A wonderfully adorable story about romance, self discovery and Dungeons and Dragons

A fresh spin on dnd romance books

While struggling to find her way and herself, Sadie finally decides to give dnd a go with encouragement from her bestfriend who is dming the game. Being a nerd at heart she's immediately drawn into the fantastical world of dnd.
While rediscovering herself and finding a new love for fantasy, she's also drawn to her friend and teammate; a carefree travelling bard who teaches Sadie to live for the moment
The way the dialogue bleeds from reality into role play made it feel genuine and it had me kicking my feet and squeeling

I loved this read
I'm always down for a little self discovery, and romance but add some dnd and I will devour it.

Definitely recommend
☆☆☆☆☆/5

my thanks to netgalley, the publisher and the author for the advanced copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

As a romance girly and D&D fan, this was always going to be a good read for me. It's fun and a light read, perfect as an in-between read; when you need something like a palette cleanser between one heavy hitting story and another. Or it would do well as a beach read too. There are no complex plot lines to follow, no twisted character arcs, just good old fashioned romance!

Thank you Netgalley and Quercus Books for the arc!

This was a super sweet romance, if you're ever looking for a palate cleanser - a soft story that has no drama and just good vibes and great banter then this is the book for you!

What I loved about this book was that it was a journey of self-discovery for the main character - learning to love and chase her dreams again, coming from a corporate background world to a creative world (which is almost a bit relatable), so Sadie will resonate with quite a lot of people.

The romance was lovely, it was sweet, it was geeky - they really balanced each other out.

I actually really enjoyed the D&D aspect of it - it was very different and (having not played myself, but seeing how enjoyable it is) it was a great plot of the book. I think at times when you fully go into the characters, it takes you away from the story. I would've loved seeing more of the characters rolling and their reactions through that rather than having it be another story in itself.

Overall, a really enjoyable read!

This was a really great concept, and I enjoyed the romance in both settings.
Unfortunately the D&D side of the story just didn’t quite work for me, and I’m not sure why, maybe because it felt unbalanced with too much emphasis on Jaylin’s perspective. I much preferred the one on one text based interactions, probably because it was just the two of them.
But apart from that, it was a fun and engaging read, with some interesting threads about burnout and following your passion. The characters were great and I really enjoyed the whole dynamic between them, especially in real life.
I’ll definitely be recommending to romance readers, it’s a great gentle gateway to fantasy.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Roll for Romance is the debut novel from Lenora Woods, and it’s a charming contemporary romance that blends real-life chemistry with the imaginative chaos of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. It’s sweet, spicy, and a bit meta—and for the right reader, I think it could be a total hit.

Sadie Brooks, newly unemployed from a demanding marketing job in NYC, retreats to Texas to stay with her best friend Liam, who also happens to be a passionate D&D Dungeon Master. In need of distraction (and a new direction), Sadie jumps into the fantasy world of dice rolls and character sheets. She creates Jaylie, a cleric and healer, and joins a campaign filled with eccentric players—including Noah Walker, a handsome bartender and first-time gamer, whose D&D character is a bard named Loren (Bards have a rep for being horndogs LOL - pleasantly surprised by this fact)

The narrative switches between the real world and the D&D realm, with the game world reflecting the internal growth of the characters. It’s a creative and fun idea. The in-game personas are wildly different from their real-life counterparts (purple ogres who are actually pleasant cat ladies!), which can be amusing but also a bit confusing—especially if, like me, you’re not a seasoned gamer.

🧙‍♀️ A Nerd Deficit Confession:

I’ll admit I might have aged out of this niche. I’ve never fully grasped D&D, despite my early geek cred (X-Files! Buffy! GoT fanfic! Tumblr girlie for life!). I felt like an outsider looking in—not unwelcome, but not quite initiated. Readers with anime/gaming/pop-culture fluency will likely get much more out of it than I did.

That said, the characters are fun, the banter is breezy, and the romance has genuine warmth and spice. The book celebrates the joy of finding your people, embracing new experiences, and rediscovering yourself through storytelling. That’s a theme I can absolutely get behind.

📚 Final thoughts:

While I didn’t fully connect with the narrative style or the D&D immersion, I can still appreciate the solid writing, great pacing, and generous heart of this story. It’s a 3-star read for me—but could easily be a 5-star favourite for the right reader. If you’re a nerd-at-heart, gamer-curious, or just love a romance with a twist, Roll for Romance might be your next one-shot.

I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

This was a sweet romance about two nice people who are at a bit of a crossroads in their lives and start to reassess what they want. It’s rooted in the dungeons and dragons group that they both attend and how their romance develops in their role playing world and in their lives.

The dungeons and dragons angle was the big draw for me here so I was quite surprised that I was more invested in the real world storyline than the RPG one.

