3.5. Very cute M/M romance. If you’re looking for and intro into the genre THIS IS IT. Steam factor of 1, very PG. I liked the story and the road trip aspect. Conrad and Aldens relationship was adorable, and them growing as people and understanding themselves better in those ways (job, self-confidence) wasn’t something you get to see very often in the M/M genre in these ways and this in-depth. I liked that each had their own set of problems, all valid, but came from different backgrounds.

Where it fell a little short for me was the romance, and from what I’ve heard, this is VERY TAME compared to her other books. Which I have noooo problem with. I just kept wanting a little more.

Overall such a cute story, and I did really like the gaming aspect of it.

I received an ARC from Netgalley and I am happy to give my honest opinion.

I have read some of Annabeth Albert's work but nothing quite like this book. I'm not a huge New Adult fan but I loved, loved, loved this book. I smiled the entire way through and my heart feels full with Conrad and Alden.

Alden is a neurodiverse character whose moms have spent years trying to "fix him." He has anxiety and is incredibly intelligent. The only place he feels like he can succeed is while playing Odyssey, a fantasy card game (similar to Magic the Gathering I presume). He is a part of a group that plays for a YouTube channel called Grandpa Gamer with a professor from the local college. He doesn't know where he wants to go next in life and his moms are pressuring him to decide.

Conrad is a college drop out, nearly homeless, broke, and disowned by his family. He does a good job of keeping his struggles to himself and takes joy in playing Odyssey with their group. Alden is his frenemy and challenges him at every go. Their professor gets tickets for the game's convention where the winning prize could change Conrad's life.

Their road trip starts out with other people but eventually ends up being Alden and Conrad in the car. They talk and become friends then become more. It was so freaking sweet. The scenes at the convention were spot on to my experiences at a Con and I felt like I was there with them. The angst is fairly low in the relationship and is more about the situation they are in rather than themselves.

Honestly, this is one of the best m/m books I've read in recent history. It ticked all of my boxes and I can't wait to read more books like it.

This was a fun read and reminded me a lot of my partner and his friends. They play Magic and DND together. They’re both extensive games with a lot of rules that I’m not really into learning.

This book was really cute. However, it wasn’t as good as I expected. The romance was really nice, but the pacing toward the end was just so slow and I wanted the book to be over already.

I really liked how the characters were so different and complex, however, for a good chunk of the book I couldn’t remember who was who. Their names just kept escaping my brain.

I was excited about this book and I really loved the premise, but it just fell flat for me. Nothing was particularly bad, it was just blah. I cared about the characters to a certain extent, but halfway through the book and I felt like there was no progress in their relationship and it was a long and boring ride (literally). The writing was good, and maybe if I had gone into it expecting it to be more YA, it would have liked it more.

Conventionally Yours is an enemy to lovers story and the first in the True Colors series. An enjoyable read I liked the story and the characters and look forward to reading more in this series

This is an adorably cute and geeky new adult enemies-to-lovers road trip romance, with a “just one bed!” appearance. While there’s some heavier content that both characters are dealing with, it’s ultimately perfect summer fluff.

The rivalry between players Conrad and Alden is a mainstay of the popular Gamer Grandpa Youtube channel, but when a chance to compete in a prestigious Odyssey convention in Las Vegas comes up, they have to put aside their enmity for the length of the road trip there. But as the trip goes on, they each discover that their perceptions of the other are off, and that maybe they could actually be friends – or something more.

“Life has a way of screwing people over regardless, so you might as well find fun where you can.”
I scoffed at that. “In my experience, a careful plan goes a long way to avoiding disaster.”


