This book was the perfect mix of banter, friendship, and high school romance. While I can't say that it brought back only good memories, it did a wonderful job of bringing back some nostalgic feelings throughout the story. Riley's character is so relatable, and I love that she's learning more about games and what her dad is interested in. The family dynamics weren't great here, but the friendships and determination to save the musical were spot on. I felt every minute of the roller coaster between Riley and Nathan, and their plan was well orchestrated. This was a perfect feel good romance to break up the more serious reads, but still addressed serious issues and events well.

Book Title: Dungeons and Drama
Author: Kristy Boyce
Publisher: Random House Children’s-Delacorte Press
Genre: Teen Romance
Pub Date: January 9, 2024
My Rating: 4 Stars
Pages: 304


I am going to start with a Full Confession - . I am not the target audience for this story!
Yes! I have heard of Dungeon & Dragons. Have a played it – what do you think?
I was curious as this looks like it is totally entertaining so here I am.

Story starts with Riley and the fact that6 she isn’t happy about her parents' divorce. She decides to go a road trip to see a musical in New York City with her best friend. She borrows her mom's car. Only she doesn’t have a driver's license nor has permission. As punishment she has to work at her father's game store for eight weeks. There, she finds herself surrounded by game enthusiasts. One of the employees is Nathan, someone she knows from school. Hmmm

Story is cute! As I mentioned - True I am not the target audience for this story but as a High School Guidance Counselor I love to read YA stories. It pleases me that I can recommend a book as well as know what they are reading.

About the author; Kristy Boyce
In her ‘Acknowledgements” - (Acknowledgements as well as Author’s Notes are always a must read for me!)
Kristy Boyce tells us her inspiration for this story goes back to high school when she and her BFF joined a D&D group- true they were clueless as to how to play- plus who knew they both would marry members of that group.
She then thanks Maggie, Emmett, and Mike.

Kristy Boyce lives in Pickerington, OH (which is near Columbus) and teaches psychology as a senior lecturer at The Ohio State University. When she’s not spending time with her husband and son, she’s usually writing, reading, putting together fairy gardens, or planning her next trip back to Europe.
You can read more about her at
https://www.kristyboyceauthor.com/about

Want to thank NetGalley and Random House Children’s Delacorte Press for this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for January 9, 2024.

Kristy Boyce's "Dungeons and Drama" is a delightful romp through the worlds of musical theater and Dungeons & Dragons, where the boundaries between fantasy and reality blur in the most entertaining ways. The protagonist, Riley, is a vivacious musical enthusiast whose quest to revive her high school's spring musical takes an unexpected turn when she finds herself immersed in the realm of tabletop gaming.

Boyce's writing is playful and engaging, capturing the essence of teenage antics and the magic of discovering new passions. The plot unfolds with a perfect blend of humor and heart as Riley navigates the challenges of her after-school job at a game shop, using her wits to enlist the help of Nathan, a nerdy coworker. The ensuing Dungeons & Dragons adventure becomes a catalyst for self-discovery, and readers will find themselves cheering for Riley as she embraces the unexpected joys of role-playing.

The characters are endearing, and Boyce excels at creating a lighthearted atmosphere while subtly exploring themes of friendship and self-acceptance. The narrative is well-paced, with each chapter adding a layer of charm to the overall story.

"Dungeons and Drama" is a whimsical journey that seamlessly weaves together the worlds of Broadway and gaming, offering a refreshing take on teenage escapades. With its engaging plot and relatable characters, this book earns a solid four out of five stars, making it a must-read for anyone seeking a dose of laughter and heartwarming moments."

Absolutely loved it! I have a dnd character now thanks to this book and my hubby is happy about that! This was so cute!

A big thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children’s/Delacorte Press for sharing this fantastic book's digital review copy with me!

Romantic, dynamic characters, funny and emotional all at once. Dungeons and Drama was everything I didn't know I needed. I feel as though I related to this book more than I thought I would. LOVED this and couldn't stop laughing!

I don’t usually read YA romance books anymore, but the cover of this one really caught my eye. When I read the description, it sounded like something I would enjoys, so I was really excited to be approved for an ARC. It did not disappoint! This book was so adorable and had me hooked from the beginning. I read it in two days and stayed up way too late both nights finishing it. This was a very easy and quick read, but so enjoyable!

This felt like a fun mix of Can’t Buy Me Love and High School Musical. I enjoyed watching Riley integrate herself with the gamer group and find a way to make Dungeons and Dragons fun for her. I thought the author did a great job of creating a variety of characters surrounding Riley and Nathan between the gamers and the theater kids. While the fake dating ruse followed a predictable course, I loved watching Riley and Nathan’s relationship grow from animosity to friends to more. They were so sweet together! I really felt the emotion between the two of them the whole way through.