I liked that the author steered clear of a lot of tropes. This does feature finding yourself. It avoids anything like enemies to lovers, miscommunication or unnecessary drama. I really liked that. The author stayed true to this journey of self discovery and personal growth and it definitely worked.

This is a wholesome romance where you want good things to happen to the characters. It wasn’t world shaking but it was nice if you’re looking for something comforting.

As soon as I saw the book cover for Roll For Romance, I knew I needed this book.

I enjoyed having both stories coincide with eachother and how the D&D campaign related to real life, and how her romance showed development in both aspects.

The story has a realistic build up of her relationship with Noah.
But it’s also realistic in her figuring out her personal life. The fight with herself over what she feels she should do, and what she wants to do.

I enjoyed this book and thought it was a fun, but easy read.

Thank you so much for an E-ARC of this title.

A very joyous 3.5 stars! This book is a cosy, fast-paced romance that lands a nat 20 on its first try. The characters were enjoyable, and it was interesting to move back and forth between Sadie's point of view & the events during the Dungeons and Dragons campaign. As a new-ish DND player circa the emerging popularity of Baldur's Gate 3 who also chose a cleric for her first home campaign, I loved seeing the character's friendship and connections grow whilst their campaign progressed, whilst also learning about Sadie and her budding romance with Noah.

My problems lie generally with the pacing and the shifts between campaign and first-person perspectives. I feel as if we didn't get an opportunity to connect with the players on the table before launching into the campaign for the first time, which in and of itself was jarring since we jump from first person to third at a rapid pace. This made me feel disconnected from the story in general, which also meant the tension built either through the DND campaign or the perspective of the romance with Sadie was lost for me. I would love to see Lenora Woods tackle a dedicated DND inspired fantasy or romantasy in future; her prose and pace show the makings of someone who enjoys and lives for DND, which is a treasure.

Despite this, I had an incredibly fun time reading this. The characters were fun, it was easy to read, and Woods should feel incredibly proud of the achievement she has made in this debut romance, with an incredible twist of tabletop RPGs and romance. I can't wait to talk about it with my customers.

i really appreciated the skill it took to get the balance in this book right. because we have a story of our two characters and them falling for each other. buuuut due to them being in the cosplay world they also have their characters who have a life and blossoming banter and love of their own.its witty and cool premise and is done really well. i love how we get to see both characters different sides and even sides they dont yet show to each other in the real world but are able to in the game world and vice versa. their characters are also built on dreams, or wishes to be in some of the personality traits.
ive never been part of that world but i have a few friends that are. and they are obsessed in the best of ways and the communities they all bring is a wonder to see. its an enviable world they bring to each other both on and off screens.
and Sadie seems to come to this world at exactly the right point in her life. shes lost her spark and bravery. shes feeling lost within herself and the world she is currently living in.
when she meets Noah it another layer to have fun with and maybe something more. and Noah is such a powerful character simply for seeming to be a nice human! hes kind and supportive and always there for whatever at this vulnerable time Sadie is ready for.
also dont let the dungeon and dragon thing overwhelm or put you off. this isn't about that at all. i would have been lost if it was.
i really liked the found family aspect of this book. it felt right. and it felt lovely to read. like a big hug within these folk.
all of the characters in this book are so completely likeable. it was so nice to come to a book with good humans. it was a little bit of a shock this this was such a difference to other books ive read as of late. where there has to be a bad guy lol( which isn't always a bad thing) i just loved how i got to know this book and new that nothing would hurt or pull me apart haha.
gorgeous book. i had such a smiley time reading this and the premise was such a bold and unique one and done with tick tick tick from me.

Thank you to Net Galley and Quercus Books for the ARC.

I absolutely loved this book!

This book was so much fun to read. The relationship that blossoms between Sadie and Noah felt realistic and natural, without a hint of those “instant love” tropes you read in other books. I also loved watching the friendships develop between the party, and how wholesome the group was in and out of the campaign.

As someone who has a vested interest in both D&D and romance books, this was the perfect mixture!

3.75⭐️
🎲🧚‍♀️

#RollforRomance #NetGalley #Quercus Books

A great fun read, with a great twist, a classic romance story - slow stakes and fun side character, this story centres around of bunch of first time D&D plays experience their first game. The character interactions and relationships were fun and easy going, and all the characters were really likeable.

The twist in this tale, is experiencing the D&D story being alongside the contemporary story! Added a dash of fantasy to the story, allowed for a more immersive experience of the overall story and a concept I haven’t seen played out before!

A fun summer read!

Thanks to NetGalley and Quercus Books for this arc.

Dungeons and Dragons with romance? Yes please! The “geeky” set-up of my dreams!

