What a fun and fresh idea on romance! The split between the D&D and “real” world was a super fun way to keep the story moving. So cute!

Overall, this book was enjoyable. The main characters were sweet, and I wanted them to end up together. The way the DnD sessions were introduced into the writing was fun and interesting. That being said, this felt like the longest romance book of my life. I feel like for there to be essentially no plot outside of the romance, it had no reason to drag on as long as it did. I feel like there could have been minor edits made somewhere to push the plot forward.

Lenora Woods debut romance novel is a perfect mix of romance and fantasy, diving into the world of Dungeons and Dragons, we explore the gameplay between this friend group based in Texas. Lenora creates the cozy small town of Texas, to be the perfect setting for the long game of Dungeons and dragons that Sadie discovers.

Sadie is a marketing agent who is stuck in the corporate job when she really wishes to do something more creative. Throughout the book, we meet Sadie and how relatable she is to how uncertain she feels to not know what to do. And we also meet Noah, who is a wanderer, that Sadie finds herself curious to what that's like.

As the game progresses with the friend group, we are able to see Sadie and what she finds prioritizing. She has decisions to make, and I think that is why I felt so relatable to her, decisions are not always easy, and it isn't always easy to get out of the habit you are used to, and I found that to be true with Sadie.

In my opinion, I felt like Sadie made her decision based on Noah way too much, when I feel like she could have based it on what she wanted, instead about someone else. I also think that the gameplay adventure prolonged itself just a tad bit much, and divided between the real story, it felt like the adventure was more in the game, than in real life. However, I do understand fans of the game, and romance readers would definitely enjoy this! 3.75 stars rounded up.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Random House and Lenora Woods for an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was so nerdy I’m obsessed!!

The interspersing of the D&D campaign with the IRL moments was so fun and gave the perfect mix of fantasy & contemprary.

The friend group & setting was fun and cozy, it makes me glad we have fantasy themed bars where I live.

I love how supportive Liam is while still letting Sadie make her own choices, and their slow burn was definitely worth it. Even beyond the romance and the friendships, what really shined in this book was Sadie’s character growth & journey. As a fellow marketing girly, let’s just say I felt that.

All in all this is such a cozy & cute debut novel

It took me a while to finish this one, but only because I was juggling four other books at the same time! That said, I loved this book. It was my first Dungeons & Dragons-related read, and now I’m absolutely dying to play. The romance was adorable, the found family dynamic was chef’s kiss, and the character development was spot-on. The story struck the perfect balance of cozy, whimsical, spicy, and action-packed. I’m especially curious to see if the author explores Liam’s character more in a future book!

Roll for Romance follows Sadie as she moves from NYC to small-town Texas after losing her job. She moves in with her best friend who convinces her to join a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, where she meets Noah, a nomad bartender who has also just moved to town. Sadie and Noah are falling for each other while their D&D characters fall for each other in the campaign, and both have to decide what their futures look like and if there’s room each other in their plans. This book was very cute and a fun idea, but ultimately the characters and relationship felt underdeveloped.

The good:
-The parallel storylines between the real world and the campaign was a really cool idea.
-The campaign storyline was well-written and the campaign versions of the characters were fun to read about.
-Sadie and Liam’s friendship was super sweet and felt like the best developed relationship of the book.

The bad:
-The MMC was particularly underdeveloped, I didn’t know him at all by the end of the book. He read as a caricature amalgamation of traits that normally work in a romance book MMC and didn’t feel like a real person.
-The relationship between Sadie and Noah had no real chemistry, I was bored during their scenes and preferred the scenes with Sadie and Liam, Sadie and Morgan and Jules, and the campaign scenes. If this wasn’t a romance book, it wouldn’t bother me, but the romance was supposed to be the main focus of the book and it was instead the weakest part.
-Sadie was hard for me to relate to as well, she didn’t help herself at all in these stressful situations she got herself into and it was so frustrating as a reader.

The swoony:
-Honestly not much, but I did think that Sadie and Noah were a healthy relationship with good communication.

This was a cute fluffy read, I just wish it lived up to its really fun premise!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️

WOW. OKAY. I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY.

First of all, the whole premise of a romance between two characters who are also playing characters who have a romance was one that really intrigued me. As someone who has never played D&D before but who was always interested in the story aspect of it, this was AMAZING. It really makes me want to learn to play now 😂

Sadie had some tough decisions to make on this book and being able to do so while playing Jaylie was beautiful to see. I loved that she really leaned into the game and allowed it to help her see things she needed to learn for her own relationships.

