⭐️⭐️✨(2.5 stars)
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Sierra is a gaming developer and to go to Gamescon, she needs to prove that she can get in front of an audience and promote their new game. But a sabotaged presentation ten years ago has traumatized her so much that she can’t work through her anxiety. Enter the Chagrin Challenge. Contestants tell their most humiliating tales for a chance to win $1,000. Sierra and Aida believe this might be Sierra’s chance to overcome her fear of public speaking but after regaling the audience with a story about her first embarrassing encounter with her crush Tristan Spencer, the moderator announces “Next up, Tristan Spencer!” Flattered, Tristan and Sierra start talking. But bartender Alfie also has an interest in Sierra. In this awkward love triangle comes truth, lies, love and determination. Definitely a fun and light read for any female gamers out there.

I enjoyed the competitive aspect of this book and the lighthearted romance. Love triangles are also my jam because who doesn’t like to vicariously live through someone else’s life? And one that’s cringe-worthy is an added bonus. So many embarrassing moments in this book. So entertaining. But I found it hard to relate because I’m just not a gamer. I also found the characters to be predictable and frustrating. Sierra’s longtime fascinations with Tristan (who is very much a jerk), was incredibly annoying because she seems like such a strong female lead but she goes down the cliché path of drooling over a crush from 10-years ago. I was hoping for more from her. And more character development from the other characters aside from Tristan, Sierra and Alfie. Overall a good book and fun read.

Thank you @netgalley and @kensingtonbooks {#partner} for gifting me with an advanced readers copy in exchange for an independent and honest review. This book was released yesterday so go grab yourself a copy!

🎮 ARC REVIEW: This is the third book in a row that I’ve read that hasn’t been for me and I’m bummed. I couldn’t even bring myself to post the review yesterday on it’s pub date because it was such a let down and one of the biggest bummers of it is that Crushing It started out great! I loved the gamer girl main character and her best friend running a video game company together. I loved the storyline of our main character finding her confidence and performing in a Moth-like storytelling competition! But around 50% the story got lazy and predictable and just too cheesy for me to handle. I don’t mind cheesy, but this was a bit much and some of the scenes just went off the rails with description. I could SEE the promise of this story through the writing, Lorelei Parker is a descriptive and engaging writer, it just went off course. The main character, Sierra, is kind of juggling two guys from college throughout and keeps saying she can’t remember these huge events from “way back when” even though it was only 10 years ago. I get it, college was HAZY at best for me (I was also there for 6 years so I took my time 🍺) but I’d remember if my diehard crush and I kissed and I wrote about it in my journal. And Sierra doesn’t even remember one of the main characters from college and it sounds like they interacted a lot! It just didn’t make sense to me. I was audibly groaning during the conflict towards the end of the book. I really thought about DNFing but I stuck it out through copious amounts of eye rolling. I gave it 2 stars because it did have promise in the first half...
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PS Sierra dates a dude for a WHILE that doesn’t even know her name. HE DOESN’T CALL HER THE RIGHT NAME FOR A GOOD PORTION OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP. What in the hell????
🎮 Thank you to @netgalley for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
🎮 Pub Date: June 30, 2020

So this wasn't my favorite unfortunately. And I don’t know if it was my gut telling me for some reason I wouldn’t enjoy this as much as other books, but something about a female gamer just didn’t connect with me and I was worried this would be full of clichés and situations I would never understand and connect with.

Unfortunately, this was kind of what I expected it to be. Nerds and geeks galore, just wasn’t my jam. The situations she was in and the conversations they all had were not relatable and I found myself wondering if that’s how the author thinks real life is. I think my biggest problem was I didn’t like Sierra. At all.

I might not write the author off right away. It’s hard to write a book and it doesn’t always resonate with everyone. But I’d give her another chance! Maybe different content would be better for me.

