I can arguably say that I am not a gamer. Outside of duck hunter it was not something my parents allowed, and as a result, I just never got into gaming. I found the gaming aspects in the book to be interesting at times because I was learning things I didn’t know but also, I was struggling because I really had zero idea what they were talking about.

I loved that Cat is described as short and fat, her soft stomach is described, and I really did think that overall, it was positive fat rep. Andi is non-binary and was outed as non-binary in the video game industry and this game is their comeback project from that fall out. I really love that this is a sapphic Asian romance with a non-binary character. I really feel the need to hammer this in because WAY too many were calling this an F/F romance on Goodreads when it is a sapphic one, but it is F/NB romance do not dismiss the non-binary character. We need them in our romances.

Andi is passionate about creating a game where there is a non-binary character that would be one of the first in the industry. Andi also was really frustrated when Cat joins the team because she was there to help write the romance plotlines into the story and Andi didn’t understand why every video game needed to appeal to femme people by adding in romance. I appreciated the way in which Andi pushed back that romance doesn’t need to be something to pull in femme gamers. However, with that said, I also appreciated the way in which Cat talked about the emotional connection that can come in with romances and how anyone regardless of gender can connect with love.

Overall, I really did enjoy a lot of aspects of this book and the characters. There was a sabotage plotline that also keeps you hooked into knowing what is happening. I wish some parts were not as slow and a little less of the gaming jargon for me personally, but I KNOW many will connect with it exactly as it is! I am excited to read more from Tara as this is their debut novel and I am eager to see what they do next.