book wasn't for me. For as long as I can remember, I've always been a gamer so I thought this book would be made for me because on the outside it seemed like a cute and fluffy read but it wasn't it, sadly.

The book starts off in a mall with Zachary and his best friend Cooper who are playing video games in a store. So far, so good. Then, Zach sees the most beautiful girl he's ever seen but he's too self-conscious to go talk to her and prefers to imagine himself as the hero of his favorite game to give himself confidence. However, this is when I started to wince. This book is kinda sexist, not gonna lie. There's a lot of remarks I didn't appreciate and those are the main reasons I DNF'd this book. Another aspect I didn't enoy was the writing style. It was too much telling rather than showing and the dialogues felt awkward at times.

Overall, I would say this book was quite stereotypical and it truly had potential but unfortunately, it didn't live up to it.

Seriously, i tried. i was so hoping for this cute fluffy nerd-romance where you oh so ship them and giggle so hard. What did i get? Not that i expected. Honestly, Zach tried to be this hero for everyone around in the trapped mall because he wants to impress a girl, but his best friend spends all his time with said girl.... And the girl and Zach barely talk, and still get feelings for each other? it dosen't make any sense. I was honestly (yes again) bored out of my mind and could'nt feel any connection with our main character nor the girl.

Just nope.

This was definitely the highest drama book I have read for a while. Between the romantic escapades and the bro-drama, there was also the tornado, the looting, and a bunch of health issues. It was definitely a lot going on. And to be totally honest, I'm not entirely sure that all of it was required in order to tell a meaningful story. It was a really intense read.

Apart from where there was just a lot of shit going down, I liked the way the story tried to give Zach, our MC, a noble cause. He's just that nice, but kind of nerdy guy, who wants to help but in a normal scenario doesn't have a lot of confidence. Which was fine, and while I understood his motivations, I don't really feel like HE understood his motivations. It was nearly like the book was too grown up for him (which is fair because he's 15 years old).

The rest of the cast of characters weren't really solid either. A lot of the characters did things that I felt people wouldn't necessarily do in that sort of situation. I mean, would you hand your baby to a complete stranger? I also felt like a lot of the side characters existed purely to push Zach in a direction he needed to go, or to show him in a good light for the love interest. I did really like George though – I felt like he was the only really solid one in the mix.

The romance felt awkward and a bit clumsy. (And maybe it should have since they were 15.) But then I felt like we skipped some things, and suddenly they were good. I don't know, I guess I just wasn't sold.

Overall, it felt like a middle-grade / YA book for boys. Soft boys. Heterosexual boys. Who like video games and have anxiety about talking to girls. Because I can see so many of them racing to stores to buy romance novels. But it was ... fine.

The concept of this book really struck me as fun– kids trapped in a mall during a storm, avid video gamer’s using gamer strategy to win at real life. I liked Zach’s character. He’s caring and genuine and a bit awkward.

I was a little disappointed that there weren’t more tie-ins to gaming throughout the book. Each chapter has a short title representing Zach’s strategy for the next scenes, but I didn’t really see much connection to gaming in those headings. It felt like a missed opportunity.

The tricky thing about the plot of THE GAMER’S GUIDE TO GETTING THE GIRL was always going to be keeping Zach an active hero rather than just a kid following some adults around who know what to do. For the most part, there was some balance there. Zach stepped in to help others who got hurt or overwhelmed. But he wasn’t usually the one calling the shots, so he did remain in some ways more of a passive character.

On the whole, GAMER’S GUIDE is a fun, clean book that younger teens or older elementary school-aged readers will enjoy for its friendship and adventure. Readers looking for more of a computer-focused story might like GENIUS by Leopoldo Gout.

This was a quick and easy read. II really liked the survival aspect of this book especially because I had never read a book with a natural disaster in it. There were definitely some little things I didn't like but they were easily overlooked. The author does a pretty good job of connecting you to the characters and their emotions. My main issue was the instant love considering how realistic the rest of the book was..

Title: The Gamer’s Guide to Getting the Girl
Author: Kristine Scarrow
Genre: YA
Rating: 4 out of 5

Zack is a gamer. He’s all for adventure, as long as it’s from the safety of his own couch. Then the girl of his dreams walks into his life—in the mall—and Zack manages to stick both feet in his mouth instead of impressing her. Well, it’s not like he’ll have to see her again, right? His embarrassment can die, along with his dreams.

