Crushing It was so refreshing! I loved having a storyline that revolves around the STEM world. It just worked and the characters, albeit a little awkward and embarrassing at times, were a breath of fresh air!

I also love when an author gives us great secondary characters too, and Sierra’s friends were great!

I applaud Parker for giving us a romance that’s different and revolves around a world we haven’t gotten a good romance from before.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Super quick quirky read. I loved it.

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy.

I tried to start this book so many times but I guess the mood wasn't right. Finally, I sank into the pages and got to know these characters.

I love that this is a story about a geeky girl video gamer. As a gamer myself I connected with her nerdiness. I also loved Alfie.

However, the other characters all felt unfinished to me. I would have loved to know more about Zane and Bryce. What drove them? I couldn't even connect to Aida and she was the best friend. All in all this didn't really hit the mark for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for the free copy of this book.

Loved this book! This was such a refreshing, light read and the perfect palate cleanser in between some heavier reads!

Ultimately I enjoyed this book for the reasons that it had female gamers - love, the protagonist had a deep fear of public speaking - I can relate to that- and great friendships. I also really enjoyed the humour where the protagonist enters a contest to try and get over her phobia.
As a reader I found some of her decisions were frustrating ,as well as the conflicts used to create tension between the love interest.
I gave this book 3 stars (3.5) and will keep an eye out for upcoming books by this author

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. I'd read more from this author in the future though.

Crushing It did not land in my DNF list (though I thought about it a couple of times), but there was enough of something in this book to keep me going to the end.

First, What I Did Like About Crushing It
-- A female gamer protagonist, in a male dominated world!
-- While the chagrin contest (diary slam in the description) seemed a bit over the top, it was also pretty unique and interesting enough to pull me into reading what it was about.
-- And I loved how it addressed the very real problem of the fear of public speaking (I know I can relate to this fear!)
-- There are moments of writing brilliance, where Parker’s almost poetic writing shines through, and that was like finding treasure in this book.
-- And the mention of the seven types of love from Greek lit – that was lit!
-- As well as some tender moments of romance I could have used more of.
-- I did like Alfie(sweet and supportive, and an outright nice guy, sometimes a little too so), and a couple of the supporting characters (Bryce and Zane – both of who are also contestants in the diary slam, even Aida – Sierra’s best friend, and of course Jasper – Alfie’s dog!)
-- While I am not a gamer(at all), I am enough of a techie to relish the references to the tech world and gaming itself.

And Now, the Other Side
-- I did not really care too much for Sierra(yes, the protagonist who is too much of a contradiction to my liking – is she naive or …) or Tristan (the other main character who is simply too full of himself). While I do my fair share of teen reads and enjoy them as well, I did feel that the characters(especially Sierra and Tristan), acted more “juvenile-ly” than characters in teen reads I loved.
-- While there are humorous moments, too many scenes were a little too cringe-worthy. (I know, I mentioned earlier that the chagrin contest concept intrigued me; and I still am, but hoped for LOL moments; however, found myself in the cringe-zone too often). Though this might definitely work for others…

Quotes
-- ‘I’d had slain a dragon tonight and caught the eye of a prince.’
-- ‘Tristan had a way of turning me into a personification of Murphy’s Law.‘
-- ‘As he skipped down the steps and disappeared into the darkness, I held my hand over my cheek, making sure nothing else had been stolen. Other than that kiss. And my rapidly beating heart assured me it was still there.’
-- ‘What would I do if I knew I couldn’t fail?’
-- ‘And that added a brick to a wall I hadn’t known I was building.’

In Summary
Crushing It is one of those really light reads great for reading between other serious reads; it is a read that does not need too much attention from you.

I do know I will pick the next book by Parker though, solely because I did love her writing style.

Disclaimer: Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for providing me with a eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This one was definitely not for me.

This novel follows Sierra, a video game developer who has a fear of public speaking. Her friend thinks it would be a good idea for Sierra to sign up for a "diary slam" at a local bar in order to get over this fear and be able to present her work at an international video game convention.

First, the premise of this novel irked me - how does reading from one of your diaries in front of people help one get rid of their fear of public speaking? But also at the same time, Sierra is a yoga instructor and publicly speaks in that setting as well.

Next, the convenience of the fact that so many people (none of which were in the same friend group) from her college were all going to present at the same bar in a big city like Atlanta makes no sense to me. This read like a YA novel in the sense of the grudges and immaturity of the characters but had a few chapters with A LOT of steam which is definitely not YA-friendly.

Finally, I personally did not find any of the characters likable which is one of the main issues I had with this novel. I was rooting for Sierra to learn to cope with her fear of public speaking and give a badass presentation, especially since she is a woman working in the male-dominated video game industry. However, if you are looking for a romance that had similar themes, I would recommend Loathe at First Sight or The Boyfriend Project.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for the gifted e-book in exchange for an honest review!

