As an Elder Millennial gamer who met my spouse and 80% of my friends while hosting a live-action video game panel at a gaming convention many years ago, this title resonates deeply with me, filling my little digital heart container. While readers don’t need to be gamers or fully understand nerd and gaming culture to appreciate Single Player, it offers a valuable perspective on an industry predominantly seen as "male-dominated." In reality, female and non-binary gamers have emerged as a significant force in console ownership and daily gameplay since at least 2015, according to a Pew Research study on gamers in the U.S. For those who are gamers, this book will likely feel like a homecoming!

Ok, there are a LOT of nerdy references. A LOT of game references. A LOT of D&D references. And every time I picked up the book it felt like I was returning to a group of my actual friends. People I would legitimately spend my time with and hope to be inviting over for pizza and table top games or a curl up on the couch session with our respective Nintendo Switches. There were times where I beamed at a reference. Yes, I did squeal outloud when Cat puzzled out her mystery, dropping a comment about Phoenix Wright because of course that's the puzzle game I was thinking of as she worked the first clues of her "adventure". And I'll admit, at first I wondered if the relationships felt so relatable because Tai has remarkable talent at understanding people and genuine connection over the fiction of Hollywood romance, or if I, as a Queer, nerd, romantic just recognize that type of relationship because of my involvement in gaming culture. I've concluded it's both...perhaps somewhat thanks to games like Fantasy DILF? Winning the lifelong effection of Daddy Doctor #1 is no easy feat without a keen sense and emotional intelligence! A charisma score only gets you so far....

The story is artfully handled as Tai addresses some of the dangers surrounding sexism in gaming, doxxing, how anxiety and fear impact even powerful people, supporting and showing up for partners/friends/coworkers in healthy ways, acceptance, culture and family in dating. They manage this with a punch while still upholding a lighthearted, charming, character-driven narrative and leaving out the bitterness so often associated with these challenging topics. Tearing down the patriarchy by using a ladder over the top.

I really enjoyed this title and I think those who enjoyed stories like Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, Ali Hazelwood's books or Dungeons and Drama by Kristy Boyce could also enjoy Single Player.

I received Single Player by Tara Tai as an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I appreciate the opportunity to read and review this title and look forward to keeping an eye out for Tai's future projects.

Thank you Alcove Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review !

As someone who only reads romances once in a while, I really enjoyed this one, where Cat Li, a newly appointed temp at a gaming studio, needs to work with Andi 'Andz' Zhang on writing romances subplots for the next game the studio is going to publish, despite being wildly different from each other and quite confrontational over their stances on said subplots.

All the real games references were very enjoyable and, as a gamer myself, I found myself enthralled by them and smiling throughout each (especially Ace Attorney ! I was scared one of my favorite game wasn't going to make an appearence). The build up was very satisfying and I've grown quite fond of the characters (wether main or the others), which I find well crafted - despite the fact that I think Andz could've used a bit more depth (towards the end mostly but you'll have to read it to see if you agree with me or not ! Because it's still very much worth reading and this is my only qualm about it). The not-main characters being this fleshed out, considering they appear sporadically throughout the story (like Philo, for example) made me particularly happy - seeing they were not just plot devices.

The writing was funny, very touching at times and the pace satisfying, which made reading very enjoyable for me. I had a wonderful time.

If you like gaming (on all platforms), have anxiety, want to believe in romance even though you kind of don't or use text-to-speech to send texts, this one's for you ! Oh and, maybe if you like fake dating and the enemies-to-lovers tropes you'll get a kick out of it too... ;)

4.75 stars rounded up

Single Player made my queer gamer/writer heart so happy!

Cat is starting a new job writing romance for an upcoming video game, but her first run-in with her boss Andi leaves an impression on them and not necessarily a great one.

Normally, I am not a fan of boss x employee romance, but there was so much I loved about this book. Cat is a people pleasing plus-sized gamer with something to prove to her family about her love life and profession. Andi is nonbinary, traumatized, and super talented. This book balances plot and character growth pretty well, especially for a debut, and even more so given how messy these Sapphics are. Oh, and there's D&D in it!

I can't wait to see what else comes from Tara Tai!

