I didn't finish this book as I just couldn't get into the book at the time I was reading it.
I will try again in the future but at the moment it's in my DNF pile.

Note: Thank you to Netgalley, Edelweiss, the publisher and the author for sending me an ARC copy (ies) in exchange for an honest review.

So here we go.

First of all..

Just got one thing to say to y'all.

"DON'T READ THE COMMENTS." Literally.

But in the day and age, where social media rules your world and others as well, it's impossible not to. It's like a permanent black marker mark on your newly painted white wall.

It just won't leave. It'll stay and eventually you'll have to face it and the reality alongside it.

And that is exactly what this book talks about alongside other issues like doxxing, sexism in the online world of gaming, "the old boys' club", harassment and bullying again in the online world, about giving all of us a wake-up call in general about what it means to be in today's day and age of racing ahead only with technology by our side.

Although I do have to mention that THIS IS NOT A #OwnVoices Story if that's what you've read in the blurbs or in discussion with your other bookworm pals, as 1. The author is not a gamer girl who's faced such issues. 2. This book does not tackle racism as an issue, only the fact that she's a girl and she's young enough to pursue her dreams and somehow still manage to survive the online world and the boy only going against the supposed stereotypes that his parents throw at him.

So these two things I wanted to clear up, before people got all excited because of SAID ISSUES.

But moving along, this book tackles all these other issues that I've mentioned above pretty well and with a good speed, the writing being clear and concise and showing us the development of how the girl tackles these issues slowly on her own and then later on with her friends and family, turning her into a resilient and determined soul to crack down all the barriers that stand in her way.

As for the boy, he also shows us how sometimes we want to go above and beyond for our parents and their goals for us, but also learning to be true and real to our passions and goals and not letting anyone get in the way, pushing past the stereotypes that hold us back for being real.

If y'all are still thinking, that counts as racism, or something, well no. That's just stereotypes for nationalities that are not "white". Plain and simple.

So I think this novel did pretty well, with putting out a clear message to ignore the comments sometimes and just be who you are, pushing past stereotypes and pursuing your dreams in general. The writing can be a bit slow sometimes (with the gaming references), but the pacing is good and the character development is pretty solid with her not trusting anyone but soon enlisting her friends' help to deal with the overall issues at hand.

SO FRICKIN FANTASTIC this novel is, gosh, I hope y'all sincerely enjoy it. A MUST RECOMMEND for all.

Until the next read,

Javelyn Bond

Don't read the comments is such a refreshing read, taking the audience a step closer into the world of gaming. Not only does it show us the life of a famous gamer and all of the perks that go with it. It also shows us the other side. The side where she has to distort her face in photos to not be recognised, where she has to constantly make sure not to reference anything that could identify her real life. It is intense and quite scary. But it also shows what it is like to be on a team developing a game. The elements we take for granted when gaming. The artwork, the story, the coding and all of the legalities that go with it. This book is so current and relevant to 2020.

It is so easy to read, the language is fresh and current, making it easy to read, matched with the fast pacing of an action game, this book flys. Our characters are amazing, diverse and from different backgrounds. There is a character for everyone to relate to in some way or another.

I love the message that this book sends. That there are always going to be people who will want to tear you down, but you can't let them. You do you. This book shows the extreme lengths that groups of jealous people will go to, to get some recognition or publicity. It shows that there is a darker side to online gaming and how quickly things can go wrong. But it also shows how you can deal with it, with support from friends, family and the law if need be.

I am so greatful to the team at NetGalley and Harlequin Publishing for the review copy of this book. It was honestly such a great, modern read.

It's been a long time since a book made me want to stand up and cheer, or literally set my heart thumping, or brought tears to my eyes. This one did all three, not just once, but over and over.
I was with Divya from the very first page, and my interest in her never flagged for a second. It took me a little longer to become invested in Aaron, but it was worth the wait. I am going to be carrying these characters with me for a long time, and I would love to meet them again in a future story.
To put something out there right now, I don't play video games, and there is a lot of gameplay in this novel. And you know what? I wouldn't change a word of it. Some of the most devastating and also the most exhilarating moments happen in-game. I absolutely loved it and I feel a deep sense of loss that I'll never be able to join the Angst Armada and play alongside Divya.
The story is brilliant, the emotions are real, the characters are wonderful and the writing is sublime.

(Thank you to Harlequin Australia for sending a free copy my way in exchange for an honest review)

I absolutely love this book.

