I try and read a few new to me authors every month and picked Playing for Love by Jeevani Charika because the synopsis caught my eye. I enjoyed this book even though I am way out of the demographic for this story and because I am not nor have I ever been a big gamer (I don’t think Galaga and the original Donkey Kong count). I’m not clueless about gaming, I have a gamer son and it was funny because we had a discussion about some things that were happening in regards to the game launch in this book that have been happening in the gamer community so for that I have to applaud the author for being very in-tune with the community. This was a very slow and sweet romance with characters that seemed younger than their age which I guesstimate was around 24-28ish, it honestly read more like a YA novel with the exception of the fact the characters were building their own businesses.

Samadhi ‘Sam’ Ranaweera has worked hard to make her dreams of owning her own business, one she has named in honor of her late mother, but her crowd funding campaign isn’t going well and she is running out of time and money so when Luke Burneside, a guy who works at The Nest, where her office is located offers to help she give in and lets him. She doesn’t realize that Luke is actually Blaze, a fairly famous YouTube gamer she has spent hours watching and listening to. When Sam gets picked by a lottery drawing to participate in a competition launch for SyrenQuest, a new video game and paired with Blaze all she can think about is finally meeting the man of her dreams when the man helping her day in and day out is hoping she’ll realize he exists. Sam has no idea that Luke is Blaze and he has no idea that she is Bravura.

Things I really liked about this book; Sam’s South Asian culture and her relationship with her family was mentioned organically throughout this book, I felt like Luke was like a lot of gamers; his avatar personality and his real life personality were quite a bit different, both Sam and Luke were dedicated to their business and worked long hours to make them successful, both characters were equally awkward when dealing with the opposite sex, and the game play description and what happened to and with the characters as they played; as I said I’m not a gamer but I really got into the “quest” and the how the relationship grew between the two characters during their play.

A few things that didn’t work for me BUT didn’t really detract from my enjoyment of the book; both characters had trouble communicating and their indecision let small problems become big ones, I got a bit tired of the passages of Sam constantly working on her presentations <yawn>, and I was disappointed that we never really got a chance to see these two as a couple. There was a lot of build up for little payoff.

I enjoyed Playing for Love; I found it fresh and entertaining and while I wish there had been more romance in this romance, I’m glad I took a chance on this new to me author.

Thank you to Netgalley and @harpercollinsuk got my advance copy of this book.

I adored it!

I'm very much not a massive gamer myself, but I love and respect the gaming and especially the con world. My kids are mini gamers, my husband is so it's part of my world. To have a rom com set in this world was just so inspired. I loved the characters and their alter egos so much, I can honestly say I really didn't dislike anything in this. I really felt for Sam and her grief as well as Luke and his confidence issues. They were real people with layers.

It's every gamers fantasy to end up alongside the pros so the fan girl in me also loved that side of the story. That and the fact that a lot of these gamers in the story had very real other lives, which made it less fantastical than some of the current YouTubers lives in the current day.

What a ride though. Just loved it!

#bookstagrammers #bookstagram #bookreview #bookeviewer #lovedit #playingforlove #netgalley #jeevanicharika #harpercollins

Playing for Love by Jeevani Charika

Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.85

Thank you so much to Netgalley, to the publishers, and Author Jeevani Charika for the free copy in exchange of an honest review.

Samadhi “Sam” Ranaweera is doing her best to build her start up company by day and to relieve stress, she turns to the online personality/professional gamer “Blaze” for comfort. Luck finally turns to her side when she wins the chance to be in a virtual online gaming tournament and play with Blaze. It doesn’t hurt that she could possibly win money to help fund her business.
Luke Burneside works in the same start up office as Sam. He is incredibly awkward and shy and secretly has feeling for Sam. But outside of work, he is the real face of the confident and smooth-talking online gamer, Blaze. Neither of them knows that they are playing with each other in the online tournament, and as Sam falls harder for Blaze, will Luke get his chance to be noticed as him?

