I absolutly loved thsi Story! I was so cute and relatable to me as a Gamer! Loved both of the MMCs I just feel like i was left wanting more like the story wasnt over yet personaly!

+ MM Romace
+ Gamers
+ Gay awakening
+ Online Meet Cute

Oh, I DEVOURED this.

First of all, thank you Alexis Hall and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the ARC.

I want to preface this by saying that I’m not a huge gamer — the closest I ever got to a guild was a fashion game on my phone (and I got kicked from it, so I could def relate to Drew’s betrayal there)

That said, there is a glossary of gaming terms and I glanced at it maybe once. Sure, I had to use context to piece together some of the more technical terms, but I have to do the same with hockey romances and anything that takes place in a legal office.

It’s the emotions that make all of Alexis Hall’s books, and oh, they are lovely here. Kit and Drew are both exactly how I remember 19 to be — full of doubt, relying on their friends, bruising other people without trying.

I would have liked the conflict to have been delved into a bit more, but I suspect that’s just because I wanted the book to be longer.

This was such a perfect cozy read. For those expecting spice, I want to note that it’s a closed door romance. I think it worked well here. The side characters, both in the guild and Drew’s friends, are all perfectly written. It’s a story about friendship, being true to yourself, and the arbitrary labels we put on the very nature of reality…why can’t a sunset in a video game be as beautiful as one in our own sky?

What a read. Highly recommend

Going to start this off by saying that if you are not a gamer, or at the very least close with someone who is a gamer, especially this kind of guild-oriented MMO kind of gamer, this book will make absolutely no sense and bore you to tears. Even with the glossary (which, don’t get me wrong, is an incredibly helpful and fun appendix that I really appreciated) I think someone with no experience with this world would find most of the descriptions of gameplay and the chats completely impenetrable.

However, if you ARE a gamer or close to a gamer, there is a lot here to love. Guild dynamics and drama is very serious and I love that so much of this book is about how the friends you make and the conflicts you have within the world of the game are just as important and have similar stakes as the ones in the “real” world. Drew’s journey of disliking the person he’s becoming as a result of HoL and then applying that standard to himself and to Kit made a lot of sense to me (especially for someone so young who is still figuring out how to just like what he likes and do what he wants) and I empathized with the shitty situations he kept finding himself in. I think Alexis Hall writes characters who are very immature with a lot of growing to do, and while I think that can make the reading itself frustrating, it does make the payoff of the ending all the better.

I do think the best part of this book is what justifies the re-release, and that is Alexis’ footnotes. I absolutely loved reading his thoughts on the games he loves and the choices he made in creating HoL, especially in what he decided to keep from the 2010s and what he decided to change (I’m so deeply in favor of the removal of the HP references, thank you Alexis.) Having read a lot of Alexis’ works, this definitely stands out as one that he feels very passionately about and that makes it very special.

This book was entertaining and really sweet. Still, i have to admit it was confusing and hard to read / understand at various points. The computer messages were good to understand what the book was going to be about before reading it but that format of dialogue was not something most readers are used to. As well as some other people on the review section, the concept the book was trying to transmit is very well needed in society due to an increase of online chatting and less face to face communication. Overall, the book deserves 3.5 stars because of the sweet relationship between characters and plot.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing the ARC.
From the USA Today bestselling author of Boyfriend Material and Husband Material, this New Adult LGBTQIA+ romance offered a different experience than I expected, but I ended up enjoying it.

The premise seemed fun—an MMORPG romance where the characters' virtual selves turn out to be more than just avatars. Drew's journey of discovering his feelings for Kit, who turns out to be a boy in real life, was sweet but didn't quite hit the emotional depth I was hoping for. The characters are charming, and the virtual world aspects were well-done, but the connection between Drew and Kit felt a bit rushed.

Overall, it was a light and enjoyable read, though I wished there was more exploration of their real-world challenges. Still, I liked it more than I anticipated!

