Book Review: Dungeons and Drama by Kristy Boyce

Title: Dungeons and Drama

Author: Kristy Boyce

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Publishing Date: January 9th, 2024

Read: January 6th, 2025

Pages: 304

Audio Length: 7 Hours 55 Minutes

Genre: YA contemporary romance

TW: N/A

Series: Standalone

Source: Audio

What it's about:

When it comes to romance, sometimes it doesn't hurt to play games. A fun YA romcom full of fake dating hijinks!

Musical lover Riley has big aspirations to become a director on Broadway. Crucial to this plan is to bring back her high school’s spring musical, but when Riley takes her mom’s car without permission, she's grounded and stuck with the worst punishment: spending her after-school hours working at her dad’s game shop.

Riley can't waste her time working when she has a musical to save, so she convinces Nathan—a nerdy teen employee—to cover her shifts and, in exchange, she’ll flirt with him to make his gamer-girl crush jealous.

But Riley didn’t realize that meant joining Nathan's Dungeons & Dragons game…or that role playing would be so fun. Soon, Riley starts to think that flirting with Nathan doesn't require as much acting as she would've thought...

What I thought:

My first book of 2025!!! I'm SO glad I chose this one, I'm a sucker for anything with DnD or geekery and this was such a sweet and funny romance. I also love fake dating and enemies to lovers so hello. It was perfect for me.

Cover:

The cover is SO cute. As some of you might know my parents are HUGE board gamers, so I showed my mom the cover to see if she could name the board games on it, and I was even texting her the board games mentioned in the book.

Anyway! I really like the cover, it's super cute and bright. 

Story:

Enemies to lovers and fake dating are my favorite tropes, so good. 

I really liked this because while there was drama, there wasn't DRAMA. It wasn't annoying whiny teenage BS.

Pace: 

This book had a really good flow, I was into it from the beginning.

Writing: 

It was a well written book, I didn't feel like it was immature or too informative. It was just right.

Characters: 

Besides Sophie (Gag) and Ben (Double gag) I loved every character of this book. Is it weird to be over 30 and absolutely love Nathan? In my mind they weren't teens so I think this is fine. Anyway.

The romance even between the two main characters? Swoon worthy. The nerdy DnD friends? *chefs kiss*

Her hot geeky dad? Yes please. 

Ending: 

Such a cute ending, of course this kind of book is super predictable but you know? I don't mind.

Narrator:

Overall:

This book gave me a warm squishy feeling and that's exactly how I wanted to start my year out.

A little Snippet:

“I decided having something fake with you was better than having nothing at all. I would have faked it forever rather than give you up.”

― Kristy Boyce, Dungeons and Drama

Possible books of likeness:

YA:

Adult:

Author's info:

Kristy Boyce lives in Columbus, OH and teaches psychology as a senior lecturer at The Ohio State University.

When she’s not spending time with her husband and son, she’s usually writing, reading, putting together fairy gardens, or watching happy reality TV (The Great British Bake-Off and So You Think You Can Dance are perennial favorites).

Kristy is the social media coordinator for Central and Southern Ohio SCBWI.

Website https://www.kristyboyceauthor.com/

Twitter KristyLBoyce

Book Review: The Perfect Place to Die by Bryce Moore

 

Title: The Perfect Place to Die

Author: Bryce Moore

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Publishing Date: August 3rd, 2021

Read: January 4th, 2023

Pages: 384

Audio Length: 7 Hours 20 Mins

Genre: YA Horror Historical Fiction

TW: Murder, obviously

Series: Standalone

Source: Audio

What it's about:

Stalking Jack the Ripper meets Devil in the White City. In order to save her sister, Zuretta takes a job at a notorious house of horrors—but she might never escape.

Zuretta never thought she’d encounter a monster—one of the world’s most notorious serial killers. She had resigned herself to a quiet life in Utah. But when her younger sister, Ruby, travels to Chicago during the World’s Fair, and disappears, Zuretta leaves home to find her.

But 1890s Chicago is more dangerous and chaotic than she imagined. She doesn’t know where to start until she learns of her sister’s last place of employment…a mysterious hotel known as The Castle.

Zuretta takes a job there hoping to learn more. And before long she realizes the hotel isn’t what it seems. Women disappear at an alarming rate, she hears crying from the walls, and terrifying whispers follow her at night. In the end, she finds herself up against one of the most infamous mass murderers in American history—and his custom-built death trap.

What I thought:

So I read Bryce's other book, Don't Go To Sleep last year, and I gobbled it up. I was listening at work and I couldn't stop listening. I was actually getting angry at people for coming in to the shop!
That being said, this one was a little bit of a let down. The mystery is good, but I felt myself getting bored in it a lot. Which sucks for a horror book. 

Cover:

I'm not big on this cover, I don't know if it's the illustrations or the colors or what, but I'm just not a fan. 

Story:

So this is based off a real serial killer, one who I didn't know. I won't say who just because I don't want to ruin it. The story itself is sound. It's a good one. It definitely had me guessing and I kind of figured it out before the end but honestly I kept doubting myself. 

Pace: 

I was SO bored. This book was really long and full of unnecessary pages, at least in my opinion. A lot of it could have been edited out and the book still would've had all the information we needed. 

Writing: 

It wasn't bad. I didn't feel like a 12 year old wrote it and I think the author is good at describing what's going on.

Characters: 

I found myself really annoyed with the main character more than once. She was kind of dumb and her decisions just... upset me. 

World building: 

There was enough that I could picture it well enough to read the book, but other than that it wasn't anything spectacular.

Ending: 

I finished it and just kind of felt nothing. It was an okay ending, but the book was just so slow that even the ending didn't save it.

Narrator:

I don't have anything to say about the narrator. 

Overall:

Overall, after reading his other book, I was pretty disappointed in this one. I know he can do better.

Possible books of likeness:

Author's info:

Website

Also writes under the pseudonym Albert Packard.

Bryce Moore is the author of The Perfect Place to Die, The Memory Thief, and Vodník. When he’s not authoring, he’s a librarian in Western Maine. He’s been happily married since 2001 and is doing his best to raise three new geeks of his very own, while simultaneously convincing his wife that sci-fi/fantasy is awesome. He uses his spare time to fix up his old 1841 farmhouse, shovel snow, and pay ridiculous amounts of money feeding his Magic the Gathering addiction.

Favorite Authors: Terry Pratchett, CS Lewis

Favorite Bill Murray Movie: Groundhog Day

Favorite TV Sitcom from Before 1970: The Dick Van Dyke Show

Favorite Monty Python Sketch that Doesn’t Involve a Parrot: The Spanish Inquisition

Favorite Monopoly Token: Dog