While I did enjoy the wide range of characters, I did think some of the character development was a little under developed. There were a couple interpersonal issues that Riley wasn’t directly involved in that were touched upon but not fully explained. Specifically, I would’ve liked to know more about Riley’s parents relationship (how they got together, when they got divorced, what Riley’s father was like with Riley before the divorce, etc.). I also wanted to know more about Nathan’s parents and his relationship with Riley’s father. I thought Riley and Nathan were going to have some deeper conversations about their parents and other personal struggles eventually, but it never happened.

Overall, although this was a short read and I think it could’ve had a little more, I absolutely loved this story and still would rate it a 4.5, which I’m rounding up. This book left me feeling so happy! I would definitely recommend it if you’re looking for a sweet YA romance!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review. There are some spoilers in this review.

The book is predictable, but I want to say that it's because it does a good job of setting things up. Obviously, Riley is going to develop feelings for Nathan, but the book takes its time and drops these little nuggets throughout the book so when she does come to the realization, it makes sense and doesn't feel like it just suddenly happened. Obviously, the friends she made through her time at her dad's game shop are going to help with her musical presentation when she thinks all is lost, but again, we're given proper build up to it. Nathan mentions that she could've asked her dad to take her to the Waitress showing and she says the thought never occurred to her, she mentions how impressive Josh and Jordan's costumes for LARPing are and how her classmates might be able to take inspiration for that for their musical. The book lays the groundwork.

Something that I feel like the book set up and then fell through on was the parallelism with Riley and her father's passions. It's set up early on that although Riley doesn't understand her father's motivations, they both share something that they are passionate about from the bottom of their soul—and that Riley's mother wants them to focus on "what matters more" over those passions. But nothing comes out of this. The reason for the divorce is never delved into (we know that it's because Riley's dad "chose the shop over his family" but that's purely from Riley's perspective and that's all we see) so we miss the nuance of what is a complicated situation. There was a chance to have Riley better understand the circumstances of the divorce through this similarity, but it simply doesn't happen. But to the book's credit, I did enjoy the relationship that Riley had with her mom (and later with her dad).

There's a fair number of side characters in this book. One things that it does well is that the side characters have distinct voices--but I feel like that's more because they have distinct archetypes than anything else. I get that Boyce needed a lot of side characters because you need to fill the party, and you need regulars at the game shop, but they're all fairly flat.

As someone who is very passionate about D&D and has very strong beliefs on how TTRPG can help teens develop social and emotional literacy, I'm very excited about all the D&D related YA Fic coming out. With that said, there's quite a lot of nitpicky things that irked me as a big fan of the game that I'm sure would also annoy any diehard players among the teen readers. It's probably not a big deal to casual players who pick up this book. It's all small things like... the d20 that's there at the start of every chapter shouldn't have the heart AND 20 visible since whenever custom icons are used, it's used in place of the 1 or 20 (and the 1 is always on the direct opposite side of the 20), or Lucas commenting offhand that he doesn't have a chance to use a Scottish accent since he's always DMing as if he has no NPCs in his campaign, or how paladins don't have a "protect ability" (whereas protection domain clerics do). There are hints to how D&D has helped this group with social literacy too in the way that (most of) the boys are very supportive when Riley is just starting out and going ham with her character voice and performance.

Such a delightful and fun YA romance. It did have my least favorite trope (miscommunication), but it also had a favorite: enemies to lovers! The main character is a delight and her relationship with her BFF is fleshed out and a true joy.

Dungeons and Drama made my nerdy little heart ridiculously happy.

This YA romance delivered all the musical theater, Dungeons and Dragons, high school, first time falling in love feelings. Theater nerd Riley is having to work at her dad's game shop as a punishment after taking her mom's car for an unauthorized joyride. She's never been a huge fan of games, but she quickly gets roped into a Dungeons and Dragon group which meets at her dad's shop. Opting to be a bard, she discovers that theater and gaming have more in common than she thought. Nathan, her co-worker/nemesis, has a massive crush on another girl in their group, and Paul, Riley's pompous ex, is being a jerk, so Nathan and Riley agree to a fake-dating scheme. Because that always works out so well. Naturally, as Riley and Nathan get to know each other, they start to develop real feelings.

The plot is super simple and straightforward, and there are lots of typical teen moments--drama, lack of communication, hiding things from parents, and so forth--but honestly, this book just made me smile. The entire time. Was it super deep? No. Is it supposed to be? Also no. Did it fill me with nostalgia for my high school musical days and wish my D&D group had been half as cool as theirs? Absolutely.

If you love all things nerdy, this book is for you. It's so freaking fun. And the cover is SO STINKING CUTE.

4.5 stars, rounded up to 5. Thanks to the publisher for advance review copy.