Looking for Group by Alexis Hall takes a bit to get into but the story turns sweet once you get into the story. The book drops you straight into in-game chat and guild drama, and if you’re not fully fluent in WOW lingo, it can feel a little disorienting. That said, once we shift to Drew’s real-world perspective and the relationship between him and Kit starts to unfold, I found myself more invested.

The romance is low-key and sweet, more of a slow emotional unraveling than a typical rom-com arc. I appreciated how it explores gender, identity, and online intimacy in a way that felt thoughtful, even if the actual relationship moved a little fast for me. There’s also a chosen family arc with the guild, though I wish we got to know the rest of the group better outside of game dialogue.

If you’re deeply into gaming culture, you’ll probably enjoy this even more. For me, the format (half chat log, half prose) felt nostalgic but a bit uneven, I liked it, but didn’t love it. Still, a solid read if you enjoy quieter, character-driven stories with a queer coming-of-age thread woven in.

3.5 stars, rounded up because the ending was genuinely sweet.

In honesty, I don’t know if this book is good or bad…for me, it was unreadable. The in-game text style conversations and the terminology as well as the subject matter made the story make no sense to me. I’m clearly not the target audience as a non gamer who is also not a teen.
I picked this book up because I’m a big fan of Alexis Hall, and I still am, this just wasn’t the book for me.

This started off a bit confusing for me, throwing readers right into the middle of a LARP scenario but eventually the story switches to the perspective of a contemporary British college student and his growing affection for one of his fellow LARPers. When the two grow closer through chatting online and decide to meet up he discover the 'girl' he thought he knew is actually a boy. Part coming of age/bi-awakening story, part found family, gamer fan fic, this was a cute story with heart that was good redone on audio with a full cast of narrators. Recommended for fans of books like Playing flirty or Roll for romance. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review. I especially enjoyed all the references to many of my fav tabletop board games!

I generally love Alexis Hall books, which probably meant I went in with too high expectations. Even so, I left disappointed and wanting more.

It’s a sweet story, and I like the idea of the message behind it. It all felt a bit bloated; it could have easily been a very lovely novella, but as a full novel it was a bit much, mostly being devoted to gameplay. I don’t mind that as a device, but I didn’t feel like we as the reader got to know the gorup of gamers particularly well, which meant the emotional arc felt a bit hollow.

I wasn’t even hugely fussed on the romance. Everything felt quite surface-level, and their relationship moved WAY too quickly, especially given the emotional journey we were supposed to feel that they went on. Lots of interesting ideas were touched upon but never fully fleshed out, leading the whole book to fall flat.

I’m disappointed that this book wasn’t a hit with me, but they can’t all be winners!

I received a free copy for an honest review.

I wanted to like this book. I picked it up because of the RPG focus. I don’t play, but have friends who do. But I just couldn’t get into it. Maybe my reading experience would be different with a physical copy in hand.

Calling all gamer subculture nerds! This book, half in-game chat, threw me back to my 2015 Tumblr era glory days. As a non-gamer, I did need the glossary up front and some of the story felt dated, but it also gives off that nostalgic vibe of college teenagerdom. The character relationships took a backseat to the gamer of it all, but it was a light little summer read nonetheless.

Calling all of the bookish gamers out there! Looking for Group by Alexis Hall should find its way onto your TBR lists. As a non-gamer, I really enjoyed & appreciated reading the background information to how this story came to fruition and studied the glossary of game play terms. To start, Drew finds himself enjoying playing the MMORPG game, Heroes of Legend, less than usual and rage quits his guild. Turns out his application to a new guild was exactly what he needed. We recommend this one if you are a fan of Hall’s work, enjoy gaming or gaming lore, and enjoy chatting/texting pen pal vibes.

🎮✨ Looking for Group by Alexis Hall was such a sweet surprise! I’m not a gamer, so the format took a minute to get used to—but once I did I was all in.

