3.5

This was veryyy cute, and very much a story of our main character finding herself, which is always lovely to see especially within a YA novel. However, I found that so much of this story revolved around the tabletop roleplaying game that I found myself feeling less connected to the characters in their real lives, because we kept going for ages into the fictional world (within the fictional world). I just found it difficult to feel that invested in Hollis and her journey, when we kept switching over to the roleplaying game. But this is a really wonderful YA contemporary in the confidence it shows Hollis developing, and the power of female friendship (especially in the face of idiotic loser boyfriends). Nerdy joyfulness is on full display in this book, which I do love to see even if I wish the roleplaying game had had a slightly lesser role.

I want to thank Netgalley for the arc of this book, this has had no influence on my opinion.

Let’s begin with the fact this was my most anticipated release of the year and I was extremely happy when I got a netgalley arc.

This book embodies what a love about DnD SO good. Exploring yourself via TTRPG has been a vital part of my own journey and I loved seeing it in a book. I also really enjoyed reading about Hollis’ party and seeing the similarities between the struggles the girls went trough in real life mirrored their struggles in game.

I however do think it might be a bit complicated to understand S&S (this books version of DnD) if you are not familiar with the game. But if you are a lover of any TTRPG I would absolutely recommend it, and otherwise, please give it a shot!!

I loved it SO much and this is an absolute all time favourite.

This is the book I needed when I was in high school. I am so pleased to have found it as an adult.

After not being allowed to join her boyfriend's S&S (think D&D) group, 17 year old Hollis goes on a quest to find a new group to learn more about the game that's a big part of her boyfriend's life. Hollis isn't allowed to be in her boyfriend's group - due to the group's No Girlfriend rule - but Hollis thinks if she can prove she knows the game well enough, they might relax the rules. Enter Hollis' new group, who take her under their wing and help her learn to play for herself and not her boyfriend.

I honestly feel this book was just... written for me, actually? I identified so much with Hollis and all her struggles as a fat, queer, nerdy, anxious person. My heart broke for her and the struggles she encountered at the start of the book but I felt so giddy and warm inside as I saw how she grew and developed with her new group of friends. I loved all the TTRPG elements in the book especially as someone who always wanted to get involved in that scene but like Hollis, had never found her people to do that with. I still haven't found my people but Hollis' story has given me hope that one day I will.

The romance was heartwarming, as was the coming-of-age, and the whole thing was just a wholesome experience. I loved the mixed media in the texts and discord chats, as well as all the wonderful representation that was presented with obvious care and respect.

I will be rereading this one for a long time to come. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an e-ARC.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pushkin Press for this ARC of ‘The No-Girlfriend Rule’ by Christen Randall.

This was a very enjoyable read. As everyone already knows I love a sapphic romance. This was sweet and easy to read. The anxiety topic was very well handled also. Definitely reccomend giving this a read.

This book was such a joy to read. It was so geeky and queer and perfect. I enjoyed the relationship between Aini and Hollis (and Umber and Honeria) so much. It was such a cute relationship. I also really liked how the mental health issues Hollis faced were approached in this book. It felt really genuine and realistic. As someone who suffers from anxiety myself, I was satisfied with it.

I loved how the book revolved so much around the game. The way the story of their roleplaying was played out almost parallel to their own story. I will tell you now, I cared just as much about their campaign as I did about everything else in the book. I didn’t think I would get so into it, thinking it was just a prop for the real relationships, but actually it wasn’t at it, it was just as much an important part of the story as everything else.

I know some people don’t like cheating, so fair warning although there’s nothing official, Aini and Hollis start getting close to each other before Hollis ditches Chris. I didn’t care about this because Chris and his whole friend group were absolute jerks, but I know some people would feel differently.

Honestly to me this book was perfect, it was a nice romance that I could read between heavier books. It absolutely hit the spot.

This book was so cute, combining queer romance with a fantasy tabletop roleplay game, we follow Hollis Beckwith, an anxious teen who is trying to figure out and navigate her senior year whilst proving to her boyfriend she's a worthy player good enough to join his team. She stumbles upon an all girls game and finds herself blossoming into her newfound confidence, making friends for life and opening up to a love where she's actually treated with the respect she deserves.

A heart-warming YA novel with a decent amount of rep, the first half is a little slow but picks up in the second half!

Thank you to Pushkin Press for accepting me for an ARC

Hollis Beckwith is just your typical, angsty, plus-size teen trying to navigate her way through senior year and maintain her relationship with boyfriend, Chris. Chris is your typical, nerdy lad who has a day dedicated for playing Secrets & Sorcery with his friends. However, there is just one rule - no girlfriends allowed! Their relationship isn't particularly flirty, but they are comfortable. But Hollis didn't want to just settle for 'comfortable', she wished to prove herself worthy to him by learning how to play Secrets & Sorcery.

After attending a rough game at Games-A-Lot, Hollis was ready to give up and drop everything. Until, she stumbled upon a poster on the wall inviting new members to join an all girls group. This could be her chance! Hollis found herself playing as a paladin called Honoria. Her newfound confidence shone, the more she played with these girls, little did she know that something very special was about to happen...

