Musical lover Riley wants nothing more than to focus on the upcoming spring musical, but after getting caught joyriding with her best friend, she's sentenced to working at her dad’s game shop. Riley hasn't been close with her dad since her parent's divorce, and she hates working at the shop. When she gets involved in a fake dating plot with her co-worker, Nathan, she starts to blur the lines between fake and real.

This was a fun fake dating romance. I really liked the main characters. It seems like Riley learned a lot about herself and her dad, and she was able to expand her horizons and form new opinions about gaming, which she really hated. She conflated gaming with her dad not being interested in her, and it was nice to see her learn differently. Nathan was a great fake boyfriend and the romance between him and Riley was so cute!

I don't know much about musicals or D&D, and it was fun learning about them and how much crossover there is. RIley was able to incorporate her singing (as a bard!) and love of performing with D&D, which was a pleasant surprise for her. It was also nice seeing her parents apologize to her and own up to their shortcomings.

This is a fun, fast=paced read and I'd recommend this to anyone who loves contemporary YA.

This was such a fun read! It was so funny that I happened to read this just after reading Who We Are in Real Life, which is another YA book featuring a D&D game!

Dungeons and Drama is a fun, sweet YA Rom Com that pulled me right out of a reading slump! Reflecting the vibe of the cover, this book just feels bright and delightful. And whether you were in high school performing on stage and playing D&D a month ago, 5 years ago, or that was never for you, I really think you'll enjoy this read!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House Children's, Delacorte Press for granting me an ARC of Dungeons and Drama!

Soooo cute!!! Adding this to the list of books I wish I’d had as a teenager along with everything Elise Bryant, Michelle Quach, and Anna-Marie McLemore ever write. I’m looking forward to going back and reading the author’s other books. I love all the characters and everything felt so real and believable and raw in the way only good YA writing can feel. This book had me laughing out loud and getting second hand butterflies and I am here for it. A musical theater fanatic gets grounded and her “punishment” is working at her dad’s gaming store for 8 weeks. She is trying to revive the canceled spring play but gets sucked into the world of D&D. What starts as part of her cover fake dating Nathan so her douchey ex boyfriend stops pitying her and so Nathan’s crush will get jealous and finally give him the time of day quickly turns into an “is this real or just part of the act” as the two start to fall for each other. This felt every bit the teenage dream of exploring the world beyond what is right in front of you and finding friends in unlikely and unexpected places. This book is for Dungeons and Dragons fanatics, musical theater enthusiasts, and readers of sweet romance and young love. I am definitely buying the physical copy when it comes out January, 2024, and will be on the lookout for the author’s other books as well.

As someone with overlapping interests in D&D, board games, AND musicals, I knew I'd be into this book. Riley's a musical nerd who gets grounded and has to work at her father's board game store. She gets roped into a D&D game of teen boys who play at the story, which then turns into a fake dating scheme with cute-but-aloof Nathan. (She's trying to prove that she's over her ex and he's trying to get the attention of the one girl who sometimes comes to their campaign.) Riley's a good actress, but how long can she fake her growing affection for Nathan? Lots of drama ensues, as the title implies, but nothing ever felt TOO over the top. Riley's relationship with her divorced parents is one of the strongest parts of the story and her best friend, Hoshiko, is also a gem. Perfect for YA nerds of all stripes.

I loved this book! I devoured it in only a few sittings and wish there was more to read. The story line was paced very well and the characters were easy to love!

Dungeous and Drama is a fun, sweet romance about two teens who think they have nothing in common realizing that they might just be the perfect match. It's a gentle version of a enemies to lovers (PG-style) with a lot of fun insight into two passions thrown in, especially if you've ever wondered why people are into D&D.

Riley's punishment for taking her mom's car and driving, unlicensed, to a Broadway show, is a grounding that features working at her dad's gaming shop. Her school administration's threat to eliminate this year's musical altogether couldn't have come at a worse time! Disgruntled by the requirement that she spend time around gaming - ugh! - she nonetheless gets scooped up in a "let's pretend we're together" plot with another shop employee, Nathan. She benefits by showing her ex she's over him, while Nathan uses their imaginary romance to make the girl he's crushing on jealous.

