Review: Roll For Romance by Lenora Woods

 

My Thoughts:

I hate when I end up not enjoying my most anticipated reads. Roll For Romance follows Sadie who I would describe as having a bit of a quarter life crisis - she has lost her big wig corporate job in New York City and is spending the summer in Texas at her best friends house while she figures out her next move. That summer, she decides to join a D&D campaign that her best friend has wanted to do for years. Through this group, she meets Noah - a man who typically spends his time travelling but is in town to spend the summer in town helping his best friend set up a bar.

I feel like overall, the author was trying for too much with this book. It includes a lot of POV of Sadie's DnD character, meaning that we spent a good amount of the book inside of the DnD campaign that the characters were playing - in the beginning this was fun but as the book continued, I wanted less of this and more of the real characters. I don't wanna be a total hater on the in-character part of the book so I will say that the DnD storyline is a fun one and the twists were not ones that I expected. I just wanted more of Sadie getting to know Noah and more of her spending time with the other side characters, she says she really likes them all but I felt like we were never shown that, we were only told. 

I liked the way that Noah pulled Sadie out of her shell and had her trying new things. I liked the way that Sadie fell in love with art again, I have experienced that myself in the last couple years, so it was a really lovely thing to read. I am blanking on his name as it has been a few weeks since I read the book, but I liked how much support that Sadie's best friend brought to her, he had her back through all of the decisions she made, and he was constantly lifting her up and I loved it. 

As this was the authors debut, I could see myself giving her another shot in the future.

Synopsis:

For years, Sadie Brooks has declined her best friend’s standing invitation to join his Dungeons & Dragons campaign. But when she unexpectedly loses her marketing job and flees New York City to spend the summer with him in small-town Texas, she also runs out of excuses to say no.

In the game, she becomes Jaylie, a powerful and self-assured human cleric blessed by the Goddess of Luck with spells to heal her companions. But in real life, Sadie believes her luck has run out, and she hopes the distraction will give her time to clear her head and plan next steps.

She never expected Noah Walker—the handsome, outgoing bartender roped into joining them—to factor into that plan. Like Sadie, he’s new in town. But with a taste for adventure, Noah never stays in one place for long. He’s something of a traveling bard—just like his character Loren, the charismatic, lute-strumming elf. While Jaylie finds herself succumbing to the bard’s charms over the course of their party’s travels, Sadie also begins to fall under Noah’s spell.

As their relationship progresses in both worlds, Sadie can’t help but wonder if they might last beyond the game. But when a surprising new opportunity opens in New York, she must face the truth about why she lost her job in the first place—and whether she and Noah have found something in Texas worth staying for. Torn between her career dreams in the city and the exciting uncertainty of a new adventure, she will have no choice but to roll the dice.

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