Review: She’s Got Game by Laura Heffernan (2019)

The Gamer Girls, Book #1

First, let me just say that this book was so engaging that I devoured it and I am super excited that the next book is about the heroine’s dad and her best friend. (I love an older man, younger woman romance!) But I had serious issues, like rage-inducing issues, with our heroine.

The Plot:

Gwen is part of an Explorers of Islay (it’s Catan…it’s basically Catan) tournament in her hometown of Boston. She’s gonna go all the way and win the championship in Las Vegas, earning $10,000 to pay a debt to her dad and continue running her travel blog. She doesn’t date other gamers because she has a host of issues. Unfortunately there’s a guy across the room who’s smokin’ hot…and the four time champion of the Explorers competition. They’re both winners, so they both keep progressing to the next round and running into each other.

The Romance:

It had the most promising beginning. Gwen was standing in the competition room thinking that this guy looked just like her first crush, Jonathan Crombie, a.k.a. Gilbert Blythe. If you don’t know who that is, please stop now and educate yourself about Anne of Green Gables. 

Anyway, Gwen, who has red hair and wears braids (!), looked across the room, and saw dreamboat Gil Blythe, and (AND) she was wearing a t-shirt making a reference to when Gilbert called Anne “Carrots”. This sounds like an awesome t-shirt that I might need. And this hot gamer dude understands the reference. It’s adorable and I’m sorry, Gwen, why would you not just call it a day and keep this guy in your pocket forever? 

Hot gamer dude a.k.a. Gilbert Blythe doppelganger is actually named Cody. Not only does he know Anne of Green Gables, he doesn’t flirt like a total jerk and he trash talks pretty appropriately, all things considered. I can’t imagine that if I’d won a national competition four times I wouldn’t also make little digs (to someone else who’s trash-talking to me!) about how amazing I am in a laughing-at-myself sort of way. Basically Cody is amazing and I love him.

So what does Gwen do? She assumes the absolute worst of him at absolutely every. Single. Opportunity. With one exception that for some reason demonstrated a completely out of character maturity that was shockingly refreshing. Until she ruined it by continuing to be a complete idiot. Hi. Millennial. If you’re gonna leave a note for someone, leave it next to the person’s phone. We don’t let those things go. We have panic attacks without them. She’s jetting all over the U.S., making a living as a blogger, and she doesn’t think of this? Please.

This book would have been hands down 5 stars if Gwen were not vacillating between being an idiot and a jerk from the get-go. Here’s Gwen: Cody’s a player because he’s texting all the time. Cody isn’t sincerely into me because he doesn’t try to talk to me between rounds of the competition. Cody sleeps with me and doesn’t give her the right kind of kiss afterward, so he was obviously playing to mess with my head in the competition. 

I cannot. Everybody is glued to his/her phone–these people are in their 20s. She is horribly rude to him every time they talk and at one point lies to his face, so yeah, I think I would respect those boundaries if I were consistently getting a hard “no” message myself. And the kiss?! Are you kidding me? You’re both super competitive and you’re going to be late for the competition, which would lead to disqualification…what exactly were you expecting? You didn’t even have time to put underwear on before racing to the competition. 

By the end of the book, when there was a situation that Gwen could have legitimately reasonably misread and felt terrible about, I disliked her so much I was instead like, “You’re dumb as a post, he told you this information months ago, and you just need to assume the worst of him so desperately that you can’t stop a minute to get out of your own way.” And no, she doesn’t get a pass because she was abandoned by her mom. 

And then I just wanted to say: Dear Cody, please stop and find someone who actually values you, because you are amazing, and this woman is treating you like garbage.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.

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