Spice: 🌶🌶

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

YES. Yes, yes, yes. Yes. I am starved for sapphic romances with nonbinary leads/love interests, so when I got approved for this I jumped to read it— and I’m SO happy I did. Andi & Cat— they both have characteristics I can see other readers disliking, but genuinely? I can’t bring myself to feel anything but so much love for them both. I could have spent weeks just in both of their heads, watching them fall in love and fail and get up and, and, and. The only downside to this is that I’m both gen z and a gamer so some of the explanations of slang were a little, like, “yes, doesn’t everyone know that?” for me, before I realized that no, a lot of readers wouldn’t know that. So I can forgive that.

5 stars for this beautiful lil book.

This book was SO GOOD. I love me a sapphic romance and with video games? It was so cute. Perfect for fans of Ashley Herring-Blake and Helen Hoang.

I wanted to like this so bad! It started off as a really cozy read and I was hopeful it would continue on but unfortunately it just missed the mark for me and I ended up DNFing halfway through.

DNF at chapter 3. I really wanted to like this one. It reminded me of the show Mythic Quest which I loved, but I can't stand the writing style. It is written very colloquially which sometimes works, but the use of "normies" was the last straw for me. I can sense the seeds of an interesting plot but I have too many things on my TBR to wait around for this one to prove itself to me. That being said I could see this really working for a specific audience, I am just not part of that group.

Overall a really cute story in a great setting, I love reading about gaming (companies). For me the writing style didn’t manage to grasp my attention as much as I would’ve liked but this is definitely a great read and I hope to see more books like this in the future!

Overall this book just didn’t grasp my attention fast enough for me. I think it had a great plot, is a great book, and I’d like to try to re-read, but for now it’s a DNF for me. The plot started off great but very slow. I will still be buying when this releases though!

i went into this book knowing a LOT about the topic considering i was writing a very similar book with a similar premise lol

ANYWAYS... i thought this was a pretty fun read. there are some content warnings for stalking, misogyny, and transphobia that should be noted for readers.

i enjoyed reading about cat and andi's story. definitely a grumpy x sunshine trope going on here and i enjoyed reading about andi opening themselves up to love. cat was, at times, a bit of a pick-me gamer girl (calling people normies is a pet peeve of mine), but was otherwise demonstrated growth in terms of her self-esteem and breaking out of her masking. i am wondering if there was an intention from the author to make cat neurodivergent, as that's how she came across to me.

honestly, as a big nerd growing up, i appreciated the video game and anime references and felt called out by the author for my younger appreciation of shipping naruto and sasuke lol. the writing took a bit for me to get used to, but as this being tai's first novel, i think they did a a great job of creating a rom-com that featured some darker themes at times.

i recommend this for readers who were raised by the internet, who love a good dating sim, and for those who appreciate sapphic romance.

This was a really cozy queer romance read, one of the best I’ve read in a long time. I loved the character Andi and the way she/they grew and healed from her/their past through the story. Can’t say as much for Cat, I just couldn’t stand her in the beginning. I have to give it to the author that I did like her more and more towards the end of the story but her as a character did bring the rating of this book down to a 3 instead of a 4.

I’m so sorry to say that if I hadn’t gotten this as an ARC and had bought it myself it would sit on my bookshelf with just the first chapter read and never to be touched again. I felt that it was trying WAAAAAY too hard to be quirky and relatable which just made me cringe in the first couple of chapters.

The setting of this story was such a big reason for me wanting to read it, who doesn’t want to be a writer for a video game! But again it was just way too many game and tv-show references throughout the story to be fun and just started to get annoying.

I read this book in a day which for me is such a good sign and it might sound like I only have negative things to say but the romance in this book was so good and just makes you feel warm on the inside.

Cat is joining the Heartrender team ready to bring romance to their new game; and even though she’s not experienced with romance in real life she’s definitely experienced with romance in games. Compass Hallow is a goldmine of opportunity to bring diverse romance to a new audience of gamers and it’d be easy for Cat, if it wasn’t for her new boss Andi Zhang, who in addition to seemingly hating Cat from the first moment they met also seemingly hates romance and is dead set on keeping it out of Compass Hallow. Andi isn’t against romance but she is against anything that hurtles them into the spotlight after being doxxed after the last game she worked on. Chalked full of nerdy Easter eggs, swoon-worthy moments, and character growth this debut novel from Tara Tai is an enjoyable sapphic romance.

