Unfortunately, I thought this book was stilted and chilly in style. Lots of internal explanation that's inauthentic and boring...

A light-hearted 'forbidden' romance. Having a crush on your best friends dad isn't the best idea, but you can't control who you are attracted to or what the heart wants. The Hero/Heroine's characters aren't overly developed, but you know enough about them to form a solid opinion. He is a good guy, single dad who hasn't gone out in the dating world for years. The Heroine is a year(ish) into the single life after spending the past 15ish years with her high school sweetheart, only to be blindsided in more than one way. Their love of gaming brought them together even more than the fact that he was her best friends dad. There is a lot of game talk throughout the book. (The series is titled Gamer Girls afterall.) It gets into a lot of detail that doesn't really have to do with the romance, that may 'bore' some readers if that isn't your thing, but can be easily overlooked or skimmed if you so desire, without taking away from the main plot of the story. For the most part it's a clean read. There are a couple of scenes that have sexual content, but it is nothing to blush about. (Mostly letting the readers know what is going to happen without all the graphic details.) There is some angst, as the Heroine struggles with what her heart wants, and what is the right thing to do. It reads easily and the story moves quickly. It is written strictly from her POV.

*I received a copy of this book from Netgalley.

"Gamer girl" Holly has been unlucky in love. She's been single for a year after she discovered that her ex cheated on her AND used their company to commit fraud. But, at the urging of her best friends Gwen and Shannon, Holly is ready to put herself back out there The only question is, with who? The obvious choice is Nathan, her attractive, compassionate roommate, who she's been crushing on for years. The problem? He's Gwen's father...albeit a young, attractive dad. Holly could never pursue Nathan without risking her friendship with Gwen. Enter Marc, a cute, kind customer at the game store where Holly works. Even though there aren't tons of sparks there, he's at least a reprieve from her slimy ex and the slew of creepy guys she talked to on dating apps. Marc could be what Holly is looking for, but Holly isn't so sure he's any match for Nathan. This book follows Holly as she returns to the dating scene, while she and her friends play-test the new legacy game created by Shannon.

This book was a super creative take on a romance. The love triangle between Holly, Nathan, and Marc was definitely a more traditional trope, but it didn't feel cliched. It was made more interesting by the addition of the original legacy gameplay and the quotes from the instruction manual at the beginning of each chapter. I'm not a huge gamer or anything, but I liked the game because it added in some more suspenseful elements. I really can't think of another book I read where the author created an entire story-within-a-story with that level of creativity and originality.

There were things I didn't love about this book; however, I think many of those can be attributed to the fact that I didn't realize this was part of a series until I was halfway done reading the book. For instance, I thought there was very little exposition and introduction of the characters, but that wouldn't have been a problem if I had read the first book in the series before this one. I definitely want to go back and read the others now! I also would have liked a little more detail in terms of the setting. All I could really tell is that it took place in Boston; I would have loved more description so I could imagine the book's events more clearly.

It took me weeks to start this book because life happened. (sigh) I was so busy past few days but its never too late, right?

I actually finished this book for only 4-5hrs (in 2 days) This was a page-turner. This book got my attention really good. I was hooked! There's something in it that would make you feel so excited all through out the book.

I actually didn't know that this is a book 2. I think they are still can be read as stand-alone? Not really sure but I didn't have any problem understanding the story.

I love the friendship. It's realistic, they're all cool, and somehow adorable.

I could feel Holly. Her fears. Her confusion. Everything. I loved that even if she was afraid of things, she could still manage to face them. And that's important. Like really important.

I love the ending as well. I will not spoil anything here. I just loved that this book managed to have almost everything. Love, friends, fears and overcoming them, forgiveness, mistakes because we're people and we are allowed to have them but we also need to learn after, and of course, the games! It was awesome and cool.

