#Role Playing Cathy Yardley

[martymcflown]

I'm currently reading Role Playing by Cathy Yardley and 1) it's very cute and 2) it made me realize I'm hungry for romance books that feature older characters. The protags for Role Playing are late 40s/early 50s, but even books where the main characters are like 35+ would be a treat. Does anyone have any recs? I'd love some queer options but I'll take anything you think is worth a read.

[prosy-days]

December 26, 2023 - Day 190

My new books!

[howlsmovinglibrary]

Role Playing by Cathy Yardley hit me with that "must demolish this book in under 24hrs" feeling so if anyone is looking for a fluffy romance about two geeks in their 40s/50s with a dash of mistaken identity and another dash of fake dating, and a big dash of DID YOU KNOW DEMISEXUALITY EXISTS, check this book out!

[queerromancerecs]

Role Playing

Title Role Playing

Author Cathy Yardley

Summary:

Maggie is an unapologetically grumpy forty-eight-year-old hermit. But when her college-aged son makes her a deal–he’ll be more social if she does the same–she can’t refuse. She joins a new online gaming guild led by a friendly healer named Otter. So that nobody gets the wrong idea, she calls herself Bogwitch.

Otter is Aiden, a fifty-year-old optimist using the guild as an emotional outlet from his family drama caring for his aging mother while his brother plays house with Aiden’s ex-fiancée.

Bogwitch and Otter become fast virtual friends, but there’s a catch. Bogwitch thinks Otter is a college student. Otter assumes Bogwitch is an octogenarian.

When they finally meet face to face–after a rocky, shocking start–the unlikely pair of sunshine and stormy personalities grow tentatively closer. But Maggie’s previous relationships have left her bitter, and Aiden’s got a complicated past of his own.

Everything’s easier online. Can they make it work in real life?

Genre: romance

Ship type: m/f (male character is bi and demisexual)

Why you like it: It’s nice to read a romance featuring older characters.  Finding love in late 40s/early 50s is different than romance for 20 somethings and it is nice to see that reflected.  I also love the demisexual rep.   

Content tags homophobic/biphobic family members, family drama, aging parents needing care, minor injury                                                         

Link to buy 

(image description: a woman and a man casually embracing on a big couch. she is in socks and holding a mug. he’s in flannel. on the table in front of them are bowls of food and DnD miniatures)

[bookcub]

Ace Review: Role Playing by Cathy Yardley

a contemporary romance novel focusing on two video game nerds (affectionate) who meet online and fall in love

they are both over 45yo, which is rare in this genre

aiden is bi and aspec! his relationship with his sexuality is sooooo important to me

i loved the nerdiness of this book!!!

i also liked that they are both caretakers in a way. maggie is a mom of a college freshman and he is a nurse taking care of his mother because of her health conditions.

100% a friends to lovers story (finally!!!!)

i had a blast reading it!! i will be reading the authors other books!!

[betterbooksandthings]

"A-spec and asexual romance novels might just be my favorite kind of romance novels. The communication is next level, the interpersonal plots are to die for, and, even better, at least one character is ace.

Really, the A-spec community has a lot to offer romance readers who’ve already bought into the project of romance at large. I.e. readers buy into the idea that the characters are going to have a happily ever after or happy for now (HEA/HFN). The joy of romance is figuring out just how those two people will get from point A to point B.

A-spec characters introduce an added layer of communication and consideration into the character’s interpersonal relationship that can sometimes get glossed over or assumed in other relationships. Allosexual and alloromantic couples do not always separate their layers of attraction (sexual, romantic, platonic, aesthetic, etc.). Don’t get me wrong: they can consider the varied ways they are attracted to and want to interact romantically, platonically, or sexually with another person. It just doesn’t happen all too often.

In contrast, I love the range of interactions asexual romance novels give readers. Some decide to do an info-dump style AVEN (Asexual Visibility and Education Network) definition. Others describe how they experience attraction and go into their feelings about what they are comfortable with the people they are in a relationship with. However they happen, these are conversations that clarify and crystalize relationships on the page for readers in satisfyingly intricate ways.

The Range of A-spec and Asexual Romance Novels

There are more and more a-spec and asexual romance books being published every year in every romance subgenre. So, there are more and more opportunities for new approaches to representing a-spec characters in interpersonal relationships with an HEA/HFN that feel more authentic to individual readers. Not every book is going to land for every reader. What I like in these a-spec and asexual romance novels might be something you dislike.

All that being said, I had a terrible time narrowing down my list to just the 16 best asexual romance novels. These books have a range of a-spec characters who are aromantic, asexual, demisexual, demiromantic, and gray ace. I have broken them up into contemporary romance, historical romance, romantasy, horror romance, and paranormal romance."

[bookishlyvintage]

Role Playing, Cathy Yardley [thoughts]

[deathsweetblossoms]

THIS BOOK HAS DEMISEXUAL REPRESENTATION. IM LOSING MY MIND. IVE NEVER EVEN SEEN THAT WORD USED IN A ROMANCE NOVEL.

