A decent read. The author has done their homework as they seem knowledgeable about the gaming industry. I leant some things, although the trolling etc wasn’t a surprise. The romance didn’t particularly have any big lead up or grand passion, but actually it was kind of believable and refreshingly realistic. You could imagine being buddies with both of them.

Very Empowering!

Sam gets the opportunity to become a pro-gamer but it comes with a price she doesn’t enjoy having to pay to be their poster girl for gaming. Lauren is a marketing executive for the gaming company tasked with looking after Sam and making her conform to the company’s wishes but that doesn’t sit very well with her when she really gets to know Sam.

This was something very different that was also exploring social challenges women face when they don’t fit society norms of being and looking like a girl. It also cleverly covered the ethical challenges with being into industries and hobbies that also do not fit those stereotypes. It drove how as women we are often expected to change to get opportunities where men wouldn’t and I love how Sam and Lauren both wanted to rebel against this but also knew their own power if they went along with it until their position was stronger to challenge it. I really felt compelled to support them on their mission.

I really liked Lauren and Sam together. They had a natural comfortableness around each other but at the same time held back and worried what each other were thinking. Sam’s hesitance was focused on her lack of self-esteem that someone like Lauren would be interested in her, whereas Lauren’s worries were more professional and whether she was crossing lines that would harm Sam’s place in the pro-gaming competition and appear as if she were taking advantage. I admired her dedication to Sam in all her decisions and hoped her career wouldn’t get in the way of them exploring something truly great!

A lovely romance with some fun, but also important messages and much empowerment.

I was really looking forward to reading this as I thought the story taking place in the professional gaming industry would be interesting. As it turns out, I know so little about the professional gaming industry that I was mostly just confused when they mentioned it. I also didn't find the characters particularly likable or engaging, so this one was a bit of a slog for me.

However, I do want to mention that the Sam's commitment to being true to herself despite pressure from her job to dress differently and religious pressures from her family made this story compelling enough for me to read to the end.

Thank you Net Gallley and Bold Strokes Books for the ARC in exchange for a honest review.

What a wonderfull book! The romance between Sam and Lauren was amazing. They're both incredibly empathetic people and I was rooting for them from the start.

Being well versed in the e-sports world, I think the author did a good job researching how the competitive gaming works, though there were moments where I had to suspend my disbelief. I think an average reader wouldn't even notice these moments, but someone who knows general tournament rules might get a bit peeved.

The content warning by the author about the sexism, homophobia and racism is not to be taken lightly. The bullying and harassment is really hard to read through, but it acomplished what it aims to do, make the reader as uncomfortable as the characters and real people who face these struggles are.

First book by this author, and pretty enjoyable for not being a gamer. I have vertigo and can't play first person games, but it was interesting to read and it was obvious the other is a gamer or did a ton of research.

Sam is a gamer and a good one, but with being a woman she's never been given a chance, until Lauren comes along and fights to give her a chance. Sam is a huge tomboy and is comfortable is sweats and a hoodie, but becoming a pro gamer meant changing her look and other aspects to stay on the team and go to the World championships.

Lauren works the company but hates that she's looked down upon just because she's a woman and a lot of her ideas aren't taken seriously because of that.

Being a woman myself, these stuck up ideals hit the mark and are very true and well written and I can only imagine the crap women gamers get in a male dominated profession.

I wouldn't call this a romance, this was more of a background with Sam and Lauren and it happened fast and wasn't the forefront of the story. It was about gaming.

Overall, not bad. I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

So, even though I'm the right age range, I have less than no idea about eSports. So, there was a lot of new stuff in this book for me.

Sam is a gamer, an amateur at the beginning of the book. But, then she gets a chance to go pro. That brings Lauren into her orbit. Lauren is the PR professional for the team Sam plays for. She has to try and balance what the misogynistic team owner wants vs. what Sam does. Oh, and, the two of them start falling in love. But, they're so different.

It was a fun read. The characters were all super different and interesting too. A great read.

Author Suzanne Lenoir wrote more than a romance with her book Good Game. She wrote an eye-opening look into the gaming world that I'm sure most non-gamers have never experienced. The slow burn romance was just icing on the cake. Thoroughly enjoyed!

Thank you to Bold Strokes Books, Inc. | BSB genre and NetGalley for providing an eARC for a honest review.

This is a very slow burn romance, with a very heavy focus on gaming. I'm not a gamer, so it was kind of hard for me to understand some of the language used to described what was happening or the set ups. But, I still enjoyed this story. I really liked Sam and was rooting for her all the way. The ending was a bit rushed, but it was still a really good read. I would recommend this book to my friends and family and I look forward to what's next from this author.