Holly has hit rock bottom in her life. Her ex-fiance has stolen all of their client's money, as well has her own personal savings, and is possibly heading to jail. Holly thankfully had no knowledge of the scam he was running allowing her to gain immunity by testifying against Lucas. Holly is lucky enough to secure a job at a local game store (no, not video games...actual games) while she waits out her probation which bans her from working as a programmer. One of the perks of this new job is getting to play-test new games that are being created and Holly gets to enjoy this with her closest friends. Gwen and Holly have been best friends for the last 5 years, saving her after things blew up with Lucas by moving her into a spare room at her childhood home. Nathan, Gwen's dad is 43 years young and single after Gwen's mother left them when she was young but what Gwen doesn't realize is that this act of kindness is about to cause the flood gates to open on a secret Nathan & Holly have been trying hard to keep hidden. In my opinion, "Against the Rules" will appeal to a specific kind of reader but will miss the broader audience. The "gamer" theme of the book didn't really catch my interest but I can see how it would for those that are interested in this hobby. Laura Heffernan has another book in the "Gamer Girl" series but "Against the Rules" felt like it was a stand-alone book without having read the first. I really wanted to like this book but struggled at times with the surface-level relationships and the constant overthinking inner monologue of Holly. Thanks to Netgalley and Kensington Books for an advance digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second book in The Gamer Girls series.

In the last book (it’s not necessary to read, but it does give you a little background to take you into this book.) Holly finds out her fiancé had been cheating on her, and he’s stolen money from her, so she dumps him....

But that has given her confidence a huge knock, so she retreats Into the shop she works in (a gaming shop)

After her friends (Gwen and Shannon) convince her to go out and have a little fun, she plucks up the courage to go out, but with whom?

Nathan is her best friend’s dad, so she shouldn’t be looking at him, but there is something about Nathan that appeals to Holly, and once they start playing this new game, she sees him a whole new light. (And to be honest, she’s always had a little crush on him)

Marc is Holly’s indecisive game customer (but is that to get Holly’s attention?) he comes in and they discuss the games. When he finally plucks up the courage to askHer out, it’s via text (but it’s the modern world and dares are now arranged that way, I suppose?)

And after a couple of disastrous online chats, Holly needs to get out into the real world and date (can’t do it all online)

So ...... who will Holly choose? And what about the cheating thieving ex? You know somewhere along the line he’s going to make an appearance. Will she be sweet talked into letting him back into her life?

I’ll have to be honest, I liked this one, but not as much as the first book (She’s Got Game) the characters bounced off of one another, where in this book, I don’t get that same feeling.

I did like the game thought at the beginning of the chapter, but not sure I needed to hear so much about the Game they were playing.

🦋

I really wanted to love this book and series. I’m it sadly I couldn’t connect with it. I had a hard time connecting to the characters and storyline. The story was well written but just not my cup of tea.

This is a Netgalley ARC review. All opinions expressed are solely my own.

I'm surprised to say I really enjoyed this book. I didn't know much about this book or the author when I received this book. Generally a best friend's dad trope does not interest me. However, Laura Heffernan did a great job of not making it seem creepy. I felt like Holly was maybe too naïve to be believable but she was a very likeable character. Again, I expected Nathan to be creepy but he was the most believable and likeable character in the book.

This is book 2 in the Gamer Girls series. I had not read book 1 and did not feel lost. I can't wait to read books 1 and 3.

A really slow start made this a very difficult book to get into. Holly is understandably wary of men after a terrible situation with her previous fiancee--he was using their business as a ponzi scheme and embezzling money from investors! However, she's clearly not ready to jump into the dating pool and has a crush on her friend's dad (he's 44 to her 28). She's basically renting a room with him while she gets back on her feet. However, the entire first quarter of the book is her in her own head, feeling sad about herself (which is fair!) and longing for Nathan. Just not enough was happening to keep me interested. There was far more extensive development of the table top games she was playing than her love interest. I found myself doing a lot of power skimming to get to interactions between Holly and Nathan to keep my interest.

Oh wow. Such a cute boom and I adore the game playing theme throughout. I wish I had read the first one before this but I know I will be reading anything that comes from Laura Heffernan now. I love her turn of phrase.

I really like the IDEA of this book much more than the actual execution of the book. I like the main characters both separately and together but with the Female MC and her reaction...I couldn't deal. She was OTT and then in the later third of the book it fell apart too much for me to recover and I found myself not caring how it ended.

While there's nothing inherently wrong with this book, I just didn't particularly like it. I found the main character annoying and the plot completely contrived. It also felt like I was dropped in the middle of a story and was supposed to know what was going on (I had not read the first book in the series). I also find the whole 'I'm in love with my best friend's dad' sort of off-putting, even if he was only 15 when she was born. I'm also not a fan of first person, single POV, as I miss being in the head of the l9ve intetest. Don't think I'll be checking out the rest of the titles in the series.

