If you love found family, slow burn, small town & friends to lovers, this book is for you! This was such a cute and fun romance! And nothing like I’ve read before! I enjoyed the D&D add ons, the roleplaying added a magical layer to this story. Noah and Sadie had the perfect chemistry, and it was so fun seeing their friendship grow into something more, both in and out of the game. They communicated well and had a great vibe throughout. Can’t wait to read more from Lenora!

🎲✨ Review: Roll for Romance by Lenora Woods
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Yes, SIX stars—this book crits a nat 20 on every level!)

Roll for Romance is a heart-stealing, soul-soothing delight—a cozy, geeky love story that casts charm at every turn. Sadie and Noah’s dual chemistry (as themselves and their D&D characters, Jaylie and Loren) is pure magic. Lenora Woods weaves real-world vulnerability with fantasy escapism so seamlessly that you'll find yourself rooting for both the romance and the campaign.

It’s funny, tender, and empowering, with themes of fresh starts, chosen family, and learning to believe in your own worth. Even if you’ve never rolled a d20 in your life, you’ll fall headfirst into this story.

Perfect for fans of Legends & Lattes, The Spellshop, and anyone who believes love can be the most powerful magic of all.

A special thank you to Random House Publishing Group, NetGalley and author Lenora Woods for gifting me a copy of Roll for Romance 💜
This is my honest and voluntary review:

Unfortunately, I decided to DNF this book. I think overall this sounded like such a fun read and I love a good romance, however I am not someone who is into Dungeons and Dragons so I found the role playing to be confusing and took away from the experience of the book. It was hard to follow along when the book would get into the fantasy of the game and I often found myself slightly confused on what characters were playing who in the game.

Roll For Romance by Lenora Woods was a page turner with the right amount of gaming elements which made it theperfect read for anyone who likes to read and also likes to play table top games. This was a book which i devoured in one sitting and I was only disappointed I how long it took to finally start reading Roll For Romance. Lenora Woods is an author I will be reading form again.

refreshing. this was a good pallet cleanser and made me want to plat DND, which made my husband happy

GAH what an amazing story this was! I've never played D&D myseld, but I really enjoyed reading about it in Lenora Woods's debut novel. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy! :)

This was such a fantastic debut by Woods. I absolutely loved watching the two main characters fall in love both in their story and in the DND one. It was sweet, hopeful, and made my nerd loving heart oh so happy.

his is a fantastic debut romance. I have become a D&D fanatic since my family started a campaign last year as something to do together. I loved reading about Sadie agreeing to the campaign and getting to know Jaylie.

This is a wonderful little nerdy romance. Noah and Sadie were adorable. I loved that we were invited into the campaign and I knew what was happening, lol. I am cleric just like Jaylie so I get it :)

I am glad that people will be introduced to D&D and see that it really welcomes people from all places.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Ballatine, and Lenora Woods for the e-ARC. This review is my own opinion.

After burning out from her marketing job in New York, Sadie joins her best friend Liam for a summer break in Texas. Determined to bring Sadie out of her funk, Liam includes Sadie in his D&D game. Sadie is immediately captivated by her character Jaylie and her artistic inspiration begins to revitalize. Sadie enjoys making new friends with the other players, especially the extremely charming Noah who is also new in town. When Sadie is offered the opportunity to paint a mural at the bar where Noah works the two get to know each other better. After learning about Noah’s nomad lifestyle Sadie doesn’t think starting anything with Noah would be smart, especially with her eager to get back to the structure she craves. But Noah and Sadie can’t deny the special relationship that is forming both between them and their D&D characters. Will Sadie head back to New York in a matter of weeks? Or will she chose to stay in the small Texas town that has slowly captured her heart doing what she loves?

Once I understood the format of going back and fourth between Sadie’s story and the story of their character’s D&D quest, I very much enjoyed this romance. The characters were supportive and endearing and it also made me want to join a D&D game myself! What fun!

This book was absolutely incredible! It was 2 stories in 1, and both had me kicking my feet and giggling like a little girl. It was such a feel-good read with the perfect amount of nerdy sprinkled in.

If you love:
- strangers to friends to lovers
-low stakes romance
-D&D
this is perfect for you!

It is so fun and romantic-absolteyl addicting from page 1.

Thank you, NerdFam and Random House Publishing, for providing me with this e-ARC.

I have played hours and hours of Baldur’s Gate 3 and dabbled in D&D so I have a connection to the game play within this story. I love what Lenora Woods does here by blending an actual D&D campaign with a contemporary romance.nit was very sweet with a touch of action that really worked. I especially loved Sadie’s journey and how she figures out what she wants from life. D&D is really something that brings people together and Woods makes sure that she showed that with friendship and romance. The bonds between the players are just as important as the one between Noah & Sadie. I really enjoyed this. Couldn’t put it down. If love to see another story set in this world. Can we see Liam find his one and only?

