THE NO-GIRLFRIEND RULE by Christen Randall is a breakout debut from a phenomenal author! This book made me feel seen, accepted, and is an anthem about finding yourself in the most unexpected places. One of my favorite parts of this book is the interspersed chapters of "in character" role playing game. It's written so beautifully and mirrors Hollis's growth in the best way. I cannot wait to get this book into the hands of teen readers (and many adults) ASAP!

Do not wait! Read this one NOW!

I would love to interview Christen on my podcast!! The No Girlfriend Rule is such a fun coming of age book. Perfect for fans of Dumplin’ and Dear Wendy. I really fell in love with the story and resonated with it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

First of all, I have to give major kudos to this book for containing the most heartwarming and exciting depiction of D&D... I mean, uh... S&S I've seen outside of places like Critical Role. I actually felt for this little characters within the story and loved them dearly. This book is also such a beautiful celebration of queer and fat joy, and the anxiety representation was also well woven into the story and spot on. There were definitely times I wanted to shake some sense into the main character, but she was figuring things out as a teenager and I understand that I was also very clueless when I was her age (and also often now, even). Bonus points to the author for actually making the Spotify playlist that's mentioned often in this book (type in the link when you see it - it's there!).

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this!! This was short, sweet, and a little sad. All the magic of playing with new friends and the budding romance slow burn. Great use of TTRPGs and the way it brings people together and discover themselves. I don’t read much outside of fantasy but this felt a lot like reading a cozy fantasy book set in my our world.

Absolute found-family goals. This book is EVERYTHING. The fantasy aspects hidden in the D&D-like TTRPG "Secrets & Sorcery" is so damn clever. Fair warning, there are moments when you'll want to yeet this book into the sea, but in the best possible way. All the feels, a cutting bangs in the bathroom moment, and the WORST book boyfriend (complimentary). Just an absolute win of a debut.

Hollis Beckwith is just trying to get through senior year. Fat, broke and riddled with anxiety, she’s got enough on her plate. At least she has her boyfriend Chris to help her get by. Their relationship is nothing to write home about, but it’s comfortable and familiar and Hollis wants their relationship to survive even after school is over. To prove she’s worth keeping, she decides to learn his favorite tabletop roleplaying game Secrets & Sorcery. Forbidden to join her boyfriends’ game since “there are no girls allowed,” Hollis decides to find her own group to play with. Enter Gloria and her all-girls game crew! Together with five other girls, Hollis and her fictional character venture on a campaign that’s going to change lives - maybe even their real ones.
When an in-game crush develops between Hollis’ and Aini’s - the charismatic and gorgeous girl Hollis can’t really take her eyes off - characters, fake feelings spark into real ones as Hollis finds herself wondering whether she actually knows what she wants in life or has let someone else play her all along.

Oh, you just know this is going to be an absolute hit with anyone who’s ever played a roleplaying game or was told by guys that they can’t enjoy them because it’s only for boys. And to that I say, girls rule the world, get with the times, please.

Beyond intricate play-by-play game arcs, you also have wonderfully unique characters in The No-Girlfriend Rule.
Admittedly, Hollis frustrated me quite a lot in the beginning because she’s clearly in a toxic relationship where she isn’t valued or cherished at all and every time she does something good for herself and Chris reprimands her, she ends up taking his side and accepting the bounds of their relationship. It was hard to read (mostly because I think we’ve all been in one of those relationships where all our friends told us to leave and we just said ‘no this is fine’ while it decidedly was not) because it felt so relatable and you just wanted Hollis to have more in life than what she got.
That being said, though, I completely understand the choice to make her character stick to familiarity and trying not to rock the boat because she’s scared to find out who she would be outside of the relationship she has had so far. It makes for an incredible growth arc as she finds herself and comes to understand that her boyfriend is a piece of trash.
And talking about that piece of trash. Rarely have I wanted to slap a character this much. Chris got my blood boiling (and made me want to text my ex just to scream at him but that’s beside the point) with how granted he took Hollis and never stood up to her and was generally a walking red flag in every single situation. In one scene they’re driving in a car and Chris’s best friend Landon (who deserves to be strung up and tortured like back in the mediaeval times) were so incredibly rude to Hollis that I wanted to throw them out the moving vehicle and leave them in the dust.
So I’ll note this down as excellent storytelling because the portrayal of these two boys made me feel all the emotions but also be warned that this depiction might make you want to throw your book out the window and set fire to the world (in a chill way, obviously).

Moving on to happier things, the game group Hollis encounters was absolute bliss. Now, while my eyes sometimes glossed over reading the game play-by-play, I know that fans of tabletop games (or literally anyone who has a longer attention span than I do) will love how the game’s characters are interwoven seamlessly into the story and how Hollis gets to know her new friends through their characters and their quest. From Fran and Maggie who bring all the joy to Gloria who created a masterful campaign and Iffy who is the ride-or-die friend of the group you need on your side, everyone added so much to the friend group. And Aini was of course the cherry on top. Playful, charismatic and caring, she has her heart at the right place. Throughout their friendship and the eventual will-they-won’t-they vibes you could tell that this girl is one of a kind, not to mention the way she supported Hollis throughout her sexual identity crisis. There’s also a scene in which Hollis’ anxiety get really bad during a game session and the way everyone immediately did all they could to make her feel comfortable and not caged was incredible. And the aftermath was even more cathartic, I’m very glad Randall decided to include not just the panic attack but the way everyone dealt with it afterward, with no judgement. It’s a very healing scene.
Speaking of, the way anxiety was represented in this book was genius. It starts with small things like Hollis editing all her messages in the discord group chat (been there) because she’s hesitant to say the wrong thing and really shows just how diverse anxiety can be experienced.
All in all, this book proved to be a promising debut!

A sweet, soft story about finding yourself and the joy of finding friends that just get you, The No-Girlfriend Rule is for everyone who ever felt more comfortable playing a character in life than being the main one.