Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Role Playing by Cathy Yardley

6 reviews

amy_in_the_city's review

emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I loved this book so much! Introverts finding the one person that doesn't drain them is literally my dream! It was funny at times, heartbreaking at others. I liked that it didn't romanticize small towns and acknowledged small towns aren't a good fit for everyone. It also had some LGBTQIA+ representation, with a biromantic demisexual main character. The scene where Maggie tears into Aiden's biphobic relatives was one of the most satisfying things I've ever read, as was seeing Aiden stand up for himself. 

As someone on the ace spectrum, I appreciated that this book had a main character, especially an older character, discovering that they were demisexual. However, the book got some things wrong about asexuality. At one point, Maggie explains that "Ace is also called 'graysexual.'" A quick Google search would have confirmed that those two terms don't mean the same thing and that "graysexual" is actually just one of many different types of asexuality. It's clear from other terms used in explaining asexuality that the author did research various terminology. It just seems like she got confused at some point with a couple of terms, but I wish there had been a sensitivity reader or an editor that could have caught this before it made it into the final book. I also thought Aiden seemed pretty clearly demiromantic as well, but this was never brought up and his demiromantic traits were lumped in with his demisexual traits. Terminology issues aside, I thought the demisexuality was represented well, and Aiden felt authentically demi in how he experienced the world and in how he reacted to learning there was a word for how he was.

Overall, this was a cute romance, and I had a great time reading it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Biphobia, Outing, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Bullying, Cursing, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexual content, and Xenophobia

Minor: Infidelity, Acephobia/Arophobia, Addiction, Alcohol, Car accident, Drug abuse, and Grief

gondorgirl's review

emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Body shaming, Outing, Sexism, Sexual content, Infidelity, Misogyny, Cursing, Dementia, Mental illness, and Homophobia

mighty_lizard_queen's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Outing, and Biphobia

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Racism, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Body shaming, and Cursing

Minor: Drug use, Dementia, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Car accident, Abandonment, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

sydapel's review

emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Guys I just love romance. Especially when books like this make space for characters who are older, who are demisexual, who are dealing with mental health issues, going through and recovering from family trauma and still get to fall in love. This is a deeply cozy, heart warming novel and I want a thousand more like it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infidelity, Homophobia, Misogyny, Death of parent, and Mental illness

gemin1reader's review

emotional lighthearted

3.0

This was the first romance I’ve read which features an older couple - he is 50, she’s around 48 - which was great and made such a nice change. 

It was cute but just a bit cringe in places (particularly her ‘badass’ attitude) and I felt like they actually fell in love a bit too quickly. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Homophobia, and Biphobia

Minor: Infidelity and Pregnancy

sebrittainclark's review against another edition

lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Maggie is 48, and now that her son has left for college, she's living on her own for the first time since her twenties. She's made the transition from introvert to full on hermit, so she joins a local online gaming guild made up of community college students who Maggies assumes are in their 20s. Aiden, moved back home to help take care of his mother and is the leader of the local gaming guild. He's also 50, not 20, so when a friendship builds between the two, they're shocked to learn who the other person really is.

I really loved this book. The romance is builds from friendship to something more, and I loved the journey the main characters go on. I also loved the bisexual/demisexual representation.

Content warning: there's some queerphobia by side characters and one main character is outed.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Outing, and Biphobia

Minor: Death of parent and Infidelity