Conrad’s mantra has been to just make it til tomorrow – or just one more turn, if he’s playing Odyssey. He’s had a rough year and winning the tournament would be both the answer to his money problems and a chance to prove that he can make something of himself. In life as well as in Odyssey, Conrad’s strength is in coming up with strategies on the fly, rolling with the punches and eking a win out of impossible circumstances. Alden, on the other hand, is his complete opposite. He likes having a plan, even if right now he’s frustrated by his moms’ insistence on having him map out what he wants to do with his life – like becoming a doctor, if they have any choice in it. Alden’s neurodiverse, and his moms have been trying to put a label on him since he was a kid. He’s literal and misses a lot of jokes and subtext, which lead to him coming off as abrupt and causes a lot of social anxiety for him.

“In so many other ways though, he was far from my type—too prickly, too adverse to fun, too rule-driven, and too immune to my charm. I needed to remember all that before I went labeling him cute and making everything far more complicated than it needed to be.”


I think some familiarity with card games like Magic: The Gathering would be helpful, as it’s assumed that you’ll understand what they mean by scrolls and turns. The pacing is slow and gentle. There’s a lot of time spent on the mechanics of the road trip – driving to the next gaming store, playing a game there, finding food, finding somewhere to stop. It doesn’t really pick up until they get to the gaming competition. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it gives plenty of time for their relationship to change. Like the pacing, this is a very slow burn romance. It’s not that Alden or Conrad change who they are, but rather that the forced proximity makes them interact and overcome their prejudices. Alden thinks Conrad’s a party boy who’s not really serious about the game, while Alden seems unapproachable and rude to Conrad. They slowly open up to each other and become friends, before they both finally accept that some of their animosity stemmed from attraction to each other.

Overall, this is an enjoyable book, a great summer read if you’re looking for something fun and geeky.

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I think this was cute, and I know at some point I'm going to have an older teen patron coming in looking for LGBTQ romance who's also kinda nerdy, so I can just hold out this book, LOL. I'm a fan of the hate-to-love plotline, and I think the characters did well getting to know each other here. The characters do come across as more YA than NA, even though they're 20-23. The sex scenes aren't overly graphic but are definitely implied with the right details, so again, I'd say this is more for older teens. (NA fans might want something with a little more spice to it.)

I've never played collectible card games so I kinda tuned out certain parts (but I know about game vlogs--Markiplier & Game Grumps fans in my house); still, I appreciated what the game meant to Conrad and Alden, as young gay men trying to shape their own futures in the face of unsupportive (Conrad) or overbearing (Alden) families. The ending was sweet.

Conventionally Yours was the fantastic fluffy enemies to lovers book I needed in these crazy times. Alden and Conrad were relatable characters with a fun dynamic between though.

Annabeth Albert is one of the few authors whose books I’ll pick up without needing to know much about them, and I was keen to jump into Conventionally Yours, book one in her new True Colors series. I enjoyed it and looked forward to picking it up again after I’d had to pause, but I can’t say that it completely worked for me. I’m not sure if it’s a case of “it’s me, not you”; it reads more like a Young Adult (maybe New Adult?) book than anything else of Ms. Albert’s I’ve read, so maybe I’m not the target audience. The fact that I know nothing about the world of gaming, didn’t put me off; I actually enjoyed the parts that dealt with the strategies and game-play, and I liked the central characters, but the pacing drags a bit in the middle, and the leads often felt younger than their stated ages twenty-one and twenty-three.

Conrad Stewart and Alden Roth are part of a small group of gamers who’ve met regularly to play Odyssey for the last few years. The online vlog they contribute to, Gamer Grandpa, is run by a former maths professor, and is one of the most popular Odyssey vlogs; as well as analysing their in-person play, Professor Tuttle comments on the online version of the game and offers general game theory for the masses. Of the four players, Conrad, Payton and Jasper are friends, but Alden is still something of an outsider, even after three years of playing together, and the adversarial relationship between Conrad and Alden – especially Conrad’s particular brand of cocky trash-talk – is something of a draw for their audience. The two of them really don’t get on all that well; Conrad thinks Alden is a superior and stand-offish control-freak, while Alden finds Conrad’s casual attitude irritating, seeing him as a party-loving college drop-out who doesn’t really care about anything.