Drew and Kit meet in an online game, and what starts as fun, flirty-ish connection slowly turns into something deeper. This is a story about connection, self-realization, and falling for someone exactly as they are—not who you think they should be.

It’s tender and funny and full of those awkward, hopeful moments that make you smile. By the end, I just wanted to give both Drew and Kit a big squishy hug. 💻❤️🧙‍♂️

A m/m romance for those whose love gaming. The romance between Drew and his love interest was well written and enjoyable. I enjoyed his growth throughout the story with his sexuality. However, when I say this book is for gamers, I really mean that. I enjoy games but not to the level of our character Drew. I found the terminology a bit confusing, and there were a lot of details surrounding gaming that both were hard to follow for me, and took me out of the story. If you’re more familiar with gaming in this capacity, you would likely enjoy this! Overall I do love the gamer aspect and hope more authors adventure into it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing the ARC.

This was a really cute romance book complete with a enough WoW lore and references to keep even the most involved players interested.

I originally picked this book up primarily due to the MMORPG storyline. I have been playing WoW for almost 18 years and it was great seeing some of my favorite things to do in WoW get represented in this way. I had a great time picking out bits of the story that were directly influenced by Hall's experience with WoW and the little tidbits of lore that were sprinkled throughout.

Like Kit/Solace, I did not spend a lot of time talking in voice chat until I got with a guild that I could trust. Having a female toon meant that a lot of people thought you were a guy trying to essentially scam the system for free loot. And a lot of the time it took a turn for the worst once they realized that you were actually a girl. It meant that for my own safety and sanity, having people assume I was a guy was preferred. A bit different than Kit's situation, but at its core it's all about protecting yourself, which I can understand.

If I had one criticism about this book, it would be that there was a lot of time spent focused on the guild. There was a lot of strat being discussed that didn't really further the book in any way, and meant we spent less time on the story. I would have preferred it to be the other way around.

Fun read, especially if you're into MMORPGs.

A love letter to games and gamers everywhere.

This was just such a cute and fun book. It's the least I have ever cried over an Alexis Hall book (there were only sniffles over "He's just an Orc standing in front of an Elf saying he's sorry with a Diminutive Ruby Golem").

So. Gaming. As someone completely outside that group, I thought, oh it's Alexis Hall, I'll be ok, and I was. I really enjoyed it and found it incredibly easy to get into the book (please note, half of it is formatted as in-fame chat) and lose myself in the story. There is so much love that went into the scenarios of the games the characters play, it's just really beautiful. And fun. Did I mention the fun?

Anyway, you'd obviously get even more out of this if you get all the gaming references (I checked with friends who do, and they all agreed this book sounds awesome), but even without that specific knowledge, this is one of the must fun books I have read this year.

Okay, I have to be honest: this book feels a little bit old. I know it’s a re-release, and the original was published years ago, but there was no way to avoid the “gay for you” trope? Especially in 2025?
The plot is really cute and I love stories that have their focus on video games and virtual worlds. And that part is really amazing. The characters are complex and Drew and Kit are really cute together.
It was a pleasure reading this story, but the gay for you trope really disturbed me. Sorry.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

Know what an MMORPG is? Yeah. It took me a minute, too. (FYI: massively multiplayer online role-playing game). In this rerelease (originally released in 2018 under another publisher) by Alexis Hall, Drew plays a fictional MMORPG called Heroes of Legend. In game, he meets and falls for Solace, only to find out "she" is a "he" named Kit. Drew grapples with his sexuality in this very "gay for you" rom com.
It took a bit of adjusting to get used to the in-game text style writing, which takes up a large part of the book. But the characters were fun to get to know.
Drew is a bit of a conundrum- half cinamon roll, half himbo. He makes some big mistakes in the relationship, especially around deciding between his joyfully nerdy new boyfriend's in-game friends and his "real life" friends. But he figures it out in the end.
It was a sweet, fun summer read. Hall definitely let's his own nerdy love of gaming shine through.