I’m not a gamer, but not because I wouldn’t enjoy gaming, more like upfront costs and it’s still more a generational thing. I went out of my comfort zone to read something I typically wouldn’t choose. The author did well in capturing the gamer mentality and atmosphere without sacrificing the personal relationships in the story, IMHO.
Not only was this entertaining, I’d argue it was also educational for other generations. The discrimination and misogyny rampant in the gaming industry has been blatant and prevalent but not called out as it should. So, showing it, although it might be more than aggravating at times, really helped to flesh out Sam’s character very well. No, I never give spoilers on anything, don’t expect them.
I thought Lenoir also did an excellent job of showing the misogyny through the characters of Will and Dylan, making them truly unlikeable! Yeah, nah, still no spoilers. The pace of the story was fine, and the dialogue authentic and driven.
My only wish was that I could have had a better idea of the age of Lauren’s character. Just sayin’.
My thanks to Net Galley and Bold Strokes Books. As always, any opinions are voluntary and exclusively mine!

It was a very cute sapphic book set in the video games industry and importants themes !

We’re following Sam who’s an amateur player in video games and at a competition she got an offer to go pro. Lauren work for the company who offer the job to Sam, as a marketing employee and since there’s only boys in the dorms, Sam became Lauren’s roommate so she’s not uncomfortable.

The sexism and misogyny in the video games industry is very well portrayed, same as the way men behave in a industry with a majority of men.

I loved the force proximity and the differences between the character with Sam being androgynous and Lauren being a strong and feminine women. I really appreciated the development of the characters too.

I just didn’t understand that there’s a scene where one of the character is masturbating but fade to black sexes scenes ?

Good start.
I don’t do gaming and don’t really know anything about it, but this novel is written in an accessible way. I found in the first couple of chapters I identified more with the non gaming main, than the gaming one, but the challenges and vulnerabilities of the gamer, along with her morality and general decency, won me round.
Around 50%, there is interest in both parties but a bit too much “is she even in to me”. For me pacing has slipped slightly. Then there was a section of the mains conversing and I was happy. However, d I know it is deliberately inserted by the writer, every bit of success one main gets is followed by misogynistic abuse. I am finding that quite upsetting. (Well done the writer!)
I am however still a little bit impatient for things to move forward, I think because the abuse and unfair treatment of one main, by others, not the other main isn’t comfortable or pleasant to read (not gratuitous by the writer) so I want to get to the nice bit of the mains getting on! I wasn’t swept up in the mains first time, which is just as well as it was behind closed doors.
I am just not enjoying the stuff around the mains having got together, which is daft, because I was impatient for that plot strand to move forward but….. One main phoning in sick? The other missing a game. Seemed out of character…… and the immediate mind blowing reactions. I think I have fallen a little out of love with the mains….. I’m not quite sure why, maybe because I lost a bit of interest when they were still faffing about?
However, and remember I’m not a gamer, I found the latter gaming section, really quite tense and enjoyable. I was also happy with the happy ending. A 3 but some sections slipped below, and some floated above.

I love a slow burn! And this story delivers! So put that with a gamer's plot and I'm sold! Sam and Lauren's relationship is great, although abruptly summed up in the end. I will keep an eye out for more Suzanne Lenoir books in the future.

Very slow burn romance with a heavy focus on gaming. I don’t play so there were some times that I didn’t really understand the language or set up but I still enjoyed the story. I really liked Sam and was rooting for her all the way through. The ending felt very rushed though, would have liked a few more chapters

I'd give this one 4.25 stars.

This book was worth the read after I got through the online gaming set-up in the beginning; it was dense with terminology that a non-gamer may be unfamiliar with, but it was helpful in establishing the world for the two main characters and the secondary ones. There were definitely some parts that were hard to read (primarily when an ignorant and disrespectful man was speaking), but it fit well with the characters and the world that the author established. After I got about 1/3 of the way through the book, I was hooked. The slow burn between Sam and Lauren was worth the wait! And I loved the bits of humor sprinkled in, both between our main characters as well as their relationships with friends.

The story did seem to wrap up rather quickly; I felt like there could have been a bit more between the last few chapters so that it wouldn't feel quite as rushed.

Content warnings:
* misogyny and sexism (one of the main characters is a female gamer in the male-dominated field, and the other is a marketing expert for the male-dominated company)
* mentions of a dead parent of one of the main characters
* mention of infidelity
* descriptions of doxxing

Thank you to NetGalley, Bold Strokes Books, and Suzanne Lenoir for this ARC.

