Role Playing by Cathy Yardley

Narrated by Chris Brinkley and Elyse Dinh

Standalone Contemporary Romance

I love books that have couples closer to my age. Us GenXers can still fall in love! So I was very excited to grab Role Playing by Cathy Yardley.

Maggie is an introverted single mom gamer. She’s not dealing well with her only son leaving for college (boy can I relate!) and because her son is just like her, she’s worried he’s not making friends at school, while he’s concerned about her alone at home. They make a deal that they would each go to some type of meeting if the other did.

When Maggie heard about a local online league for her favorite video game, she assumed that it was all college students but she joined to see what it was about and to say she joined something. Aiden is a 50-year-old gamer and hospice nurse who gave up his business to take care of his crotchety old grandma. He found out from his grandma that she told a woman about the league, so when Maggie joined, Aiden thought she was his grandma’s age.

The two became friends online, knowing each other’s online handles only. The friendship came quickly, but Maggie thought Aiden was in college and he thought she was 80. It took a while for them to meet in person, and up until then the story was a little slow for me, but once they met it really picked up.

Maggie was the grumpy one and Aiden was so nice! But relationships were hard for Aiden. Not only is he bisexual, but demisexual as well, meaning there needs to be deep emotion before he’s with anyone sexually no matter what sexual orientation they are.

Though Role Playing by Cathy Yardley was a little slow at times, I really loved reading about Maggie’s and her son’s relationship and I loved how unique it was to not only have an older couple, but to have a character with a different sexuality and an Asian heroine.

Likes:

Older Couple.
She is a single empty-nester.
Loved her relationship with her college-aged son.
Felt very real.
Diverse cast both in sexuality and race.

Dislikes:

3rd person threw me off sometimes. I’d forget they were talking about the main character and think it was the main character referring to someone else, if that makes any sense.
I am not a gamer at all and I know nothing about these types of video games.
It was too long for the story.

The Narration:

It needed more post-production work, there were lots of weird pauses that made me think I disconnected. Role Playing was cast well and I enjoyed Chris Brinkley and Elyse Dinh’s narration, but I felt like the narration made the third person stick out even more.

The Down & Dirty:

If you are an older gamer, for sure grab Role Playing by Cathy Yardley. I think if you are in either one of those groups (older or gamer) you’ll enjoy and be able to relate to the story. I’ll admit, I considered a DNF during the first ¼ of the book, but I am really glad I stuck with it because once they met in person and it was more about their relationship than the game I liked it way more.