When the book opens, the Professor announces that he’s got them all complimentary tickets for Massive Odyssey Con West, the huge fan convention taking place in Las Vegas the following month. Gamer Grandpa has impressed someone at Odyssey HQ, and he’s been invited to sit on some panels, and they’ve all been invited to play in the tournament – a huge event with prize money and a seat on the pro tour up for grabs. Success in the tournament could be life-changing for both Conrad and Alden, but both of them are reluctant to commit at first. Conrad can’t afford the air-fare, and is surprised when Alden says that he doesn’t fly; but the Professor has it all worked out. They’ll make a road-trip of it; they’ll share the driving, make stops and personal appearances at game stores on the way, play a few hands of Odyssey with the locals, see the sights… it’ll be fun.

Of course even the best-laid plans go awry, and an accident and family emergency leave Conrad and Alden on their own, on what looks set to be an uncomfortable journey. Except that their enforced proximity soon engenders a surprising friendship and affords them the perfect opportunity to start to lower their defences and realise that they’ve completely mis-read each other for three years.

Conrad and Alden are engaging characters who are easy to root for, and their antagonists-to-lovers plotline is fun to read. Conrad is the sort of guy who uses sarcasm and bravado to hide his inner vulnerabilities, and his story is a heart-breaking one – all the more so perhaps, because it’s not an uncommon one when young people come out to unsympathetic, conservative parents. He perceives Alden as incredibly lucky on that score; Alden lives with his two moms, and his queerness has never been an issue, but as Conrad learns more about him, he starts to see that just because Alden never had to hide his sexuality from his family, his life is far from perfect. Alden’s high-achieving moms have pretty much mapped out his life and are trying to force him to make decisions he’s not ready for; he’s socially awkward and has anxiety issues, and reading the part where he talks about his neurodiversity and explains how desperately his moms have tried to find a label to fit him – whether it be Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Personality Disorder or any other disorder – and how he never feels like they see him, was really affecting. Even more affecting is Conrad’s complete acceptance of him:

“Neurodiverse or not… You’re just you. Just Alden. It’s who you are. Changing any of it isn’t necessary.”

The gradual realisation that they’re actually attracted to one another (and have been for a while) is awkward and sweet, Alden’s inability to refer to sex as anything other than “that” is cute, and I liked the honesty and trust they showed to each other. They talk about things that are difficult for them to talk about, sharing their fears, their hopes and their dreams with someone else for the first time, and I also liked the way Ms. Albert has them incorporating the experiences and lessons learned from the trip into their game strategy.

Conventionally Yours is an easy, absorbing read, and Annabeth Albert clearly knows her stuff when it comes to the gaming portions of the story. The writing and characterisation are strong, both protagonists are attractive and complex and I enjoyed getting to know them – but even so, something about this book didn’t work quite as well for me as I’d hoped. The slow pacing in the middle does allow for the relationship to develop and for us to get to know Conrad and Alden as they get to know each other, but on the other hand it is slow, and while the romance is front and centre, and there’s no doubt about their mutual attraction, it all seems a bit low-key. For anyone wondering about the sensuality rating, the sex scenes are pretty much fade-to-black (which works for the tone of the book) which is one of the reasons I wondered if this is YA (it’s not categorised as such at Amazon). So I’m on the fence. There are a lot of good things going on – the representation (Alden is Jewish as well as gay and neurodivergent, Payton is non-binary) is well-done, the gaming sections are interesting and, towards the end, surprisingly exciting! – and the romance is really sweet. There’s definitely an audience out there for this book and others like it, but I’m just not sure it’s me. So I’m offering a qualified recommendation; I suspect it won’t meet the expectations of some of the author’s fans, while others will love the change of pace. I’m somewhere in the middle.