This was a fun, quick read and I read it in about a day (couple of hours).
Holly has had a tough go but things start looking up and she falls for her best friend’s dad. Oh boy!! So much happens in a short time and she ends up pregnant.
But things end well for everyone & Holly gets her happy ending; a man she loves, a baby & an amazing job.
I would recommend this book to friends.

2 disappointed stars. I wanted to like this so much more than I did. Despite the adorable cover, exciting hook (girls who game), and hint of a love triangle, I found Holly and her friends tedious and irritating.

The whole book was spent in Holly's head and her self-pitying, insecure mind was not a fun place to be. After Holly's ex-fiance was charged with operating a Ponzi scheme, Holly is working at a gaming store while on probation pending trial and renting a room from her best friend Gwen's good-looking 43-year-old dad Nathan. Holly has long crushed on Nathan but has convinced herself that he's not interested, Gwen would never approve, and Nathan deserves better. So Holly decides to turn into "Flirt Holly" and try all the dating apps. Enter Marc, a mild mannered store customer, who finally asks Holly out just as she heads to Mexico for Gwen's wedding.

Just like the book blurb, the description above is far more exciting than the actual story. Holly overthinks everything, and then dithers, and then makes excuses for why she doesn't talk to Gwen about her feelings for her dad, why she can't be in a relationship with Nathan, why she's still dating Marc even after Nathan shows interest, why she reaches out to her ex-fiance, why she leaves Nathan's apartment. So much so, I just found myself constantly asking, "Why, Holly, why?" every time she did something immature, which was a lot.

Also, to my surprise, the gaming aspect of the book turned out to be a confusing bore. I love romances with gamers, but the game in this one baffled me. Holly's friend Shannon developed a game and asked their friends to test it. Nathan is the "Jock" and Holly is the "Flirt" in the game, which should have been some kind of metaphor, but I was too bored to pay attention to the game, much less draw parallels.

Turns out I'm not the only one annoyed by immature, passive Holly. Gwen lost her cool big time with Holly. Then Holly and Nathan have a blowout. At a time when Holly needed support the most, she found herself completely alone and I couldn't understand why she would keep on gaming with the crew.

I have the first book, Gwen's book, in my TBR. But after her belligerent, childish behavior, I now doubt if I will ever get myself to read about her and poor Cody. I'm not even interested enough to find out what happened to Shannon and her game (and Tyler).

This was the first time reading this author. The writing was clear and light; loved the line, "Although if I could find a way for Nathan and me to save the world from zombies or Trump, I would absolutely go for it". But unfortunately, I never fell in love with Holly or Nathan or understood why they fell in love with each other. And I really hated Gwen.

I haven’t read the first book but I do felt like I was missing something that important.
It’s a well written age gap story that has an interesting mix of characters and romance.
I was immersed in the story from the beginning because Molly it’s definitely a great heroine, a woman who is easy to relate to and her story can be of any friend of ours.
Nathan is a great man that loves his family and life but will still stand for himself to find his happiness with his choice of woman and not his daughter’s .
The secondary characters are pictured so well that I definitely want to read their story in the next instalment.
I’ll recommend this book to all my readers friends.

Heat Factor: Some slow burning, all closed door action
Character Chemistry: Jealous and yearning glances are very convincing
Plot: Just as angsty as you’d expect
Overall: Heffernan writes heroes I want to marry and heroines I want to slap

I read the first book in this new “Gamer Girls” series, adored Cody and wanted to slap Gwen so much that she took the book from amazing to not amazing for me. But in She’s Got Game we got a little hint of Holly, Gwen’s gamer girl BFF, and Nathan, Gwen’s dad. And then Heffernan included an excerpt of this book at the end of She’s Got Game. A May-December romance? Sign. Me. Up.

This book was everything I wanted it to be. It went a few places I wasn’t really expecting, but that was a good thing, Primarily it didn’t include an absurd quantity of stupid immaturity on Holly’s part, which was my greatest fear.

What’s going on here? Holly went through a bunch of terrible life stuff in She’s Got Game. She was engaged to a legitimately awful human being who not only cheated on her but also involved her (unknowingly) in a pyramid scheme in their Venture Capital startup. She was the programmer and he was the accountant, and boy did she get burned. As a result, she’s struck a plea deal, is on probation, and can’t do any programming for 18 months. She was living with her shady fiance, but after the fallout from the cheating she moved in with BFF #3 in the friend triad and then with Nathan after his leg was broken in a fall. It was a whole thing. But she’s basically living low rent off the charity of her best friend’s dad. So when this book opens, she’s working in everyone’s favorite game store feeling like her life is kind of terrible. (It could totally be worse, but yeah, she’s not entirely wrong.)