This was an okay book for me. I liked the video came elements, but sometimes they were a little too much to flow with the story. There was plenty of motivation to hate one of the characters, which I liked, but I struggled with how the main character dealt with it sometimes.

Romantic and refreshing, as well as hilarious, this story held my attention from the beginning to the end. The author wrote an old story with a modern update that really worked for me.

This was a fun, lighthearted story of working through anxiety and having a grownup relationship. Some readers may find the protagonists a little young for their ages, but I've met plenty of city-dwelling late-20-somethings who are about this mature (or immature). It's nice to have a techie gamer heroine who co-founded a company as the lead.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

Keep your eye on the prize... Sierra is a video game developer who wants to present her newest game at GamesCom. Problem is, she has stage fright. It’s not a mild case either, crippling anxiety. It’s impossible. But nothing is when you have a fantastic best friend and not one but two gorgeous guys after your attention.

This book was fun and I loved Aida(the best friend) The gamer in me geeked out over the games mentioned in this book. In fact I was reading it in between matches on Apex Legends. A great book to read for a break or to cleanse your palette.

This book wasn’t for me. Although other people may absolutely love it. I just didn’t. Isn’t that the thing about books. One person may love it and another may not?
I still think everyone should give it a try at least.

I really wanted to like this one as it was a different kind of Rom Com and sounded interesting but it just wasn’t for me. Took a long time to read as I just couldn’t get into the characters and they changed their stance a bit too much.
I’m sure some will like it better than me so worth a try.

I enjoyed this rom com. A quick read that I flew through. I did feel that the characters read as younger than the ages they were in the book. A little maturity would have helped.

I have always been a Nintendo player so I absolutely loved all the talk about video games like Mario Kart and Zelda. The story between Sierra and Tristan and Alfie was interesting and I wasn’t sure how it would play out throughout the book. Definitely an author I will read again!

I have chosen not to give feedback on this title, which is probably pretty obvious as it was released almost 4 months ago.

My apologies for the delay. I don't want to rate/review titles that don't work for me when they are close to release or available on NetGalley, but it seems I forgot to go back and update the DNF status.

As always, I appreciate the opportunity to read and review.

Laura

The biggest draw of this storyline for me has to be the fact that I am almost close to the age bracket being discussed here. Our lead protagonist is Sierra Ried, who has graduated from an undergraduate degree a decade ago and is about to plunge right back into the past.

I also graduated ten years ago, and I know the exact feeling of embarrassment of certain events that are indelibly etched into my mind. The piece of luck I had versus Sierra is that I am pretty much one of the only people who remember the stuff that happened then, so I am safe in the knowledge that I am safe as well as the fact that my tiny little embarrassments are nothing in comparison to what she went through.

Our leading lady and her best friend work in a male-dominated field and to get over their current hurdle, Sierra needs to get over her anxiety of public speaking (the trigger was not as dramatic as I expected it to be, but by then I was invested). To do just that, she is going to participate in a challenge which involves speaking about and being voted on the most embarrassing parts of their lives. There are a few explicit scenes in the end which I pretty much skipped. The rest of the book focuses on the growth of a reasonably happy woman into a much happier one. Knowledge of video games and their lingo might help it taking away more from the story than I did because of all the references and play on words.

It is well written and snappy with mostly vivid characters which is just the right combination for me at this time. The twist I saw coming quite early on and was a little annoyed with everyone involved because of the way they were acting. Despite all that, I would recommend it to anyone on the lookout for a quick read. I would not recommend it to anyone who is not into very descriptive romantic scenes however, since, towards the end, we are given a lot of detail.

⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

I received Crushing It by Lorelei Parker as an ARC from NetGalley. I enjoyed this book because it's not your typical rom com story. Sierra Reid is a video game developer and is a typical nerd. She's great at video games but terrible at public speaking. Even though she is part owner of the video game company where she works, the president of the company won't allow her to pitch her new video game at a European conference unless she can prove that she has overcome her fear of public speaking. So her best friend, Aida, comes up with a plan to help her. Sierra & Aida both graduated from Auburn and Aida finds a solution on the Auburn alumni Facebook page. A guy they went to school with has recently opened a new bar and is hosting a Chagrin Challenge where you bring embarrassing anecdotes, diary entries, etc to win a prize. It's like an American Idol contest where someone is eliminated every week. What Sierra didn't know was that she would be up against her college crush. The contest begins a fun story about finding the right person and how crushes aren't always the person for you.

i did not like this one as much! I thought the main male character was complete trash as he lied to our main female character and it was just weird overall. I'm going to have to say skip this one...