A lot of fun, but not without heavy subject matter. Both MCs are really likable, in their own ways, but they’re by no means perfect. Very engaging and a quick read.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

I can say I absolutely adored this beautiful done slow burn! I LOVED that Maggie and Aidan are older. As someone who is mid thirties I really struggle to connect with characters that are so young. With this book I loved how real and honest these two were. Also give me all the grumpy heroines please and thank you!!! Also with a side of cinnamon role heroes!!! This was so good and I would defiantly recommend this for someone who is a slightly older reader and wants to connect with the main characters with ease.

Let’s just start off to collectively appreciate some romance featuring middle aged characters and not some barely twenty-one. This was a refreshing change of pace.

Aiden and Maggie are so incredibly sweet. Maggie truly has the “could not care less” attitude down and that scene that she stands up for Aiden? Golden, forget the I’ll kill for you main dudes- I need more female characters portrayed this way. This was an incredibly slow burn, seriously they don’t meet in person until just about 40%. Which also leads me to say that despite that, the connection the build from online up to that point is pure and genuine. The bisexual and demisexual inclusion was quite the surprise and I’m so glad when authors make the decision to not only include it but also have the character you aren’t expecting to identify. Let’s keep up with the mental health and more diverse sexuality representation for our male characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my advanced digital copy.

Loved this book! Loved the characters! Loved the story! It took me a couple weeks to finish it because life has been crazy. I never lost interest. I’m definitely glad I read this author and plan to read more in the future.


I voluntarily read an early copy.

not only cute this also gives off a very heartwarming vibes. the relationship between two main characters are healthy and had an open communication with each other. it was a little slow at the beginning but you’ll love each page of it.

I LOVED this book so much. This is a new to me author and I will be looking out for more of her work.
Even though I haven’t played a video game since the Super Nintendo in the 1990’s, I found the gamer theme engrossing.
The two main characters were well developed and it was a pleasure to unravel their layers throughout the story.
But my favourite element of this book was the friendship turning into a romantic relationship. The way each character grew to discover how they felt about the other was both filled with tension, but also so natural. Finally, it delivered a thoroughly satisfying and well deserved happy ending.

I really loved the in person relationship Maggie and Aiden had! The first half of the book was very slow for me, until they finally had their face to face meet around 43% after that it really took off and I loved it! Their banter was so funny and Maggie really seemed to component Aiden’s personality! Opposites in the best way and she really helped him grow! I really hated how Aiden’s family treated him, the way they didn’t accept him and how phobic they were really just made me wanna throw my kindle.
I love how the story ended and the epilogue was honestly the perfect ending!

I really enjoyed this delightfully nerdy yet realistic and sweet story by Cathy Yardley. It was refreshing to read about older main characters and I appreciated that their beginning conflict didn't last throughout the whole book. Looking forward to more from Yardley!

I will start this by saying whoever has shit to say about Aiden or Maggie has to go through me first, got it? Aiden has been through enough, is he a fictional character? Yes. Do I still want to protect him with my whole heart? FUCK YES.

This book to me deserves more than 5 stars. I am not the biggest slow burn fan, but this book did the romance just right. I was not bored at all or desperate for them to kiss or confess their feelings cause it was all done at a great pace.

Both Aiden and Maggie are bit of home bodies, both of them find it easier to connect with people online than in real life and I connected with that quickly. They had to meet when they were both ready, and it felt so fucking real. They just were made for each other.

One of my favorite things about this book is everything about Aiden. Loved how he discovers things about himself, how he opens up to each person in his life. To Maggie, to Riley, and to his family.

Things I loved: Aiden, Maggie, Dual POV, the banter, the relationship.

Things I didn't like: I WANTED MORE.

Thank you so much NetGalley for the e-arc for this book.

Hey, a romance that's most like the ones I have in real life: woods-dwelling prickly hermit gamer nerd single parent (whaaaat? if it were Super Mario Sunshine, this would be me in 2008?) meets cinnamon roll gamer nerd (all my longest-term relationships), and nothing earth-shaking happens. Maybe a little drama.

I mean, but these characters are 48 and 50, close to the age I am now, so...again, perfect book for me.