All she needs to do is get back on her feet. Maybe one way to do that is to get back into dating, but it’s hard to be interested in dating when men are just so terrible. It’s also hard to do that when you have a totally inappropriate crush on a man who’s 15 years older than you and is also your best friend’s dad...and with whom you reside.

Given the Nathan-Gwen-Holly relationship triangle going on, there is going to be some angst. The question is, does Heffernan treat this with a degree of maturity or not? Gwen was so fantastically immature, I wasn’t optimistic. To be honest, if Holly is totally mature about this whole thing, there’s not much of a story. And feelings are messy, so it’s unreasonable on my part to expect some sort of inhuman levels of adult emotional behavior. Holly did often start from a fantastically immature point (e.g. crawling through the bathroom window to escape a date with the hots for mermaids), but she also talked herself around to the mature point (e.g. the guy with the fantasy deserves to hear a rejection face to face). Most of the angst surrounding the relationship also moved in this way, so just as I was getting incredibly frustrated, the wind was taken out of my sails.

For his part, Nathan is not only “Daddy McHotcakes,” he’s, like, a perfect man. He might make jealous faces before he admits his feelings for Holly (the slow burn kind that are flutter inducing), but when it comes down to it, Nathan is so even and supportive that he’s impossible not to adore. Example: Holly says,

“Not to rock the boat, but why are you being so accommodating here? You’re not upset that I’m about to call some other guy?”

He shook his head. “Getting angry would only push you away. When you pick me, I want you to be confident you’re making the right decision.”

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas!

Also, Heffernan uses the word “myriad” properly, so you’re in good hands.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.

This review is also available at The Smut Report.

brief summary
When her first and only other relationship comes to a disastrous conclusion after fifteen years, prompting her to move in with her best friend, Holly finds herself struggling more and more to resist the crush she's always had on her friend's dad. A drunken night at said friend's destination wedding changes everything.

full review
I was initially very excited to start this book because I love reading about gamers having romantic lives. It even seemed to have been written by someone who had done their research, including the right vocabulary for gamers, the right kind of process for beta testing a game, and even an understandable description of how legacy games work (which is no mean feat). Ultimately, though, this was a very difficult book to connect with or grow fond of as a reader because for the majority of the book I was deeply uncomfortable with the romantic premise: the main character, Holly, is deeply in crush with Nathan, the father of her best friend Gwen, and when she learns at that friend's destination wedding that her feelings are reciprocated, the two of them get together and are hurt that Gwen is appalled.

I, too, was appalled, despite my attempts to be open-minded, because for the majority of the book I was under the impression that Holly and Gwen had been friends for a long time, and that Gwen's dad had the hots for a woman he had watched grow up from girlhood. As it turns out, this is not quite the case. As best I can make out, Nathan is 43, Holly is 28, and Gwen might be 36. Nathan got Gwen's mother pregnant when he was 15. Holly met Gwen when she (Holly) was 23. Since Holly and Gwen have only known each other for about five years, it seems Nathan has only known Holly as an adult woman. Learning this did actually go a long way to minimizing the squick factor, but it took me the entire book to piece together these relative ages and how long everyone had known everyone else, by which time I was pretty thoroughly disgusted with Nathan for basically being a predatory creeper and Holly for going after her best friend's dad even though she knew her friend would be against it and she had perfectly acceptable not-her-best-friend's-dad dating options available.

Throughout the book there were so many scenes between Holly and Nathan which were supposed to play as tender, but because of the nature of their relationship just came across as awful. Like when they were watching The Office together with his arm around Holly and his head resting on top of hers. Or when he greeted her by putting his arm around her and kissing her cheek thinking to scare off a creep by pretending they were together (without previously consulting Holly as to whether this rescue was necessary). Other instances where it is usually Nathan trying to convince Holly that they should give this a try read as really predatory and wrong. There's also a bit where he more or less rips off Never Been Kissed with the "'You have to say that because you're [Gwen's father/my teacher].' 'I shouldn't say that because I'm [Gwen's father/your teacher].'" I was really frosted to read that exchange being misappropriated to excuse Holly and Nathan's deplorable behavior as regards her friendship with Gwen.