Female Vs. Male is an old fight which might never end but the people will
eventually find their balance. However, if the female tries to enter the male
territory then they would assume that this has happened because of her looks. The
intelligence of the females has always been a question and when that ends up in a
battle between opposite genders then the results would be competent with your
time.
Nerds, geeks, video games. MMORPG looks like a new term but it is quite famous
in the video game world. The gaming world is unknown but it is the creation of the
imagination of the developers who are sometimes ignored as being geeks or nerds.
Usually, the designation is given to males and when a female developer enters,
then the story can create chaos. The story is beautifully displayed with the help of
the nerdy game terms and the thirst for survival is very well visible.

It's worth reading, even if you do not understand the game world.

This book was great! There was a lot of reality to it. Maybe that's weird to say, but it's the only way I can think to describe it. I was able to picture everything that happened actually taking place in real life, and I didn't find myself questioning much. The world of gaming is a new environment for me, but it didn't take away from the overall story, and it wasn't Sierra's entire identity. I was able to follow along without getting lost in something I had no idea about, and that impressed me.

As for Sierra, she was your everyday kind of girl. She gamed, she dated, and she had embarrassing stories she would rather not relive. She was REAL, and she could laugh at herself. Her relationships were real too. She lived with her best friend, she taught yoga and had yoga moms. She also had stage fright, like a lot of people I know (me included). She was a great character to relate to and she was refreshing in a lot of ways.

The relationship between Sierra and Alfie was organic, or it felt so to me. She kind of knew him from college, and he knew her. They spoke like friends, and it slowly developed into a romantic relationship. It was natural to read, funny and embarrassing at times, and I was cheering for them alongside Sierra's best friend.

There isn't much I can say about this story that I didn't like, other than Tristan really. I came to really dislike him 🙁 and he got on my nerves. Especially the way he was able to keep hanging around, and creating a love triangle. As much as he annoyed the crap out of me, it was a job well done by the author 🙂

Overall, this story was cute and heartwarming, with some funny and embarrassing moments that kept you smiling. I think this book will be enjoyed by may, and bonus if you're a gamer 🎮🎮

If you're looking for something new and refreshing, this is your book. Built around Sierra, a gamer with quirks and challenges to overcome, one such challenge being public speaking. The characters are well developed and everything you'd hope for. I loved reading how their stories come together, their relatable skepticism, and of course, the attraction!

In the end, you'll not only fall in love with the characters, but with the gaming world!

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this and give my honest opinion.

2.5 Stars

Crushing It is a debut rom-com from Lorelei Parker. The story is about Sierra Reid, a self proclaimed nerd and game designer. Sierra wants to pitch her latest idea to her company at a big conference in Germany, but she’s got a bad case of nerves. So on the advice of her friend she goes to a diary slam at a local bar, where she unexpectedly runs into her college crush, Tristan Spencer. Even though she’s embarrassed by their encounter, Tristan is flattered and he asks to spend time with her. Sierra agrees, but feels conflicted because she’s also spending time with Alfie, another blast from her past. Now she doesn’t know who she wants more, and she still needs to figure out her game plan. What’s a girl to do?

I love getting to read debut books, because I love to support new creatives in the romance subgenre. The blurb of this book drew me in, since I could relate to the story of a nerdy girl wanting another chance with her college crush. I also loved that Seirra was a game designer which is a very male dominated career.

I wanted to like this book since it seemed primed to tick off so many of my favorite boxes, and it was highly advertised as a good summer read. However, it was a struggle to finish the book because I had issues with the characters and the plot. Parker’s writing was well done, and I see a lot of potential in her work.

The premise of the story was interesting. I think it was just a bit too predictable for me, especially since the love triangle followed a lot of similar beats to classic rom-com movies like Pretty in Pink and Never Been Kissed. This made the reading of the story both familiar and comforting, while at the same time being entirely too predictable. Alfie was a great romance hero and the perfect antithesis to Tristan’s spoiled and entitled pretty boy. Many people will enjoy that the quiet boy gets the girls like Duckie should have all those years ago.

