Dating and Dragons ✨
Did I stop everything and start this book after @bookreadrecipts posted about loving it? Yes I sure did and have no regrets.

This author has recreated the fun and magic of the first book with this one. I was so pleasantly surprised to be drawn in again to this world of dungeons and dragons. Quinn and Logan were adorable. Logan and his pining. And Quinn’s matchmaking grandmother was the best. The whole friend group was so good. I love the support and banter amongst all of them. Just a damn delightful read honestly. All the stars for being such a good time. 5⭐️

Thank you to Delacorte Romance for the advanced ebook via NetGalley!

This book follows Quinn as she and her family move to a new town to be closer to her grandmother. She enjoyed playing D&D with friends at her old school, but something happens that leads to a dramatic falling out. At her new school, she quickly meets a group of friends that invite her to come play D&D with them for their livestream. Quinn and a boy in the group, Logan, have an immediate connection from the moment they meet. One problem: there is a rule that players within the group can’t date each other.

I had the pleasure of receiving an advanced copy of Dungeons and Drama by the same author before it came out last year, and I can tell you that Dating and Dragons definitely has more D&D action on-page compared to Dungeons and Drama. It was actually very entertaining for me to read about as someone who has never played D&D before. The aspect of their D&D sessions being live-streamed was a cool touch that the author added as well.

My favorite part of this book was seeing how forming friendships with the members of the group changed how Quinn viewed herself after having the falling out with her old friends. The new crew really cares about her and genuinely just want her to be happy. I also liked the bond between Quinn and Grandma Barbara. Her grandma pushes Quinn to feel welcome in her new town and to make new friends. Quinn and her brother, Andrew, have great relationship growth at the end of the story as well. All of these connections felt genuine and real.

Personally, I didn’t feel a very strong romantic connection between Quinn and Logan. I feel like there weren’t enough emotional moments between them to make me feel any strong emotions towards them. The way they wouldn’t let their feelings for each other show just so their D&D group (who are also their best friends) doesn’t find out they like each other feels unrealistic to me. Since their feelings for each other were essentially forbidden, I expected there to be more tension between them than I felt. The love confession at the end was very unexpected to me, because I felt like they hadn’t spent THAT much alone time together. Granted they are only 16 year olds, it still doesn’t feel realistic to me.

Overall, I recommend this book to any YA romance lovers and gaming lovers. Kristy Boyce’s writing is very fast-paced and digestible and I will be reading more books from her in the future!

I like this book well enough, but I feel like the drama was misplaced. There’s the forbidden dating aspect, but neither character is much good at keeping away from the other. I thought the issue with her past D&D group was more interesting to explore, but it never got quite to the depth I wanted it.

This book also made me feel like I’m getting too old for YA, so take that as you will.

Overall, not bad but definitely not as good as Dungeons and Drama.

Thank you to Delacorte Romance and NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

⭐️ 5 stars!! ⭐️
received an ARC of this book via Netgally, in exchange for an honest review ❤️

God, what a gem. I loved this book. I read this over a few days and when I wasn’t reading it, I was WISHING I was reading it. As an avid D&D player this story scratched an itch for me in ways I can’t explain. I really appreciated how Kristy Boyce incorporated the game and other D&D related pop culture like Critical Roll.

The main character Quinn will forever be my girl, she felt like such a real teenager, and she reminded me a lot of myself at that age. Her problems might seem silly to us as adults now, but I remember how big they felt then. This author does a great job of reminding us of that and making us feel that same anxiety that Quinn is experiencing throughout the book. The romance was so sweet, it felt like a warm hug. I loved the random tidbits (like susie Q) and outings (like the soccer game or the convention) that she gave us along the way so that the story had more substance and didn’t lull in the middle like other YA romance books do.

If you enjoy Lynn painter, then you’ll love Kristy Boyce. She has easily climbed into my top favorite YA authors and I can’t wait to read more from her ❤️

wow what an absolute gem. as someone who loves D&D this book was just top tier. like genuinely the gaming portions of this book were some of my favorite parts to read! and they felt so authentic to me!

quinn and logan are such cuties. i really really liked them. quinn was so quirky but also had this part of her that was just so relatable? like i could just picture her so vividly in my brain tbh. and logan was just the best 16 year old boy ever?? he was so sweet and understanding and wow. and the rest of the gaming group was also just all so fun and so unique! i found myself enjoying and understanding all of them! the best character though was definitely quinn’s grandma. she made me miss my own grandmother so much! she was so outgoing and daring and adventurous and mischievous. i love her.

