Narrated by: Mary Helen Gallucci, André Santana, & Natalie Naudus
Release Date: April 8, 2025
Published by: Blackstone Publishing
Read from: May 1-5, 2025
Stand-alone
Source: Library’s Libby
Content Warning: Homophobia, Grief, Panic attacks/Disorders, Racism, Biphobia, Sexism
For Readers Interested In: 2sLGBTQ+, Audio, Sparkling covers, Audio, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction,Ashley Poston meets Becky Albertalli in this Sapphic, second-chance romance about a teen returning to her grandfather’s farm and how joining her childhood best friend’s Dungeons & Dragons game gives her the confidence to follow her dreams and get a second-chance at love with her first crush.
Dungeons & Dragons loving Harper Reid’s summer is off to a rough start. First, she and her mom moved across the country to Clintville, Virginia (population: tiny) to live on her Poppy’s farm, which means saying goodbye to her friends and finding a new D&D group to play with. The only thing keeping her going is getting to polish her carpentry skills in the farm’s woodshop so she can get an apprenticeship after graduation. That is if she can tell her mom that she doesn’t want to go to college, which is kind of hard when mom keeps asking about applications and if she has picked out the perfect school yet. What Harper really needs is to channel the confidence and bravery of her awesome D&D character, and then maybe she could find a new D&D group and tell her mom that her passion is woodworking, not a four-year university. And, hey, maybe she could find a cool girlfriend, too.
The one encounter Harper wasn’t expecting was running into Ollie Shifflet: neighbor, childhood best friend, and, oh yeah, first crush. Unlike Harper, Ollie seems to have everything figured out. She plans on spending the summer digging around in her garden and hanging out with her best friends and trying D&D with them for the first time. Then after graduation it is community college, then opening a small nature-based daycare center and living her best bisexual life . . . well, as long as that last bit stays private. But when beautiful, bold, Harper Reid comes waltzing back into her life and joins her D&D group, suddenly Ollie’s plan seems to have a Harper-shaped hole in it.
So when feelings start to develop in their Dungeons & Dragons game between Harper’s brash Barbarian character and Ollie’s proud Paladin, Harper and Ollie begin wondering if they are falling for each in real life or if it is all just apart of the game. As the school year draws to a close and the final boss looms on the horizon, Harper and Ollie must decide if the relationship that they have been roleplaying in the game could be as real for them.
*MY THOUGHTS*
This was a highly anticipated read for me because of the D&D aspect. The amount of branches that I have requesting a book that has something to do with this game is in the double digits! So of course I had to give it a shot. And although I did like it, it wasn’t completely my cup of tea.
Ok so the good thing about this was the parts when they were playing were actually shown in the book. In LOVE when they do that. It’s like a story within a story. And for me to not be a huge fantasy girlie, I love it because they’re not “stuck” there. Like there were even some times when one of them said something and broke them out of the “game.” It was actually a really cool concept.
The romance was ok, but it was really basic. It was a second chance, but it followed the second chance romance rules almost to a Tee. This wasn’t actually good or bad. Do I wish there was a bit of “surprise?” Yes. But the basic that was available, wasn’t bad either. Everything just fit together here and it just worked. I can say tho that I was hella mad at one of the main characters. Just basically saying that they weren’t out yet, which cool, but they also seemed to be leading the other character on. They wanted them but didn’t want them. It was frustrating for me, so I could only imagine how the “character” felt.
The rest of the book was cute but basic too. I DID like the message that college isn’t for everyone and to open their eyes to other forms of after high school schooling. There’s not a lot of books that talk about vocational/technical schools. As someone who did the college route, I sometimes wish I went the engineer route myself. Everything else, like the pacing and stuff was good, but nothing drastic.
I think without the D&D part I would have DNFed this. There wasn’t really anything that set it apart from any other sapphic romance besides that. This book was fun, but I don’t think I’d say ir was much more than that.
Overall, I give this