This is a book about a geek’s world online and off, and it is beautifully written. It is set in the gamer community and contains pointed modern day social media issues such as bullying, doxing, trolls and online harassment. But really, just because it is targeted at gamers, doesn’t mean the social media commentary isn’t relevant for everyone online.

The commentary on toxic fan ownership and behavior is layered throughout in a way that lets it seep into your consciousness and ramps the tension of the story, so that by the end you are racing through the pages to find out what happens next. The GamerCon scenes are fun but also heartbreaking and the panel scene is a tense read, the action gripping and very realistic. As is the love, hope and trust between Divya and Aaron.

Divya and Aaron are beautifully written characters. The depth of their characterization is in their detailed personal history… and in their realistically emotional reactions to the trauma they suffer from the negative behavior from both online and offline people. The depth of characterisation is also shown in their friendships and family relationships, both online and in the real world. The online world is at times a nasty one full of horrible people who want to take advantage of you and both Divya and Aaron experience this. But there is also the amazing hopefulness of the online community when they come together and fight for each other. The highs and lows in this story kept me hooked.

There is also commentary on the pressure that parents put on their children to have a better life than what they had. (And the pressure that children put upon themselves to help their parents in return.) The story is seeped in love, and shows how outside pressures force young people to grow up fast. Rich, poor, immigrant or not this story focuses on young people wanting to escape the past to focus on their own dreams, while not letting their parents down in the process. (It gives us a glimpse, through the parents’ eyes, of their love for their children and how they only want what is best for them. Also how low income families fight and suffer to provide for their children to the point of exhaustion or going broke, and its about the struggle to keep their kids safe in a world they have very little knowledge of or control over.

This book hooked me quickly and kept me sucked in. The flow of the text had me flying through the pages and I simply loved the Chat logs and VR descriptions. The gaming and technical details were not too technical to follow and in fact made for an extremely enjoyable tale of adventure on the screen and provided plenty of drama off it. I got to the end rooting for Divya and Aaron to prevail. A perfect story of love, hope and fighting for what’s right in a very unfair world.

My niece loves her tablet and online games. This is a book I am absolutely getting for her to read (and for her dad too). You should make sure you read this one.

I’ve got to admit that when I requested this book on NetGalley, I was not expecting it to be one that kept me up reading past bedtime. And yet….

This book has a lot of really topical, timely themes: doxing, online bullying and poverty, and of course, your more usual YA themes of figuring out what to do after high-school and first loves and coming of age.

I really loved the two main characters! Divya is strong and resourceful, and there for others. She’s also dorky, which is why she gets on with Aaron so well. Aaron was a fantastic example of non-toxic masculinity in a sea of trolls. I liked that it confronted his privilege – that Divya has to assume he could be as bad as the rest until proven otherwise, and how this realisation takes him completely by surprise. And I had such a silly grin on my face when they started sending each other heart emojis over the chat.

I also thought the horror of knowing trolls have your home address was really well depicted as was the realisation of “Wow… they’re actually kind of pathetic, aren’t they?” when the trolls are faced in person. It doesn’t take away the horror, but for a little while you feel that they actually can be beaten, even as they keep trying to sound their battle cry as they’re dragged away.

Also there’s the jerks like Aaron’s ”friend” Jason who, while not exactly part of the group, don’t denounce them and in fact, want to impress them. I knew from the moment I met him Jason would be The Worst and he did not disappoint.

I loved the descriptions of the Reclaim the Sun game and Divya’s livestreams. I really felt that Eric Smith is a nerd/geek himself and has spent time playing this type of game. It all rang true to me, and that’s something I have found lacking in other books about nerd culture.

All in all, this one comes highly recommended!

(Thank you to Harlequin Australia for sending a free copy my way in exchange for an honest review)

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book, much more than I was expecting to. I am not really a gamer, so I had some reservations. I was only expecting a typical YA contemporary rom-com, but this book had much more to offer. The book follows a story of young boy and girl in separate cities, playing a massive online game about space exploration. The female lead, is a successful and popular streamer for the game and faces attacks from haters online and in person. The story follows her meeting the male lead and dealing with trolls.

Firstly, it tackled a really important issue in online bullying and harassment. This was handled really well and I liked the amount of attention that was given to it. I don't believe that the author forced the issue either, it was handled well.

The description of the game was great and I felt like I could imagine the game quite clearly. I really enjoyed the characters. Particularly the male lead, I feel his perspective was a bit more engaging especially his interactions with other characters other than the female lead.

The story also had some mystery elements with 2 ongoing mysteries that the characters were trying to solve or get more answers on. This added a great extra element to the story and really kept me engaged.

