- Mature characters
- Single mother
- Slow burn
- Small town romance
- Reverse grumpy/sunshine

I was thrilled to open this book and find that the characters were more mature. It was a nice change of pace.

Single mother Maggie would be content to be at home alone after her son leaves home, but he convinces her t seek out others. She "meets" Aiden through a video game and the two form a friendship. It is amusing to me that she thought he was younger while he thought she was older. However, they are the same age.

Their friendship slowly blossoms into a sweet romance. The journey is indeed a beautiful one. There is no insta love here. The thing that impressed me the most about this couple is that they actually communicated. I don't mind a minor miscommunication trope, but I prefer open and honest dialogue.

Easy to read and left me with a smile on my face.

Role Playing was a total delight!
I've really enjoyed Cathy Yardley's books in the past but this one is a favorite for sure!
I loved that we got to see older characters and although I'm not in that age bracket yet they were still relatable.
Maggie and Aiden were a joy! I loved the online gaming guild aspect of it too!

I absolutely loved this one. I related to the FMC so much it’s not funny lol. She’s a 40-something hermit after my own heart. I love a secret identity plot and this one really worked for me. Actually listened to the audio and really enjoyed the narration. Just a wonderful later-in-life romance that checked all my boxes.

Thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I had really high hopes for this one but I just could not get into it at all. The pacing of the first third of the book was just a bit too slow for me and made it hard to want to pick up. But I am interested in coming back to this one at a later time.

An already brilliant author at the top of her game. The vibes are immaculate and the characters rich and a pleasure to spend time with.

I liked how this novel was about a more mature couple. The cover is what drew me in. However, there was a good bit of plot holes. Overall it was just an ok read.

I liked having a romance novel with an older couple as I typically gravitate to 20-somethings. It was refreshing to see the mix of generations throughout the novel. Through the familial and societal pressures that come with living in a small town, it was good to see growth in the characters as they step away from the negative pressures. There were a few topics and terms that I was unfamiliar with that did cause a disconnect between the book and myself but overall did like the novel.

𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗲: Special thanks to Cathy Yardley for providing me an ARC copy to share my honest review.

I really wanted to love this book. It I just found the plot to full of holes and I didn’t warm to the characters. Would I read. Ore from this author though? Definitely but I feel this book had more potential that I wanted it to give me more

Loved that these characters were older and nerdy! The writing was super easy to get into and romance adorable.

I enjoyed watching this unconventional love story play out. Maggie's kid is so sweet, and I loved their relationship. Aiden deserved so much better, his mother and family in general was THE WORST!! Maggie and Aiden were so great for each other, and I loved that they showed that we still have growth at any age.

This romance book was a bit different than I am used too with romance books. It wasn't bad but it wasn't exciting. It was a cute romance read with older characters finding their self and romance with each other. It's a bit harder for them but they are willing to risk it outside of their comfort zones.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book, as this book has already been published, I will not share my review on Netgalley at this time.

This is such a good book! I am tired of reading romances about people who are barely adults and it was refreshing to find one about people who have lived a little. This was charming and fun and I'm glad to have found a new author I love. More!!!

I loved everything about #RolePlaying by @cathyyardley. It was refreshing to have characters in my age range who face and have experienced the joys and tragedies of life. Maggie is wonderful. She speaks her mind and takes no prisoners. Aiden is a wonderful guy who doesn't realise how deeply his people pleasing tendency is ingrained. I don't want to give away too much away by telling you all my favorite parts but I will recommend it to anyone who likes romance, gaming, strong FMC's and a cuddly MMC.

I was tempted to start this review by doing one of those “there are two types of people” kind of things, but those always leave some people out. Also, in this particular case, there are four types of people, introverts, extroverts, ambiverts and omniverts.

This is very much a story about introverts, as both Maggie and Aiden are both clearly on the far end of the introvert side of the introvert vs. extrovert teeter-totter. Maggie, in fact, may be just a bit too far over, as she realizes that she hasn’t been outside in days and has run out of absolutely every food in her pantry and will be forced to rely on condiments if she doesn’t go to the local small town gossip factory that passes for a grocery store.

For anyone wondering why not just get food delivered, well, food delivery is something that Maggie misses – a lot – by having moved to tiny Fool’s Falls in eastern Washington State. She’s so far out of town that even the local pizza place doesn’t deliver.

Maggie is a freelance editor, so she doesn’t need to go TO a job to HAVE a job. She’d rather socialize online anyway, which is why she’s still very much an online gamer at 48. She’s also suffering – really, really hard – from empty nest syndrome as her son, and fellow introvert – has just started college at the University of Washington in Seattle.

But she’s right about the grocery store being town gossip central, and she’s equally right about being accosted the minute she steps in by one of the local, means so very well but isn’t listening, obvious, oblivious, obligate extroverts who is determined that Maggie get out of her house and won’t take no for an answer.

Won’t even hear ‘no’ as an answer.

Which is where Role Playing takes off, as Maggie finds herself stuck in the role of introvert at a party of extroverts who all focus on her. One thing leads to another – not necessarily bad things, just frustrating things from Maggie’s point of view – leading to the lovely heartwarming answer to a question that hasn’t been asked but should be: how do introverts find each other as they retreat to their homes to escape a world full of loud, intrusive extroverts who are just sure that their way is best.

The answer is delightful from beginning to end, and all the more so because Maggie and Aiden – or rather Bogwitch and Otter – are not your typical 20somethings finding true love. Instead, it’s a story about two grown ups who have given up on finding someone who will ‘get’ them EXACTLY as they are, and who will love them not in spite of their introversion, or even because of it, but because together they fit in a way that neither ever expected to find.

