Synopsis:
Geeky introvert Tessa Rodriguez will do whatever it takes to get promoted to video game engineer – including create a fandom-based video game in just three weeks. The only problem is, she can’t do it alone. Now, she needs to strong-arm, cajole, and otherwise socialize with her video game coworkers, especially her roommate, Adam, who’s always been strictly business with her. The more they work together, though, the closer they get…
Adam London has always thought of his roomie Tessa as “one of the guys” until he agreed to help her with this crazy project. Now, he’s thinking of her all the time… and certainly as something more than just a roommate! But his last girlfriend broke up with him to follow her ambitions, and he knows that Tessa is obsessed with getting ahead in the video game world.
Going from friends to something more is one hell of a challenge. Can Tessa and Adam level up their relationship to love?
Review:
I checked out Level Up as I’m on the lookout for books about gaming – they’re not as common as you’d think. Unfortunately this one was not for me. I DNF’d at around halfway through and that first half was not an easy read. I thought this book sounded fun but I couldn’t be more wrong. I was bored, which is happening quite a lot lately so it could just be me, but I struggled to get through less than 100 pages of this book.
I can appreciate the sentiment that women should be able to focus on their careers and not care about having a romantic partner, but the fact that this is a romance book made that point a little moot. You’d assume the romance would take centre stage but I got a decent way through this book and they’d not even considered the other as attractive.
The characters in Level Up are also disgustingly stereotypical. Adam’s friends are all ‘dude bro’ gamers who only talk about sex and are generally misogynistic – a theme I’m noticing often with the men in Cathy Yardley’s books. Then on the other hand you have Tessa’s friends who are basically a bunch of manic pixie dream girls (a character trope I absolutely hate as it feels inherently misogynistic to me).
Adam and Tessa weren’t any more interesting either. I liked that Tessa was career driven and Adam was there I suppose. He spent most of the time moaning about his girlfriend that left him to focus on her career, which is the only reason why he’s never really looked at Tessa as a woman. He knows she’s “obsessed” with furthering her career. But we all know if she was a man she’d be called ambitious.
I’d love to say I have loads more to talk about to back up my desire to DNF Level Up, but there’s nothing more to say. I didn’t like the characters, the plot was ok and the romance was non-existent.
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