Conventionally Yours by Annabeth Albert is the first book in the True Colors series. Charming, charismatic, and effortlessly popular, Conrad Stewart seems to have it all, but in reality he's scrambling to keep his life from tumbling out of control. Brilliant, guarded, and endlessly driven, Alden Roth may as well be the poster boy for perfection but even he can't help but feel a little broken inside. When these mortal enemies are stuck together on a cross-country road trip to the biggest fan convention of their lives, their infamous rivalry takes a backseat as an unexpected connection is forged. Yet each has a reason why they have to win the upcoming Odyssey gaming tournament and neither is willing to let emotion get in the way—even if it means giving up their one chance at something truly magical.

Conventionally Yours is a slow burn, frienemies to more romance. I really enjoyed the slow reveal of the characters and their individual problems. The getting to know the characters as they really got to know each other was paced very well. Unraveling their fears and problems was intense and I felt for both of them as I took the road trip with them. I found the exploration of new adults facing very different crisis in their lives coming together and getting to better understand each other, and themselves hit me right in the feels. Conrad is always trying to hide his difficulties behind a happy face, not wanting anyone to see what he is going through while Alden just wants to find his place and be accepted as he is without being obsessed with labels. I enjoyed their banter and how well they balanced each other, and I could relate to much of the fear each had about the future and just figuring out who and what they want from it. I thought the neurodiversity and family problems in the book were handled very well, and acknowledged how varied experiences can be, and how people on all sides of the circumstances can react, for good or ill.

Conventionally Yours is an engaging read with realistic characters. I enjoyed the read and will continue to read anything I find by this author.

Things I really enjoyed about this book:
- the way the enemies to lovers progression occurred;
- that it was actually enemies to friends to lovers;
- the incredibly clever game universe created for this story;
- that a character's neurodiversity wasn't glossed over or glorified;
- the pacing of the story;
- I genuinely liked the MCs and the dual narration really helped me understand Alden and Conrad so much better; and,
- all the secondary characters were interesting and not just copy paste facsimiles of secondary characters

I'll be really interested in hearing the narration of this book as I feel between Kirt Grave and Joel Leslie Froomkin they'll add additional layers of nuance to these characters and this story.

I'll be looking out for the next books in this series. A solid 4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐ for me.

This was such a cute, fun, heartwarming book. It is well paced, engaging and impossible to put down. I loved the LGBTQAI+ and Neurodiverse representation of Albert's characters. Both were so thoughtful and so well done. Albert is attentive, caring, and insightful with her characters and their story. and will leave her readers full of joy after they finish the last page.

Conventionally Yours by Annabeth Albert is a sweet Rom-Com. It is the story of Conrad and Alden, famous rival players in the card game Odyssey. When both get a chance to participate in the Massive Odyssey Con West (MOC West) they embark on a cross country road trip. Both have issues they are dealing with in their lives and winning the grand prize will help get their lives back on track. As the miles go by their rivalry turns into a tentative friendship which then blossom into love. Will their new found love be able to survive MOC West?

I would like to say thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for letting me read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of those feel good books. It’s an enemies to lovers stuck in close proximity story that was just so fun to read. I was so happy to read about about multiple queer characters that were just queer with no questions asked. Seeing the board gaming community in this story as a found family for some of the characters was so great because it shows that you can find the people who love and support you anywhere.

At first I thought the destination was going to be the focal point but I was pleasantly surprised by the journey. I love that you get to see the changes both Conrad and Alden experience as they travel together. Their journey shows the reader that there’s is always more depth to people then what is seen in a first impression. I would definitely recommend this book.

If your goal is to read a book that leaves a gazillion of butterflies in your stomach, this read is for you! 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀 by Annabeth Albert is a heartwarming and nerdy story of two mortal enemies who were stuck on a cross-country roadtrip to the biggest fan convention of their lives!

It has all the elements needed to cure my reading slump: Enemies to lovers trope, slow burn romance, witty writing and great character development! I also loved how it talked about real-life pressures. I'm so happy that this is a series and I'd get to see more of Conrad and Alden soon!

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀 is set to be released today! It's also the perfect read for Pride, so please add this gem to your list. Full review will be posted on my blog by end of week. Thanks to Sourcebooks Casanova for giving me an advanced copy!