I liked the writing style and I definitely would be open to coming back to read more books set in this world focusing on some of the other characters.

I really enjoyed this book! It explored some serious topics like sexism, racism, trolling and toxic online culture including doxxing, harassment and abuse. However it never felt heavy to read - it managed to cover these things without being super depressing. It definitely read like a love letter to gaming and to online communities and I loved that aspect of it, the world that Eric Smith built through Reclaim The Sun was awesome.

The reason this one gets 3 stars (probably a 3.5) rather than a 4 or 5 from me, is that I felt a few areas lacked exploration or fleshing out. I felt as though I had missed a key part of Divya and Aaron's relationship development as they seemed to go from relative strangers to quite good friends. Similarly I found the subplot with Aaron's family a little weird, his dad has this sort of tragic chef back story, but then doesn't seem to actually do a lot of cheffing, and then suddenly he's actually been writing fanfic for like 12 years? I liked that, I thought it was a funny twist but it didn't hugely make sense in the narrative for me.

Overall though I thought this was a really enjoyable read, and a good reminder of how easily our information online can be exploited. There was great diverse representation and the characters were really likeable and quirky.

This is the first book I have read that deals with gaming – but hopefully not the last.

Divya is a queen of her little sect of the popular game Reclaim The Sun, and while she doesn’t get paid much, what she does get paid goes towards helping her mum finish night classes. Her father up and left them some months previous for someone else, so it’s just Divya and her mum and money is tight.

Aaron loves writing story lines for games. He does play, too, but he mostly uses Reclaim The Sun to blow off steam with his friends to blow stuff, and each other, up, and generally have fun.

One evening, during her livestream on the popular gaming site, Glitch, Divya is attacked by a bunch of online trolls who want, her out of the world they think is rightfully theirs.

“We cannot be stopped. Strike us down, and more will rise. Report us, ban us, and more will take our place.
People like you have no place in our world. This isn’t about gender or race. It’s actually about talent in the streaming community, and you’re taking up space for those far more deserving.
Leave. You aren’t welcome.”
“It’s not a race thing” The Vox Populi (Latin for The Popular Opinion) (the disgusting trolls who attacked Divya in game) states in their email to Divya.

This is the catalyst for the entire story – these disgusting trolls want to get rid of Divya, and despite their claims that it “isn’t about gender or race” it clearly screams that it is.

I enjoyed the glimpse into both Divya and Aaron’s lives, and it was a nice way that they met for the first time – in game.

Aaron’s friend, Ryan, says something about the trolls that really struck a chord with me:

“I think if you’re going to be a monster, you should at least have the courage to tell the world that you are one. If you’re so proud to have twisted views that you act on them in public, against people, you should show your face.”

He’s right. But the sad part is, these trolls, they think they’re right for thinking the way they do. They don’t see Divya as a person who just wants to enjoy the game as well, but as someone who is encroaching on what they believe is rightfully theirs. Why they think that, who knows? But it’s sick and it’s twisted of them.

A piece of narrative that struck a chord with me was towards the end of the book:

“The army of dudes surges towards them, all looking enraged at…what? What is it about a girl being popular on the internet that pisses them off so much?”

And isn’t that the nail on the head?

There was no reason for these disgusting guys to act the way that they did. None. Zero. Nada.

And I know that there are people like this in real life, and that disgusts me just as much. There’s enough internet for everyone, gosh.


This story is fast paced, and with it switching between Divya and Aaron’s points of view, it made for a very quick read, too.

The last chapters were my favourites of the book, and I flew through it.

This got a 3.5/5 stars from me.

Don't read the comments is everything I wanted ❤

It's like a blend of Warcross and Ready Player One with a feminist twist and done truly fantastic characters!

Our two main characters are from completely different upbringings but shared struggles of trying to determine their own lives and balancing what they want with what the world wants and sacrifices having to be made.

It's also a bittersweet story of the potential effects of cyber bullying in particular doxxing (taking internet issues to real life basically). In this way it's quite eye opening and ideal is often cyber bullying doesn't have the same sort of happy ending or assistance rendered to it in reality as it does in the book but it is truly a hope that it can be taken as seriously as any other crime.

Despite the serious undertones I mentioned this is not a preachy book. It's punchy and witty and fun and a really great read. It's full of action, friendship, frustration and even a little romance 😍

Overall it's really well written and a thoroughly enjoyable read. I'm not the biggest contemporary fiction fan but I was so hopeful I'd love this and I'm so, so glad I did.

Review will be live on @booksandyass in first week of January.