The writing/prose itself is nice, but there was something lacking throughout the story. It might have been a lack of plot elements outside of the romance, considering that the romance wasn't all that compelling. There's not a lot of tension or flirting, it's very slow burn, and for most of the book, one of the couple is completely oblivious to that the other person likes them.

The idea of the game, primarily tag, played in the ballroom was a good idea but I thought it was severely underutilized. Additionally, Emerson is frequently alluding to the fact that this game is somehow bringing them closer together and/or will bring Liv happiness, but this is a pretty tame game of tag, and I grew tired of his acting like it was gonna fix all their problems.

Not sure why the author named her MC "Olivia Wilde" and then proceeded to add insult to injury by having Emerson call her "Liv" all the time.

Not something I would come back to, but will definitely look for more of Flint's books and I love the cover!

3.5 stars

I love a good romance book so when I saw “Games in a Ballroom” I instantly knew I was going to read it. And for most part of the book I was really enjoying it. The book was written quite lightly and I have to admit that I laughed out loud a few times, especially when reading about our main male character's jokes and wagers. I was interested and invested in this story and was rooting for those two to finally be able to be together. And then. The being together part wasn’t exactly to my liking I have to say. It was like the author has put herself in a position where she couldn’t exactly do anything plausible to get them together. So she went for an exit to this book that I wasn’t particularly fond of. It shows the most, out of all of the other things, that it was a debut novel. But as it was, I’m going to judge it much more lightly than I would normally do. I would be looking forward to reading other books from this author as I see a great potential in her future romance novels.

“She was forbidden to love him. He only wanted her heart. Can a childhood game bring them together?”

I absolutely loved this book! I’m calling this the buddy movie of the Regency novel world - or the action adventure angle that Jane Austen didn’t know she needed! 😂 The idea of playing tag throughout regency ballrooms is so fresh and totally works!

Things I loved:

♠️ Emerson, his loyal and kind heart, and his ardent and unabashed love for Olivia.
♦️ How Emerson called Olivia “Liv” Wilde - encouraging her to embrace her freedom and to live on her terms.
♠️ The camaraderie among Emerson, Bradbury, and Lord Northcott. (I, as I’m sure were many others, was intrigued by Lord Northcott, and can’t wait to hear more of his story!)
♦️ Arabella’s and Olivia’s constant use of Shakespearean quotes in their dialogue.
♠️ The strong family relationships: between Liv and her mother; between Emerson and his mother; and the references to Emerson’s beloved late father- that he had encouraged Emerson to follow his heart and that he had shared true love with Emerson’s mother. ❤️

I appreciated the gravity that the villainous acts of certain characters added to the book. And I, of course, being one of the worlds greatest fans of all things porcine, loved the cameo of a corseted pig in the story! 🐖

The love story between Emerson and Olivia was authentic and sweet, not forced or contrived. My favorite scene was the one in the orangery. 🍊What a magical place! I loved how this scene involved the senses. I now want one in my house.

I also loved the dedication at the beginning of the book. It’s one of the best things I’ve read. ❤️😂

If you’re a fan of regency romance, this is a must read! Go grab it now! ♠️♦️♣️❤️

What a fun book that brought life to what can sometimes be a boring and routine event - ballroom dances. This was Jentry’s debut novel and it was such a creative idea to have friends play tag whilst attending balls during the ton’s season! It was full of humor, fun, and a very fancy dressed up pig 🐖 🤫🤫🤫

I couldn’t find a pig for my photo, but I saw this gorgeous white baby grand piano while on vacation and realized I HAD to us it for my pictures!!

If you love regency, but need a little “rom com humor” in your life, this is your next read! (And I’ve heard she’s got more to the series coming out!)

I thought this was a fun historical romance. Emerson is in love with his childhood friend, Olivia, but because of her father and her station doesn't have much of a chance with her. He initiates a game of tag between them and their friend group in order to have chances to get close to her in hopes that she will fall in love with him. I really enjoyed the friend group and the unique twist on a regency romance. I thought it was sweet, but would have loved a bit more tangible chemistry between the main characters. I would read more by this author though. This was a fun read.

3.5 stars

Games In a Ballroom caught my attention with its unique plot in a genre that is packed full of sameness (and its fun cover). The friend group was one of the best parts of the book. They were so diverse, but complimented each other very well. I felt bad for Olivia with her awful father, and appreciated Emerson for trying to make some of her misery lighter. His games weren’t just to make a friend happier as he hoped she’d see that he liked her much more than a friend.

