DadReadsRomance

Nat-20 Debut Check

There are rare reads for every romance fan when they pick up the right book at the right time. When they see so much of themselves in the book's story that the fiction stops being escapism and starts being therapeutic. When this happens, it is hard for the romance reader to do anything but love that book. It's why I love Roll for Romance.

Medium Used: ~20% eBook, 80% Paperback

Ratings out of 5

Overall Rating: 💜💜💜💜💜

Sweetness Level: 🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫

Steam Heat Level: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥¹

FMC Likability: 👩‍🎨✨👩‍🎨✨

MMC Likability: 🍺🪕🍺🪕

Plot Engagement: 🖌️🎲☕🗡️

At least 1 bad dad (pass/fail): 0️⃣

Spoiler Free Review

Roll for Romance is a Contemporary Romantic Comedy (CRC) set in Heller, TX – a fictional small-town in the hill country². In a way, it is also a Romantasy set in a generic D&D³ setting. The protagonist of the CRC narrative is Sadie Brooks, a New York City based marketing consultant. When Sadie unexpectedly loses her job she decides to spend the summer living with her best friend in Heller, where Sadie joins a D&D campaign. In the D&D campaign Sadie role plays Jaylie, the protagonist of the Romantasy narrative.⁴

Noah Walker, brewer and bartender at Heller's newest hot spot alchemist, is one of the other players to join the D&D campaign. Noah's character, Loren, is a charismatic lute plucking elf (with a bit of an ego if we are being honest).⁵

I am a big fan of CRCs. I am also a big fan of D&D and Romantasy. When I saw this debut novel was coming out, I felt like it was a book being written for me. I was expecting it to be a cute and campy read. It is cute as hell (and campy) but it is so much more. It encapsulates the pain associated with “success” in the American corporate rat race and simultaneously romanticizes the small-town American charm that I believe is eroding away.⁶ If you like D&D, CRCs, and sometimes ask yourself why you chose a successful career over creative fulfillment, then my advice is to put Roll for Romance at the very top of your to-be-read pile.

What I liked about this book

• The romantic pacing is outstanding. I have never read a slow burn that captures falling in love so holistically.⁷

• Noah's personality radiates positive nerdy-mountain-boy masculinity. He has a bunch of aspects of some of the best friends I have ever had. He's deserving of Sadie.⁸

• The D&D narrative encapsulates what I love about TTRPGs³ and the absurdity of D&D lore and tropes. Lenora Wood's passion for the game will be clear to anyone who reads it.^9,10

• Even though this story is told from the Sadie/Jaylie perspective, by the end I understood Noah/Loren just as much.¹¹

• I normally don't comment much on covers and I know “cartoon romcom” covers are hated by some but I think this is one of the most beautiful covers on my book shelf.

What I did not like about this book

• Noah is, like most MMCs, amongst the top 15% of tallest men in the world. This is offset a little bit by Loren not being taller than Jaylie.

• I would have loved this book even more if it were 30-50 pages longer to add a bit more depth (especially early on) to the D&D narrative. Overall, I love Lenora Woods' this format and hope she writes more books like this. This criticism is likely only a reflection on me being a man who loves CRCs and D&D so much.

Spoilers Review

Click to reveal spoilers

As I said at the top, this book came to me at the right time. I would have enjoyed this book 4 years ago or 4 years in the future but I am not sure it would have been my third best read of the books I've read this year if I had picked it up at a different time. In the third act

Click to reveal third act twist spoilers

we learn that Sadie more or less burned out and spiraled into depression and was not laid off but asked to resign after ceasing coming to work. We also learn that before Noah became a roaming easy going free spirit he followed a very “planned” and traditional American “success path” as an accountant then walked away from it all when he realized it wasn't what he wanted. I feel both of their pain so much.

Click to reveal (regular) spoilers

One of the things about being a CRC fan in your late-20s and beyond is the life struggles of mid-20s and before are just different. Understandably, many CRCs are about the struggles of mid-20s and before. Once you reach late-20s and beyond, you can still relate to those stories because you remember that time of your life but its not the same as currently going through with it. Like Sadie before the story begins, I am lucky enough to have been successful in the traditional American “success path”. Basically, I never worry about meeting the first three level's of Maslow's hierarchy of needs and rarely struggle with the fourth. Still corporate America is often a self-actualization destroying hellhole.¹² My eyes watered at points of this story because it reminded me so much of what I have sacrificed in the decisions I have made. At the same time those same parts were uplifting because they reminded me that you can change paths when your heart decides that is what it wants.¹³

Unlike Sadie, I grew up in the mountains camping and hiking constantly. Cliff jumping by waterfalls and riding a bike across my small-town. This book encapsulates the wonders of the summers of my youth in a painfully nostalgic way. When I first started the story I was a little bit off put on the failure to address the realities of what has happened to rural America charm over the last decade. Then as the book continued I realized that Lenora Woods subtly addressing it. There were little tiny pin-pricks that lasted less than a paragraph. Upon reflection, this is great fucking writing full of wisdom. The reality is some people suck. Sometimes you will have to interact with those people, but you can surrounded yourself with people who don't. You can build your community anywhere.