This was a very cute and fun book. I loved every part of it. I loved Riley and also Nathan. The two of them were very sweet together also. I liked how the book actually had the parents be important in it. In many YA books you don't see that. It was refreshing and nice. It was also well written and fun!

I got this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a campy and fun read and it makes me smile knowing that there's a ya book releasing that's all about board games and dungeons and dragons. There's some weight to the story as well with the MC figuring out how to connect with her dad after her parents divorcing and her mom creating distance between them. It's done in a way where the mom realises what she's been doing and is actively trying to make it right. Fake dating is one of my least favourite tropes, but it was done well here with the characters figuring things out along the way and growing through it. All in all there was a good mix of humour and seriousness. The end kind of wrapped up quickly, which could have been prevented if the FMC and MMC communicated sooner, but that's just a preference thing. Thank you to Netgalley and Delacorte Press for the eARC.

Dungeons and Drama is so nerdy and cute! I absolutely adore this story! I couldn't get enough of it! Riley gets grounded and forced to work at her dads gaming store which she hates. She's dreading spending all her free time around the gamers who play Dungeons and Dragons and the boy who works there hates her. Nathan and Riley do not get along but when Riley's old boyfriends comes into the store Riley pretends their dating. Nathan decides to go along with it make his crush jealous. I loved watching Riley experience new things and make new friends. The Dungeons and Dragons scenes were really fun to read as well. I seriously loved this book.

This was a really sweet YA romance! It's got fake dating, opposites-attract, "annoy-ers"-to-lovers, and a teeny bit of found family. The plot is relatively straight-forward and predictable, but thoroughly enjoyable, and all the tropes felt fresh rather than overdone. The main characters have very well-developed personalities, so it was easy to believe their motivations. There's a decently large group of characters, so given the length of the book (short and sweet), the side characters ended up a bit two-dimensional. Regardless, they're all lovable and the banter and jokes among the group are really fun and feel realistic.

I'm a high-school-theater-nerd turned D&D-adult, so I definitely had that connection with the characters, but I think even if you aren't involved in theater or tabletop games, the book doesn't dwell on the mechanics and intricacies of either to a point that it'd turn people away. (It helps that the main character knows very little about D&D and the love interest knows very little about theater!) In fact, I'll definitely be recommending this to any readers interested in the fake-dating and drama tropes, regardless of their knowledge of theater or gaming.

Thank you for the e-ARC! I will post this review to Goodreads and Storygraph two weeks before publication, and will post a staff review on my library's public catalog after publication/after acquired by my library.

This book was heckin' cute. I'm not a musical theater person. I enjoy some of it, but I'm far from being an enthusiast, and I've never played D&D. All that aside I still enjoyed this book. The characters behaved like teenagers, which was a nice change from how teenage characters in other YA contemporary romance books I've read in the past. Although, I don't know exactly how old they are supposed to be, 17 I think?

I didn't really like Riley much for most of the book. She didn't have a lot of depth to her personality until she started getting more hobbies. I didn't do theater in school, but it's healthy to have more than one hobby. Even the theater kids at my school played sports or were in band or choir in the "off-season" of a school play. Some did all three. She also didn't seem to understand the weight of her actions that got her grounded. I know she's a teenager, but I also think she's old enough to know what the law is.

I liked Nathan as a character a little more than Riley, even if he was initially hung up on a girl who wasn't into him unless she could get something from him. I just found him to be slightly more mature than Riley in some aspects. I wish there had been POV chapters for him. I think it would have enhanced the story to see things from his perspective. I don't like just seeing one side of stories like this.

They were cute together though, before they were both willing to admit how they felt, I thought they were cute. Great foils for each other. They balanced each other out. I am much older than the target demographic, but I think this book is good for anyone who likes light-hearted romance, and it's great for teens.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this ARC.

This was such a cute book! I had so much fun while I was reading this that I didn't want to stop once I started. I loved all of the characters. They were all so distinct and the dynamic between everyone in the friend group was great. I really liked how unapologetically herself Riley was.

I loved Nathan and Riley so much! They were absolutely adorable and had amazing chemistry together. The fake dating trope is one of my favorites and I thought it was done so well in this book. I constantly found myself smiling whenever I would read a scene with Nathan and Riley.

I loved this book so much and I'm really looking forward to reading more of Kristy's books in the future.

I absolutely adored Dungeons & Drama! It was sweet & cozy and i absolutely love a good fake dating storyline. It’s so refreshing reading a clean YA rom com with well written characters and a plot that flows and makes sense. And even though the plot was predictable and still enjoyed absolutely every minute of it because it was so well done!

Huge thank you to NetGalley and Random House/Delacorte Press for the chance to read this early!