This is such a cute read. I really liked the premise and I was invested in it. I kept thinking about how the story would play out and who would recognize who… and WHEN someone would realize who the other was. I definitely didn’t expect who did and didn’t predict it.

I really enjoyed this book, for the most part because I’m very attached to the gaming community (not as a gamer, but because my partner is a streamer and a gamer). I really enjoyed Blaze/Luke’s character and his growth. I enjoyed the whole game concept and how it was added into the plot - reminded me a lot of Ready Player One.

On the other hand, Sam was really hard to like. This is one of the reason that I gave it a lower rating even though I liked the book. It really sucks when female characters are portrayed this way. It made hard to connect with her. There was a lot of back and forth about whether or not I should continue the book mostly because of Sam. She was quite frustrating and STUBBORN!! Still, she has a lot of redeeming qualities and it definitely ended up winning in the end.

I do feel like the conflict regarding her dad seemed so anticlimactic. It was such a HUGE issue for her and I felt like the way the author handled it was MEH. I’m from an Asian household like her and conflicts do not get solved over tea and biscuits but at the same time, it really could be. Sometimes, we think our parents would react some type of way and we make problems bigger than they are in our heads. On the other hand, sometimes parents do need a reminder that their children are adults, sometimes parents do need to be reminded that even adults need their parents’ support and guidance not just their advice or to be treated like children.

Anyways, LUKE most definitely carried the story and i like him a lot.

Loved this book! It was so good. I thought it was brilliantly done with the interplay between the game play between Bravura and Blaze and the deeply supportive, developing relationship at work between Luke and Sam. And I also think someone needs to make Sam’s inserts idea a reality. I was so engrossed in Playing for Love that I almost missed my subway stop. My favorite read of 2022 so far! Highly recommend!

💻 Gamer romance with 'You've Got Mail' and 'Shop Around The Corner' vibes.

Sam, who is trying to kickstart her own fashion business uses gaming and youtube gamer videos as a way to relax. She has a crush on youtube sensation 'Blaze', though she doesnt know who he is or what he looks like.
Meanwhile, Luke who works in the same building is head over heels for her but she doesn't see him in that light. Oh...and in his spare time he is the gaming persona Blaze.
Then Sam wins a place in a gaming competition and is paired with Blaze.

I was really drawn to the premise, especially as I enjoy gaming. I love that it featured an interracial couple. I also love that it dealt with the sexism in the gaming community. I liked both characters and the fact they both had very real world problems. Luke was adorable as the shy, awkward guy who has a heart of gold buy a confidence issue. I loved how driven and determined Sam was and how she stayed true to herself.

The downside was that the romance was not 100% for me. It was sweet and lighthearted, but for me it just lacked that extra kick. There was not enough heat and banter between the couple and the falling in love part mainly happened during the gaming, for Sam at least. It wasn't bad, but it didn't quite do it for me. There was potential for alot more.

Also it was unclear at first as to what kind of game they were playing. It was only when the characters were holding hands in the game and pulling expressions at each other etc it becomes clear, I think, that they are in a high tech RPG.

Overall a sweet lighthearted romance that explores how we use things like fiction and gaming to escape real world problems and stresses.

This was a cute read. Two work friends find themselves competing together in a VR type video game competition. However because they're playing in costume, neither one knows who the other really is. It was a cute idea, but I felt like more time was spent developing the virtual reality environment of the game than developing the relationship between the characters.

Thank you HG Digital and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a digital ARC in return for an honest review.

Wow!! Playing for love was such a refreshing read. I haven’t read many romance books previously which have been centred around gaming and the Youtube world, and I was really entertained by the different concept of the story as it was executed very well. I don’t personally have a big interest in gaming, yet I found the gaming parts easy to follow along. Everything was explained really well, and it never felt like there was TOO much information meaning that I wasn’t bored once - in fact I couldn’t put this book down !

Sam and Luke were well developed characters, and the inclusion of their business lives outside of the gaming world really helped the situation feel quite realistic and enabled the characters to become more relatable, knowing the outside struggles that they were going through. I loved the parallel love story between Sam and Luke and their gaming persona’s, Blaze and Bravura - though I do feel as though whilst Sam and Luke were very cute together, I wanted them to have more chemistry.