anywho this plot was so fun. it was an absolute slow burn with tons of drama and edge to keep the story moving along in an exciting way. i also liked the subplots of this book quite a lot. again a big favorite of mine was the side plot revolving around the gma. they just warmed my heart and yet were also so tragic and realistic! no spoilers, but the main drama of this book was also just so relatable and believable that i really wasn’t sure how it would get resolved!

overall i am so in love with this book and i can’t wait to not only get my physical copy in the mail, but to also watch all of my friends read it! i definitely recommend it! especially to the girlies who love D&D and everything related to it! disclaimer though: I don’t think you need any d&d knowledge to understand and love this book!!!


anywho i would absolutely recommend this book and i am so so so happy i got the chance to read and review this book for netgalley and random house publishing group! thank you so much for the opportunity!

Occasionally, I pick up a YA novel and feel like it’s just not for someone my age. But then, I come across a book that sweeps me off my feet and lets me relive those carefree teenage moments. Kristy Boyce definitely knows how to create that magic.
The first book I read by her, Dungeons and Drama, quickly became not only a top read of the year but one of my all-time favorite reading experiences. It brought back such vivid memories of high school. While Dating and Dragons didn’t quite hit me as strongly as Dungeons and Drama, it still gave me those fluttery, nostalgic feelings of young love, managing to avoid any overly childish vibe.
This story dives deep into the world of D&D, which, given the title, is to be expected. Unlike the first book, where the game played more of a background role, this one goes into the players' campaign in detail, exploring the group’s dynamic and their interactions. This was refreshingly different for me—I haven’t encountered many books that dive into tabletop gaming this way. That said, I did sometimes feel like the campaign details slowed down the romance a bit. I think many readers will appreciate this unique angle, even if it didn’t always hold my interest.
As for the romance, it was absolutely adorable—perfectly youthful, but clearly written that way on purpose. I loved our main female character from the start and grew to really like the male lead, too. I wasn’t entirely convinced by the “no dating” rule, which felt a little forced, like it was added mainly to extend the plot. While it didn’t detract from the story, it did seem unnecessary.
Overall, I’m thrilled to have read this one, even if it wasn’t a total knockout.
A huge thank you to Random House Children’s | Delacorte Romance for the ARC in exchange for my honest review! This was a highly anticipated release for me, and I feel incredibly lucky to have gotten the chance to read it early.

Gaming is a huge part of my life and to have a gamer themed romance is brilliant. My teenage daughter and I buddy read the first book and I can't wait to buy her a copy when it releases. Kristy does such an amazing job with the characters and the banter. Absolutely enjoyed this!

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the eARC!

I was SO excited to get this arc because I have thoroughly enjoyed all of Kristy Boyce’s previous books. Unfortunately this one was a huge miss for me.

First, what I liked!

I liked Kashvi- I liked that we got a nice supportive friend character who was honest and wholesome. She was refreshing and likable. I also liked Quinn’s brother, Andrew, as a character but not in the scenes with Quinn. 😂 It felt like she was too hard on him all the time and he was too mean. But I like the idea of him and I thought he was a bit adorable.

Anyway, that’s basically all I liked…

I didn’t like Quinn. She… felt like she had no personality. I can’t even begin to explain her at all. It’s weird. And Logan was, to me, a walking red flag. These two had insta-love. They “couldn’t help themselves” falling over one another after speaking like 3 times. Logan tries to be mean and rude to stay away from her? Um what? It was all so stupid and silly. I think if there wasn’t a rule about no dating and the two had naturally SLOWLY fallen for each other instead, this book would have worked. Unfortunately that’s not what happened.

My main qualm with this book is that there’s no real plot. The conflict is what: they can’t date because their D+D team said so? That’s the plot??? And Boyce fills the rest of the book with random grandma tidbits and adventures that have no real relevance to the barely there “plot”. I know others have said they liked the grandma but guys, she’s token “I’m so progressive and I want to meddle in my grandchild’s love life” grandma. She is not a new character in the world of books - and I thought her scenes were super boring, especially the Pickleball. God I had to skim that. It was so bad.

And also… I have played a tiny bit of D+D but more board games. I hated the excessive amount of D+D content in this book because it felt like I was listening to an entirely unrelated D+D podcast. It didn’t feel connected to the book - which I know makes ZERO sense. But because it’s all a separate story, it felt like…. If a character reading a fantasy book then read that book to us. 🙈 Please don’t hate me. It was boring to me and didn’t actually benefit the plot or romance or anything to have almost their entire session each time written out. And there were like 3? I was bored - I can’t even remember what happened in those sessions. It just felt extremely excessive!