For the most part this worked really well as both a fun romance and a bit of a fantasy side quest as we get scenes from both the real world and the D&D world that the characters play. A great combination!

Sadie and Noah were couple goals and their romance was sweet with great communication and sensitivity. Liam was a great best friend side character and D&D Dungeon Master. I liked the rest of the D&D friendship group and would love to read more about them.

Great for gamers, non-gamers and newcomers to D&D (I’ve never played it) who like a bit of romance and fantasy!

Roll for initiative - this book casts Charm Person on page one and I never made it to a saving throw 🫠🎲

I adored this book’s nerdy heart. Lenora Woods somehow made me swoon twice over the same couple thanks to the brilliant story-within-a-story format - one part real-life slow burn, one part fantasy-flavored D&D campaign romance.

Watching Sadie and Noah fall for each other both as themselves and as their in-game characters (Jaylie the Cleric and Loren the Bard?? I mean, come on 😍) was deliciously meta and completely addictive.

Sadie is a relatable hot mess, navigating career burnout and heartbreak with equal parts sarcasm and stubbornness (we love a girlie who has no idea what she’s doing but is trying anyway). Noah is the classic cinnamon roll disguised as a golden retriever in elf cosplay - truly, a walking romance trope and I ate it up.

Immaculate vibes, geekery, and pure joyful reading experience made it a total win.

If you’ve ever wished your TTRPG campaign came with a side of swoon, Roll for Romance absolutely deserves a place in your party 💖

This story follows Sadie, who is introduced to the world of D&D through her childhood best friend Liam. She discovers a new ‘found family’ at a time when she is lost and burnt out from her previous marketing job.

It’s a story within a story, with a bit of a twist as the story is written by the characters in the book and the lines begin to blur between real life and D&D character.

I thought this was a really clever concept to have two storylines interwoven seamlessly, and I think I could have rated it higher/appreciated it more if I was interested in D&D. There is a level of assumed knowledge on how the game works and I found myself quite lost and uninterested in the fantasy storyline.

This would be perfect for someone who loves either the romance or fantasy genre and plays D&D.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books for the ARC!

Huge thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced review copy (ARC) of this book ❤️

When I read the blurb for this book I immediately knew it would be a good fit for me. I really love D&D and its capacity to bring people together and I think this book really captures that as well as the rush of that first session that makes you want to keep playing. It even included some of the memes that many players will have shared with their own groups and I thought this was a really nice touch. I found the overarching story of burnout and recovering from that with help from a group of friends really compelling and relatable. It was fun to see the characters develop in and out of the game.

I thought it was an interesting choice to portray the D&D campaign in the way that the book did and I thought the contrast between this more fantastical sections describing the game and the realistic sections describing the lives of the players worked really well. I think I would have preferred it if the book was a bit longer so we could really get more depth to the relationships between the characters and I think that pacing would work better for me personally.

That said, overall this was a really enjoyable read and I'd definitely like to read more from this author in the future. I think this story would work really well as a series so we could learn more about the side characters and have another installment of their campaign!

This book was just so much fun start to finish. I absolutely loved the story going between their real lives and their characters in their D&D game. You came to care about both sets of characters!

I liked how Sadie and Noah both had their own journey going on & Sadie was working through some trauma and realising her own worth.

I thought the D&D story line was brilliant too, I was so invested as to where their characters were going! The twists and turns, and the trials they had to go through had me guessing how high they were rolling! :D

Loved it, a fun, quick read. Perfect for a pallet cleanser.

This book is super sweet and cozy, the found family element was great and the side characters were especially fun. Noah was such a sunshine character and it was really fun seeing him and Sadie connect.

If you enjoy playing dungeons and dragons you will take enjoy this because the side story is the groups actual D&D characters adventure. It was so interesting because it felt like a fantasy story within the romance.

Spice wise this was about a two out of three 🌶🌶 it was a bit of a slower burn but the spice was really sweet and loving.

Roll for Romance is delightful and charming, the interweaving of both the d&d and real life romances were well done and this was a fun read for a Dungeons and Dragons nerd!

This book is deeeeeelightful!
I think many of us will have worked too much and forgotten to live, have looked for escapism, to be someone else and have space to figure things out.
If any of this applies this book is for you. I wasn't expecting to get as caught up in the D&D campaign parts of this book but I really felt like I was there with the players being surprised by the twists and turns. A super sweet book and one I'd recommend!

Found family and cosy romance and dungeons and dragons. What’s not to love?!

For me, it was heavy on the d&d but that’s the point. I can see that if you are not used to campaigns and a little of the lore behind these types of games, it might not be the romance you are looking for.

But if you want to give it a go, you love a little fantasy mixed with your romance, and want a cosy read, you will not be disappointed.

Thank you for the arc :)