On a related note, Gwen has never reacted well to Holly's jokes about being into Nathan, and Holly should have respected that, or at least been willing to accept the blame for her role in ending their friendship, rather than being hurt and surprised that Gwen didn't want anything to do with her when she found out Holly and her father were having sex behind her back by walking in on them having sex. Holly was not being a good friend, and she had other options besides banging Gwen's dad. Marc, with whom she feels no spark largely, I suspect, because she refuses to tear her brain away from Nathan for two seconds, seems like a really good fit for her, and definitely calls into question her repeated assertion that no one understands her like Nathan. She simply chooses not to give anyone who isn't Nathan a chance, and that really smacks of selfishness and an "I don't care who I hurt!" attitude, best exemplified when Holly said to Nathan, "I don't care that you're Gwen's dad if you don't." On the morning of Gwen's wedding. After they'd had a drunken shag the night before.

There was a lot of backstory that took place in the first book, apparently, about Holly's ex cheating on her and defrauding the public using a business they built together as a front, and this book went more into the fallout from that, with depositions for Holly to attend, but a lot of that came across as happening with a huffy sigh from the author, who wouldn't have to explain all this if people had just read the first book. That's not to say the book can't stand on its own, just that it clearly was not meant to do so. There's also an unexpected pregnancy and a misunderstanding, which was how I found out everyone's respective ages. That all takes place in the last 20% of the book and feels really thrown in there to add some length.

Overall, I spent too much of this book feeling deeply skeeved by the main characters' romance. It should have been made much clearer that they had only ever known each other as adults from the beginning.

I’ve spent much of the summer engaged in fierce Villainous and Splendor competitions, so I was excited to read AGAINST THE RULES, a new book in Laura Heffernan’s Gamer Girl series. This lively, fun romance is much like the legacy game 28-year-old Holly and her friends are testing—complex and full of unexpected twists. When Holly decides to fully embrace her game character—the Flirt—sparks fly with customers, creeps, and even her best friend’s father. A perfect end-of-summer read.

A cute romance for the gamer subset, Against the Rules is a nice extension of the first book in the Gamer Girl series. I enjoyed seeing our heroine get what she wanted and needed after her heartbreak in the first book, even with the risks of ruining a friendship.

It's a bit cheesy, but I love how well the author manages to incorporate the gaming and relationships and how they intertwine with one another.

I really really really wanted to love this book. I love the premise - a May-"December" type romance involving geeky gamers? sign me up!! But, this just didn't flow - and there was a heck of a lot going on. I did not read the first book in the series, but I truly felt like I was dropped into the middle of a situation I didn't understand. Obviously a lot had happened between the heroine and her ex - and his Bernie Madoff type schemes. The author explains it all - but it seemed such an important part of the heroine's background, that it was hard to understand why she acted the way she did without having experienced that trauma along side her. I think the book could have also done with some of Nathan's perspective too.

I can also say, that having read this book first I would not be at ALL interested in the first one (about Nathan's daughter Gwen). Gwen came across as a total spoiled brat. She ultimately apologizes and helps them come together, but it just was a total turn off.

I can also say that hearing about the game was very confusing and complicated. Maybe because I've never played a game like it - but maybe it was also just confusing. Overall - there was just too much going on. So much that I couldn't get in to it because we had to keep skipping around the focus. This book includes <spoiler> age drama, friend drama, ex drama, legal drama, game drama, and to top it all off baby drama. The baby stuff was really the end for me. I believe that the mother has the right to make decisions for herself and her baby, particularly when dad isn't in the picture - but the heroine was making decisions that would effect her child and the child's father's life as though he would have no say whatsoever. She was like - I know he'll pay support. Well sure - he was obviously a good guy who had raised his daughter on his own. Did she honestly think he wouldn't want anything to do with baby #2? That he would be ok with her moving to another state with the baby? It doesn't really work like that. The ending was particularly confusing - because it seems like she is going to take a job based in Albany (out of state and not particularly close to Boston) - but she is still going to marry Nathan? I was confused. The book talks about her being able to telecommute - but it was still weird.</spoiler>

Anyway - I wanted to love this - but I didn't. I also thought the fade to black sex scenes were lame.