This book had an interesting concept and it was a fresh, unique change to a normal romance book. I really liked the juxtaposition of the MC's real life characters and their in game DnD characters. It did take a little getting used to and I had to remind myself if I was reading about the MC or their DnD character at times, but it made this story engaging and interesting. I am so glad books like these are getting more traction because I just love a geeky/nerdy/gamer romance story.

I really liked Sadie and Noah and thought their romance was cute. I found their ending somewhat predictable but that didn't take away from the fun of the book for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Dell for access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Roll for Romance is a two-for-one deal on contemporary romance and fantasy adventure.

Lenora Woods was so clever in writing RFR. She expertly plotted two well-rounded, dynamic, and engaging plot lines and had the converge in the same book with the same people, played by different characters. If you don't know, RFR is a contemporary romance novel set in Texas. Sadie needs a change of scenery after losing her cushy marketing job in NYC. Through her childhood best friend, Liam, she meets a new group of friends that are meddling-as-all-get-out, funny, and charismatic. The new friend group comes together to play a Dungeons and Dragons campaign as newbies. Through building her character, adventure, and self-sacrifice, Sadie (aka Jaylie in the DnD plot) goes on an adventure to self-discovery. All of this to say the romance plot line serves. 🤌🤌

Noah (aka Loren) is a golden retriever, charismatic, nomad of a man playing a bard. He and Sadie have an instant attraction and grow close both in the game and in the real world.

Lady Lenora, I need bonus chapters and/or a Noah POV chapter--pleaseandthankyou. 💜

💜 found family
💜 slow burn
💜 golen retriever MMC
💜 small town
💜 dual plotlines
💜 depression rep
💜 adventure
💜 only one tent
💜 self-growth
💜 forced proximity

Thank you to Dell Romance for an eARC of Roll for Romance on NetGalley! You da boss!

I love this book!! The characters in the DnD campaign really give their human counterparts more depth. I love Jaylie/Sadie and how attatched Sadie was to her character. I feel similarly to my DnD characters so when she was pacing around to know if her character actually dies, I totally felt that! I loved that Noah knew how to really encapture the idea of a Bard but it really felt like he was pretty flirty with everyone but he definitely focused on Sadie. I felt like the story was well written and easy to follow with the right amount of tension between Noah and Sadie. Liam reminded me of my real life bestie which was fun! I really thought this was original and unique. I loved this!

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC!

3 Stars

The concept for Roll for Romance is really unique and fun! Reading both perspectives is not something I've seen done in a book before and I really appreciate it. That being said, I did feel like I was taken out of the story on both sides when we'd switch between the two without warning. I almost felt like I was reading two books at once but not getting enough from either.

I personally didn't connect to our characters in the way I would have liked. It just felt very surface level and I wish we had gotten a bit more to dive into and really understand our characters. Though I do also acknowledge that Noah is not usually the type of love interest I gravitate to so it was a little extra challenging to get invested in the romance.

Overall, I think this is a really fun and quick read with a unique twist. Definitely worth a read!

Of course I jumped at the opportunity to read a DnD romance!

Sadie, newly unemployed, is staying with her best friend and dungeon master Liam. Liam convinces Sadie to join his DnD group, where of course she meets some new friends, including Noah.

Woods tells the story of Sadie and Noah’s relationship progressing alongside their DnD characters’ storyline. It was absolutely adorable and fun to see how they connected with their characters.

The pacing of this book was a little slow in the first half, but it picked up and I was eager to read the rest!

In short: if you’re a D&D newbie like me, Roll for Romance may feel more puzzling than enchanting. It has charm if you're open to both romance and tabletop gaming but the mixed narrative style might not click for everyone

3.5. Another really cute read! Dual storylines between the “real” world and the D&D game the characters played, which was a fun touch. It did make the romance in the real world play out pretty quickly, but I didn’t mind. MMC is a little too perfect but I did like the burnout storyline for FMC. We love a nerdy lil romance!

I enjoyed the journey that the fmc went on in this book. I liked the mental health rep and how we got to see her grow into someone she never thought she could be. I liked the relationship with the mmc but at times I was left wanting more. The fantasy story within a story was tough for me to really get into at times. I get the uniqueness and why its in there because we learn alot about both of them through the story but I just don't think that type of writing is a favorite of mine. Overall, okay read.

