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Two fledgling tabletop gamers find themselves falling for each other—both in and out of their weekly D&D sessions—in this charming, fantasy-tinged romance.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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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for a honest review. This book is going to end up being one of my favorite reads of the year. I fully expected this to be some cutesy little romance book but it packed quite the emotional punch. The book is split into two POVs: Sadie (our FMC) and Jaylie (her D&D character). At first I wasn’t sure how I would like Jaylie’s storyline but I ended up looking forward to them. And kudos to Woods for using that storyline to advance the relationship between Sadie & Noah in such a unique way. The relationship building between Sadie and Noah is a little subtle at first but I think it goes really well with Sadie’s overall plotline. And I felt that their relationship blossomed at a pretty good pace for a book Reagan considered “slow burn”. There is a pretty toasty open door scene but for the most part the focus of the book is on the emotional relationship. Also, you do not have to be familiar with D&D to read this. I know absolutely zero about it and I still really enjoyed this book (and I’m also kind of intrigued about the game)