I jumped at the chance to sign up to this book tour and boy, this did not disappoint! Not my usual kind of read, but it was one I could not put down. I loved the snippets of mixed media added throughout the book, showing the reader a glimpse of the characters Discord chat, as well as a few text messages too. Being new to the table-top roleplaying game world, I didn't find it too overwhelming and before I knew it was I was completely absorbed into the fantasy world the characters had created. I loved the relationships that were being made and the journey of self discovery for our main character Hollis. The ending was just *chefs kiss* and it really got me in my feels! I would definitely check the trigger warnings for this book before picking it up due to references of anxiety, panic attacks, transphobia and more...

This is a very sweet YA following Hollis as she sets out on adventures to uncharted realms with a band of tabletop role play gaming girls - learning as much about herself as she does the character she’s adopted.
There’s a lot of dungeons and dragons style gaming described in the book, which personally wasn’t really for me, but the characterisation of the cast of characters was brilliant, and you can’t help but fall in love with them right alongside Hollis.

This book was so cute, combining queer romance with a fantasy tabletop roleplay game, we follow Hollis Beckwith, an anxious teen who is trying to figure out and navigate her senior year whilst proving to her boyfriend she's a worthy player good enough to join his team. She stumbles upon an all girls game and finds herself blossoming into her newfound confidence, making friends for life and opening up to a love where she's actually treated with the respect she deserves.

A heart-warming YA novel with a decent amount of rep, the first half is a little slow but picks up in the second half!

Thank you to Pushkin Press for accepting me for an ARC <3

The most adorable, nerdy, heartwarming hug of a book! I absolutely fell in love with Hollis from the start, she was so relatable, and the rest of the girl gang were an absolute delight. The romance was an adorable friends-to-lovers arc, the friends were all incredibly well-realised and felt like real people, and the S&S campaign storyline was really enjoyable too. Overall, an absolute delight of a book, and I can't wait to read what Christen Randall writes next!

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

4.5⭐

I picked this book due to the LGBTQ+ representation and TTRPG aspects. It did not disappoint! The game descriptions were nerdy and fun, they got me immersed in the storyline and made me more curious about role-playing. The only downside was that some parts got a bit slow and lengthy around the middle of the book.

The focus was not on the romance side - the mental health and self-development discussion was the main part, being kind but powerful. I really enjoyed following the main character's journey towards making changes. The novel is also sprinkled with some great quotes and details, it's totally worth checking it out.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC of 'The No-Girlfriend Rule' by Christen Randall.

'The No-Girlfriend Rule' is a powerful and energetic contemporary romance. It involves Dungeons & Dungeons as quite a important plot and honestly, as someone who doesn't know anything about D&D, I could still read the scenes and enjoy it without any knowledge and I liked that. Our protagonist is honestly such a sweetheart and I was so attached to her. Overall, a nice sweet little story.

Usually I know if and how much I'm going to enjoy a book in the first half (and maybe even sooner). This time, I wasn't quite convinced by the first half of the book, because I felt like it focused too much on the DnD gameplay (S&S in the book), and not enough on the actual characters and plot. I've never played DnD and it all just felt like a LOT to me and I wasn't super interested. I also found it a little hard to read because Hollis, who's fat, anxious, confused about her sexuality and has self-esteem issues, hit very close to home for me and it was like reading about my own teenaged self. In the second half though, this book completely won me over, which made me raise my 3 star rating to a solid 4 stars. It was amazing to see Hollis come into her own and start being happier and standing up for herself and making so many amazing new friends. I still just wouldn't have needed so much detailed gameplay described, but I loved Hollis so much and found her so relatable. I loved the fat rep and especially the anxiety rep, and I loved that Hollis doesn't land on a label because it's all just words in the end and you don't have to know everything about yourself immediately.

Thank you Netgalley and Pushkin Press for this ARC.

When I first started this book, I didn't expected to like it that much. I recognized myself so hard in Hollis and sometimes that was really heartbreaking. It was really nice that we saw so much details of the S&S game and gosh I love that friendgroup (I'm jealous, I want to be part of that group). It was a fast read and i couldn't put it down so that is reallyyyyy good!! I'm excited to read more books from this author

I loved this so much. What a cute little story, really showcasing found family, exploring sexuality and how community groups like this can really bring people together!!

I received this book as an ARC from Netgalley, however all opinions are my own.

How I read this book: eBook.

So the reason I wanted to read this book is because I saw the description of this book on Netgalley and as a fat girl who loves D&D with an anxiety disorder I knew I had to read it. This book made me cry SO MUCH. Please note, only once it was sad tears, the rest was just happy tears about how beautiful the characters friendships turn out to be throughout the book and the development that happens not only with Hollis but with her S&S party too. We got another book with a diverse cast of characters which was very exciting to see! I feel the reason I fell in love with the friend group within the book is because it genuinely reminded me of my little D&D group and how supportive everyone is towards each other. I love seeing a group of women being strong and powerful but also not afraid to show their emotions towards each other and being able to be there for each other. It was such an incredible journey to see the woman that Hollis becomes by the end of the book and I'm so glad I was able to read it. It was beautiful to see so much representation of someone who is like me within a book. Another thing I really loved was the discord chats between the characters. I will say though, the moment you see a link in the book, put it into your browser you will not be disappointed. I hope we get more books from Christen because I genuinely would read her shopping list if she let me.

