This is a spicy, rival to lovers, gaming romance with a dash of fantasy and I enjoyed the unique setup of one story inside another.

Reagan and Wesley were rivals in their Game Design program in college. At a graduation party, they played a few games together and felt a connection. They shared some kisses, but when he left to get a drink of water, he never came back! Reagan felt like she had been ghosted and was feeling hurt. Wes went on to work for a big gaming studio in Boston and Reagan stayed in town to work for a local hospital as a software engineer.

Six years later, she and her sister sign up for a Dungeon & Dragons (D&D) game at a local game store. Reagan is surprised when the Dungeon Master is none other than Wesley! The Dungeon Master runs the games and builds the fantasy world the players interact in. Members pick their characters and a magic item and meet once a week to play. It was special that the fantasy world in the D&D game is told as a fantasy tale within the story!

Both Reagan and Wesley are also working on their own games and both will be entering them in an upcoming Indie games festival contest. Wesley is hoping it will help him get a new job in the gaming industry. Reagan does it because she loves to compete. They decide to critique each other’s games and things get pretty spicy between them.

There are a lot of characters in their games as well as the characters in the group D&D game and at times, it was hard for me to keep track of them all. There was a conflict towards the end that I could see coming that caused some drama. My favorite parts are when Reagan and Wesley are together in the present, but I loved the creative way the author had them interacting in the fantasy tale inside of the main story. I recommend this to readers who enjoy spicy stories with gamers, rivals to lovers, STEM characters and fantasy.  Many thanks to the author, Ballantine and NetGalley for the ARC.