Synopsis:
He called me his “mystery girl” on stream. Live. In front of thousands of viewers.
The wildest part? I didn’t even know who he was.
I was at my usual gaming café, grinding ranked matches in a popular MOBA game called NLA.
But instead of celebrating my latest win, I was fuming. One of my teammates had spent the entire game spewing sexist insults at me, even though I carried the match and we won despite him.
While the rank-up animation played on my screen, some guy walked up and tried to congratulate me. Tall, dark-haired, handsome, with a nerdy edge—usually, he’d be my type. But I barely glanced at him. After the night I’d had, I wasn’t in the mood to entertain more fragile male egos.
Turns out, that guy was MnstrX.
Yeah, that MnstrX. The most famous pro gamer in the NLA scene. The guy who’s won every single major tournament in the game—twice.
And now, he’s on his stream, calling me his “mystery girl” and offering to coach me.
What do you even do when the best NLA player in the world asks to coach you?
You say yes.
What started as “just coaching” quickly became something more. Alex Thorne—aka MnstrX—turned out to be thoughtful, kind, and way more down-to-earth than I expected.
And if you think climbing the ranks in a competitive video game is hard, try navigating a secret relationship with one of the biggest names in esports.
Review:
I’ve been looking for books about gaming for a new post series so when Good Game, Gamer Girl popped up it felt like a sign. Now, this book was fine but it felt a lot like the first draft. The characters felt inconsistent and they went through basically no development during the book. You hear about a lot of issues, the biggest being Emma ex, who spoiler, knows the guy she’s been streaming with. Nothing comes from this though. Very little conflict and no resolution – what was the point?
The fact that the game they’re playing is basically League of Legends was a bit of a let down. It’s not a game I’ve ever played or had an interest in playing. I don’t know a lot about the game but I have a feeling the author doesn’t either. There’s a lot of talk about playing and streaming the game but it all felt a little off.
There are quite a few bits of this book that are a little annoying but the biggest has to be Alex and Emma wearing cosplay to a gaming convention so they won’t be recognised and be a couple in public. Sounds like a good plan, right? I thought so but the very first thing they do when they get there is go to their organisation’s booth and walk around with the other players. Surely that defeats the purpose of the costumes?
The second half of the book felt completely different. Probably because of the romance. They had an argument less than 48 hours into their relationship which probably isn’t a good sign. It felt quite juvenile but then they’d start getting hot and heavy and it would be a little weird honestly. At points it felt like a teenager writing fanfic, which isn’t wholly negative, I read some great fanfics back in the day. The romance really wasn’t hitting for me though. I adore this concept though. As a woman that loves gaming and has interest in esports, it’s right up my street.
What was supposed to be a fun short read ended up being a pretty subpar gaming romance. This genre is already pretty niche and I feel like books like this will do it no favours. That’s all I have to say.
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