Riley's surprised to learn that role playing involves imagination and acting, as such appealing to her performer's soul. Plus, the guys she's hanging out with and the other store patrons turn out to be a type of friend family she wasn't expecting. As time passes, Riley finds that she's not pretending her feelings for Nathan anymore, but sticks to their deal despite her aching heart. Then again, her friends keep saying they think he is no longer faking it either. Who knows how things will turn out.

This was ADORABLE! My inner theatre kid loved all the references, and emphasized with Riley when she was devastated at the thought of there not being a spring musical. My high school has also debated about the financial aspects of the theatre department, so I appreciated that plot line and loved seeing how passionate she was about the art form. Besides that, Nathan and Riley are just so cute together. This book does have fake dating, and it really worked between the two of them. The book as a whole is fairly cheesy, and there were a few moments that gave me secondhand embarrassment, but I think those things would make it great for a YA audience. It's fun and cute, and Riley ends up part of a great friend group by the end. I'm really glad that the bright cover got me interested in the plot, because I ended up really enjoying this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book. This review reflects my honest opinions.

This book is adorable! If you like cutesy fake dating and nerdy gaming this book is for you.
After sneaking out Rileys punishment is to work at her fathers game store after school every day. All she wants is her ex to leave her alone and the spring musical to go as originally planned. Then she meets Nathan, a guy from school that works at her dads store and plays dungeons and dragons with his friends in the back room. They start ‘dating’ as a way to make Rileys ex leave her alone and get Nathans crush jealous enough to go out with him. Which means she has to join the dnd group, and ends up loving it.
I read the majority of this over two nights and couldn’t put it down.. Such a cozy and comforting read. Is refreshing and a nice change of pace for me.

Dungeons and Drama proved to be an irresistibly charming YA novel, though its sweetness might be overwhelming for some. This story revolves around enemies-turned-lovers and the delightful trope of fake dating. If that piques your interest, this book is sure to captivate you. As a newcomer to the world of Dungeons & Dragons, I appreciated seeing the game intricately woven into the narrative. The conclusion was heartwarmingly sweet, making it a delightful read for anyone seeking a fun and enjoyable book.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Children’s for providing me with an early ARC of this book.

Musical theater, Dungeons & Dragons, and fake dating?! ‘Dungeons and Drama’ was the perfect blend of two of my favorite things, and one of my favorite book tropes.

So it goes like this: high school student Riley is grounded for taking her mom’s car to go see Waitress, the musical. As punishment, she’s sent to work at her dad’s game shop to keep her out of trouble, but while there, ends up in a fake dating situation with Nathan. Soon enough, Riley enters the world of TTRPG’s and also on a quest to save the spring musical at school!

This YA Rom-Com was absolutely hilarious and such a cute read! It will be a great book for theater nerds and gaming nerds alike, or if you’re like me, both. ‘Dungeons and Drama’ hits bookstores January 9, 2024. Be sure to pre-order it now from your favorite indie bookseller! 🐲🎭

Thank you to @netgalley & @delacortepress for this eARC!

What a fun read! There are not a lot of good books that show high school theater and it was great to see D&D brought out of “nerd” territory and into the more common social settings. The relationship between Riley and her father were excellently done and even though the Riley/Nathan relationship was inevitable, I thoroughly enjoyed it happening.

This is the first book I've read by Kristy Boyce, and it was an enjoyable, lighthearted romance that I can see many of my students enjoying. It was pretty clean, with only a little profanity, some kissing, and a couple of sexual references without any actual sex being involved. I can safely say it would be appropriate for many of my middle school students. I grew up playing Dungeons and Dragons as a tween/teen, and I enjoyed the interaction and mental acuity it took to play it. My twenty-something daughter began playing it with a group in college, who continue to meet every week or two to play, so it's obviously making a comeback. I wasn't sure how a romance centered around the game would play out (no pun intended), but I have to say Boyce does a great job here! The topics here are ones that many teens can relate to, regardless of what their hobbies are, such as divorce, parental differences and trust issues, the need to be understood and acknowledged, and, of course, budding romance.

Riley, the main character, is big into musicals and theater. When she and her best friend "borrow" her mom's car to drive to see a show without mom's consent or a driver's license, she is quickly grounded and given the task of working in her dad's store where he sells items such as board games and role-playing game equipment, as well as hosts nightly game sessions with local residents of all ages. Riley's parents are divorced, and she doesn't feel close to her dad, partially because her mother hasn't done a good job of hiding her anger about what she sees as her ex-husband choosing his store over his family. Riley wants no part of this arrangement, but her mom doesn't trust Riley to be alone while she's working after the car incident. Riley is also dealing with her beloved school theater department facing big budget cuts that might force them to cancel the spring musical. Add to this Riley's ex-boyfriend dating someone new and rubbing it in her face, and you have a pretty stressed main character.

