Role Playing

From Cathy Yardley, author of Love, Comment, Subscribe, comes an emotional rom-com about two middle-aged gamers who grow their online connection into an IRL love story.

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?

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Published Jul 1, 2023

331 pages

Average rating: 7.12

17 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

hillary_scholz
Jan 13, 2025
8/10 stars
A very cute friends-to-lovers, slow burn romance! Super enjoyable and I think I'll be reading more from this author.
JL Reads
Jul 18, 2024
6/10 stars
If you’ve read the synopsis, then you pretty much know what the book is about. The first half was pretty predictable, but the second half was deeper than expected. I thought this was going to be a downer but ended up really liking it. Surprised by the LGBTQ+ tie in and loved how it was done!! Book #73 in 2023
rdmoreland0801
Jun 06, 2023
8/10 stars
I really enjoyed this book. I don’t think I’ve read a book with a Gen-X cast, but it was nice to see a healthy relationship bloom between older characters. Maggie is such a badass, with absolutely zero fucks given. She is fiercely protective over those she loves, and she won’t hesitate to kick somebody’s ass. Aiden is an absolute teddy bear, and it was easy to fall in love with his character. For so long, he took all the blame for not being who everybody else wanted him to be. When he finally understands himself, with Maggie’s help, he opens up and becomes an even brighter version of himself. The fact that these two met over an online computer game melts my heart even more. My father still plays these types of games and I have fond memories of my grandma playing before she passed. My little nerd heart loves all of the references.

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