I would have liked more detail at the end about what happened to several of the characters, but it did have a happy ending. I would read more from this author, especially if it is about the supporting characters.

If you enjoy Regency, you will like this book. It was a well-written, typical Regency romance with the story being driven by the romance and the strategies of getting two people together rather than plot. Flint's writing style was good, and engaging. There were, however, some elements of the book that to me were foreshadowed and never came to resolution, such as the friend's explosion about Emerson wanting to get married, and the real effect of the abusive father.

Games in a Ballroom by Jentry Flint is such a unique and fun regency romance! As you can guess from the title, games were involved! Honestly, I wasn’t sure how the secret game of tag that all of the friends agreed to play at dinners and balls would work, especially in a regency novel, but it ended up being a really fun element that added to the story. I also enjoyed the banter between Emerson and his friends and their antics, especially the end scene where Emerson finally got Olivia. My only complaint, and it’s a small one, was the friends to more relationship between Emerson and Olivia, while it was satisfying, I felt it needed a bit more romantic tension.

This is such a good debut novel that I will definitely be looking forward to Jentry Flint’s next story. I am hoping we get to read the stories of Emerson’s friends and his sister!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions are my own. This is a clean read. 4 stars.

Games in a Ballroom by Jentry Flint

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
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Story Notes

This story was so much fun to read. I loved the "Brotherhood" and their antics. They were such good friends and genuinely cared to help each other with family and love. This friends to lovers story was just the right amount of swoony too, with the slow burn romance between Emerson and Olivia. Everything was helped along by the children's games that they all played during society events. "Tag" was the main one but there were other little games too, including a "hide-and-seek" that would save people's lives. I now have the crazy desire to get my friends to have parties so we can play these games like in the book. Olivia's father was the perfect fiend, right along with Lord Vallencourt doing his best to match Wilde's deviousness. It was fun to see the Brotherhood work to outsmart them and bring Emerson and Olivia together. And that library kiss was so lovely and came at the exact right moment to keep the story interesting. Overall, I had a wonderful time reading and would highly recommend this story to others. Definitely one to add to your shelves to read again too.

I received this temporary complimentary ARC from Shadow Mountain Publishing via NetGalley. I am not required by anyone to write a positive review but am most pleased to do so . I will receive no fiscal compensation for this review and the opinions expressed herein are entirely my own.

This book was, overall, charming and fun. I love regency romance novels and I like the twist of childhood games thrown into the mix. I really did like the romance between Olivia and Emerson, it got a little tedious that Olivia didn’t see Emerson’s feelings but everything came around in the end. I liked Emerson’s friends because their banter was fun and they were different from one another but so loyal as well. I hope the author decides to write novels for them in the future!

👩 Olivia, whose playful spirit is consistently beaten down by her abusive father. She must marry a man with a title, or there's no telling what her father will do.
👨 Emerson has no title, but what he does have is a deep, abiding love for Olivia, and a determination to make her his wife.
🃏 Games, games, games! Games of chance and games of strategy. Games with no stakes and games that risk everything. And most importantly, a secret game of tag designed to bring two people together.
💃So many balls! If you're a fan of tense, electric dances, you'll definitely enjoy this!
👯‍♀️ Fun, unique characters with fabulously loveable quirks!
🖋️Lots of good things about this book, but I honestly didn't love it. Mostly, I think it was the writing that got to me. Just a little awkward and choppy. Then there were some little things that didn't make sense or seemed not to fit the character. I can tell this is a debut novel, but Jentry shows a lot of promise, and I'd be happy to read her again. Especially if she writes stories for Bradbury, Northcote, and Arabella!

This book was okay, it took me longer to get through than normal. Friends-to-lovers is a trope I like, but I didn't really care for tag and the other games the characters came up with. I liked the friendships in the book between the friends. The dialogue was pretty good, but not as bantering or humorous as I like.

I LOVED the premise of this book and the setting. The main characters love story was so interesting and unique in its own world. I will be recommending this to all my historical romance reader friends.

This was a perfect read following my binge watching of Bridgerton, season two, although it felt a bit more light-hearted and fun than the romantic drama tv show. The book is fast-paced and doesn’t spend a lot of time on building up a backstory. It bounces between two families who have lived in the same town, their children growing up together despite one being sovereign and the other not. Olivia’s father wants her to marry a man with a title, but she is not happy with any of his selections. Emerson, her best friend’s brother, teased and tormented her as a child, but now that they’ve grown up a spark has ignited between them. His lack of a title means that he cannot court Olivia so he comes up with a secret game to play at dinners and balls as an excuse to spend time with her. I thoroughly enjoyed this fun story. I think it would be a great summer read!