However, I didn’t want the girl to get anyone. I didn’t like being in Sierra’s head and found her character to be a very strange contradiction. We’re told she’s a nerd that wants to live in the shadows, but she’s also the queen of hookups which seems like two sides of the spectrum. She also spends way too much time entertaining the idea of Tristan and holding Alfie at an arms’ length. I couldn’t figure out why such a good guy like Alfie was so interested in her.

This book also reads like other rom-coms from authors like Jasmine Guillory or Emily Henry, which I have started to term “romance-lite”. This, to me, means that the story focuses a lot of page time on other elements of the story besides the central love plot. The generally accepted definition of a romance is that the love story is the central plot, and this is the type of book I want to pick up. In this book we’re wasting a lot of page time on Sierra’s job and her interactions with Tristan. It’s not till three quarters into the story that true romance blooms between her and Alfie.

I didn’t find anything in the book to have a genuine laugh at, most of the comedic beats were relying on embarrassing or uncomfortable situations. This kind of humor works in TV or movies but is truly difficult to pull off on page. I think you’d be better served by truly funny contemporary authors like Tessa Bailey or Talia Hibbert who don’t rely on embarrassment to get the laugh. I’d love to tell you to support this new author, and if anything I’ve mentioned in this review isn’t a deal breaker for you then give it a shot. Otherwise, save your pennies and seek out better examples from the authors I’ve mentioned above.

~ Lindsey

I almost completely gave up on this book.
I was fully prepared to stop at 20% and be done with it.
I’m glad I didn’t though. I enjoyed this book!

Crushing It follows game developer Sierra Reid. I had a huge issue with Sierra in the beginning of this book. She was so dumb, and just annoying honestly. It was the reason why I almost DNF this book. I need to connect with a main character and I just couldn’t with her.

I loved the writing style. It was entertaining, funny and cute.

I found the storyline to be super interesting and what kept me reading.

If you love rom-coms you should definitely consider this one!

Thank you Netgalley for the copy of this!

🎉 HaPpY #pubday + #bookreview
available for pUrChAsE now!
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📚 #crushingit by Lorelei Parker, Kensington Books.
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💕 RomCom, my favourite Genre!

336 pages (31 chapters) of a RoLLeRcOaStEr RiDe!! And damn did I love it!!
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Now this is a Romantic Comedy book but it is also iNsPiRaTiOnAl, feminist, entertaining and YES it is not a completely clean romance novel, it has descriptive physical intimacy, about 2/5🔥but it's so well written that it mingles effortlessly with the story.
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📖👓 READ it if;
🔖 You are looking for a fabulous, fresh romcom;
🔖 If you like gaming, yes u heard it right, gaming. The protagonist is a game developer & the story moves while keeping gaming in the backdrop the whole time.
🔖 If you believe in true love;
🔖 If you feel real, loyal friendships are so precious,
🔖 If you wanna get inspired to wheel over your insecurities & also get some clarity of thought;
🔖 If you wanna smile, laugh & cry all along the journey;
🔖 If you want to read about how past events, school/ college crush can influence your present...
THEN READ THIS BOOK!

The PLOT is so innovative & refreshing!
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Catch the #blurb here

To pitch her new role-playing game at a European conference, developer Sierra Reid needs to overcome her terror of public speaking. What better practice than competing in a local bar’s diary slam, regaling an audience with old journal entries about her completely humiliating college crush on gorgeous Tristan Spencer?
 
Until the moderator says, “Next up, Tristan Spencer . . .”
 
Sierra is mortified, but Tristan is flattered. Caught up in memories of her decade-old obsession as they reconnect, Sierra tries to dismiss her growing qualms about him. But it’s not so easy to ignore her deepening friendship with Alfie, the cute, supportive bar owner. She and Alfie were college classmates too, and little by little, Sierra is starting to wonder if she’s been focusing her moves on the wrong target all along, misreading every player’s motivations.
 