3.5 stars
This was a super cute romance set in the world of D&D. I've never played D&D before so I did have to rely on Wikipedia just to get some of the gameplay basics down, as things were somewhat spelled out but not always for people who have never played this type of game before. The book takes place both in and out of the D&D game, and I found that as the book progressed I wanted more of the real life chapters and less of the D&D game chapters. This is in no way a knock on the book, I think this is more of a me problem, as I did find it hard to keep all of the characters straight in my head.
I would recommend this to others, but probably only to gamers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for the ARC!

3.75 stars

Sadie reaches burn out and lets her life implode by leaving her marketing job in NYC. In order to get some reprieve from her life, she takes up her best friends offer to stay with him for the summer. Along the way, he finally talks her into joining one of his famous DND campaigns. Here, she meets a rag tag group of friends and more specifically, Noah who is quite the nomad both in and out of the campaign.

Throughout their sessions where they roll play both adventure and romance, Sadie and Noah realize their connection is more than real. However, Sadie is expected to eventually go back to NYC and Noah has never been one to stay in one city for long.

I think this book was just a little too slow for me at times. I connected with their DND characters more than I did the actual people. There was a lot of repetition and I felt that their inability to communicate what they actually wanted was frustrating at times.

As a fellow DND nerd, I was HOOKED on this stories unique style. I think Lenora's ability to not only write a romance, but also blend in a high fantasy aspect through the world of DND was absolutely stellar. I wouldn't exactly call it "dual timeline" but it was written in such a way that switching between real life and the campaign was very fluid.

I would definitely pick up a book from her again in the future.

***ARC review

First of all, this book’s cover is STUNNING! I don’t anything about D&D, but I still enjoyed this book. It was a fun concept for a romance and really cute. If you’re a D&D fan, I think you’ll get more out of that aspect than I did! I imagine this would be a super fun read for someone who knows all the ins and outs of the game.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a cute story! I’m a sucker for a nerdy romance. I loved how the story jumped between Noah and Sadie’s romance and the D&D campaign story. It felt like getting two stories for the price of one. This is definitely a slow burn romance and it has mild spice.

My main negative was that it felt like some of the side characters had more detailed personalities and backgrounds than the FMC for the first half of the book, but this improved in the second half.

Looking forward to reading more from this author!

Short Summary:

🩶 A girl whose life plan has been derailed meets a man with no plans through a tabletop role-playing game. Something is blossoming, but will it end with their game when she goes back home?

This book was adorable. Cute idea, cute character dynamic, cute town. I loved it. It was relatively low spice for the genre, but I honestly think that worked out better with the storyline. Getting to experience their fantasy role-playing with them was such a fun idea instead of reading through slogs of actual game play on page. However, some of those scenes felt a little long and I couldn't wait to get back to the actual storyline. Overall, I really enjoyed it though. Definitely recommending to all my book girlies, for sure.

Best Parts:

🩶 Noah/Loren
🩶 Nerdy vibes
🩶 Alchemist

Worst Parts:

🩶 Long cut scenes

🎲❤️ Book Review: Roll for Romance by Lenora Woods ❤️🎲

Geek out over this adorable, witty rom-com that perfectly blends gaming and love! Lenora Woods delivers a charming slow-burn romance filled with laughs, heart, and just the right amount of dice rolls.

What it’s about:
When tabletop game designer Alex crosses paths with the passionate and quirky Mia, sparks fly both on and off the game board. Between dice rolls and heartfelt moments, they learn that sometimes, the best love stories are the ones you don’t see coming.

Tropes You’ll Love:
🎲 Nerdy/Geek romance
💕 Slow burn
😂 Witty banter
🎮 Friends to lovers
✨ Found family and acceptance

If you’re a fan of fun, heartwarming romances with a geeky twist, this is your next perfect roll!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#RollForRomance #LenoraWoods #GeekRomance #SlowBurnRomance #FriendsToLovers #Bookstagram #RomComReads #BookReview #ContemporaryRomance

I wanted to love this book so much. I did. I loved the concept based on the blurb and while I'm not a D&D nerd, I'm nerdy enough to appreciate the game and skill that goes into it. But sadly, this book did not work for me. I was drawn in from page one and had high expectations to enjoy this book but in the end, it didn’t work for me. I feel like the blurb was unclear in conveying that part of the story is actually taking place in the game, which means learning who everyone is twice. In a manner that was confusing for me. I found the whole thing hard to follow. I’m the first to admit this is very much a me problem. I do not enjoy dual timeline books and had I realized this was what was going to happen, I would have never picked it up in the first place. The writing is excellent, the characters and story had me from page one but I struggled through the in-game scenes and eventually skipped them entirely, which meant I missed much of the story development. I think there is definitely a market for this book and that there are readers who will enjoy it, I am just not one of them.