There's a bit of a slow start, mostly in how often we're told who people are (yes, I get it, Davy's the brother), but the book settles in by 30ish% and by then it's easy to be invested by the characters' adorable online misunderstanding. (He thinks she's pushing 80; she thinks he's 20, 21.) While the supporting cast aren't the deepest characters, I think this works for a book that portrays two relatively isolated, lonely adults who are surprised to find connection with one another.

Yeah, this was very much a book for me.

This book was kind of frustrating. The characters don’t actually meet until 50% into the story! By then I was bored and lost interest in their relationship

hooked and hooked some more. Loved all of this and couldn't put it down. I was like oh my. I need to know more. Read it.

Role Playing by Cathy Yardley

What a surprise and delight this slow burn romance was! Truly original characters and story.

Maggie is a homebody and introvert, and enjoys online gaming under the name "Bogwitch." She's 48 and divorced, and while she is perfectly satisfied with her quiet life, she puts herself out there to set a good example for her introverted college aged son. She joins a gaming group and begins to chat regularly with another player online. Due to a misunderstanding, she assumes he is a college aged boy and he believes she's in her 70s or 80s. They are actually 48 and 50! 😅The misunderstanding lasts a long while, but it creates a really fun slow burn friends to lovers story.

I have never been a gamer, but I nevertheless found the gaming culture in this story really interesting and entertaining! The writing style sucked me in and I flew through this story.

If the curmudgeonly bogwitch character in the book doesn't publicly defend the heroes honor, I don't want it. However, I don't usually like it when characters actually punch/hit/use violence to defend the other's honor... and that *didn't* happen in this book, but it almost did. (Clearly, I'm not cut out for mafia romance 😅 and that's why I don't read it!) I still loved how fiercely she stood up for him.

Bi and demisexual rep with really lovely conversations about sexuality. I've never read a romance with an Ace or demisexual character and I really appreciated this diversity and what I learned! The steamy scenes were not very descriptive, but they were still super hot and sweet and fit these characters so well.

Aiden's story is a slow reveal. I loved him from the start, but it's hard to read characters walk all over him. His family story is ROUGH, so if queerphobic and toxic parent characters are hard for you, check in before reading this!

Read this if you love: 
• Someone needs a fake date to a wedding!
• She's grumpy, he's sunshine
• I don't like anyone but you
• Let's be introverts together
• Caretaking trope
• Characters in their 40s and 50s

The only things that didn't work for me were that I thought the book got a tiny bit long. I'm not sure what could have been tightened up-- perhaps the drama with her ex-husband was unnecessary. And occasionally, the main character's mannerisms and slang seemed a little bit younger than their ages to me--but it also sort of fit with her personality anyway.

All opinions are my own! Thanks for the opportunity to read such an original romance.

hmmm

i liked this but also i didn't 🤨😔 they were old (48(h) and 50(H)) and yet they weren't acting like that... everybody was treating both mc's like shit H's family and h's ex husband were worst people on the world

and i know this was a slow burn but they met irl so late like it was %38 or something and i didn't feel the chemistry 😭

hero and heroine were cute but that's all. i already forgot about half of the book and it took me months to read😔

To be completely honest, I took a chance on this book almost solely because of the absolutely stunning cover, because it looks so cosy and it made me love the characters immediately. It turns out the cover matches the book really well though, and I really enjoyed this book.

In the romances I read, the characters are usually in their 20s, or sometimes in their 30s. I loved reading about these people finding love a little later in life, and it always gives some much-needed perspective that not even people in their 40s or 50s have everything figured out. I loved how they found each other over a hobby (gaming) that people usually expect younger people to have, because it's important to play and find joy at any age.

I also just really liked both of the main characters. They felt well fleshed out and interesting, and seemed like people I would really like in real life.

I also didn't expect this book to have queer rep! The male MC is bi/pan and figures out he's demisexual in the course of the story, which was lovely to see. I do want to warn people that there is a lot of queerphobia towards him, especially from his mother and his ex. This was all handled well imo, but it was a lot, so it's good to be aware of it up front.