Enter Nathan, a boy from Riley's school whose quite nerdy. He works at her dad's store, and while he has noticed her, she's never given him a second thought. Thrown together at the store both working and playing D&D, they hatch a plan to pretend date in an effort to make their crushes jealous. Obviously, you know where this is going, but Boyce does a nice job of keeping you guessing as to what Nathan's true feelings are throughout most of the book. Riley's dad thinks Nathan is fantastic and encourages the relationship, which of course is quite embarrassing for Riley.

This is just a fun little romance that doesn't take itself too seriously. Riley has a lot going on, but you figure out pretty quickly that she's a really good kid with a kind heart who's just trying to make sense of her life as she's growing up. The romance is obviously one of the main themes, but the author throws in some quite serious moments pertaining to Riley's frustration at the adults around her who aren't always looking past their own experiences to see what she needs. This book deals with multiple issues, but it's not too crushing. It's a fun read, and I think Boyce has a creative concept here.

Thank you to NegGalley and Delacorte Press for the opportunity to read this egalley.

Okay I liked this more than I thought I would at the start. The first 1/3 of the book seemed so cheesy to me but once the trope kicked in I read it straight through. I especially love the development of the D&D party and friend group throughout the story.

What drew me to this book was the cover - designed by Eklixio! The cutest and most fun cover art.

Eklixio captures the story perfectly in the cover art:

This is a story of a girl, Riley, who is grounded for driving without a license. Punishment is to work at her dad’s game shop for 8 weeks.

Very classic girls meet boy (Nathan) and instant animosity due to a misunderstanding.
Nathan is very nerdy/geeky. He works at her dad’s gaming store - D&D, painting figures, and hosting tournaments.

Fake relationship comes into play when Riley spontaneous pulls Nathan into her lie when her ex taunts her. What does Nathan get out of it? His crush Sophie likes a game of chase and Riley hints that they can help each other by making Sophie jealous and make her less pathetic in front of Paul.

But like all acting - life happens and there is obvious chemistry between them. I love all the little gestures they have throughout the book. Also working at the game store, Riley and her dad’s relationship improve and she learns how proud her dad is of her. She makes some amazing friends.

The ending the predictable but it was the ultimate gesture of love by Nathan.

Overall I would definitely recommend this book! I also learned a little about D&D and it sounds super fun now !

The musical theater and Dungeons & Dragons crossover we’ve all been waiting for!

This YA story will have you rooting for the characters not only as they navigate high school but also their D&D campaigns. Riley’s punishment for leaving town with a friend and no drivers license leads her to having to work at her dad’s game store after school to stay out of trouble. What she thinks will be boring turns into her learning D&D, a new friend group, and chaos that somehow ends up with her fake dating her coworker and fellow high school classmate so she can avoid her ex and so he can finally get noticed by the girl he likes. It’s messy yet adorable how the story plays out!

I loved Riley’s colorful character and her commitment to being the best she can be to achieve her Broadway director dreams. Her emotional turmoil regarding her divorced parents and the lack of connection with her Dad showed how vulnerable she was behind the confident attitude and made her all the more relatable. I loved the friend group and how they’d banter all the time but had each other’s best interests in mind and would look out for each other. Their friend group was goals and so supportive. Nathan was a cute and dorky male main character and I loved watching him grow and figure out what he deserved. His and Riley’s characters meshed really well and I found myself smiling like a fool at them multiple times.

This book was everything I had hoped and was such a fun story with a group of dorks you can’t help but adore. It’s a relatable story that will leave you feeling satisfied and the perfect addition to any contemporary YA fan’s TBR!

This book brightened my day. I cannot express how much I need a book like this. It is nerd meets nerd, and while their nerdoms may not seem like they should mix, drama and dungeons and dragons are a perfect blend. Riley and Nathan are beautifully written and come alive on the page. Both of them are easy to fall in love with and I just enjoyed watching them both come together and figure out what they both wanted in a relationship. Truly this book filled me with such joy Even their friends filled me with such happiness as they found out that they could all become one large friend group and support each other in their passions. Thank you so very much to Random House Children and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book. I look forward to recommending it a lot real soon.