When Drew loses out on an epic battle axe because his guild honors another players request to equip it for his alt--even though Drew, the main tank, has been waiting for the rare item to drop for a long time he rage quits and finds a new guild to play. He's well-equipped and the best rated player on the server, but actually doesn’t have a lot of ego and fits in well with a new guild who decides to take a chance on him. He quickly forms a bond with Solace, an elf healer, and it takes a few dungeon runs before he realizes that the male voice that goes with feminine Solace‘s avatar is one and the same. Finding himself surprisingly open-minded, he suggest a meeting in real life, and Kit accepts. It's new territory for a 19- year-old nerdy jock who’s dated women exclusively, but it feels so right, and they hit it off. Conflict eventually arises over the amount of time spent in game versus out; over "real" friends versus virtual friends, and over how out Drew is willing to be.

Hall captures a cautious relationship between two men under twenty with beauty, angst, and grace. All of the gaming is authentic, and the best part of the book is how Hall portrays the streams of server chat, guild chat, raid chat, and private messaging that overlap in the MMORPG environment. The camaraderie between the guild mates and how they interact is contrasted with Drew's found family and how they relate to one another, often with other types of gaming and/or media consumption.

This American reprint comes with an excellent glossary and multiple endnotes for every chapter. The author’s commentary on online gaming both general and cultural context, and his own specific experience will be a joy to those current former World of Warcraft players in the know. A bonus epilogue, new for this edition, features the gamers meeting IRL to start a D&D campaign.

For other romances that focus on gaming themes, try Two Can Play by Ali Hazelwood, Roll for Romance by Lenora Woods, The Little Board Game Cafe by Jennifer Page, or Role Playing by Cathy Yardley; for romances that normalize gaming as part of their character's lives, try Friends with Benefits by Marisa Kanter or Give Me Butterflies by Jillian Meadows.

I received a free advance reader’s review copy of #LookingForGroup via #NetGalley courtesy of #CasablancaBooks in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Yesss! This was so sweet; perfect for all the gamers out there! I will say it is very heavy on the MMORP vibes, so this book won’t be for everyone, but it’s got such a sweet plot and is a perfect coming-of-age story. Plus one of the MCs goes to the University of Leicester, which is my alma mater, so y’know, automatically amazing.

Drew has ragequit his guild on MMO game Heroes of Legends. He decides to join a more casual guild, and immediately feels kinship with the quirky band of gamers. Especially the gorgeous dark-elf, Solace. Drew spends a lot of time in-game flirting with Solace, imaging that she is exactly the type of girl he’s always been looking for… except Solace is actually Kit, very much not a cute gamer girl. In fact he’s a cute gamer boy!

After a bit of bi-panic, and realising that they go to uni in the same city, Drew agrees to meet with Kit IRL and they hit it off. But obviously (because they are 19 year olds) there is a lot of peer pressure and friendship drama. Can Drew accept Kit as he is? And are they as perfect IRL as they are within the game?

I felt the teenage angst jumping off the page; I too was a cute young queer at the University of Leicester and honestly I recognised so much of the angst these boys were facing. I thought that although Drew made some shitty choices (and again, he’s a teenager, so we can cut him some slack) I thought the resolution was perfect and the ending just gorgeous and perfect for the pair of them 💕

The only reason this loses a star from me is quite simply because I struggled with the VERY in depth MMO game mechanics and ended up skipping over bits! I’m a D&D player and JRPG player so got the general gist, but having never played a MMO left me a little confused in places! I much preferred the storyline with Drew and Kit IRL! But this is just a minor gripe, you don’t have to be an MMO player to love this story!

Read Looking for Group for:
✨ YA/NA, coming of age
✨ Bi-awakening
✨ MMO gamers, Tank x Healer
✨ Peer pressure, teenage angst
✨ In-game fishing as flirting
✨ Discourse re. Online/IRL friendships

Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca for an ARC! This is a rerelease (Looking for Group was previously independently published) and this new version is available 29th July ✨