DUNGEONS AND DRAMA

Author: Kristy Boyce
Date released: January 9th, 2024*
Category: YA Romance

Synopsis: Musical lover Riley has big aspirations to become a director on Broadway. Crucial to this plan is to bring back her high school’s spring musical, but when Riley takes her mom’s car without permission, she's grounded and stuck with the worst punishment: spending her after-school hours working at her dad’s game shop.

Riley can't waste her time working when she has a musical to save, so she convinces Nathan—a nerdy teen employee—to cover her shifts and, in exchange, she’ll flirt with him to make his gamer-girl crush jealous.

But Riley didn’t realize that meant joining Nathan's Dungeons & Dragons game…or that role playing would be so fun. Soon, Riley starts to think that flirting with Nathan doesn't require as much acting as she would've thought...

*I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The UnReel Take:

Story: 7.0
Writing: 6.0
Characters: 7.0
Setting: 5.0

UnReel AR: 6.25

Bottom Line: I don’t often read YA Romance because…well, I’m old. But this, despite the very stupid title, was actually a little delight. Like, a hot water bottle on the heart. The teenagers are realistic (read, dumb) but they grow and interact like real people and the romantic aspect is just adorable. Also, there’s a dad who is neither useless nor needless condescending and that is freaking unusual in YA lit these days. If you’re feeling done and need a little bit of sunshine in your day, pick this bad boy up. But please, keep the singing in your head.

Ideal Reading Location: Really anywhere, but try to find somewhere you won’t look like an idiot giggling out loud.

Drink Pairing: Mountain Dew, as all gamers could’ve guessed. Code Red is also acceptable.

Maybe your experience will be different!