What I liked Spoilers

• “Everything goes still. The leaves in the trees hush their rustling, and the fireflies are suspended in midair. Our mingling breaths freeze in the narrow space between us. Words unspoken catch in the back of my throat, and I don't know what to say next.” I was transported to this moment and I melted.
• There are points in the book where Noah and Sadie role play downtime moments between Loren and Jaylie via text. It's so cute and also I love the earnest representation of something so nerdy. This book is not ashamed of what it is.
• (Fairly large D&D narrative spoiler) There is 1 scene that is not from Sadie/Jaylie's perspective. It is from Loren's when Jaylie falls in battle. Two things about this scene: 1) Liam (Sadie's best friend and the DM of the campaign) sends Sadie away from the table as the rest of the party discusses resolving Jaylie's death. I love this...with player permission I am stealing it for my tables. 2) What a brilliant way to switch perspectives just for a moment around the middle of the story. Give us just a glimpse of Noah/Loren's feelings directly.
• The romantic conflict in the frame narrative revolves around making decisions about what Noah and Sadie want for their futures. There love only ever moves forward, there is no stupid misunderstanding or contrived conflict. Its there love and relationship vs external realities.
  
  

What I didn't like Spoilers

• It would have been cool to see a bit more about the D&D party leveling up and progressing.
  

Note: Roll for Romance contains explicit sexual scenes between consenting adults but i have chosen to keep this review #SFW.

This Book Reminded Me of

• The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood for its the slow burn and payoff.
  
• The vibe of my favorite Actual Play podcast, Not Another D&D Podcast, and its after-show, The Short Rest, which are hosted by Brian Murphy, Emily Axford, Jake Hurwitz and Caldwell Tanner.
  

Who should read this book?

If you like CRCs and D&D I cannot reccomend this book enough. If you are in your late 20s or beyond and often wonder if the juice is worth the squeeze you'll probably find something to like here. If your a Fantasy Romance fan interested in giving contemporary romance a try (or vice versa) this might be a good way to “take a small bite to see if its for you”.

Get the book

¹ The quantity of spice in Roll for Romance is low. I realize that spice/steam level sometimes means an objective measure of the frequency and explicitness of sexy time scenes (i.e. smut). My “Steam Heat Level” ratings have always been about my subjective opinion on the quality of the both the sexual tension (e.g. yearning, angst) and sexual payoff. From now on, in my reviews, I am going to use the following to help distinguish these two related but different aspects of romance books. Spice = smut, because spice feels hot once it touches your tongue; Steam = smut + tension, because steam feels hot if you're close to it. Conveniently, this will not make my romance.io spice ratings contradict with my written reviews when cross published there.

² An hour or so outside of Austin.

³ D&D (or DnD) is an acronym for Dungeons and Dragons, the most popular and well known Table Top Role Playing Game or TTRPG. D&D at its core is a form of collaborative improvised story telling that utilizes dice rolling and other table top game elements. In D&D most players role-play and control a single character called a player character. The player-charters are the protagonists of the story being told (usually allies). One player is the dungeon (game) master or “DM” (“GM”) and controls the rest of the world (other characters, wild animals, weather, etc.).

⁴ I interrupted the Romantasy narrative as Sadie's imagination of the world being built in the D&D campaign so the prespective never really switches from Sadie's 1st person even though the writing shifts to third-person limited in the Romantasy narrative. The CRC frame narrative is probably 60-70% of the total narrative. The Romantasy narrative is on the extreme-end of the narrative-play side of the 'actual-play to narrative-play spectrum'. Which is a nerdy way of saying all game mechanics take place “off-screen”.

⁵ Yes D&D fans...the MMC is a horny bard...and I'm here for it.

⁶ I grew up in a small town. Most of my adult life has been spent in cities working in large corporations.

⁷ To put this differently, I felt the growth of emotional connection and friendship between Noah and Sadie (and as extensions of them Loren and Jaylie) was in harmony with the sexual tension.

⁸ In contrast to the MMC in my last review 🙄.

⁹ As a DM, I imagine Lenora Woods is blessing at every table she sits at.

¹⁰ If you're expecting perfect representation of forgotten realms canon and 5e mechanics and will go complain somewhere if the wrong spell component is described for the casting of lightning bolt don't ^{(Also, why are you like this?)}

¹¹ I love The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood but one of the only things I do not like about it is the lack of dual perspective. If it delivered Adam's feelings through Olive's perspective to the level Roll for Romance does with Noah/Loren through Sadie/Jaylie it would probably still be my top CRC read this year.

Click to Reveal footnotes for spoilers

¹² I understand this is an upper-middle-class+ 1st world problem.

¹³ Related, what painting is for Sadie is what I have realized writing is for me. I wanted to write fantasy novels for most of my adolescence. It wasn't until my Junior year of high-school when I decided to pursue a more traditional American “success path”.

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