Wow! This author has range. This is only the second book I’ve read by her and it’s totally different than the first one I read. Both are LGBTQ romance, but the tone is completely different in this one than in Burn Zone. That’s not a bad thing. Both are wonderful stories. I’m just amazed that she can write both types of stories so well.

The vibe in this story has a bit of a YA feel. I’m not quite sure how else to explain it, but that’s how I felt. And not in a bad way at all. Yet, even once the story earned that NC-17 rating from me there was still just a YA feel to it all. I guess because it also felt like a coming of age type of tale to me. Both Conrad and Alden are in their 20’s, but they are still learning a lot of life lessons and finding out who they are. They haven’t quite made it out of the boxes their parents, hometown peers, and society has put them in. It’s an inspiring thing to watch them both come into their own.

Just when I was thinking I couldn’t handle the bickering between Alden and Conrad any longer, the story settled into itself and I was able to start to appreciate the journey they were taking me on. While I understood Alden’s prickly outer shell and Conrad’s devil-may-care attitude, they weren’t privy to one another’s motivations. Once they started letting down their walls a bit and actually talking, the most stunning relationship started taking root. Like the pair of them, I didn’t want their road trip to end.

This couple is insanely sweet together, even once things start heating up. There’s still somehow an innocence to their interactions. I couldn’t get enough of the two of them together, talking things out. It’s when they withdrew back into their own heads that problems would pop up. Together…they were unstoppable.

Beside the story of Alden and Conrad, there were many other things I enjoyed in this book. The game play was interesting without bogging the story down. It was written in such a way that you don’t need to be any sort of gamer to understand what they’re talking about in those scenes. We, as the audience, have no idea the rules of the game. Yet I never felt lost or confused. The gaming scenes are actually used to move the story forward instead of thrown in for show.

While I read a wide variety of romance and have read plenty with non-traditional couplings, I believe this is the first story I’ve read where a prominent character has the they/their/them pronouns. Not only did I appreciate this, I hope to see more of this in the future. I will be truthful and say it sometimes took me a second look to realize who was being talked about. But the more we have it in our books, the more people will get used to using these pronouns and (hopefully) they will become more familiar the masses. The author definitely didn’t gloss over the problems and prejudices the LGBTQ community faces, but she gave her characters a safe space on the page where they could be themselves, as it should be everywhere.

So far, with the little bit I’ve read from this author, I’m sold. I cannot wait to read more.

4.5 Stars
Conrad Stewart and and Alden Roth are both in their early 20s and regular competitors in the Odyssey card game YouTube program called "Gamer Grandpa". The titular "Grandpa" is Professor Tuttle, a mathematics professor at Gracehaven College, where Conrad was a student and Alden is in a graduate program. The vlog is super popular and Prof Tuttle has gotten comped tickets to Massive Odyssey Con West (MOC-West) in Vegas for himself and the whole group of players that regularly appear in the vlog. Reactions are mixed for different reasons.

Conrad's father cut him off financially when he was outed for being gay--and he's working to stay in New Jersey and away from his homophobic father in Kansas. He's living hand to mouth, and hardly has the money to pay for his asthma medications, let alone a trip to Vegas. But, if he's out there and plays well he could get sponsorship to join the pro Odyssey tour, and then his money woes would be over. Not that he can afford to go...until Prof Tuttle suggests a week-long drive out to Vegas in Black Jack, his personal cruiser. He can't drive alone and thought the team could help him, and stop at some game shops along the way to film pick-up games for the vlog and drop off some merch. When Conrad's latest couch surfing experience disappears, he's got nothing left to lose. He's in.