This was a sweet slow-burn romance, set in the world of professional esports. The plot provided an insightful glance into the world of esports and the bullying - both in-person and online - that comes with it. So much is talked about cyber bullying for teenagers that it is often glanced over at the adult level, so I was glad to see light being shined on the issue. Though I am not a gamer myself, I still enjoyed the story and learning more about a topic I was less familiar with. Definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a relatively low-angst read.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley.

"Good Game” by Suzanne Lenoir is a sweet romance novel featuring Sam, a gamer, and Lauren, an exec for a gaming company. Lauren recruits Sam to the company as a professional player.

Sam and Lauren end up in a “roommates” romance trope after Sam (the only player who is a woman), moves in with Lauren. I’m not in the industry at all, but I am a gamer, so it was fun to have some insight into that world. I did wonder if some of it wasn’t realistic (like moving in with an exec to avoid the boy’s club of the team housing), but that didn’t detract from the story. I found the romance between Sam and Lauren to be cute, relatable, and full of longing. I appreciated the recognition of bi-erasure, with Lauren appearing straight and dealing with those issues while recognizing the hardships of Sam appearing more masculine, especially in the male-dominated field of gaming.

My only issue with the novel (SPOILER ALERT) was the sex. For an adult book to have closed-door sex scenes was odd to me. Especially since other things were described, such as masturbating. For some reason, though, the sex scenes were skipped over, which is fine if it’s YA or a different genre. But it caught me off guard to have the build up and tension between the characters, only for stuff to be skipped over at the peak.

Even so, I enjoyed this book and do recommend it. Especially those looking for romance without too much spice. I loved the characters, and even though the homophobia and sexism felt difficult to read at some points, I do appreciate the thought put into it and feeling recognition for real-world issues that women and queer women go through.

A slow-burn sapphic romance set in the world of professional gaming - Sam joins a team as the only woman, and Lauren works in marketing for the team. The book tackles a lot of the challenges women face in gaming, particularly for Sam, who is forced to present as more feminine than she is, and really goes pretty deep into that world, which is a breath of fresh air and I had a great time reading about Sam’s first few tournaments.

The romance itself though I felt was less of a focus compared with Sam’s journey as a gamer. There was a lot of longing before Sam and Lauren actually get together, but I thought there could have been more showing rather than telling.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

i thoughly enjoyed this one.... i liked how the author made the characters some likeable and some not so... but they seemed true to type

sam o'brian loves playing computer games.... all her life she has played but she cant get into any serious games because of the hate towards her....even from players...its an all boys zones

so whens she approached to go pro in a team she is worried..... and she has a right to be.....

if her team doesnt want her and even one of the bosses what could she expect from the audiences that will be drawn to this new game.....

its an interesting read and very on topic as women try to edge into male dominated things and abuse from all sides is a given even now.... but i really loved the chemistry between the two main characters

will be keeping an eye out for more from this author

I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.


Lauren is a marketing director who trying to get the CEO of the company she works for to invest in recruiting a female gamer who been rising in the gaming industry he set in his ways that boys should be only gamers but she convinced him. Sam is a gamer and does it for fun she a medical massage therapist when ask to join the team she experienced bullies not just from her teammates but from online because of the fact she a woman. Lauren and Sam grow closer as Lauren tries to change the image they only boys should be gamers as Sam rises up. I like that Lauren realizes Sam doesn’t need changing that she great as she is as Sam builds her confidence their romance was cute chemistry was there the author does a great job describing how misogyny the gaming world is.

Lauren Johanssen is the marketing director for a company that fields professional esport gaming teams. The CEO is very old school, with a boys will be boys mentality that is somewhat encouraged in the gaming industry. Lauren convinces the CEO to take the risk on a female gamer who wins one of the latest amateur championships. As their set up for housing for the men on the team is dorm style he insists the girl live with Lauren.

Sam O’Brian is older than most of her teammates. At 25 she is a medical massage therapist. And games for fun. Joining the team she not only gets grief from some of her teammates but is bullied online for her race and sex. It doesn’t give a great impression of the industry. But I liked that the book, through Lauren, has ideas that will change the mentality of gamers and encourage a largely untapped female market.

Sam and Lauren quickly hit it off. Lauren loves coming home to Sam’s home cooking. And Lauren tries to buffer Sam somewhat from the extras put on her by the CEO. As a couple they are sweet. I will say as a non gamer, some of the game explanations went over my head, and weren’t very interesting to me. I was more into the story for the sexism, racism issues and of course for romance.

Intimacy is behind closed doors, so I wondered if this was geared for a YA audience, although the MC’s are in their mid twenties. I enjoyed the story, especially where it ends up. (3.5 Stars)