A review by astoldbybex
Eve 2.0: The Ultimate Gaming Experience (The Gamer Series, Book 1) by Winter Lawrence

3.0

I reviewed Eve 2.0 as a part of TLC Book Tours!

Even though I have some mixed feelings about Winter Lawrence’s Eve 2.0, I must admit that I’m pleasantly surprised with this read. Automatically, I was drawn into the premise: characters being trapped inside a video game. Like — yes, please. Can that be the plot to every single story? Not only do they get trapped into one video game, they also get trapped into a few others — ranging from a child-friendly RPG (role-playing game, for you non-gaming folk) to a FPS (first person shooter). & here’s the kicker, kids — Lawrence even includes a game called Desolation Peak, which is a survival horror game that sounds very similar to my all-time favorite, Silent Hill. Hashtag BLESS.

This adventurous YA novel is a definite page-tuner. I had 0 problems making it through this book in the span of two days. In fact, I found myself needing to know how these kids were going to get out of this situation. I was also curious to how this was going to set-up future books, as it is a series (The Gamer Series). After reading Eve 2.0, I feel like it stands pretty well by itself. I personally feel like I’ve seen enough of this world, but am still curious as to what more Lawrence can add to this created universe.

In general, the main plot & book is pretty solid. But there are, unfortunately, a couple of issues that I had during my read. One, being the dialogue. An early chapter has our main character, Gwen, saying holy moly — listen, I say ‘holy moly’ at times, but it just felt awkward in Eve 2.0. & that’s not the only case of awkward ‘teen’ dialogue. Characters use words like ‘jeeze louise’ & ‘buttmunch'; without using it as a joke — do people, especially teens, still talk like that?

As much as I enjoyed the ship between Gwen & Ryan, I feel like it’s kind of shoved down the reader’s throat. Throughout so many dangerous circumstances in Eve 2.0, they find themselves having conversations about their past, forgiveness, etc. If you’re really into the romance aspect, this might 100% be okay with you! It just wasn’t my thing.

Even though I have my complaints, these minor nitpicks are so easy to ignore once you’re wrapped into the story of Eve 2.0. Taking a step back and looking at the entire picture, I am very glad I read this video game infused novel!