Alden is deathly afraid of flying, so a cross-country drive is really the limit of his mobility. And, he'd like to be in charge. He's neurodiverse, whatever that means--and I'm not being flip about it. Neurodiversity is a spectrum of neurological issues that can include anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive, and may weave into the autism spectrum. Each neurodiverse person is unique and needs a tailored care/management plan. For Alden's case, he's definitely rocking anxiety pretty hard, but there seems to be a touch of obsessive-compulsive and what had once been called Asperger's. For years his moms took him to doctors for a diagnosis on his "issues" and this has left Alden feeling like he's broken. Add to that, he can't seem to make it into medical school despite his stellar grades. It's hard for Alden to read context clues in facial, body or verbal cues. It's why he seems so prissy to Conrad, who's a bona fide charmer of all god's creatures. Not sure where his life is truly headed, Alden volunteers to ride along to MOC-West. He can't let Conrad with the big tourney, after all.

Two other of the vlog team are preparing for the trip, Payton, who's flying out to Vegas, and Jasper, who will also join the road trip. And, catastrophe strikes. Prof Tuttle needs to stay back for medical treatment, but he urges Conrad, Jasper and Alden to take Black Jack and gas money to make the trip as planned. And then Jasper's family emergency leaves Alden and Conrad in the car together. They have an animosity on the vlog that translates into real life. Alden is jealous of Conrad's easy going nature, feeling Conrad embodies all the qualities that his moms had never found in himself. Conrad just thinks Alden is an insensitive, controlling jerk, not really getting that Alden's lack of inflections and emotional struggles are an issue he can't truly control.

Long hours together bring reality to the forefront: these young men have a lot of trauma to deal with, and they do so through small and halting conversations, at first. Their experiences on the road cause them to share more and more of their personal demons with one another, and the long nights in shared hotel rooms lead to even more intimate moments. Conrad is drawn to Alden's fragile-seeming frame and elfin good looks, while Alden's always coveted Conrad's affability and experience. I really liked these guys, who are both sympathetic from the beginning. They both want to win the MOC-West tournament, and they are in excellent position to do so. Once they start falling for one another, however, life gets real complicated, real quick.

I'm not going to say more about the plot except to say that the tournament is handled deftly, and I felt like I could have been there watching. The gaming aspects of the book are easily enjoyed even by an old lady like me who never did get into these sort of games. There is such a great description of the Odyssey community, I couldn't help but be swept away in the fervor of it all. I'm a huge fan of road trips, and I was grateful for the vicarious exploration I got while reading this book under Illinois' 'do not travel order'. I fell in love watching Alden and Conrad support one another, first as friends and later as lovers. There really is NOT a lot of sexytimes in this book, but the emotions are off the charts. I highly recommend!

Conventionally Yours is an enemies-to-lovers, nerdy, road-trip, new adult romance novel.

Conrad & Alden are thrown together to road-trip across the country to a convention for their favorite trading card game. Although they start the trip hating each other and getting on one another's nerves, they learn along the way that the other is not quite who they thought. And, maybe they're way more perfect for each other than they could have ever imagined.

This was such a fun read! I really enjoyed the romance as I'm always a sucker for enemies-to-lovers. It also had some GREAT tropes like forced proximity and "whoops, there's only one bed in the hotel room." And, lemme tell ya, those never get old!

I also appreciated the amount of diversity this book included, without it feeling forced or turning characters turning into caricatures. One of the lead love interests is neuro-diverse & Jewish, there is a non-binary character with they/them pronouns, as well as a number of gay/bi/pan/queer characters.

My only complaints about this story are that the road-trip aspect felt a little repetitive and boring at times, and I could have gone for more steam. But, overall, this was a really solid read and I'm very happy to have read it. Would for sure recommend!

Welcome to this book review,
Disclaimer : I received an ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review.