This was the cutest nerdiest enemies to lovers with fake dating! Had me giggling and kicking my from the meet cute.

A very cute read! A bit superficial and overly cheesy at times, but overall a quick, fun book. 3.5/5

When I read the synopsis of Kristy Boyce’s upcoming romance, “Dungeons and Drama,” I thought of the secret knowledge I would find out about Dungeons and Dragons while also having a chance to reminisce about choir. This young adult romance set in rural Ohio brings together musical-theater-loving Riley Morris and gamer Nathan Wheeler. They meet at Riley’s Dad store, “Sword and Board Games.” Riley has to work there as punishment for taking her Mom’s car and driving without a license to see Sara Bareilles’ “Waitress” with her bestie, Hoshiko. Her first day on the job, Riley thinks her fellow employee Nathan is stealing merchandise and confronts him. It’s not the best meeting. But when her ex, Paul, brings his new flame, Lainey, by the “Sword and Board,” Riley tells him she’s dating, too: Nathan. Oh, my! Nathan is interested in Sophia, a pretty girl who off-and-on plays D&D, so Riley hatches a plan that will help them both. She persuades Nathan to roleplay as lovestruck teens with her. That will make her ex and his crush jealous. The two start their own LARP game as lovers to make their targets notice them, but is it all just role-playing?

While one phony relationship begins, another strained, but real relationship is tested. Riley’s Mom Shannon and Dad Joel agreed on this arrangement for Riley’s punishment for two reasons. 1. They can keep an eye on Riley, who isn’t supposed to take part in after-school activities, and 2. Riley and her Dad can spend time together. The father-daughter duo spend a limited amount of time together since her parents’ divorce 4-5 years ago. Riley feels a strong loyalty to her mom and sees her Dad as an outsider. Their relationship changes as Riley learns more about her Dad and his store. She thought he must love her, of course, but she didn’t know how much he knew about her life. She takes steps forward with him, but then all the feelings and beliefs about her Dad that she suppressed come out in an emotional standoff. The two have to take steps back to move forward in their relationship.

I thought the teen romances in this YA story were page-turning delights. The friendship between Riley and Hoshiko, her bestie, made my heart happy…and made me miss my high school friends. Riley started to see outside of her own sphere, and she and Hoshiko expanded their little bubble to include new friendships and interests. Riley also shows greater maturity as the story develops. Her times of self-reflection show her mentally navigating how she feels about different relationships. She looks beyond herself and her needs more often than the reverse. She learns how important family is and how much support she really has all around her.

In the background of the love story, Boyce writes about Riley’s theater aspirations. Riley learned the principal cut the musical due to a limited budget and lack of interest, so she asked Miss Sahni, the music teacher, if she can come up with a plan to save the show. Her teacher is receptive and encouraging, but also seemed just a bit happy to not have that added workload. Riley started researching shows the students could perform at low cost. She and Hoshiko looked at their current inventory of props and costumes. She gauged the interest of teens who might want to perform in the show. She even investigated licensing issues. I am certain that young readers will like Riley because she took the initiative and invested her talents and interests into what she thought was such a worthwhile cause. But that part of the story just didn’t interest me, even with my former love of all things choir and theater. Her music teacher didn’t seem to want the show until later in the story, so maybe she gave off vibes and I inhaled them or something.

That said, I enjoyed the world Boyce created at the game store and at school. I loved that Nathan wore glasses and not contacts. Yay! Glasses wearers unite! And Riley’s colorful wardrobe reminded me of younger me. I dressed like a cross between Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, with a little bit of Judd Nelson thrown into the mix. (John Hughes’ movies inspired my wardrobe choices.) I could relate with Riley’s creative process. I think young readers will love this romance. “What could go wrong?” is the prevailing question the reader is eager to answer as the unsuspecting couple pretends to like each other and their actions lead to unintended feelings and consequences. It's proof that you really can “fake it ‘til you make it.”

what a charming, quick YA read! As a lover of all things games and nerdy, this plot really spoke to me and I was rooting for the couple from the very beginning. The writing was just okay, nothing special. The pacing was good though! I was never bored and enjoyed this read a lot :)