Let’s also talk about the terrible parents of the FMC. We see them force the grandma into a retirement home because “they can’t house her” (rude) and there’s the suggestion that they like Andrew’s pastimes more than Quinn’s. This isn’t ever really… concluded. It’s skimmed past and Quinn just accepts it 🤷‍♀️ Honestly the parents were awful. I don’t understand how you can have a daughter who loves D+D that much and not at least try to understand it before all of this happened!!!

I think that’s all I had to say on this one. Overall, it was a disappointment and I’m so sad about that after loving her previous books. I’ll still read more from her but this one just wasn’t it.

4 ⭐️

Super cute and fast read. I thought the cover was cute and that's initially what grabbed me. I might not be the biggest D&D fan, but this book made me feel like I didn't have to be to enjoy it.

I think the characters are roughly 16 (?) and at times I forgot how young they were. I went to a small high school so maybe at larger schools you don't have any classes with your friends but hearing that they didn't have any classes together was a bit wild to me. It did make the D&D Saturday sessions crucial to moving the story along. I thought the group playing D&D was very well written and even had an extra complexity of the live streaming.

I loved all the characters. The drama was a bit much for high schoolers but it gave each character some extra flair. The issue that the grandma was going through and the whole family is very real and relatable. I thought the grandma was a hoot. I liked that Quinn was honest about what she had experienced in the past and the fears of history repeating. The group seems to collectively understand this and worked through it together.

The story was predictable but still fun and cute to read.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the copy for my honest thoughts and opinions.

THIS WAS SO CUTE.

I loved this more than book 1! Quinn was a lovely main character. I was nervous going in about the believability of the whole forbidden-romance/dating-not-allowed trope but it worked SO well and fit the characters' strengths and weaknesses so well. Alongside the main romance and Dungeons and Dragons storyline, Quinn's grandmother is a wonderful subplot and brought so much joy to the book. I was expecting to suspend my disbelief while reading but everything about this felt #real. Dungeons & Drama felt... well... a bit dramatic and over the top to me (and I wasn't a fan of the MC) but this one!!!!

Perfectly cute and nerdy

These books are such good fun! Sweet little romances with fun characters and adorable moments that I will never tire of.

This was so, so cute. I loved the first book (they're standalones though, so don't worry!) and this one was just so much more. Quinn and her family have just moved to a new town, leaving her to start at a new school in the middle of the year. Leaving her not so great friends behind was bittersweet, as she misses the D&D group dynamics.

When she meets new friends on her first day, her grandma asks a boy to take their photo, and that's now she meets Logan. She becomes friends with Kashvi and gets introduced to their D&D group, and she starts making friends with all of them, but still worries about her old friends. They Livestream their games, so it's a bit different, but overall she's settling in well. As she hangs out with them, she finally starts to feel like she belongs.

With a confrontation at a convention that leads to Quinn panicking, she and Logan realize that they can't fight the draw between the two of them anymore. Navigating that with their group is another adventure altogether though!

4.5 rounded down to 4

Quinn has just moved to a new town and is nervous about making new friends. But almost immediately, she meets a group who plays D&D every Saturday who happily welcomes her into their party. They livestream their sessions and have one important rule: no dating within the party. Can she keep her feelings for Logan under wraps?

Read if you like:
-D&D
-Grandmothers
-Forbidden Crush
-Annoying Younger Brothers who might not be the Worst After All
-Teenage Drama

This book felt like a love letter to my awkward teen years. It had it all. The sporty brother who fit in better than me. The crush on a cinnamon roll guy. The world's best Grandma. And a group of friends who like to get down and nerdy. I ate it up for the nostalgia alone. This was just a fun and wholesome read. Now, I have to go back and read her other book!

Sometimes I read a YA book and I think "I am way too old for this". But sometimes, that YA book has the power to teleport me back in time and make me feel like a giddy teenager again. Kristy Boyce has mastered the art of the latter.

The first book I read from her, Dungeons and Drama, is not only one of my favorite books of the year, but one of my favorite reading experiences of all time. I can't put into words how much that book took me back to my own high school experience. I will admit that Dating and Dragons didn't hit quite the same as Dungeons and Drama for me, however it still gave me that young love butterflies feeling that I want from a YA romance without feeling aggravatingly immature.

