Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advance digital copy of this book.

Virtual Reality Bites follows Zoe, an erotic romance author who seems to have a case of writer's block. Her brother's best friend, Zander, has been developing a virtual reality simulation with his company and asks Zoe to help in the romance process of the game. Throughout the novel, Zoe is stuck in the simulation and comes across multiple romance troupe scenarios.
The plot was intriguing and I enjoyed the characters and scenarios.

I really wanted to like this book, because it sounded very interesting with Fantasy life and VR with romance and whatnot. But...i was just bored? Xander were not a big interest of mine, and Zoe was whining , complaining and sour almost all the time. So their chemistry felt a little wierd, almost forced.

Virtual Reality Bites
⭐️⭐️⭐️.75 (Rounded to 4 ⭐️ for rating)
Genre: Romance Comedy
Format: Kindle eBook
Date Published: 4/19/22
Author: Ava Wixx
Publisher: Wicked Wixx Press
Pages: 316
Goodreads Rating: 4.00

Thank you to NetGalley and Wicked Wixx Press for providing a digital copy of the book for me to read in exchange for my honest opinion.

Synopsis: Following divorce number two, Zoe Woods is jaded, bitter, and unable to write her latest novel. Desperate to revive her romantic optimism, Zoe accepts an offer from an unlikely place to beta test virtual reality romance tropes. Unfortunately, Zoe jumps in too fast, and instead of a fun romp in virtual Romancelandia to rekindle her creativity, she finds one debacle after another. Regretting her choices, Zoe realizes nothing is ever what it seems when it comes to love and romance and fantasy vs real world. The only thing she does know for sure is that virtual reality definitely bites.

My Thoughts: The character of Zoe and Xander had amazing banter and made me smile and sometimes laugh. At first, Zoe did not come off too likable as she seemed to complain a lot, but she soon grew on me and became likable and relatable. The back scene of virtual reality was a cool backdrop, but felt it could have been just a little better explained to provide a complete picture. Don’t get me wrong, the was understandable, just wanted a little more from this aspect. I love the enemies to lovers trope, one of my favorite. Overall, the was a refreshing lovely read and I would definitely read more by this author.

Thank-you NetGalley and Wicked Wixx Press for the chance to review this ARC.

4/5

What happens when a romance author agrees to test romance tropes in virtual reality?
Well a really fun read for sure!

I had so much fun reading this one!
The premise was so fun and interesting!
Ava Wixx does an amazing job here!
Zoe and Xander were great I loved their banter!

So what happens when a romance author agrees to test romance tropes in virtual reality? That is the question posed in Virtual Reality Bites. If you ask me, the answer is pure rom com gold. Seriously, I loved this so much. 5 stars. Make it into a movie ASAP.

I’ll openly admit to being skeptical about this book before I started it - as I am about VR in general, but it didn’t take me long at all to get into this story and fall in love with the characters.

Our lead is twice divorced Zoe, a romance novelist who’s become jaded and bitter, impacting her ability to write. The offer from her brother’s best friend, Xander, to beta test virtual reality romance tropes for his company Fantasy Life seems like the perfect cure for her writer’s block.

What unfolds isn’t anything like Zoe expected and it quickly becomes clear that, while reading about these tropes is amazing, experiencing them is decidedly not, but she does her best to go through them, with Xander’s avatar helping her along the way.

Not all is as it seems at first, but I don’t want to spoil anything. I don’t want to ruin the experience. This was so much fun to read and I was so invested, and getting to see what it’d be like to actually experience these tropes we all love to read so much was so interesting and it was such a unique read.

For me this book also had some important messages. There was a quote that I really loved, “Your expectations are not high, society’s are just low when it comes to how people should treat each other. Especially how men should treat women.” And isn’t that just it? How many women, especially those of us who love romance, have thought we just had too high of standards? Women settle all the time, because we think it’s us that are wrong. It isn’t. Living in a romance novel isn’t going to happen, but as another quote points out, “fantasy and reality can co-exist, as long as we know which one is which.” So while I’m happy continuing to use fiction as a form of escapism, I know the difference of fantasy and reality and I know where the line is, it’s not a bad thing for the bar to be raised by fictional characters. Everybody deserves to have somebody who loves them unconditionally, and isn’t that what the heart of romance novels is?