Single player was a fun, heartwarming, swoony sapphic romance. It took me a bit to warm to it; I only got hooked around 15% with the promise of a messy queer DND table and then once I was hooked I was in. An enemy to lovers, workplace romance, both characters had lots of character growth individually and together. I loved all the nerdy and game references scattered throughout and I enjoyed the majority of the support characters. Plus I found the plot line of game development really interesting! I’d definitely recommend!

Single Player by Tara Tai is set to release on January 7, 2025. Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for the ARC.

I’m totally hooked on this workplace "enemies to lovers" romance! The lead characters feel so real, which I loved. The first half of the book is amazing, the romantic tension had me swooning, and their chemistry is really good. The second half didn’t quite deliver the heat I was expecting, but it’s still a super fun read that I’d definitely recommend. I absolutely loved this sapphic romance !!
⭐ Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this ARC ⭐

3,5 / 5!

Single Player is a cozy, heartwarming sapphic romance novel between two Game Developers who ind themselves working on the next big hit of the industry while having to battle the fact that they don't really enjoy each other's company... at first!

We have a lovable chubby food-loving female main character who's not only having to find her way into the industry but also needs to finally make her family realise that she's not a total failure, and a seemingly coolheaded non-binary industry veteran who's still dealing with a fanbase that can't get over them not being a cisgender heterosexual dude.

This novel is filled to the brim with lovely nerd references and not so lovely typical industry topics that have accompanied us in the last few months and years.

Tara Tai quite clearly did lots of research when it comes to problems that videogame companies and developers have been dealing with as of lately and it shows!
You can clearly feel how much love the author has for games, Anime, etc - so I felt right at home! BUT as a chubby, nerdy woman and a former game developer myself, I gotta say that some characters and story party felt too much on the nose. Too many quirks, words, sentences felt like a tool to simply fill certain clichés.

The sexist cisgender hetero Chad who's dating a "Barbie"-character (if she even has a character), the random usage of overly nerdy lingo - "G" instead of money with a follow-up explanation what G means. For the normies here.

I was constantly torn between feeling at home/understood and cringing from the story having to make sure that I definitely don't forget that we have a Nerd Alert situation!

I also sometimes got the feeling that it's subconsciously shown that only the two main characters and their side kicks are "real people" and all the others are just fake, superficial people with no character. This gave me the feeling of them sitting on a high horse and took away any delusion of many different people with their quirks being able to co-live on this planet. That might be completely subjective, but I don't like thinking that some people are better than others, simply because they have "better" or "smarter" hobbies than others.

What Tara Tai manages to portray in a wonderful way is the doubt and anxiety that comes with emotional connections and relationships. Of simply not being good enough, being too much, being too different for others to accept. Love is hard. Whether is romantic or platonic.

Overall a nice and cozy read which can make you feel all giddy inside if you can overlook the (sometimes) cringey moments.

I'd suggest this book as a spring or summer read!



Thanks to NetGalley and Alcove Press for the advanced copy of Single Player in exchange for an honest review.

The world setting is fantastic. As a fan of video games, I found it amazing to read a book with that premise. The "enemies to lovers" concept is engaging, especially at the beginning of their relationship. However, I wished there was more focus on that dynamic in the second half of the book.

I also love the representation of geek culture, the queer themes, and the beautiful cover.

Cat Li loves romance and video games. She loves them so much that she quit her fancy job to become a video game writer, focusing on the romance story lines. When she gets a job writing the romance for the new game from famed nonbinary game writer Andi “Andz” Zhang, she thinks she’s gotten her dream job. Things quickly go south after a bad first impression and learning that Andi doesn’t want romance in the game at all. As the two keep running into each other, they realize that maybe their first impressions were wrong.

I knew from the very first page when it quoted Dragon Age: Inquisition that I would like this book. Queer rep? Check. Diverse main characters? Check. Video games? Check. Romance? Check. Writing? Check.

I love a good dual POV book and I think it was really well used here. It really helped going inside intimidating Andi’s head (who uses she/they pronouns), especially after a stand off in Cat’s chapter. You could get on board with her sooner because every time they were mean, there was a moment of “why did I just say that?” It was also fun watching their feelings for each other grow.