Maybe the only winning strategy is to start playing by her heart . . .
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In life, as in gaming, there’s a way around every obstacle . . .
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Can't thank @netgalley @lorelieparker @kensington enough for this amazing arc!
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#noorthebookwormreviews

this book was cute and easy to read but i just really didn't like the writing. i felt like i was reading something that i would have written when i was 14. even though it's been 10 years since the characters graduated college, they all acted like they were in high school. i didn't really find any of them likeable and they all lacked depth. i believe this was a debut and i see potential in the author but there were just too many moments that made me roll my eyes. the one thing i will say is i found sierra's fear of public speaking was represented well because i'm also terrified to speak in public and i related so much to everything she was feeling. aside from that, i don't think i'd recommend this book.

I loved this book! Sierra was so relatable to me. I am a huge gamer and as soon as I saw this book, I knew I had to have it! Sierra is a video game developer. She has to present her game at a conference and she has to overcome her fear of public speaking.

She enters a poetry slam contest to try to overcome her fear. My second hand embarrassment made me cringe so much. But this is where she meets a few main characters. A few I love and one I absolutely despise.

This book was a quick, very cute read. I loved the people and environment. Gaming nerds are my people. So I loved it! I also loved that the characters were not perfect. The only downside I had was Sierra staying with someone who was horrible to her. But she grows a lot throughout the book. So it all worked out in the end!

-Also you do not need to play video games to enjoy this book. Sierra is still a very relatable character!

*Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review *

The main character, Sierra, is kind of dorky and afraid of public speaking due to a bad past experience. To get over that, she enters in a fun contest at a bar owned by handsome Alfie. There she runs into her college crush. Sierra is a game designer and wants to crush her presentation of a new game at a convention in Germany. This does include a love triangle that is described well and not over the top. This started out a bit frustrating. I didn't really like Tristan. He wasn't really nice. However, I enjoyed reading how the characters grew. It was engaging and a fun read. It made me laugh and smile at different times.

This is my first time reading this author. I found the book a little slow and had a hard time getting into it. Seems like all the characters were hung up on the past and could not move from it. Not my kind of a book but thanks to Lorelei Parker for a chance to read it!


Thanks to Kensington Publishers!

I LOVED this book!! I was actually a little nervous about going into this because I didn’t want the heroine (Sierra) to be obsessed over tristan the whole book! (he’s not the hero in this book... he’s actually an a**hole and I hated him from the beginning) I didn’t want her to be oblivious to how horrible he for the majority of the book... and she wasn’t!! Her friends kept telling her to move on and that he wasn’t a good guy and she finally did! With ALFIE *swoons.* right when they met each other I instantly fell in love with him. He’s so sweet and supportive and I really just loved everything about him and I think they were perfect for each other! I have social anxiety and I WISH I had friends as good as Sierra’s. I also wish I had a guy cheering me on all the time....*swoons again* I really don’t know how to say anything about this book and I honestly think it’s best if you go in blind.... it’s so worth it! But I just thought everyone should know that the heroine isn’t oblivious for too long!! She’s SUPER funny and relatable and I just loved her and I actually was so invested in her and I was SO happy she finally realized her self worth and that she deserved a guy like ALFIE!

.3.5stars, rounding up because Alife.

I really enjoyed this book other than a few key points that kinda bugged me.

Firstly this cover does no justice to how fun and awesome Sierra dresses. In the cover its some out about town girl who looks fashionable with her little clutch. But Sierra is this geeky gamer girl who works for a tech company and dresses quirky with her converse and fun skirts. So right away its totally different and made no sense to me.

I did love Sierras ability to keep going and overcome her fears, but her grudge seems a bit much sometimes and she was overly naive when it came to a certain someone.

