REVIEW: Role Playing by Cathy Yardley

Role Playing by Cathy Yardley: Maggie is comfortable being a total homebody, after all she has put herself in the backseat all these years in order to raise her son. But now with her son ready to head of to college he decides to challenge her to step out of her comfort zone and become a bit more social. Which is how Maggie finds herself assuming the role of Bogwitch an online character in a online gaming guild. Its been years since Maggie has been a gamer but somethings just come back naturally especially when you have such a sweet and kind healing Otter as you guild leader. It doesn’t take long for Bogwitch and Otter to strike up a fast friendship with sassy playful banter, but what happens when these online friends meet in the real world and Maggie realises that Otter is not some silly college kid but is actually Aiden, a swoony optimistic fifty year old guy. Could these two opposites make a real life match or are somethings better left online?

First let me start off by saying I really liked the cover of this book, there was something very cosy about it that said come read me. I do have to say that I really liked that this book changed this up a bit by having slightly older main characters, it was a nice change of pace and gave the entire reading experience a new feel. Now I don’t know how much the entire finding love while gaming online trope worked for me personally. I think the major issue in this book was there was just to much going on at one time, this was a case of less is more. It just felt like Yardley was trying to add to many factors into Maggie and Adien’s story.

Both main characters were really well developed and interesting in their own right. I liked that they both had interesting back stories that had shaped them into the people that they are today but at the same time both Maggie and Adien had a lot of growing to do. This really focused a lot on their journeys to finally being able to stand up for themselves. I will say that I really liked Maggie’s character, she was a strong woman that has been through a trying few years and only come out stronger. I loved that she knew who she was and that she was not this lost lamb trying to find her way, she knew who she was and what she wanted in life. I think Maggie was the perfect person to help Aiden figure out where he was going in life. She was the push of confidence that he needed to be able to confront his family regarding his sexuality and how they made him feel all these years. Together these two made some really strong changes and I liked that they supported each other through it all.

As much as I enjoyed strolling through this journey with Maggie and Aiden, I just found that this was way to slow burn. The pace in this book was just to slow and drawn out for my liking. It took us a good half of the book to finally see some momentum between Maggie and Aiden, nevertheless we finally do come to a happy ending. Role Playing was an interesting take on the friends to lovers trope, this slightly more mature romance made for a nice change in reading. If you are looking for a slow burn then this is definitely worth checking out.

Book Info:

Publication: July 1, 2023 | Montlake |

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?