This is the first book I have read by Jentry Flint, and I loved it! Ms. Flint brings the past to life in such a unique way right before the reader’s eyes. Her characters all feel like incredibly real people, and I found this book hard to put down. I was drawn in from the very first page.


If you enjoy historical romance, I highly recommend this book! It kept me turning the pages into the early hours of the morning to see what would happen next, and I look forward to reading what Ms. Flint writes next.

Games in a Ballroom is a sweet story. I enjoyed the read even if the premise wasn't quite one I could wrap my head around. The "games" are talked about as something terribly improper but I couldn't ever see what about them was so improper. Besides that, it's a fun romance and the characters are likeable.

This book had an intriguing concept, the underlying theme centering around this group of friends clandestinely playing tag during balls in a way that no one else would realize what they were doing. (Really, the ton sounds like they were a bunch of sticks in the mud.) The actual theme was all about rescue though. Emerson rescuing Liv from her situation, Emerson's friends rescuing him from his grief. Not gonna lie, there were many times when I wondered if Emerson and Bradbury were actually friends with how often they fought.

While I enjoyed the story, the climax just didn't work for me. Warning, there might be some slight spoilers in the next paragraph. I'm going to try to be as vague as possible, but just be warned...

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The reason the climax didn't work for me was because there were so many other rational things Emerson and Liv could have done instead of what they ended up doing. This is something that has always and probably will always drive me nuts: if harm or worse is imminent, you don't have time to get all lovey-dovey! Save yourselves first, then take all the time you need. Also, I understand that the author wanted a final showdown between Emerson and the bad guys, but it felt like the way it took place could have easily been avoided, which was why it didn't work for me.

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OK, spoiler alert over. Other than what's discussed above, I enjoyed this author's debut story, and look forward to reading more from her.

What a fun notion! The games of tag in the ballroom brought a sense of anticipation throughout the book, although I wasn't sold on the sense of purpose with some of the game-themed scenes, especially one involving cards and two male egos. I thought it was an endearing trait for Emerson to be up for a good game or prank, but Olivia didn't allow herself to feel much which prevented me from connecting to her emotions. She seemed stuck, and she didn't progress for most of the book- frustrating for both myself and Emerson. I think it affected the pace and slowed it down with some repetition of her thought patterns. I began to enjoy the book more with the extremely well-written kissing scenes (*fans self*). I thought the foreshadowing with the pig was very clever and the scene where it takes center stage does not disappoint! I'm planning to read more from this creative author and I hope we get books for each of Emerson's friends/partners-in-crime.

Disclosure statement: A complimentary copy of this book was provided from a tour group, publisher, publicist, or author, including NetGalley, OR was borrowed from the library, including OverDrive, OR borrowed from Kindle Unlimited, OR purchased. A review was not required and all views and opinions expressed are unbiased and my own.

3.5 stars
I'm not sure how to write this review since the book was such a mix of things that draw me in and pull me out of a story.
First off, I thought that the games (both the literal and the more figurative (power games)) was clever and caught my interest right away.
It took me a while to really care about Emerson and Liv, but by the end the writing the internalization of the characters was lovely and felt more three dimensional and I got chills a couple of times. This alone makes me want to read Jentry Flint's next books.
I think Bradbury and Northcott (Emerson's best friends) and Arabella (Emerson's sister) might be my favorite characters from the book, so the next two books (fingers crossed this is a series) are likely to be even better. These three were such good friends to the two main characters.
I thought this was a very good debut book.
The writing felt modern which pulled me out at times, but the author's humor was delightful.
The stakes felt pretty small to me for quite a bit of the book, however, by the last 25% I was fully invested in how everything would turn out.
I actually didn't mind that there wasn't closure with the bad guys since there will likely be two more books (I hope!). I got the Happily For Now that I want from a romance, so I was satisfied.
Oh, and the whole pig fiasco in the book brought about some fantastic moments and let me just say that Bradbury is the best!
Oh, and the kisses were very sweet!

I will say before I started reading this book, I did not realize it was for a younger audience. However, it is still really well written and the plot is a lot of fun. While it is not something I would typically read I would absolutely recommend this to YA readers.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.