Noah is the definition of green flag and I would trust that man with my life. A ginger with a dad bod who likes adventure and brewing his own beer? What’s not to love?????

I loved the entirety of this crew and seeing their characters grow together while learning D&D and going through their first campaign. It was so cool to see their characters and how they interacted while playing and while not playing. Jules playing Kain is honestly still so funny to me!!!

I hope there’s more stories from these characters because I’m not ready for it to be over! I need to know how the next chapter of the campaign goes!!!

Thank you so much to Dell for this ARC! 🥹🫶🏻

An absolute romp of a romance! I leapt at the chance for a DnD style romance, and this one more than delivered. Swoony, heart-warming, and exactly what I needed for a spring read. Lenora's writing is beautiful, and she makes it so very easy to root for the characters (both in-game and in real life!)

It's was cute. The DnD elements are narrated like a separate book. So it feels a little like reading two books at once. That isn't a bad thing just different. I couldn't really get into the characters personally.

This book is so good! This book uniquely intertwines the life of Sadie as she loses her job and takes some well deserved time away and Jaylie as she takes on an adventure with the rest of her d&d party.
It was wonderfully written and I loved every minute of it! Sadie and her friends were so relatable. So good!!

D&D and romance- two of my favorite things! I enjoyed this read, especially as a D&D player that also went through some really hard times and started to find herself again through this game. I look forward to more from this author!

What I liked: I thoroughly enjoyed the mixing of the real world and the D&D party’s world. I thought it was extremely creative to narratively explore the game being played by the characters instead of summarizing or describing what the players did. It was a subplot, really, and it enhanced the relationship building between all the characters in their real world.

I also enjoyed the slower build of the romance. It wasn’t insta love or even really insta- interested and that was refreshing. It was a more realistic romance build.

What I think could use improvement: I felt like at times some things that I would’ve wanted more details or description of were glossed over while other things that weren’t of importance at all were described in great detail (looking at you, hiking scene). I felt like a touch more editing could’ve been done in a few parts.

Overall I enjoyed this read and I truly do look forward to more from Woods!

A fun romance read with a twist. I loved the mix of story and DnD characters, it was well balanced and as interesting as Sadie and Noah's story. This is for you if you love slow burn romance, small town, and found family tropes.

The switching between the dnd game and real life really took me out of the book and made it hard to be invested in either plot. We also dove right into the dnd plot without real introduction to our characters and side characters so that also made me feel lost. The main characters story just felt a bit cringy to me and I wasn’t really rooting for anyone. The romance had no chemistry.

When Sadie goes to spend the summer with her good friend she gets to finally play his dnd game.
Can she tame a wild bards heart and keep him in ons spot

This was a really adorable book. I loved how both the story and the D&D game tied in together. It was an interesting way to do it and I was interested to see what was going to happen next the whole time.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

This was a fun read! I was excited to receive an eARC of this book because the premise is so stinkin' cute and nerdy. I really related to the main female character, Sadie, who is at a crossroads in her life. and spending the summer with her best friend Liam to reset before she goes back to New York City. To throw a wrench in her plans, she meets the hunky, free-roaming bartender Noah when Liam introduces them to each other in a Dungeons & Dragons game he's put together for new players. The book follows their growing connection at the D&D table and in-person over the course of a hot summer in Texas.

**I don't think this review includes any spoilers that aren't already alluded to in the blurb for the book.**

The format of this book is definitely unique. I've not read anything else where I've gotten both a contemporary romance and a LitRPG in one. Roll for Romance is basically two books in one, bouncing between the first-person POV of Sadie and then third-person sections that cover the D&D campaign. I admire that Woods really reached for the stars setting it up this way to give us both the budding romance between Sadie and Noah and how it translated to a budding romance between their characters Jaylie and Loren in the D&D game. Chicken or the egg? Was the in-person romance there first or did their characters' romantic involvement in the game influence the in-person one? We may never know....

