ARC Review: Love Beyond The Veil by Emerie Spark

 Thank you to Tales & Teacups and Emerie Spark for allowing me to read an ARC of this book.

My thoughts:

This novel is a love letter to online gaming and streaming. We have Lucy - a popular streamer who has been able to come out of her shell as a person due to streaming a video game called The Veil and Elgin - a creator and developer of The Veil whose studio was recently bought out by a bigger studio. They meet and begin to work together, slowing falling in love as they test The Veil's next expansion. Things get bumpy when The Veil's new studio threatens to pull the new expansion due to it not fitting the path they want to go down.

I really liked the way that Lucy and Elgin supported each other. He helped her find her "spark" in the gaming community and she helped him to believe in himself and The Veil again. I also liked the way that the group found a way to stick to the man and get out from under the thumb of the new big studio. 

It took a majority of this novel for me to realize what was off about it to me - it is very dialogue and action based with very little internal thoughts from the narrating characters. Like we were told what they were saying and what they were doing but we never really got into their heads which made it harder to root for them. I also felt like the first sex scene was quite abrupt - they went from not talking about their feelings to having phone sex real fast. The short sections of this novel also made it feel very choppy. I think overall, the author has potential but needs to find a way to flesh things out a bit to take things to the next level.

Synopsis:

When a cozy streamer with a cult following meets a brooding game producer under corporate fire, sparks fly—in and out of the dungeon.

Lucy “LucetheGoose” Anderson has built a safe haven online, streaming the MMORPG The Veil with her best friend and a mug of tea in hand. But when she’s invited to join the game’s official Expansion Hype Team™, her quiet world collides with the high-stakes chaos of game development.

Elgin Meadows is barely holding it together. As a senior producer at Necromance Studios, he’s juggling a hostile corporate takeover, a make-or-break expansion, and a team on the verge of burnout. The last thing he expects is to find solace in a streamer’s voice—or to fall for her, one beta test at a time.

As the expansion nears launch, Wonder Studios threatens to monetize everything the devs love about The Veil. With the future of the game—and their connection—on the line, Lucy and Elgin must decide what they’re willing to risk for creative freedom, community, and each other.

A slow-burn, dual-POV romance for anyone who’s ever fallen in love through a headset.

GoodReads | Amazon

Comments

  1. Jen TwimomJuly 1, 2025 at 6:12 PM

    sounds like it has a few bumps, but overall a decent story.

    ReplyDelete

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