Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Role Playing by Cathy Yardley

27 reviews

dragonlilly's review

emotional funny tense medium-paced

4.0

This story was well-written and great fun! I wasn't fully loving it at first, but then I really started to like the main characters and the romance was super sweet, plus I loved the nerdiness and MMO stuff. This book was right up my alley in the relationship dynamic, and I actually liked that there never was any fake dating really. The characters have this awesome and homely relationship pretty early on that starts out as a great gaming friendship. The discussion on being bi and demisexual was also done quite well. There are certainly some purposefully annoying and even hateful characters in this book, but they pretty much get taught a lesson as much as was possible in the end, and it was nice to see. I was so honed in on what Aiden was telling his mother and brother at the end and was super fired-up and proud of him. Loved the wholesome relationship overall, which had hardly any miscommunication, just a first incident that was more funny than annoying. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Biphobia

mandathebiblio's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Homophobia, and Outing

Moderate: Toxic relationship and Sexual content

stormeno's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia and Acephobia/Arophobia

Moderate: Gaslighting, Infidelity, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Outing, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Body shaming, Dementia, Racism, Death of parent, and Cancer

relin's review against another edition

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.

mels_reading_log's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

5.0

10 out of 10, no notes!

This is a friends to lovers romance where the people in the couple are 50ish year old introverts who met through an online gaming guild. I love a romance novel that gives me a couple that’s not just young, hot and cis! This book is all about accepting yourself and finding your people who will love you no matter what. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Outing, Homophobia, Biphobia, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Grief

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 against another edition

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

danie_faye's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content

gondorgirl's review against another edition

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

ta2dlibrarian's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring lighthearted tense fast-paced

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

4.0

The perfect, inclusive romance for gamers doesn't exi . . . *record scratch* 
Calling all MMORPG fans! This is the romance you've been waiting for. The author has done their gamer research and it shows!  

My only gripe is the quick resolution between the protagonists and their toxic past, which is anything but realistic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Outing, and Sexual content