“I think you look beautiful,” he said, with a little half smile. “Then again—I always thought you were beautiful.”

Maggie and Aiden. She’s a grumpy, forty-eight-year-old hermit who’s been divorced for five years. He’s a single, fifty-year-old cinnamon roll that’s been taking care of his aging mother. They both love video games and instantly developed a virtual friendship through an online gaming guild, but don’t know each other’s real identity. She thinks he’s a college student, and he thinks she’s a grandma. As their friendship progress from online to IRL, they agreed that love and dating is something that they’re both not interested in until they’ve learn more about each other.

🎮READ IF YOU LIKE🎮:
- dual POV
- she’s grumpy, he’s a cinnamon roll
- slow burn
- online friends to lovers
- middle-aged gamers: 48 & 50
- healthy communication
- witty banter
- You’ve Got Mail
- classic movies and anime
- small town
- LGBTQ+ rep: bisexual, demisexual

cw: divorce, death of loved one, family drama, toxic family, social anxiety, cheating (past), biphobia, manipulation

Thank you to @cathyyardley for the gifted copy! Role Playing is available on April 25, 2023!

I was drawn to this book mainly by the premise. I started a relationship due to online roleplaying and interactions, so I thought it would be fun to see this in the context of a romance novel. I previously had felt very middle-of-the-road about Cathy Yardley's prior book, Love, Comment, Subscribe. I thought giving her a second chance was good, mainly because of how good the premise was.

I do think that this book will work very well for a lot of audiences. The cover will draw people in– it's absolutely phenomenal– and the silly antics of the two main characters are really enjoyable. I have discovered that Cathy Yardley's writing style is not for me, nor her characterization. All of the characters feel as though they talk similarly, and no character really impresses itself upon me.

Given this, I will not be posting my feelings on Goodreads, mainly because I do believe some people will really like this, and want to keep the reviews mostly positive. I probably will not pick up Cathy Yardley again, but I am hopeful it will find its audience.

I got through this only be gritting and grinding my teeth and soldering on; and as I have a dentist appointment tomorrow morning (no joke) I'm sure I'll hear all about it. Spoiler alert, it won't be worth it. Also, this rating might be generous.

Sadly, this is a story that worked for me in concept, which is why I requested it, but completely let me down in execution. Not that I had high hopes per se but I'm always keen to read romance featuring older characters. Except.. no one actually treated them according to their age. Not children, or parents, or siblings. So why make them fifty? I can only assume it was for the clicks.

Listen, I'm all for a bit of healthy drama in my fiction but this was drowning in toxicity and thus did I, too, drown. I was so frustrated and uncomfortable and infuriated and yes, you're supposed to be, but it did not make for an enjoyable reading experience. I liked Maggie, she was a spitfire, and I liked Aiden, he was a cinnamon roll. I liked the queer rep. And that's literally it. Every single side character (actually, sorry, Rosita, Maggie's friend, had a tiny starring role via phone call and she was a darling), not to mention most of the event and their associated conflicts, it all gets chucked in the bin.

Most of said horribleness was directed at Aiden by his family, and it was truly horrible (I'm not exaggerating), but Maggie's relationship with her son was also.. strange. I don't know. I'm not middle aged with a grown kid so maybe that's an accurate representation of a modern relationship but.. it was weird. And, again, maybe it was because these characters didn't read like fifty that every other dynamic was made strange by it?

All this being said, even though I read this quite early, I'm definitely in the minority. So maybe this is all just a me thing. I hope so. Because, again, there is a dearth of mid-forties to fifties romances, especially ones where the characters are introverted, socially awkward, and very online, so this definitely will find its audience. I just wish, as someone who checks most of those boxes, it worked for me.

I was completely sucked in while reading this. It started a bit slow for me, mostly because I had low expectations (I've been having bad luck with cartoon covers). But DAMN. Cathy Yardley is my new hero. She wrote a sexy as hell story about normal people with normal bodies and I am DELIGHTED. It was everything I've been craving, but not getting from standard romance. So much good demi and bi rep too. Wow. Just wow.

This was very sweet and adorable romance. These main characters were pure entertaining and their story was AHHmazing.