i <3 nerds in love

*MILD SPOILERS AHEAD!*


This was Cute with a capital C!! I must admit that my main reason for giving it a try, since I'd heard nothing about it before, is that the cover looks like me and my boyfriend, down to the glasses and colorful cardigan. I was already pretty convinced Dungeons & Dragons and Broadway nerds have enough in common to get along romantically if all the puzzle pieces fall together. This novel is a perfect recipe for cuteness overload via fake dating, high school-level flirting, and just the right amount of musical and D&D references.
There are so many things about the whole set up of this story that I think work. For one, I haven't read a high school romance book in a hot minute (aka, when the main characters have been high school aged). I think the concept of this fake dating scenario plays out so well in all the sweet, innocent ways an appropriate teenage romance should. If you're gonna create two characters with niche interests to pretty much center the plot and their fake dating around, and make them 16-year-olds, musical theater and D&D are fantastic choices, in my opinion. 
I adored Riley's optimistic and bright outlook on life, how goal driven she is from the start when it comes to doing what she loves, and her friendship with Hoshiko. I liked the choice in pacing concerning her character's goals: Budget cuts have canceled the highly anticipated spring musical, but Riley's plans to student direct in high school so she'll be taken seriously postgrad will not be foiled. The show must go on. Her "punishment" via working at her dad's game store only furthered her character development for me, as it showed she was eager and willing to make new friends, pick up more hobbies related to acting and music, and make the most of her situations. Riley's excitement to choose/play a character who gets to sing and perform (a Bard) made me smile, cause that may or may not have been the exact same reasoning I followed when selecting my first character. There's actually so much overlap in these two separate nerd hobbies, lol.
Nathan as a character and love interest stands out to me as very well written. I'd think it's probably very hard to write in the style and headspace of a teenage boy as a female writer, but Boyce pulls it off well from my reading experience. I think he's equal parts devoted D&D player, average high schooler, and sweet lil gentleman with a budding crush. His exasperation with parts of Riley's more exuberant personality traits accentuate his more generally chill demeanor, and make the fake dating "I'm only doing this to make someone else jealous" trope that more tantalizing when nothing's fake anymore. 
Along that same train of thought, I usually despise the miscommunication trope and stay as far away from it in traditional romance books as I can. But the elements of this novel's miscommunication seemed to help with the tension of Riley and Nathan's emotions because they're young people trying to make sense of their feelings and their adolescent lives. For example, we don't know a lot about Nathan's parents other than that they work a lot and feel generally absent from Nathan's home life, so his late night drives with Riley mean that much more. And Riley's dealing with the pressure of putting together her plan to revive the spring musical on top of building new parts of her relationship with her dad and some unexpected health issues. There's more depth to these young characters motivations than "I have a crush," which makes their romance that much sweeter and their eventual confessions that much more meaningful. Ugh, it's just all too sweet. I can't recommend this book enough for a lighthearted, nerd-centric romance read. I'm very glad the cover design drew me in.




Some of my favorite quotes from Dungeons and Drama:

"Why do guys have to look so good when they’re leaning against things?"

"He looks away from the road long enough for our eyes to meet, but it’s enough time for my stomach to jump like we’re on a roller coaster that just dropped."

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