This book is VERY heavy on the D&D elements (that sounds obvious from the name of the book, but if you read the first one, you know there was an emphasis on it, but it didn't so much go into detail about the campaign itself), and a decent portion of this book is spent understanding the dynamic of this group of players/friends, their campaign, etc. This was very fun for me as I've never really read anything like that, however I did get a bit bored reading about those elements at points. I never really cared enough about their campaign storyline to want to interrupt the romance/main plotline with details about that. However, it was a nice change of pace from the other books I've been reading lately, so for that I'm not mad. I think some people may really enjoy reading that content as well, so that's definitely not a definitive negative--just a matter of personal preference.

The romance in here was super cute--it definitely felt very young, but in an intentional way if that makes sense. I really liked our FMC and grew to love our MMC as well. However, I didn't really understand the "no dating" rule, which kind of felt like a contrived issue just to drag things out. It didn't ruin the book for me by any means, but it did feel like a non-issue blown into a way bigger issue.

Overall, so happy to have read it and really enjoyed it, but it wasn't a total homerun for me. 3.75 stars rounded up 💜

Thank you so much to Random House Children's | Delacorte Romance for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!! This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and I feel like the most special girl in the world to have been able to read/review it early.

DATING AND DRAGONS is a teen drama for the nerds who found their people at the library, comic shop, or online discord servers playing DnD. The story is plot-light focusing on the emotional ties between Quinn and her friends, family, and love interest.

Quinn's life is uprooted when her family moves to be near her Grandmother, but it also presents the opportunity to start over with a new friend group. But just like a DnD campaign, there is a new map/school to navigate, party/friends to bond with, and dragons/first loves to face head on (or run from).

The DnD nerd friendships are goals for anyone regardless of age. The whole group has such a welcoming, outgoing, and supportive vibe you can't help but love them all.

Logan is a dream character. He is a model "man written by a woman". You can tell he's well versed in fantasy prose with how he pines after Quinn. His highest stat in game and irl is definitely charisma.

Highly recommend DATING AND DRAGONS for everyone with experience looking for a place to belong. For readers that find joy in fantasy escapes but love a bit of company along the way. And for adult readers, this will be a hit of noatalgia reliving the drama and emotionality of being a teenager.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Children's | Delacorte Romance for the advance digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for providing a free e-arc of this YA-Romance.

I really enjoyed this book. We start off with Quinn, who is transferring to a new school and finding new friends who enjoy the game Dungeons and Dragons as much as she does. The only thing is, their group is a little more intense as they live stream their games, and they have strict rules to be in the group. The main rule is no dating within the group, and Quinn finds herself in a deja vu situation.

It definitely is YA, and while cute in many aspects, it definitely has that insta-love immature aspect to it, which again hits the mark for the audience. I thought all of the characters had charm, especially grandma! The drama that unfolds throughout the book brings me back to days of lesser worries and adds well to the story. Apparently, there is a book the author did before this one called Dungeons and Drama, and I am definitely interested in picking it up as well.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this arc!!

What a good book! I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I loved the main characters! They had great chemistry and worked so well together. I loved how the book just flowed. My first by this author but will not be my last!!!

This book is really adorable! I adore how, in addition to the romance and gaming, the story explores friendships and significant real-life issues. It's easy to fall in love with the characters because they are so relatable. The story is also very charming and enjoyable. This is for you if you enjoy heartfelt and humorous YA romances. I heartily endorse it!

I was so excited to get an advance copy of Dating and Dragons. I adored Dungeons and Drama, so I was very excited to see Kristy Boyce was writing another.

This book is younger YA but that should not turn you off from picking it up. Our main character joins a D&D group at her new school that has a strict no dating policy between the players. Which is a problem when our FMC realizes the cute boy from school is also apart of the group.

Between the pining over each other, the drama from our FMCs first D&D group, and our FMC’s grandma…the book really keeps you on your toes. This overall is a fun, light hearted and sweet book about falling in love, making friends and dealing with life changes.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This was a really cute slow burn YA read centralized a lot on Dungeons and Dragons; I personally have never played D&D and don't know much about it but this book really gave me enough to figure out what it's all about. The gameplay with them was great and I was slightly invested in it, their friend groups is amazing and so supportive, I felt for Quinn and what she went through with her old group; her reactions were completely justified. The cooky grandma was slightly annoying at first but she grew on me when she kept calling Logan to help and it brough Quinn and he together. Those two were great together, I love how they put everything in the open with each other and were both suffering together and just honest how they felt and what they wanted to do, those were probably my favorite parts of the book; its refreshing and a great change to have that open communication. The one thing I didn't really care for was Kashvi and Andrew, I saw it coming but was hoping it wouldn't happen, just felt off to me and kind of cliche honestly. But otherwise the book was great and I'd definitely recommend it, it was fun, sweet, supportive, and just over all entertaining.