Book Review: Role Playing by Cathy Yardley

Role Playing
Publisher: Montlake
Pub Date: 1 July 2023
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Panda Rating:

(4.5 pandas)

๐Ÿ“– SYNOPSIS

Maggie is an unapologetically grumpy forty-eight-year-old hermit. But when her college-aged son makes her a dealโ€•heโ€™ll be more social if she does the sameโ€•she canโ€™t refuse. She joins a new online gaming guild led by a friendly healer named Otter. So that nobody gets the wrong idea, she calls herself Bogwitch.

Otter is Aiden, a fifty-year-old optimist using the guild as an emotional outlet from his family drama caring for his aging mother while his brother plays house with Aidenโ€™s ex-fiancรฉe.

Bogwitch and Otter become fast virtual friends, but thereโ€™s a catch. Bogwitch thinks Otter is a college student. Otter assumes Bogwitch is an octogenarian.

When they finally meet face to faceโ€•after a rocky, shocking startโ€•the unlikely pair of sunshine and stormy personalities grow tentatively closer. But Maggieโ€™s previous relationships have left her bitter, and Aidenโ€™s got a complicated past of his own.

Everythingโ€™s easier online. Can they make it work in real life?

โš ๏ธ CONTENT WARNINGS

Homophobia, racism, bigotry, forced outing, toxic family, parental death

TL;DR: If you’re looking for a cosy, heartwarming and hopeful story about older characters finding their people and being accepted just as they are; for a story where people find joy and comfort in gaming and online connections; and for a story that’s equally entertaining but that’s not without it’s heavier moments, I would 100% recommend this book!

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