I seem to be stuck in 3 stars reads lately, nothing against them much it just is missing the humph I get from other books. I really enjoyed a previous book I read by this author, a military romance and I had hoped to find some of the same heat and romance that I had previously encountered with her books.
I did not mind the gaming aspect as I enjoy video games, but wished there was more romance, not that there wasn't any, just not as much as I would've liked.
I enjoyed our enemies to lover trope and the only one bed in the hotel thing, but it did not have sexual tension that I was expecting to see/feel through my read.
It wasn't bad, not the best MM romance, but nothing that I will re-read again and again.
I did have a great time reading it overall.
While it does drag a little in the middle of the book it is a pretty nice read, though I would recommend her military romance more than this one.
3/5 stars
Bookarina

[Thanks Netgalley for the ebook. This review is my honest opinion but just another opinion, you should read this book and judge it by yourself]
I really enjoyed this sweet story.
I must tell that I thought I wasn't going to like it for I found difficult to connect with the story at the beginning (I didn't like Alden and the whole game story was too foreign to me). But I kept on reading and bit by bit I fell in love with Conrad and Alden (to know them is to love them!). They're so sweet you want to hold them very tight and give them the love they lack.
Although they have troubles (especially Conrad, what a terrible life), the main point of the book is their personal journey, from hate to love, and I think Annabeth Albert doesn't want to waste time in other things, so the book may seem a bit superficial.
Although it's NA (since Conrad and Alden are in their twenties), I read the whole time feeling like it was YA, sometimes they felt like teenagers discovering their first love. There are a lot of feelings and few hot scenes, but I think it suits with their story and the way Annabeth Albert tells it to us.
I had a lovely time reading this book.
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Está entre 3'5 y 4 estrellitas pero es de las pocas veces que redondeo al alza porque me ha sorprendido gratamente.
Hace poco leí por primer vez a Annabeth Albert y la verdad es que me gusta cómo escribe, independientemente de que luego la historia me llegue más o menos. Cuando vi este libro en Netgalley con la portada colorinchi no me pude resistir a pedirlo. El caso es que, por un lado, tenía buena pinta porque parecía de gente que iba a una convención friki (algo que me encanta), pero, por otro lado, los protas parecían jovenzuelos (algo que me encanta menos). A todo esto, digo "parecía" porque no leo sinopsis, así que iba a ciegas. Total, que lo pedí, me lo dieron y me costó una cuarta parte del libro conectar con él, principalmente por culpa mía (esta situación extraña me distrae cada dos por tres), pero ni los protagonistas (sobre todo Alden, al que al principio puedes hasta cogerle manía) ni tampoco el modo en el que está contado (cada capítulo desde un punto de vista) ayudan. Te cuesta engancharte a la premisa en la que se basa (un grupo de gente que juega a un juego -del que básicamente no me enteraba de nada- y van a hacer un road trip para jugar en una megaconvención) y creo que hay que hacer pequeño esfuerzo por seguir porque se nota que ambos van a merecer la pena. Y por supuesto que la merecen. Conrad y Alden son un encanto. Empiezan el viaje como enemigos y rivales y lo terminan totalmente enamorados. Por el camino, vamos descubriendo los secretos que ocultan y que les hacen comportarse de ese modo. La escritora prefiere no separarse de la premisa inicial (el viaje a la convención y el surgimiento del amor), así que todo lo que trata, lo hace de un modo muy ligero, sin apenas profundizar. Ambos protagonistas están en un momento decisivo de sus vidas (la situación de Conrad me parece tremenda pero, por desgracia, seguro que es muy real) pero el foco del libro está siempre en el amor que se va desarrollando entre ellos. Puede que parezca muy superficial al dejar esas cosas algo de lado pero a mí me ha parecido que la intención del libro era hacer una historia más bien dulce y que podamos disfrutar de ella con los protagonistas, así que les acompañamos en esa burbuja que ellos mismos van creando poco a poco.
Aunque ambos están en la veintena, he tenido casi la sensación de estar leyendo un YA. Hay momentos guarreriles, pero lo importante son siempre los sentimientos, así que las descripciones son pocas y ligeras. No soy yo mucho de estas cosas pero, increíblemente, no me ha parecido un moñismo, me ha parecido cuqui, dulce y bonito.
Es una historia bien escrita, pequeña y dulce de chicos normales que descubren el amor y, de paso, sus propias fortalezas. Me ha hecho pasar un buena rato y me encantaría que lo tradujesen.