And it makes for the best kind of romance, between two people who have accepted who they are in themselves and have finally found ‘their’ person in spite of all the meddlers and extroverts trying to get in their way.

Escape Rating A: I picked this book out of the virtually towering TBR pile for two reasons. One, I loved the author’s Fandom Hearts series with its combination of romance and geeky fun. And two, because it’s a reality in my house, particularly this month when there are long weekends and time off built in, that the two introverts who live here are going to be spending a LOT of time playing video games. Because that’s part of what brought us together, too.

So, I fell hard for this book because I felt hard for both Maggie and Aiden, but especially for Maggie. I really got her, both in the whole sense of how easy it is to get lost in your own little world when your job lets you avoid the big world outside – even if it’s lonely. AND her combination of extreme annoyance and absolute cringing when confronted with determined extroverts – because they are all determined and they are all wrong but convinced that they are right.

(Obviously I’m venting my own feelings here, but hers were just SO REAL and felt SO TRUE. Also, I’m also still a gamer, and a bit older than Maggie, so people’s reactions to that part of her persona felt equally spot on.)

I digress, but hopefully in a germane way.

And then there’s Aiden, who is caught up in a bunch of really, really HARD adult dilemmas, with no good outlet for the stress except, of course in this context, gaming. (I understand so completely that there are nights when pixels just need to die that I can’t even…)

Both Maggie and Aiden are in some very hard places, but they are also very grown up places. Maggie needs to make a life that works for her by herself now that her son is in college. Which is going to mean changes – and that she’ll have to find ‘her people’ somehow because Kit’s presence in the house kept the social isolation at bay for both of them.

Aiden has also been in a holding pattern as he came home to tiny Fool’s Falls to take care of his dying father. But his father has been dead for a year and Aiden is left in a place he never wanted to come back to, dealing with his grief-stricken mother who is determined to blame Aiden for never being the son his parents wanted him to be in spite of his very real success.

His mental health requires his departure, but his mother still needs him even if she seems to hate everything he is and does. (If you’ve ever read any 9-1-1 fanfic, Aiden’s mother is toxic in the same way that Eddie’s mother is. I digress again, but geeky references are part of the fun of this story)

Maggie and Aiden find each other through the gaming that everyone in their lives thinks they should have given up years ago. Quite possibly because it’s a symbol of the fact that they are both determined to live THEIR OWN lives and not FOR anyone else.

Obviously, I had a ball with Role Playing, to the point that I’m a bit chagrined that I missed it when it came out back in July , but am oh-so-glad I rediscovered it now thanks to Book Riot’s Best Books of 2023. I sincerely hope the author gives us some more grown-up but still geeky romances to fall in love with, but in the meantime I’m going back to see where I left off with Fandom Hearts the next time I need to put a little more heart in my reading!

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley. Review based on final copy. All opinions are my own.
I picked up an ARC of Role Playing prepub, and unfortunately it’s one of the books that feel by the wayside, but given how many people I follow in romance circles that have praised it since (and having enjoyed another Cathy Yardley title), I was determined to check it out before the end of the year.
Aiden and Maggie are both compelling characters, dealing with very realistic struggles. I really resonated with Aiden coming to the realization about his bisexuality and asexuality, given how it’s impacted his previous romantic relationships, including the one with his former fiance, who’s now with his brother. The intense homophobia various family members subject him to, especially his mother, was ridiculous, and I’m so glad he was able to finally establish boundaries, with Maggie’s support.
Maggie herself is also interesting, and I resonate with her experience with social anxiety (and love her solution to getting more social interaction through gaming). There’s also some frank discussions about her identity as a half-Asian woman, and how her son, being only one-quarter Asian, can “pass.”
I really like how both of the protagonists are older (late forties/early fifties), and dealing with being at a crossroads in their lives, whether it be Maggie watching her son leave for college and facing life as an empty-nester, or Aiden having recently retired. And it’s fun how the story plays with our assumptions about age, behavior, and what’s “appropriate” for a person “of a certain age” to be interested in by its very premise, with their mutual wrong assumptions about the other’s age based on how they present themselves in the game.
The romance was great, although I guess I’ve been so conditioned by the current state of modern romance with emphasis on hookup culture, I did not expect this to actually be a slow-burn, even with the older characters. So, while I did find the pacing a little off at first, I actually ended up enjoying seeing these characters get to know each other platonically before considering anything romantic. And given Aiden’s asexuality, it actually ended up working in the long run, making me feel more invested in them as characters and as a couple.
I absolutely adored this book, and it absolutely deserves the hype it’s gotten and more. If you’re looking for a relatively lighthearted slow-burn contemporary friends-to-lovers romance about older characters, I’d recommend checking this one out!

I don’t think this book was for me. I wasn’t interested in the storyline or the couple. I really wanted to like it because I love the gamer character, but I just didn’t. DNF @ 46%. Would give Cathy’s work another shot though!

I loved reading this geeky, contemporary romance! Maggie and Aiden were absolutely wonderful together. The way they connected through their love of online video games was really wholesome. I have never read a romance where both the characters were in their 50s, so this was a really refreshing read! <3

This steamy beautiful book was everything. I adored everything about it and I guarantee that you will love it.

I didn’t know what to expect from a romance book with MCs in their 50s. But this book was such a delight. I absolutely adored Maggie as a FMC - she was everything - fiery, grumpy, mama bear, giving zero cares, confident even while dealing with social anxiety. I basically want to be her when I grow up.

And Maggie was perfect for big ole teddy bear Aiden. He had quite the journey of self discovery and every chapter had me falling more in love with these characters.

There’s definitely family drama, some of the side characters made me so angry, but at the end of the day this story was one that might end up in my top five for the year. I loved it that much.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC! I also added this lovely book to my physical collection!