Rolls and Rivalry by Kristy Boyce
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Rolls and Rivalry is the 3rd-book in Kristy Boyce’s YA-Romance series now called Gaming and Romance. I could be mistaken, but I believe this series used to be known as the Dungeons and Drama series.
Regardless of the series title, these are a set of companion novels that all involve RPG-Gaming, in particular, as you might have assumed, Dungeons & Dragons.
These novels are companions really in theme-only, meaning there’s not a lot of character crossover. Therefore, you are free to read them in any order.
There are very small cameos of past characters, but I don’t feel like if you miss the reference it will cause you to enjoy the book any less. The cameos are more like Easter Egg bonuses for loyal Readers.
In this installment, we follow Hazel, who is getting ready to enter her Senior year in high school. Hazel has been an active participant in her high school Color Guard since she was a Freshman, and we start the novel with Band Camp.
Hazel is now Color Guard Captain and feels a lot of pressure in that role. She’s striving to gain respect for herself and her fellow Guard members with the rest of the marching band, who seem to look down on them.
In the midst of all of this pressure, Hazel’s best friend from childhood, Max, returns to their school after having moved away following his parent’s divorce.
Hazel is initially excited to have him back, to have a chance to rekindle their friendship. Admittedly, Hazel had a bit of a crush on him when they were younger, and upon seeing him again, she can tell that hasn’t changed.
But Max is a member of percussion, and those two groups, percussion and the Guard, do not get along. In fact, Max seems to be falling into the jerk percussion role well. He gives her the cold shoulder in front of everyone.
Unfortunately, Max is showing up at her house every Sunday, just like the old days, because his Mom has rejoined Hazel’s parent’s D&D group.
Hazel is finally at a point where she is ready to run her own D&D group, and since people aren’t exactly lining up at her door to join, she offers to have Max join. He’s super into D&D, and he’s at her house on the weekends anyway. He’s also easy on the eyes; it just makes sense.
Also joining them are Hazel’s best friend, and two younger members of the band, one Guard member, and one percussion member. Look at Hazel, building bridges.
D&D is a fairly intimate game. You really come to mesh with the people you’re playing with. You bond over the campaign as you batter around ideas and create whole new worlds with your joint creativity and imagination.
As you can imagine, with their preexisting relationship, Hazel and Max start to see each other again with fresh eyes. Maybe their constant bickering is masking other feelings they’re too afraid to express…
This was so, so good. Kristy Boyce writes such fun and realistic characters. The relationships are also always so endearing and compelling.
I love how the D&D group was incorporated into this. There was just enough details of game nights and the campaign for my liking. It never overshadowed the rest of the story, which I appreciated.
I had moments where the marching band element seemed a bit too much for me. It’s not something I could relate too as it wasn’t part of my experience, but it was a huge part of Hazel’s experience, and because I came to care about her so much, I came to care about the band’s success.
I think around the 40%-point, that’s when I was truly pulled in. I was waffling initially, but the cuteness soon started to come out and I was hooked.
I feel like Hazel showed a lot of positive growth over the course of the story. She started to stand up for herself more, including with her Mom, who was a bit overbearing. I also loved seeing Hazel and Max get their friendship back. Romance aside, being friends first is so important to me, and I love how Boyce developed it here.
I would highly recommend this to YA Romance Readers, or anyone who is looking for true to life representation of RPG in their stories. All of the books are super cute. Read one, read them all. I’m very happy that I have.
Thank you to the publisher, Delacorte Romance, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I look forward to whatever Kristy Boyce releases next!