I thought that the writing in this book was great. There were several twists in the book that I thought were foreshadowed well. You could see them coming if you thought about it but you could also let the story surprise you. I was also impressed by the vocabulary in this book. The narrators were intelligent and you could tell. Another thing I appreciated was that anytime it felt like secondhand embarrassment was coming, the characters navigated the situation like people and not vehicles for hijinks. These characters felt like rational people, something you don’t always find in romance novels. The side characters were fun, if a little underutilized. I wouldn’t have minded the book being longer so that I could learn about them more.

Overall, this was a great read. This was the author’s debut novel, so I can’t wait to see what she writes next.

5 stars

Publishing date: 07.01.2025
Thank you to Netgalley and Alcove press for the ARC. My opinions are my own.

The book as a meal: Munching snackos while playing Dragon Age and romancing all my favorites
The book left me: Wanting to play more Dating Sims

Negatives:
Wanted to see the characters relationship more (after started dating)
Wanted more/stronger revenge on a certain someone
Like every contemporary romance, not a true "enemies to lovers"

Positives:
Great enby, queer, POC, neurodivergent, and aromantic rep
So many references to geek culture (I am a geek and greatly appreciated it)
Characters feel genuine and like they could be "real people"

Features:
Gaming references and metaphors, lots of representation, big corporation bullies, D&D scenes, workplace romance, fake dating

Why did I choose this one?
First up: the cover is so cute. Second: I saw gaming mentioned in the description and thought O_O. Third: I haven't read nearly enough queer romance this year so I had to get my filling.

Pick-up-able? Put-down-able?
In-between. Something about the pacing in this book couldn't hook me like most romances do. I think it was more of a me problem than a book problem as I have been in a slight reading slump.

What was the vibe and mood?
We have two sides: The stress and anxiety of your current job but also old workplace drama haunting your every step, + will this project work out like we need it to?
The other side: Managing your "masks" to seem somewhat normal around other people because there is a lot of stigma around geeky stuff. But then at the same time slowly losing that mask and accepting more and more that other's opinions really don't matter.
My headcanon is that the main characters are autistic or at least neurodivergent in some way as it felt very "neurocoded" (coming from someone on the spectrum)
Almost forgot: This is a reference goblins paradise, you can play bingo with references in this book

Final ranking and star rating?
4 stars, A tier. I would love to give it 5 stars, but I was not pleased enough to do so.
My problems: Not enough time spent with the characters "together", a little hard to get into (not the book's fault, might have to reread later). and not enough closure for the antagonists.
Otherwise this is a very cute romance, but I feel the target audience is a little specific. The amount of gaming references might rub non-gamers the wrong way, might even be outright annoying. On the other hand, it might be annoying for gamers too.
I think this book will do really well with certain readers, but for most will go unnoticed or as part of the "3 stars, okay" heap of books.

Ahh omg this was so cute! Loved the workplace setting of a game development company, loved that it was run by some diverse people (not just white men, although they are there). The chemistry and romance between Cat and Andi was adorable and I loved every second of it. My only thing is I wish they were together for longer because I wanted to read that.

I think this romance is going to be super popular! Loved that the main interests are both Asian American (instead of the usual one being white). Great queer and enby rep too.

This book kinda reminded me of a queer Tomorrow x3 mixed with parts of Much Ado About Nada. If you like enemies to friends to lovers, gamers, queer romance, fake dating, one bed, folks who just want to be picked first, well then this book is for you. Can’t wait for this to be out in the world.

Thanks to NetGalley and Alcove Press for a copy of this ARC!

it's interesting overall and not a bad read but I feel like the "enemies" part of "enemies to lovers" went for too long without conflicting feelings in the middle. and then, at least for Andi, the "lovers" part was a bit jammed in. I really missed the complexity of feelings in this trope

I want to start by saying thank you for the opportunity to read this book. It took me a bit longer to read this book than others. I feel like this is at no fault of the author. I loved feeling like I was apart of the story in a way that I was described everything. There were a lot of details in the book that helped build the story and the characters. My only wish for this book was that the end have more of a resolution for the antagonists in the book. I would have loved to see something more in that sense. But I recommend this book!