[qbdatabase]

Role Playing by Cathy Yardley Maggie, an unapologetically grumpy forty-eight-year-old hermit, joins an online guild led by a friendly healer named Otter. So nobody gets the wrong idea, she calls herself Bogwitch. Otter is Aiden, a fifty-year-old optimist using the guild as an escape from his family drama. Bogwitch thinks Otter is a college student, while Otter thinks she's eighty. View the full summary and rep info on wordpress!

[icedcoffeeandsleepdeprivation]

Different than my normal, but it warmed my heart. 🥰🥰🩷

[tometraveling]

bookish mood board - Role Playing by Cathy Yardley

[geraniums-red]

Cathy Yardley - Role Playing

This is a romance book about two people who meet via an online RPG. One of them is socially awkward, and the other is identified part way through the book as demisexual.

I finished reading the book, but I wasn't very impressed by it. For a book with an asexual spectrum love interest, it seemed to be shaped a lot like a standard romance novel. I liked the way that their friendship was built via online gaming, but I found I was a lot less interested in the story after they met in real life.

I felt the explanation of demisexuality was a bit clunky - not wrong exactly, but it seemed more to me like something that you would read on an explainer page than anything someone would actually say.

I also was thrown by the focus on how scary it was to open the door to a strange man. This is so far outside my experience that it broke my immersion in the world of the book and sent me off on tangents about whether this was a USA thing or a just-this-author thing, or a living in complete isolation from your neighbours thing, and how you would even find out what the normal level of fear of men on your doorstep is.

[ladyprydian]

This was LOVELY

Role Playing by Cathy Yardley

"Maggie is an unapologetically grumpy forty-eight-year-old hermit. But when her college-aged son makes her a deal―he’ll be more social if she does the same―she can’t refuse. She joins a new online gaming guild led by a friendly healer named Otter.

"Otter is Aiden, a fifty-year-old optimist using the guild as an emotional outlet from his family drama caring for his aging mother while his brother plays house with Aiden’s ex-fiancée.

"When they finally meet face to face―after a rocky, shocking start―the unlikely pair of sunshine and stormy personalities grow tentatively closer. But Maggie’s previous relationships have left her bitter, and Aiden’s got a complicated past of his own."

This book was so much fun! It's wonderful to see a romance with a middle age couple. I loved that it doesn't shy away from the fact that they that have their own baggage and that they are both working through that while learning how to be each others supporter. Open and honest communication (with some funny assumptions that are corrected) FTW!

The conversations feel real, for example the texting between Maggie and Aiden or Maggie and her other friends feels like texting conversations I've had with my own friends.

I also love how Aiden and Maggie are unrepentant gamers. They have been gaming and been into nerdy stuff for years and it shows. They are unrepentant about their love for video games, anime, science fiction and other typical nerdy stuff. It's so refreshing to see middle aged characters have something they are so passionate about in their lives.

This book also hit home when it comes to family. Their respective families are so very very messy and real. Aiden dealing with his aging mother and brother who doesn't think there is anything wrong with her (because he's never there). Maggie with her only child in college and still dealing with the aftermath of an emotionally abusive ex-husband.

I should mention some warnings. There is racism (Maggie is Asian) and homophobia/queerphobia. Aiden is outed without his consent by family who are not accepting of who he is (demisexual and bisexual).

The romance is a slow burn and you watch Aiden and Maggie become very close and deep friends. Once you get to the romance it feels real and it had me giggling while they laughed and giggled during sex. (Omg, the conversation about condoms was great!)

If you like small town romances, reverse grumpy x sunshine, friends to lovers, and nerdy introverts this book is for you

[caffeinated-bibliophile]

I think Boggy Maggie (or Aiden, tbh) should get to throat punch at least Riley and Deb. As a treat.

[marvelousgeeks]

Sometimes, on rare, beautiful occasions, you open up a book, and you can tell from the first few pages that it’s going to be an incredibly special story. There’s a different kind of heart sprinkled into its pages, filling the space in between the words while we watch two characters find love. Such is the undeniable case with Role Playing by Cathy Yardley, which is the kind of novel I hope we take examples from. 

Many recurring tropes and delicious sub-tropes are present in the romance genre, ensuring that readers continue returning for more. But there is a scarcity in romances where characters are in their 40s and 50s. It’s something to continue championing within the community because happy endings don’t end and begin solely in our 20s and 30s. This demographic is also a rare feature in TV and film, so it continues to be thoroughly refreshing any time we have Gen X perspectives. With this in mind, Role Playing sizzles with a gorgeous love story and a thrilling, unique plot that makes the book an absolute comfort read.

Continue Reading

[bookcub]

you might like Role Playing by Cathy Yardley if you. . .

like romances with protagonists over 45

value online friendships

adore friends to lovers as a trope

like books that actively acknowledging society's fucked up standards

love grumpy/sunshine as a dynamic

I really loved the aspec rep in this as well!