I really really enjoyed this story. It was so sweet and cozy. Dealing with themes of friendship, found family, finding yourself and friends to lovers. I absolutely loved the D&D fantasy campaign story within the contemporary romance story. It was such a unique and refreshing way to tell a story. Noah & Sadie are honestly just the cutest. Bonus there is no 3rd act breakup. I would give this 1.5 chili peppers for a spice rating.

This may feel slow of some readers and it is a very sloooooow burn book. But it’s just the sweetest little love story. Perfect for RPG loving gamers!

I think this is my new favorite romance book of the year! I LOVED the dual story aspect following the main characters and their D&D campaign. It made a really fun way to see each character grow and work through the problems they faced, and also the adventure was entertaining itself! The end to the D&D campaign was absolutely wild, and the climactic part of the romance had me kicking my feet it was perfect.

Thank you to Dell for an early copy!

Roll for Romance by Lenora Woods pulled me in from chapter one and completely hooked me until I finished.
A sweet, light-hearted romance. That I simply couldn’t get enough of.
The character development was extremely satisfying and the story so vivid, she truly does an incredible job at bringing her characters to life. They just jump off the pages.
They are truly memorable characters and unforgettable story.
The writing is witty and engaging.
I just love her writing style. It’s fun and welcoming.

Sadie Brooks' life fell apart when she lost her job in New York. In an attempt to bring her out of her depression, her best friend moves her into his house in a small town in Texas, where she'll have time to think about what she wants in life and get some distraction in the form of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. It's there that she'll make new friends and explore a life she'd never considered, both in the campaign and IRL.

I'll start with the positive aspect, which is that it shows that people who play D&D come from diverse backgrounds and that a campaign doesn't have to be a seriously dramatic, fantasy-action-driven experience to be enjoyed. You can tell the author loves and wants to show the best sides of it. But not every campaign works as well when chronicled as it does when you're playing it. Something was missing from the chapters that tell the story of the campaign, despite it being obvious that they were written with passion and love; it felt like reading a condensed version, where you're not fully engaged.

And that something missing is present in the entire book. I found it hard to connect with Sadie despite her situation being relatable. It feels like we're only getting surface-level looks at her thoughts and interactions, so that even when she's slowly falling in love with fellow adventurer Noah, it never feels like we're there with them. It made for a slightly boring read because I honestly didn't care to know what was happening with the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine | Dell for the chance to read and review.

Roll for Romance was SO cute and an absolutely lovely, nerdy summer romance! It was also a pretty quick read with a fantastic set of side characters (hooray for some good old fashioned found family!). If you are a self proclaimed nerd and/or lover of RPGs, you need to pick this up and make it your next beach read! 4⭐️

Thank you to Dell Romance and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

Name of the publication/blog/outlet where your review will be published/posted: Instagram

Run date for when the review will be posted/published: 7/19/2025

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Review: Sadie moves in with her best friend Liam after suddenly losing a job and feeling like she's lost balance in her life. He invites her to a new Dungeons & Dragons campaign that he's starting with a few friends where she meets someone unexpected.

I was drawn to this book because I'm not one to play D&D but have a curiosity for what it's like. The concept of this book really intrigued me, but in practicality I think it was more than I could digest. Since there were four characters playing D&D then the world that they played in was also explored, that's already 8 main characters which were tough to fully explore in a 360 page book. This was a cute & unexpected romance, though, so I did enjoy seeing the character's journeys. Half romance & half fantasy adventure, this has a little something for many!

thank you netgalley for this arc (this was the first ever arc i was approved for actually, but i only just got around to reading it). i actually loved it so much. i loved the d&d pov’s, and i loved everyone d&d characters as much as i loved their characters. i actually wish we got more of jules, morgan, and liam because i loved them all so much. i just wanted more moments with the whole gang.

*~ Best Chemistry between FMC and MMC ~*

Oh. My. Gosh. Sadie and Noah need to be protected at all costs. I feel like it's going to bother me that I won't get to read their story for the first time again. It had me so captured and devoted to them.
I am finding it hard to articulate all the things I loved about this book but mainly, the way Lenora Woods had us switching back and forth from Sadie's POV and Jaylie's was amazing. It has me so locked in and so interested in what happened next to both Sadie and the people in her life as well as Jaylie and her crew. It was so beautiful to watch both characters come into their own and find the lives and adventures they were looking for.

Thank you to Net Galley, the publisher, and Lenora Woods for an ARC of this story.

This was a very accurate and realistic portrayal of DnD players, which is refreshing after years of being portrayed as smelly basement-dwellers. Being able to see both the real life story and the story of their role playing campaign was a great way to give insight into the characters by showing, rather than telling. It also felt like getting two books in one, and the way the stories flowed together made for a delightful mix of fantasy and reality! Noah and Sadie were both incredibly charming and fun to read. Their banter was hilarious and adorable and their personalities felt real and endearing.