Because my dislike of this book is entirely personal and based on incorrect expectations rather than anything wrong with the book, I'm going to refrain from public reviews. I wish Lenora Woods all the best in her career. I think she is a very talented writer and I wish this would have been a better fit for me.

Roll for Romance is a soft, warm, and comforting romcom that took me by surprise. Lenora woods wove a full cast of characters (on and off the D&D campaign) into a book and fully immersed you not only in a small town Texas summer and a fantasy campaign with a cast of outcasts. Add this to your summer reading list immediately!

This book was sooo fun!! As someone who plays D&D, I really enjoyed how the author gave us the gameplay as part of the story! The characters were great in and out of the game. I loved that Sadie was finding herself when she was at her lowest and that playing D&D helped her open up to a part of herself she hadn’t known before. I enjoyed her blooming relationship with Noah. His character was so great. The whole story was easy to follow and very fun to read. I was happy with the ending. Thank you for allowing me to read roll for romance!

If you’re not sure whether to start a new Romantasy or contemporary romance next, might I suggest a bit of both in Roll for Romance?

This is a very cute and cozy sort-of fantasy romance. We meet Sadie, a big city girl, recovering from professional burnout who is staying with her longtime friend in small town Texas for the summer. Her journey of self discovery also leads her on an epic quest in her first D&D campaign. Here she meets new friends and a charming Bard.

The campaign is told through a soft fantasy narrative following Sadie’s character intertwined with Sadie’s “real life” POV. It’s super fun to guess the mechanics happening at the table based on the events described. Most of it I could clock, with only one scene where I was kind of lost on how it would have played out. That might just be me, though.

I personally wish there was a little less of the campaign narrative and more exploration of Sadie and Noah’s real life connection. Or maybe a little more cohesion between the two worlds. I loooooved the time Sadie and Noah spent one-on-one and wish I had a little bit more.

I would love to send out a massive "thank you" to Random House Publishing/Ballantine/Dell for the early copy of this book!

Roll for Romance is so much fun, and I loved every second of reading it, so much so that I started getting really sad at around the 88% mark, just knowing that I'd be finishing the book soon.

This book is *everything* that I want in a romcom, hands down. We also get treated with the side story of the D&D characters, and that also filled my fantasy lover cup. When I say that this book served everything that makes my little nerdy heart happy, I truly mean it.

A little synopsis for you:
We have Sadie who is in Texas recovering from a bit of career burnout, and we have Noah, the free-spirited bartender. Sadie's best friend, Liam, is a Dungeon Master and is about to start a summer D&D campaign with friends that he thinks will make for a great group. As I mentioned earlier, we get glimpses of the game through the character's (Jaylie) eyes, so we get that really fun fantastical element in this otherwise contemporary romance!

I'm not going to say anything else, because I refuse to ruin it or spoil anything for you! So, just give it a read on July 15, 2025!

As always, here's some fun tropes for you:
- Found Family
- Small Town
- Golden Retriever MMC (love you, Noah)
- Dungeons and Dragons
- (and one of my faves) Forced Proximity

As a fellow D&D player I was already excited about the concept of this story going on. What struck me was how wonderfully Woods portrayed how much ttrpg's can impact and in some cases really help you as a player work through real life things. so many times a game or campaign as been close to him and helped me process my own experiences through a character or scene, seeing Noah and Sadie work their situation and process what they are feeling through Jaylie and Loren felt so true to life. Along with their rag tag team of newbie adventurers and mischievous DM, I felt like I was sitting amongst friends. With a slow burn that will really have you on the edge of your seat, friendships to last a life time and an adventure that may just what these two are looking for you will enjoy every second!