Overall I really enjoyed reading this book, it was a lot of fun and easy to binge in a day. I will definitely be on the look out for future books written by Jeevani Charika!

Playing for Love is a cute, fun romcom set both in the real life world of startup businesses and the virtual world of video games, with both halves of the story told lovingly.

This book is a great rendition of the delightful (and sometimes frustrating!!) trope of two people falling in love without entirely realizing they're actually falling in love with each other. In this case, Sam, a handbag accessories designer and novice gamer, has a massive crush on YouTuber Blaze, not realizing that he's actually Luke, the shy event planner who works right nearby and has a massive crush on her. Their interactions in both of their personas are flirty and sweet and more than a little awkward, and more than once, I found myself yelling, "OMG you're both so dumb!!" Fondly, of course.

Beyond the tropiness, my favorite part of this book was the world of the video game, SyrenQuest. I'm not a gamer, but I could still visualize the world they were playing in, and I felt just as tense as the players as they worked their way through the challenges. Beyond that, I felt that Charika did a solid job of handling the sexism that female gamers face, particularly in the scenes at the con.

However, there were times when Playing for Love felt a little clumsy and clunky. Sometimes, it was the dialogue, which didn't flow smoothly for me in a lot of spots. At other times, I felt as though Sam and Luke rehashed their feelings too often, both about their budding romantic feelings and about their IRL problems. Moreover, there was a level of depth from them, perhaps because the same issues were repeatedly mulled over. I found myself craving some sort of deeper conflict or tension beyond just whether they would win the game. There were hints that something might come up with creepy Jeff, but nothing materialized. Sam's fear of sharing her business aspirations with her father were resolved fairly quickly. All of it left me wanting just a bit more.

Still, this book was fun and sweet and a solid romcom with the extra element of video games to give it just a hint of originality.

3.5/5

This was a cute, sweet and clean romance with very amiable characters. This book had 2 simultaneous stories, 1 being real life and one being the gaming world of the main characters. I am not a gamer but loved the times the main characters were in their gaming world. It gave me real Hunger Games vibes. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It had a believable and adorable story. If you’re looking for something light and entertaining, this is it.

A fabulous book and just the perfect lazy Sunday read. I adore Sam and Luke and the dynamic flip between them in the real vs VR world is really cleverly done. I loved it!

One thing's for sure: this is not your regular, lovedy-dovey, steamy, swoon-worthy romance. 'Original' is certainly one way to put it, I guess; one could even say that Playing for Love is genre-bending as it involves a lot of game action, videogame and fandom culture. However, if what you're looking for is a romance, with a capital R, this will not float your boat. For me, it lacked everything that makes a romance a romance. The story-telling and writing are not refined, the characters are not that well fleshed out, the relationship isn't compelling nor well-developed. Overall, the book reads a lot like fan fiction: half-baked and surface-level.

This was a great book to read by the pool and just enjoy it. I liked the escapism of it with the video gaming and how the most unlikely people can do it and can hide behind their avatar.

You were hoping the love story worked out and wanted everyone to live happily ever after!

Thanks to NetGalley and HQ for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
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Playing for Love was a cute, quick read that read like a rom-com movie.
Between mistaken identities/alter egos, and the video game aspect, this was refreshing in a way that cookie cutter romances aren't, because it gave it an extra layer.

As someone who isn't a gamer, I liked that the plot wasn't heavily driven by the actual video game play itself, but just enough to see the characters interact in a different way.

Wow!! Playing for love was such a refreshing read. I haven’t read many romance books previously which have been centred around gaming and the Youtube world, and I was really entertained by the different concept of the story as it was executed very well. I don’t personally have a big interest in gaming, yet I found the gaming parts easy to follow along. Everything was explained really well, and it never felt like there was TOO much information meaning that I wasn’t bored once - in fact I couldn’t put this book down !