Unfortunately, for me, I feel like this format did leave the Sadie/Noah romance a little lacking, and at times I felt more invested in the romance between their RPG characters Jaylie/Loren. I loved getting the story of what was happening during their D&D game, the story inside the story, but sometimes I wanted more of a break from the D&D story with a jump back into the in-person setting around the table with Sadie/Noah stealing glances across the table or Sadie getting butterflies when Noah's character expressed interest in her character, wondering if it would translate to Noah having interest in her. Or the anticipation of having to make a decision and rolling badly and not being able to make that decision, especially when it came to decisions relating to Jaylie/Loren. I was expecting more of them playing the game instead of being dropped into a fantasy story without any of the reasons for why things happened the way they did in the campaign. Again, I really appreciate the uniqueness and the effort put into doing something different here, but I just wanted more sparks from the Sadie/Noah side of things throughout, especially during the campaign itself, and getting so much of the campaign story took away from time for that.

Spice wise, there is an open-door sex scene in the book and some other flirty/foreplay-ish scenes, but it's not overly gratuitous. I think it was a good, natural progression and was well-placed. There was a good bit of will they/won't they, but the stakes never felt too high between Sadie/Noah. Sadie's personal conflicts felt more dire than their relationship conflict, and I think the life/death conflict in the D&D part of the book maybe made the relationship conflict feel pretty low stakes. This isn't necessarily a criticism, because I do love cozy vibes where books are enjoyable without putting characters through the ringer, but with technology as it is and Noah being a free-roamer, the prospect of getting into a relationship with someone knowing it may end up long distance didn't feel like enough to keep them apart.

It was a well-written book and I've never read anything like it, so I've given it 4 stars, but couldn't quite go for the 5, just because I found myself more invested in the D&D plot line than the in-person plot line. I just had to know what was going to happen next for Jaylie and Loren, when I feel like I should've been more invested in Sadie and Noah.

All this said, I did enjoy reading it. If you like D&D, I it's worth the read and would recommend it for fans of fantasy and romance, or if you're just looking for something a little different than your regular contemporary romance.

Thank you to Lenora Woods, NetGalley and Dell/Random House for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I came into this with zero understanding of Dungeons and Dragons and still found it highly entertaining! I enjoyed the switching between reality and imaginary and how closely the D&D characters soon began to blend with reality.
Sadie is essentially trying to find herself and what fills her cup so to speak. After losing her high profile job in New York City, her best friend since childhood comes to collect her and bring her to his home in Heller, Texas.
Liam is the best friend everyone dreams of. He's kind, supportive, but still knows when to push her to be her best.
Noel is a wanderer, new to the area, and ruggedly handsome. He's almost too good to be true and Sadie couldn't be more lucky.
These are just three in the cast that makes up this friend group and D&D campaign.
Sadie's path of self discovery was thoughtfully done as well as the romance development between her and Noel. There wasn't any insta-love or too soon declarations. It was handled more realistically and gradually, which after reading many, many romance stories, I appreciate!
Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and author for the opportunity to read this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book! It was really fun mix of the fantasy D&D game with the romance storyline. You don’t need to know anything about D&D to get into this book. And if anything, it made D&D more appealing to me. Although I am still not going to play it with my husband. I really loved the romance. Noah is a cinnamon roll through and through, which I loved. And while I loved the romance between Noah and Sadie, I will admit that the book felt like it was lacking in something. Maybe the conflict wasn’t enough for me, or the grand romantic gesture wasn’t enough. Either way, I do recommend this book! I had a really good time readying it.

Tropes:
-slow burn
-found family
-small town vs big city
-friends to lovers
-cinnamon roll MMC

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Roll for Romance by Lenora Woods was a critical hit for me! Nat 20- Five stars! 🔮✨

If you love romance, D&D, witty banter, and some slight spice, then this is the book!

Sadie recently lost her big girl NYC job and has relocated to Texas to stay with her best friend and get her life together. To get her mind off things, she agrees to join her friends D&D campaign.

There, she meets another Texas transplant, Noah. The rugged ginger mountain man that works at a local microbrewery.

The book alternates between the budding romance between Sadie and Noah and their characters budding romance in their D&D campaign.

I ate this up. It was so cute- it had me kicking my feet and giggling. I would have liked more spice, but that doesn’t take away from how good this book was. I can’t wait to get a physical copy and lend it to all of my D&D loving friends.

Overall, I did think that this was a great book. For me, I felt that the transition between D&D role-playing and real life Noah and Sadie needed a little bit more of a true transition. I also felt that there was a little bit of Insta love between the two however, I like Kelly developed as a couple. I will say that the overall ending that was the ultimate type of happy ever after was a little bit rushed, and also a little bit inconsistent with the character development. If you enjoy books that give you an escape or like dual plots that mirror one another and provide development such as gameplay you will love this one.