That’s certainly the heart of this romance novel, and boy, it worked. I have a new book boyfriend for sure.

In conclusion, Virtual Reality Bites doesn’t bite at all, I’d give it 5 stars.

The premise sounded quite interesting and made me request for this book instantly. Sadly, even after 30% into reading this I could not connect with “Zoe” our protagonist or any other character for that matter and had to stop reading it.

I respect so very much how Wixx handles classic romance tropes in this book. I really loved how she was able to take the 'hot on paper' tropes and acknowledge that they would be unpleasant to live through. Even better, she did it without any kink shaming or genre bashing. A very deft bit of writing. The story of Zoe exploring an AI filled romance novel was interesting, had solid twists, and the blatant feminism that always makes me really happy to see in a romance novel.

Plot - 5*
Characters - 4*
Writing - 5*
Overall - 5*

Summary:
Zoe is a romance author, but she’s in a bit of a writing slump. When her brothers best friend asks her to test some of the classic romance tropes in his virtual reality universe, she’s whisked into a whirlwind of emotion, danger, and true love.

Thoughts:
At first, I wasn’t sure I could connect with Zoe as a character. I thought she complained a bit much, was a bit meta, and just seemed overall dislikable. Boy, was I wrong.
By 10% I had fallen in love with Zoe, her banter with Xander, and how she reacted to all of the various scenarios she was situated in. I couldn’t stop giggling in some parts and swooning in others and I was so amazed with that ending. WHEW!
I’m completely blown away by how much I enjoyed this book. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who loves a good old romantic comedy. Anyone who loves romance stories, really.

After a couple of divorces, romance writer Zoe finds herself with a mega-case of writer's block and at loose ends. When offered the chance to test out the romance trope options in childhood friend Xander's virtual reality game's beta test, she apparently agrees - but once inside the game, has no memory of signing the contract. It's fun at first, until the game starts to go off the rails.

There were things about this book I really enjoyed. I've always loved plots built around virtual worlds and games, and that aspect was a lot of fun. The discussion around the romance genre as a whole, and the defense of it from a feminist standpoint, was also great.

However, I also had several issues with this book. While I enjoyed the VR concept, I would have liked more explanation and understanding of how the VR setting worked - any and all confusion, even on Zoe's part, was just handwaved away. Additionally, while romance and romance tropes were championed in large parts of the book, in other parts, Zoe realizes they're unrealistic and anti-feminist, undermining her own strongly stated feelings. I didn't quite grasp if she reached a real resolution on that, and it left the book's own messaging up in the air. Additionally, the dialogue was unrealistic, repetitive (some parts directly repeated word for word), and drawn out.

Ultimately, I love what this book promised, and I really enjoyed the set up, but feel like it tried to do too much and lost its way in the process.

Virtual Reality Bites
by Ava Wixx
Pub Date: 19 Apr 2022
4/5 Stars

Our MC, Zoe, is a romance writer who agrees to help her brother’s best friend with his new VR creation, Fantasy Life. Zoe is supposed to go through all the romance tropes to take notes and give advice on improving each one.

As the story unfolded, I felt some of the input was really random but I didn’t even care. I loved it! I wanted more and soon started to understand what might really be happening. The romance tropes made me laugh about getting what you think you want. The HEA moment was perfect, if corny.

I’m excited to see what’s next from Ava Wixx! Thanks to NetGalley and Wicked Wixx Press for this DRC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Loved?!?!? I usually dont go for older aged romances but the references to popular romance tropes made it SUPER enjoyable! The characters were amazing and made me laugh and giggle along with them. I could really relate to the FMC despite the like 25 year age gap which just showed how amazing the writing was! Would totally read more of the author!

This is a cute, fun read with an interesting twist. As a gamer, I loved the incorporation of VR which really brought this book into the modern romance era. Some interesting dilemmas were tackled for those women who love a romance which doesn’t tick all the boxes in terms of women’s empowerment .