Except the biggest storm in Saskatchewan’s history has people trapped in the mall. Zack, his best friend, Zack’s dream girl, and a handful of others are trapped while the storm rages outside. The waters are rising, the winds are raging, and soon they realize they aren’t the only ones in the dark mall. Zack finds himself in the middle of a real-life adventure, pitting himself against the storm and the shadowy figures that threaten his group as he tries to win the girl.

I’ve seen a lot of negative reviews for this book, and I guess it depends on your expectations. I was expecting a quick, fun read with a bit of romance against the backdrop of a storm…and that’s exactly what I got. Zack’s a good character: he says the wrong thing without realizing, but he tries to do the right thing and puts himself before others. There’s even a couple of great scenes where he sets an example to some younger guys for how to treat women and people in general. The only thing that really bothered me was the tornado: I’m from Texas. Tornadoes here drop out of the sky without warning. They don’t loom for hours (I’m not talking about a tornado watch, where the conditions for one are good, but I mean an actual tornado is on the ground for hours), as they did in this book, so that was actually a deterrent and pulled me out of the story. But…I’ve never been to Saskatchewan; I don’t know how the weather is there. This is just my own personal weather experience.

Kristine Scarrow believes in writing as a healing art. She’s also a mother, an author, and a proudly hails from Saskatchewan. The Gamers Guide to Getting the Girl is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Dundurn via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)

This is an interesting blend of videoing gaming and survivalist genre. It’s not an unheard of mash-up. Seriously, aren’t all video games a kind of narrative about surviving (levelling up?) some sort of extreme environment, whether it’s dystopian, historical or fantasy? So for the main character to apply his gaming skills to use when he and some strangers are forced to bunk down in a shopping mall while a massive tornado encroaches is not a big stretch. Zach is a genuine good guy. Throughout the entire ordeal, he puts every other person first, and risks his own life even though he is scared and unsure.

The other element of the novel is clearly in the title. Just before the shopping mall goes into lockdown, Zach and his best friend Cooper meet a feisty young woman called Samara. She puts Zach in his place several times which only serves to make him more intrigued. But his lack of game (see what I did there?) means his unfiltered responses do not make him look good. But for readers, his flaws are authentic, and make him sympathetic in our eyes.

Zach spends the rest of the book trying to redeem himself directly with Samara, while doing the actual redeeming by his nature of helping others, supporting a mother with her young son Ira, soothing Martha and Peter an older couple, and trying to keep all spirits up when circumstances get very dire. Samara’s own backstory is complex and when it looks like she is bonding more with Coop, Zach is dismayed and hurt. Scarrow has been able to make these relationship dramas integrate with the oncoming storm by allowing Zach to reflect on his feelings through his internal narrative voice. He worries about his parents and brother, he considers his friendship with Zach, and of course, he constantly compares his situation to similar scenarios while gaming and thoughtfully selects a course of action to allow everyone to survive.

When I discovered Zach is 15, I realised that there is a gap in the YA market of boys this age. They are either younger 12 or 13, or much much older. It seems we don’t think about fiction for mid-teens because don’t they all read up (actually, do they read at all?) I thought the characterisation and age appropriateness was balanced well here. He’s interested in girls, but still spends a lot of time with his family. Actually Zach’s family is held up as ‘perfect’ and compared with both Coop and Samara’s circumstances, it is pretty good. Zach becomes aware of how lucky he is to have been given love and support through his life. There’s a lovely section where he and Coop try to convince Zach’s mother about the benefits of gaming, and this is clearly the author showing young people that there are adults who can see that video gaming is not all bad.

This isn’t a lengthy novel, and the tornado brings suspense and tense scenes in which we aren’t sure everyone will survive. But it’s also a thoughtful novel about a teenager who is trying to figure out what it means to be attracted to someone and how to put himself out there and risk his feelings. The chapter headings all relate directly to the title and Scarrow has done a great job of keeping all the elements tied together.

Thanks to Netgalley and Dundurn for advanced copy. The Gamer’s Guide to Getting the Girl will be released in Canada and the US on July 16, hopefully it will hit international shelves soon after. Recommended for readers who are gamers and who rarely see themselves in fiction, and to those who like a tense, plot driven story.