Publication date: 11 February 2022

Rating: 4/5 stars

Category: Romance, Adult, Contemporary

Pages: 368

Publisher: HQ

Source: Netgalley

Trigger: None

Hello Readers, welcome back to my blog.

SUMMARY

It’s all fun and games… until your heart is on the line!

When she isn’t busy building her fashion business, Samadhi ‘Sam’ Ranaweera turns to her other passion to de-stress: competitive late-night gaming (in secret, of course). She can’t believe her luck when she’s selected to play in a virtual tournament with notoriously elusive gamer Blaze.

Blaze is a little cocky and very self-assured – no surprises, given his huge online popularity – and Sam feels under pressure to impress him with her gameplay. But she has no idea that in real life, he’s just shy Luke Burneside, the awkward guy from her office.

And despite his regular coffee deliveries to her desk, Sam barely notices Luke… because with each day, she’s falling harder for Blaze.

As her crush intensifies with each game and she becomes obsessed with winning Blaze’s attention, will Sam lose her chance with the man right under her nose?

Review

Sam is running a small business that creates purses inside purses. She needs funds to get her company started so she works all day doing pitches to look for investors or partners.    By night she watches game streams and has a crush on Blaze (a YouTube game streamer). She takes a chance and enters a raffle to play a game competition where she is partnered with Blaze. Blaze is a confident YouTube game streamer at night and by day he is nerdy Luke, who has a crush on Sam but is painfully shy and awkward about approaching her.

Sam as Bravura and Luke as Blaze progress through the competition and it is very clear to everyone that Bravura likes Blaze, their connection is powerful and obvious which is making Sam and Luke’s real and virtual connection confusing for them. What happens when they meet for the final of the game competition and realise that they know each other? Will they be disappointed with each others’ reality or will it make them realise that the real person is more precious than the virtual character?

The story was well written, relevant and heart warming. Although it was clearly adult but because of the game element which was so well described, I feel that a younger audience can also read and enjoy the content and message portrayed. I gave 4 out of 5 stars because of the versatility of the target audience and the fact that the female lead is a person of colour. I just love it when the main character is someone I can identify with and route for. The fact that the difference between the main characters’ skin tone and background were not emphasised at all is a bonus because it is part of everyday life that it shouldn’t be over explained. Well done

If you like this review and are interested in reading this book, you can pre-order it using the links below:

Waterstones (UK) – https://tidd.ly/3prSyR7

Book depository (Free worldwide shipping) – https://tidd.ly/3FvdFrh

Audible (audio books) –  https://tidd.ly/3EtH3gz

The links above are affiliate links, which means I will get a small commission which helps me continue by blog, if you buy the book using these links the price does not change for you so there is no added cost to you. You can also support me by buying me a cup of coffee – https://ko-fi.com/book_latte_kech