Review: Dating and Dragons by Kristy Boyce

Dating and Dragons
by Kristy Boyce

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Category: Young Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
Quinn Norton is starting over at a new high school and hopes that joining a D&D game will be the trick to making friends. The plan sounds even better when she’s invited into a group that includes Logan Weber, the cute and charming guy she met on her first day of class. But this isn’t your average D&D campaign— this group livestreams their games and enforces strict rules: no phones allowed, and no dating other group members.

Quinn is willing to accept the rules, even if it makes Logan off-limits. And she quickly learns that doing so won’t be a problem, since Logan goes from charismatic to insufferable as soon as she agrees to join. As their bickering—and bantering—intensifies inside and outside the game, Quinn can’t help wondering: Is Logan’s infuriating behavior a smokescreen for hidden feelings? Quinn is risking it all, and the twenty-sided dice are rolling!

My Review

After reading and enjoying Dungeons and Drama last year I was excited to read more D&D themed romances by this author and bought Dating and Dragons on release day. I started it not long afterwards. I really enjoyed this book and had so much fun reading it. I think I might enjoy this one even more than Dungeons and Drama.

Dating and Dragons follows the point of view of Quinn who just moved to a new town so her family can be closer to her grandmother. Quinn is totally fine with it, while starting a new school in the new year is tough and so is making new friends it gets her away from her old school were her ex-friends turned against her and accused her of breaking their D&D group apart. She quickly meets a new friend Kashvi who invites her to to join their D&D group. The hot guy Logan she met on her first day at her new school is part of the group too, but they have a police against dating other group members and she doesn’t want to be the reason another D&D group falls apart.

This was just such a cute read. I really liked reading about Quinn and her romance with Logan was very well written. I think the author nailed those falling in love vibes and I liked seeing them grow closer and there are so many great scenes between them. They try to stay away from each other, but circumstances keep bringing them together and when they’re alone together it’s hard to remember why they can’t be more than friends. I thought the conflict felt realistic, D&D group dynamics can be difficult at times although I didn’t fully get why they made the no-dating rule. It made sense Quinn didn’t want to upset the group dynamics by dating Logan or risk losing her new friends and D&D group. I mostly liked how the whole plot line got resolved and especially the way they decide to handle it and I was afraid there would be a lot of drama, but that wasn’t the case. Then again I did feel like part of was a bit too easily resolved after what a big deal it was for most of the book and with no god explanation.

Besides the romance I also really liked reading about Quinn and her becoming friends with Kashvi and the rest of the group members. Especially her growing friendship with Kashvi was great to see and I liked how they resolve things later in the book. Quinn’s grandmother was a great character too and I thought the plot line surrounding her grandmother getting older and her resistance to moving was well written. It could be sad at times, but I felt it was realistic and I appreciated the way that got resolved and there’s a pretty emotional scene before that happens.

I like the D&D theme of the book and the way the author decided to write the D&D scenes. There are enough of them to get a feel for the D&D campaign, which I thought was fun as I have played the game myself and I liked getting an idea of their campaign. The D&D group and the dynamics between the characters is a big part of the story as well even outside of the actual D&D sessions.

To summarize: This was such a sweet and fun YA romance book with a D&D theme. I really liked reading about Quinn, she’s a likable and realistic character. Her romance with Logan was so sweet and I really liked seeing them grow closer and the author really wrote those falling in love vibes between them well. I enjoyed the scenes between them. The conflict and why they tried to keep their distance as to not upset the D&D group dynamics made sense too. I mostly liked how the plot got resolved, but felt one thing was a bit too easy and would’ve liked a bit more about that. I liked Quinn’s relationships with the side characters especially her friendship with Kashvi and Quinn’s grandmother was a great character too. I like the way the D&D campaign is part of the story, with enough details to get a feel for their D&D campaign. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more books by this author.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.