I did not like how many times she kept letting Tristan slide with how terrible of a human being he was. How much and gross he was. Why would she give someone like that the time of day?

I did love the cinnamon roll that was Alfie and he was trying his hardest to show Sierra who he truly was and she kept overlooking him for Tristan who wasn't other than a douchebag.

I really did enjoy the story, just wish a few things about the characters and book cover were different.

I did really enjoy the story, i just with Sierra was not OVERLY naive when it came to Tristan.

As the lead software developer at a gaming start-up, Sierra Reid is in a prime position to go to Gamescon in Europe to demo their newest game, but only if she can get over her fear of public speaking. After some convincing arguments from Aida, her best friend, she joins a Chagrin Challenge, a contest much like American Idol, but with embarrassing anecdotes instead of vocals. Thinking that it will be easy to read from a journal written for a college course, she shares a story about her crush on a fellow classmate without realizing that he is a contestant as well. It's revealed early on that the bar's owner, Alfie, was also in their creative writing class, and thus begins Sierra's journey to finding her confidence and a second chance at love.

This book was so much fun. Not only were several of the anecdotes hilarious and completely relatable, there were also a lot of gaming references that brought me back to my Nintendo 64 and PS1 days. Parker did an amazing job providing an element of feminism to the story, and she brought light to how challenging it is for women to be part of the gaming community and/or being a developer. One of my favorite scenes was when Aida argued that there "should be an option to play Link in female form" (Zelda, anyone?), and Sierra replied by saying that both of them grew up playing the game, and "neither took the helpless princess route". As with any male-dominated field, women often have to work that much harder to prove themselves.

I didn't love how far some of the characters took the challenge near the end of the book, especially Sierra, as I was hoping that she would "rise above". That being said, I felt that the story redeemed itself, and the ending was incredibly satisfying without being unrealistic. Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5/5 ⭐️
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I really enjoyed this book!

Sierra is such a likeable character. She is successful in her own business and she’s a gamer chick which isn’t something I’ve read about before.

She’s has such a good head on her shoulders. She gives second chances, but also grows as a person to love herself and put herself first. She develops her voice after having lost her confidence after a prank in college.

The relationships in this book were not what I was expecting with Tristan or Alfie and I loved that addition to the storyline.

Alfie is such a good character. I enjoyed him so much! He was kind, respectful, and the kind of sexy where he didn’t realize he is. He wasn’t cocky and I loved that about him. I’m so tired of reading about egotistical men and women fawning over them when they’re just assholes, and I was happy this book wasn’t like that. It was realistic, charming, funny, and I felt invested from the start.

Thoroughly enjoyed this!

Sierra wants to get over her long time fear of public speaking, caused by an embarrassing incident in college so that she can present the game she has been developing at Gamescon. At the urging of her best friend, she enters a contest at her local bar where people read from their old diaries or tell old stories about being embarrassed. Surprised to find herself advancing in the competition, Sierra ends up battling performance anxiety, a former crush (who also caused her stage fright), and a new love interest she somehow overlooked in college.
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This was so cute! It was a very light and quick read. I was rooting for Sierra - I loved that she was a video game developer. The only video game I’ve ever played has been Animal Crossing, but my husband is an avid gamer and I loved reading some of the references to him, especially the Zelda references! I enjoyed the side characters - especially Aida, Sierra’s best friend. If you like The Mortified Diaries on Netflix, this is a fun similar concept inserted into a rom com! All in all a fun read!

If I didn't have to work I probably would have finished this book in a day. I liked Alfie better than Tristian from the moment he came into the story, and I was extremely glad that he realized that not telling Sierra that he was responsible for the prank was wrong and apologized for it (I was worried there for a bit). Overall I thought it was a very cute story and I enjoyed reading it.

Crushing it is a cute tale of badass women in gaming, a cringe and laugh contest and revisiting the past. You will be rooting for Sierra to win in the contest, work and life while enjoying laughs and game mentions.