Sam and Luke were well developed characters, and the inclusion of their business lives outside of the gaming world really helped the situation feel quite realistic and enabled the characters to become more relatable, knowing the outside struggles that they were going through. I loved the parallel love story between Sam and Luke and their gaming persona’s, Blaze and Bravura - though I do feel as though whilst Sam and Luke were very cute together, I wanted them to have more chemistry.

Overall I really enjoyed reading this book, it was a lot of fun and easy to binge in a day. I will definitely be on the look out for future books written by Jeevani Charika!

I enjoyed this book, the premise was of a love triangle, however the people involved were actually the same but different personas which was a nice twist to the trope. Sam was smitten with Blaze, an online enigmatic presence who was in fact the normally shy and clumsy Luke, who in fact had it bad for Sam. It certainly brought a new angle to the story especially as we saw the online gamers interactions within the screen play too. I found this interesting as I have never been a gamer myself.

My only concern was that the emotional reactions between them felt very immature, they seemed more like high school children rather than young professionals. Their reactions to each other didn't quite ring true.

However I enjoyed the personal side to each of the characters and their own struggles within their lives. It gave them a little more depth and added more to the story. Overall a good read.

Youtube gaming world meets real life, with two parallel storylines about the same people who know each other in real life and online separately.
The premise for this book was right up my street. I love a good "online social media-esque" driven plot. Throw in gaming and i'm sold.
I really loved Luke as a character, he was well written and we saw such a development from hiding behind his persona as Blaze to becoming more comfortable in his own skin. Sam however, i wasn't a big fan of. Theres just something about her I didn't gel with. She's so dismissive towards Luke at first, yet has a crush on some guy she's never spoken to and hasn't seen his face. It felt a bit immature for a grown adult. I did like how driven she was towards making her business a success.
Unfortunately I didn't feel any real chemistry between the characters, it felt kind of forced, especially the "flirting" between their online personas. There was no spark.
The gaming aspect was a little confusing at first and not really explained properly. The gameplay was written like they were actually there in the game, but that wasn't clarified. I assumed it to be something similar to "sword art online". Once i'd convinced myself of that assumption, i did enjoy the gameplay and how it was written. For those not as in tune with games and this concept of a gaming device though, it may be off putting.

Overall this book was okay. It was a a cute short read that I finished in a single evening.

*Copy provided by NetGalley for review*

Web designer Luke has an alter ego as YouTube gamer Blaze. His client, Sam, is a huge Blaze fan—but she has no idea that he and Luke are one and the same. When he and Sam are randomly matched as partners in a gaming tournament, they end up in a strange love triangle: Luke's got a crush on Sam, but Sam's got a crush on Blaze.

This is a unique romance with well-developed, angsty characters. I'm not a gamer, but I loved how the competition in the virtual world was incorporated into the story. I enjoyed this author's style and how she brought this story vividly to life.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

It took me a while to write this review, because I really wanted to think over the reasons this story didn't work for me.

I was so excited to read it because it was something new, for me at least. A love story between 2 gamers who fall in love while playing online and not knowing that they actually work together. It sounds like such a fresh idea.

It wasn't exactly what was in the book. I was confused for most of the book. I think that the characters aren't really well hashed out, I didn't connect with Sam at all. And unfortunately for me, if I don't connect with the MC the book is pretty hard to get through.

I found a lack of chemistry between Sam and Luke. The love story felt very forced.

I did give it a 3/5, because I finished it, if I can finish a book it deserves at least a 3. I think this one is on me, I just couldn't connect, so I just didn't enjoy it.

Thank you to HQ and NetGalley for the ARC.

This book wasn’t for me. I used to like playing video games when I was younger and my children and I loved Lara Croft games. Apart from that this book didn’t do it for me at all. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

The premise of this book attracted me. It drew me in. Plus the online gaming aspect also did it for me. It was nice to have an inside look into the gaming industry.

And the characters = CUTE! In their own way.

Overall, it was a nice book. Okay. It didn’t have me ignoring tasks to pick it up but it was cute. I loved the entrepreneurial aspect and how people are in different stages of their careers. And also the topic of how much of one’s self to actually put out there.