This was a super sweet and fun nerdy YA romance that I wish I had when I was younger. As both a musical theater nerd and a game nerd this book immediately grabbed my interest! This was a great combination of fake dating and fun d&d scenes. Boyce does an amazing job at making the characters feel real and make their choices (while silly) make sense for the characters and the story as a whole! I really had a fun time reading this!

Much thanks to NetGalley and Random House Childrens Books for the ARC of 'Dungeons And Drama' in exchange for an honest review.
As a lifelong theater buff, fantasy game-movie-book-buff, and hopeless romantic, this book had me at hello on multiple levels.
Pure sweet fun all the way with every imaginable YA trope thrown in ..........the joys, and agonies of staging a high school musical, the heartaches of a child of divorce, a grounding punishment into an unlikely job, enemies-to-friends-to-much-more, and of course, a fake dating scenario that inevitably backfires on its participants
Riley's the theater kid with directing dreams forced to work for her estranged, divorced dad, in his store devoted to games like Dungeons and Dragons Not only is she thrust into a game culture she knows nothing of, Nathan, the store's invaluable number one employee immediately rubs her the wrong way. She's also hurting from her breakup with her one time school musical leading man Paul, and even more shaken by the school board cancelling any more musicals due to budgetary concerns.
Her life turns into whirlwind as she attempts to organize students into a mini-musical presentation to impress the board to rescind their decision. On top of that daunting task, she and Nathan fall into a fake dating scheme - for Riley to aggravate Paul who doesn't believe she has a real new boyfriend and for Nathan to generate attention from Sophie, a beautiful girl he's been crushing on. Yes, we know all too well how fake dating ends up, but it's the journey to the end that counts. Since we're rooting like crazy for Riley and Nathan, their stumbling, passive-aggressive and constantly conflicted road to romance becomes all the more endearing.
All these disparate plot elements (plus Riley's growing re-connection with her dad) come together.....as the theater kids and the D & D crowd (who realize they both share a love of high drama) all come together. No surprises whatsoever, but none needed, since reading 'Dungeons And Drama' is like setting down for an evening spent with good friends and bowls filled with your favorite snack. And that makes for a 5 star experience any time.

“Dungeons and Drama" by Kristy Boyce is a delightful romp that seamlessly combines the worlds of romance, gaming, and high school escapades. Riley, a musical aficionado grounded for taking her mom's car without permission, finds herself navigating an unexpected twist of fate—working at her dad's game shop to serve her sentence. In an attempt to save her beloved high school musical, she strikes a deal with Nathan, a nerdy teen employee. Their agreement involves fake flirting to make Nathan's gamer-girl crush jealous, but the catch is joining Nathan's Dungeons & Dragons game.

The chemistry between Riley and Nathan is like a fireworks show, and their journey from fake dating to maybe-it's-not-so-fake unfolds with humor, charm, and a touch of unexpected romance. Riley's character, portrayed in her own voice, feels authentic to the high school experience capturing the ups and downs of teenage emotions. I felt like I was back in high school myself at some points! Well, until Riley would drop a metaphorical bomb, like mentioning she was in elementary school when Hamilton had a cast recording or referring to music from the 80s as “oldies”. Oof! I get it, I’m no longer the intended audience.

While the story sparkles with humor and heart, there are a few notes to consider. Riley's musical theatre expertise occasionally seems more entry-level than one might expect from her proclaimed passion. Additionally, a subplot involving her parents' divorce feels somewhat unresolved, leaving room for further exploration.

Nevertheless, "Dungeons and Drama" is a fantastic read, especially for high schoolers who appreciate a blend of humor, romance, and the quirky charm of both gaming and theatre culture. Boyce has crafted a tale that celebrates the joy of embracing one's passions and finding unexpected connections in the most amusing of circumstances. Grab it for the laughs, the feels, and a healthy dose of both D&D and romance.

May your rolls be natural 20s, and your heart be as full as a Broadway audience on opening night!

Anyone who knows me knows I love fake-relationship tropes. Combine that with musical theater and D&D and I am sold. The sweetness of the relationship that develops between Riley and Nathan, as well as the friendships that develop between the characters made this a fun, satisfying read. The side story about Riley's relationship with her parents was likewise very well done, handling divorce and its fallout in a way that felt authentic and relatable. I will admit that I wasn't sure I would enjoy this one at the start, but once Riley joined the D&D campaign and found out about bards, I was sold. This one made me laugh and cry and though I got a little frustrated with the lack of communication between Riley and Nathan (and it being a cause for emotional angst), it felt authentic for the ages of the characters and the resolution was quite satisfying. Fun, light, but heartfelt. Recommended!

Thank you to Random House Delacorte and NetGalley for the opportunity to read early in exchange for a review of Dungeons and Drama.