Role Playing
Aug. 4th, 2024 10:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearI don't tend to read a lot of romance books, but I've come across a couple of good ones lately (based on recommendations), so maybe I should explore the genre a bit more...
Role Playing by Cathy Yardley is about a late-40s freelance book editor who likes video games (which is exactly me, so that was a good start!) and also has a central character who is bisexual (also me, so even more points!).
The book contains several romance tropes (misunderstandings about the other person's identity and desire for a relationship, bets involving getting dates, protagonists going to a wedding together before they're a couple, the woman surprising people by having a makeover) but all of them are subverted in clever and amusing ways that make them seem both fresh and much more realistic and relatable than usual. (The only one that isn't is the size difference, with the man being huge and the woman being tiny, which was a bit disappoint, but I guess you can't have everything!)
The LGBTQIA+ representation was really good, as was all the stuff around consent and good communication about needs and desires.
I was slightly irritated by the female protagonist (Maggie) being very clear that she's not looking for a relationship and then being annoyed that the guy (Aidan) respects her wishes and doesn't hit on her (sigh...) but that was a minor blip.
One of my favourite bits were when Maggie told Aidan about a bisexual friend of hers who was married to a man and sometimes worried about not representing bisexuality very well (something I can totally relate to) and said she thought that was nonsense because "it's not as if you have to verify yourself, like on Twitter". The other was when Maggie turned up at one point looking stunning (after spending most of the book in sweat pants with no makeup and messy hair), causing Aidan's bro-type, borderline offensive friend to make several comments about her suddenly making an effort. Maggie says, "The different between you and me is that I always knew I could look like this," and "If you can't accept me in sweatpants, you don't deserve me in stilettos."
I was a bit worried about how the relationship would eventually develop from friendship into romance, but I thought that was handled very well.
The family drama that suddenly exploded on both sides towards the end felt like a bit too much all at once, but I liked the way it got resolved (or in some cases didn't) by the end.
Overall, a really fun book that did some very standard things in very interesting and satisfying ways.
Role Playing by Cathy Yardley is about a late-40s freelance book editor who likes video games (which is exactly me, so that was a good start!) and also has a central character who is bisexual (also me, so even more points!).
The book contains several romance tropes (misunderstandings about the other person's identity and desire for a relationship, bets involving getting dates, protagonists going to a wedding together before they're a couple, the woman surprising people by having a makeover) but all of them are subverted in clever and amusing ways that make them seem both fresh and much more realistic and relatable than usual. (The only one that isn't is the size difference, with the man being huge and the woman being tiny, which was a bit disappoint, but I guess you can't have everything!)
The LGBTQIA+ representation was really good, as was all the stuff around consent and good communication about needs and desires.
I was slightly irritated by the female protagonist (Maggie) being very clear that she's not looking for a relationship and then being annoyed that the guy (Aidan) respects her wishes and doesn't hit on her (sigh...) but that was a minor blip.
One of my favourite bits were when Maggie told Aidan about a bisexual friend of hers who was married to a man and sometimes worried about not representing bisexuality very well (something I can totally relate to) and said she thought that was nonsense because "it's not as if you have to verify yourself, like on Twitter". The other was when Maggie turned up at one point looking stunning (after spending most of the book in sweat pants with no makeup and messy hair), causing Aidan's bro-type, borderline offensive friend to make several comments about her suddenly making an effort. Maggie says, "The different between you and me is that I always knew I could look like this," and "If you can't accept me in sweatpants, you don't deserve me in stilettos."
I was a bit worried about how the relationship would eventually develop from friendship into romance, but I thought that was handled very well.
The family drama that suddenly exploded on both sides towards the end felt like a bit too much all at once, but I liked the way it got resolved (or in some cases didn't) by the end.
Overall, a really fun book that did some very standard things in very interesting and satisfying ways.