My Favourite Characters:

The whole S&S group: Before we go into individual characters I just want to take a moment to appreciate how beautiful this friend group is together. They uplift each other so much and it made me so happy to read their story.

Hollis: Okay, yes, Hollis is the main character, but I genuinely saw so much of my younger self in her and it made her so easy to relate to. I loved her

Iffy: I ADORED the friendship that formed between Hollis and Iffy especially. Iffy was constantly there for Hollis and I loved her so much.

Aini: Aini is true to herself and is so full of confidence and I just loved her so much for it. She was constantly honest with Hollis and I adored her so much.

My Least Favourite Characters:

Landon: If you've read the book this will be of no surprise to you. Landon is a very accurate representation of the types of boys that gatekeep anything that's even a little bit geeky for themselves. I'm pretty sure every woman I've met within the geeky community has met a Landon. I genuinely wanted someone to slap him.

Chris: Chris to me is a bigger piece of shit than Landon is. Even if he wasn't doing what Landon was doing constantly, he was allowing it to happen. It's a no from me.

(If you'd like to see more of my reviews please go to my blog:
https://doesden.blogspot.com/)

Let me start by saying that I am probably too old for this book. It is a coming of age for teens at the end of highschool, so 16-18 years of age. I am at the least 5 years above that age, so many of the problems or issues they encounter aren't a big thing in my life anymore. The self exploring Hollis went through was something I've already been through, so it didn't hit me in the same way, but more on that later. First, the good things!

I really loved S&S as an alternative to D&D. It made clever changes as to not be hit by a copyright issue, and honestly, I like Fortitude and Intuition more as stats than Constitution and Wisdom! The author has clearly played a lot of D&D, as the vibe that was portrayed in this book fit exactly with how I've experienced playing all these years - complete with creeps and emotional moments. I also like that none of the girls were stereotypes, as often happens in queer books. Yes, being queer was a part of their identity, but none of them ever shoved it into the face of the reader, which was very refreshing to read. They were queer, but they were also a multitude of other things.

Now for the lesser parts. I did not buy at all that Hollis and Chris had been dating for six years. Chris has almost no personality - and while I figure that was done to add to the whole arc of Hollis discovering the relationship wasn't good, it also just came over weird for me, and made it not believable she actually hung out with him and his friends all the time. I also sometimes felt the book was a bit longwinded, and that Hollis' realizations took a long time to unfurl.

I do believe that this book might have been more of a heavy hitter for me a few years ago, when I was in a toxic relationship myself. But now I have done the growing and reprogramming, and the self discovery in this book just reads a bit boring for me - because I have already done all that myself.

And, again, this book is aimed at teenagers, and me being 23 and in a totally different stage of life will have absolutely shaped my reader experience.

But, to conclude, it wasn't a bad book! Many teenagers will have an amazing time reading this. There were moments I genuinely laughed out loud, or reacted heavily to the story (that last S&S session!!). So I enjoyed myself reading this, and would definitely reccommend it to the age range it was written for.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC for this book!

The No-girlfriend rule was a freeing, warm and such needed tale of the stress of new situations and the best outcome that can happen.

Hollis is a fat, anxious high schooler comfortable if not a little unhappy in her relationship. She sticks by the side of her boyfriend and his lackluster if not downright offensive friends and is just trying to get through. Unfortunately they won't let her join their regular role playing game on a Friday, no girlfriends are allowed.

Looking for the experience to give her a leg up so she might get the chance to join, she responds to a flyer for a queer friendly group on a bulletin board and finds it's different to how she expected but maybe even better than she could have imagined.

This was just the kind of book I wished to have as a teenager. It was warm and uplifting and so representative of many of the hardest aspects of teenage life, especially as a mentally ill person.

There was one plot line which was against my personal preferences for a book, which just took it down half a star, but it was overall a huge triumph and a real joy to read.

This was such a sweet story!! The characters were fun, the overall story as well as the smaller story arcs were fun to read about and the writing and pacing were very well done!
I didn’t think that I would enjoy the built-in D&D story, but I did!

Some of the highlighted parts of the text didn’t need to be in uppercase as well as italics tho, but that’s the only thing I that I can criticize

A super sweet YA novel about making friends, new relationships and D&D. I loved how gentle and wholesome this was while still holding space for an anxious, fat main character to truly feel her feels.

I was a bit disappointed that there wasn’t more about Hollis’s relationship with Chris - I appreciate that he wasn’t the focus of the novel, but we could have done with a showdown where she finally told him how terrible he and his friends are.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pushkin for the e-galley!