Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Role Playing by Cathy Yardley

10 reviews

relin's review

emotional fast-paced

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

5.0

A very cute romance of an older couple bonding over introverted natures and video games. <3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing and Sexual content

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Alcohol

Minor: Death of parent

Divorce is a large importance to the story.

annahamburger's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Mental illness, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Homophobia

Moderate: Outing, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, and Xenophobia

Minor: Violence, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Cancer, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Dysphoria, Medical content, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Car accident, Dementia, Pregnancy, and Racism

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

callidoralblack's review

emotional funny lighthearted

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Cursing, Biphobia, and Outing

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Grief, Car accident, Child abuse, Death of parent, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexism, War, and Violence

jourdanicus's review

lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

I liked a lot about this book: the main characters were kind to each other, their interactions were cute and realistic, they were older adults which doesn't seem so common in rom-coms, and gaming was treated as a legitimate hobby. The sex scenes were fun and sweet.

Unfortunately some parts missed the mark for me. I think the plot and pacing could have used some tightening. But what bothered me the most was the way the explanation of Aiden's identity was handled. It felt like Maggie was telling him who he was rather than giving him the space to discover, describe, or label himself. There was also a little too much Feminism 101 in here for me. For example, I know what demisexuality is - *I* am demisexual... That's why I picked up a book with a demi main character. I don't need it explained to me like I'm reading a glossary page on the GLAAD website. :\

I'm still waiting to find a good queer romance that isn't so heavy handed with its inclusivity. I think this would be good for someone who is newer to queer romance, or is straight but wants to read about a het couple who aren't... But for those of us comfortable in our queer identities and looking for characters who aren't new to theirs, this might not be worth picking up.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Biphobia, Homophobia, Outing, and Sexual content

Minor: Death of parent and Alcohol

ourxstorybegins's review against another edition

funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia

Moderate: Sexual content, Outing, Biphobia, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcohol

booksalacarte's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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? No

4.5

Role Playing by Cathy Yardley- 4.5⭐️ 2🌶️

Contemporary rom-com
Older MC’s
Second chance romance
Introverted MC’s
Main character 🏳️‍🌈QIA+ rep
Mistaken identity

This was a sweet rom-com about two older people allowing themselves a second chance at finding love. 

I adored the introverted gamers and the found gaming family. 

This was a super cute Gen X romance!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Alcohol, Cursing, Gaslighting, Outing, Sexual content, Dementia, and Homophobia

lillygabriella's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

Deliciously Awkward!  

I had no idea Gamer Geek was a subgenre of Romance now! I'm so glad to find out this exists! I got this as a Kindle First read, and finished in one day. I am really happy it was one of the options. 

So what happens when two introverts get to know each other through an MMO? Misconceptions about identities, and wacky hijinks of course! Small towns, small dating pools, judgy people, family dysfunction, this book has it all. And some spicy romance to boot!

I rate the spice 2/5 chili peppers. The sex scenes are fairly explicit, more R than X rating. So if you like romance but not the sex stuff, it's really a small part of the story, and easily skimmable if it's not your thing. Well worth reading if it is, though.

I am definitely going to have to check out some of Cathy Yardley's other work.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Biphobia, Homophobia, Outing, Bullying, Cursing, and Sexual content

Minor: Violence, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Cancer, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Alcohol, Terminal illness, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Sexism