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

My daughter and I truly enjoyed this cute book together. I bought her the first one so we could dive into this one!

She loved every second of it and I have to say I quite enjoyed it as well even though it considered a children’s books! We’re excited to start the 3rd one!

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC and a great read!

Cece is almost a Gamer Girl by default – her best friends want to be famous for being young female gamers on their chosen streaming platforms. But when she fails at their major old-school alien slaughtering software, she finds something else right up her street, a mix of Minecraft and Pokemon where attracting dodgy alien pets is done from prettifying a village. Now she can call herself a gamer, and is intent on getting the Girls' merch prepped for their fame, but we can just tell her almost going solo with fandom for this game is going to cause issues.

I guess this was a sequel – there was certainly enough dropped in here and there about what might have gone on before that justified the colon and subtitle. While it really wasn't pitched at me I have to admit it was very readable, and for all the ins and outs of the girls I found none of it actually compelled me to skip as lesser authors would. There's a lot here, too, from the nicely subtle way girls of diversity are gamers and I guess its implied STEM fans, to the actual world of the game and the streaming. Some of this I found really unrealistic – I would never believe a girl would show off her entry to a national competition online before entries closed – but the rest is only going to be compelling stuff to the right audience. There were also some huge blips when the oh-so-woke girl Cece becomes a right bitch about not getting merch made to her schedule, and I agree with others who are calling the ending out as being too much a lame cliffhanger, but all the same this generally is wholesome yet trending, current yet not a fly-by-night, and more than a reasonably decent series by the looks of things. A healthy four stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for granting this ARC, and fast read. The plot was interesting and the story was cute.

The story is told from Celia's point of view contrary to the first book, a few weeks after Natalie reveals her gaming secret. Celia, Natalie, Lucy and Jess have formed a Gamer Girls group to live stream their gaming to showcase girls can game too. Celia, the artsy one, isn't really interested and good at Alienlord but she loves the new, cozy game called Monster Village. Things start going uneasy when Celia's friends don't show the same interest or support as Celia always does towards Monster Village and when Mel joins the picture things start going downhill faster.

I enjoyed this story from Celia's point of view. It definitely reads differently than the first book which is welcomed because it's from a different character. I liked how this story touched on topics such as friendship, family, jealousy, confidence and independence. There's not always a clear solution but there is definitely progress being made. 

The miscommunication faced by all four characters in this book is quite a common occurrence in middle school life and sometimes even within adults. This made it more relatable and opened a new perspective on how to handle such situations with confidence and repentance while staying honest to oneself. 

I also enjoyed how this book depicted that anyone can be a gamer. It's not confined to only players who play mainstream hardcore games but also those who play cozy games and those not so well known games. 

Overall, this was an adorable read. I loved the depictions of girls being gamers in all types and forms while also showcasing the conflicts that happen between friends and family.

I enjoyed this book and it would recommend it for third to fifth graders. The reason I gave it three stars is because it didn’t meet my expectations. I was hoping it would have more action.

This reminds me so much of the Babysitters Club books I used to read as a kid.

This book focuses on Celia, or Cece79, and it took a little bit of time to get used to her because I really liked Nat from the first book. But it was nice to see that all the girls have their own little worlds and aren’t one dimensional.

My sister works with kids and the first book is such a hit with the kids & I’m sure that this one will be one too.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for an advanced copy!

Monster Village is an adorable story of four friends, also known as the Gamer Girls, who are building their own streaming channel. The story touches on some of those adolescent anxieties and issues we have within ourselves and our core group of friends. I read this book with my eight year old who was so excited to see a book about girl gamers. Both he and I could relate to some of the struggles these girls faced in the book. It opened a door to talk about how the characters handled struggles and how it can be applied to real life. It was a fun and adorable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book. We enjoyed it and are looking forward to the next book in the series.

Thank you to NetGalley for accepting my request to get an early copy and write a review.

I truly loved this book. I realized it's book two in a series but you don't have to read book one first to catch up on who's who with the girls.

Celia doesn't like her friends favorite game, Alienlord. She's not good at playing it either, but wants to be with her friends in an online streaming chat they have called Gamer Girls. When Celia finally finds a game she's good at it's the cozy Monster Village. Her friends don't care for it and aren't good at it either.

I love how the story depicts these middle school girls too. They have their own individual personality and style that not just makeup and boys. Way too often at least one girl in a group is obsessed with makeup or boy crazy. In fact our main character Celia makes a point to think to herself that it's silly her mom thinks she might be interested in boys when she never told her mom how she identifies. Even Mel's character, who would be a typical popular mean girl type, is really nice.
It gave me, "Turning Red" vibes with how modern and realistic these girls are written.

I really wish there would have been books like this when I was younger, because then I would have learned that it was okay to like gaming and other less "girly" things (not much of a surprise that I turned out to be non-binary).

I enjoyed the book, but I do feel there could have been more of a learning curve for the other friends. Because while they didn't like the game Celia was interested in, they did expect her to be into their game.

OK this book was SO CUTE!!
It follows a group of friends who all love to play video games but not the same type of games. Our main character mostly plays to be with her friends and support them. She’s not great at the type of games they like but she’s here to make the merch for the gamer girls! Well until she discovers HER game, the game that fits her taste: Monster Village!
I love the diversity in this story and how it shows that you can be a gamer no matter the game you play, that there’s a game for every kind of people. I love how important the girls’ friendship was and the whole Monster village thing really made me smile since it’s the kind of games I do love as well.
I’ll look for this book for my sons when it comes out and recommend it to young readers, boys or girls!