thanks netgalley for an e-arc of this in exchange for an honest review!

4.5/5 rounded up

i am so glad i was able to snag a copy of this book! there's so much to love about this. i was swept off my feet and very pleasantly surprised by the connected stories. i wasn't expecting the actual d&d campaign to be written in the book, which at first i wasn't so sure about, but changed my mind pretty quickly!

first, and i think really important, is a special note of appreciation for the geeky portions of the story. you can tell instantly that this is an involved labor of love on woods' part. she knows her stuff! truthfully, i was a bit skeptical upon receiving this, because too often in stories we see a very birds eye view of geeky/nerd culture, oftentimes with no underlying knowledge about the subject to the point of being insulting. this book is the opposite. i was very pleased to see a kindred spirit in the space!

woods' prose was right up my alley in pretty much every way. the humor hit, the descriptions were vivid, the swap from first person (sadie) to third person (jaylie) was easy, and she somehow wrote text exchanges in a book that *didnt* make me gag. (okay, a couple of them were a liiiittle on the edge of cringe, but in the perfect way. maybe it's just because that's how my friends and i type and reading them had me doing a double take). similarly, the roleplaying. i was ready to cringe out of my seat, but it was actually so endearing and sweet and fun to read.

i loved the natural progression of sadie and noah's relationship, which felt very realistic. it was a great balance of friendship, romance, and physical intimacy, which i thought was extremely refreshing. this made me realize how deprived i'd been of romances that incorporate true friendship! and that's a little sad lol. the "spicy" scene(s) were a total win for me as well.

the d&d campaign portion was well written and interesting, weaved in pretty seamlessly to the main story. the interjections we get from the players are very few and far between, but i thought they were funny/well done, and honestly would have liked to see a couple more. it was cool to pull back the curtain, so to speak, and see the party's irl reactions versus what was happening in the game. plus, jaylie and loren's in-game romance was very cute, and sometimes i even liked the banter more there than the real life stuff.

also, i literally teared up at the final mural reveal.

i do have a couple things that i didn't enjoy as much;

** spoiler warning **

pretty much everything at the midpoint lost me for a bit. first, there was sadie's reveal about why she was actually no longer working at incite. i get that she had a lot of internal conflict about this, and blames herself for her burnout (very common and unfortunate), but it felt like there were no stakes for this to be so focused on. liam immediately tells her it's fine, nobody else comments about it, and we just move on. there was a lot of build up for little payoff there. this does come back later to influence her final choices, but at that point i was less invested. most of her job stuff, though, made me feel more eye-rolley than sympathetic, which i was sad to feel.

second part of the midpoint: jaylie's death. very cool concept, i was extremely intrigued by how they'd take this, but this whole scene really surprised me. it felt very slow and disorienting. and the end result didn't bring anything together for me. sadie's reaction to it all felt off in ways i can't fully explain.

the other thing is that her willingness to stay in heller feels a little too noah-focused. a lot of the choices she makes are centered around him, even though i think we are fed the idea that they aren't. nothing wrong with that, per se, but i liked sadie's quirks that sort of opposed noah's freeform spirit, and i feel like her just going along with what he wants (literally saying she'll pick up and leave when he wants to) was a tiny bit of a let down. staying in heller was a choice i was happy to accept, but they never do anything sadie-first. i wish they had! (i really thought she'd take noah to new york, but...)

** end of spoilers **

overall i think this was a fantastic read, i really enjoyed it and would no question pick up further stories from this author! thank you again netgalley for the arc.

4.5 ⭐️

This book was so cute and is perfect for the D&D lovers.

I love how Sadie and Noah’s love story develops right alongside Jaylie and Loren’s. As a reader, I found myself rooting for both pairs. Same with the real life story versus the D&D story. I was equally invested in both halves of the story. I particularly loved how the campaign was portrayed narratively, with the story told in the third person with like its own story, rather than us reading the characters themselves doing dice rolls and improv. It was a smart way to get the reader invested in that part of the book as well.

Super adorable book, would love to read whatever Lenora Woods writes next.

I really wanted to like this one, but unfortunately it's really hard to follow if you're not familiar with D&D and how the game goes.