Level Up by Cathy Yardley

⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

The final book I read in February was to finish out the second board of Winter's Kiss. I needed something shorter (so I could finish it in time) to cover the prompt cover model wearing a sweater or a hat on the cover. Going through my kindle I found Level Up by Cathy Yardley. This is the first book in her Fandom Hearts series.

Tessa is hoping to get a promotion up to video game engineer. Since she is extremely introverted she struggles connecting with her coworkers. She asks her roommate Adam and former video game engineer for tips to be at the top of the list. When he encourages her to step out of her comfort zone, she befriends temp office gal Stacy. Stacy includes her into her geeky friend group and they all immediately click. When a competition is released for a visit from a famous actor from a Supernatural type show, Tessa suggests making a mini-video game for their submission. She's hoping it's unique enough to win and use the visit to books sales for one of the group's bookstore. When Tessa comes to Adam and the other video game engineers for help, Adam starts to see her in a different light and more than just the respectful roommate that keeps to herself.

Oh my gosh! This was such a great ode to the geeky, nerdy, fandom girls that are out there and I need to find my own group like this. Or join theirs! I loved all the different references and how all of the girls lived such different lives but were able to connect over something as simple as a tv show. I also really enjoyed Adam and Tessa's relationship and the natural evolution. While she had been living with him for a while, they were really keeping to themselves for the most part and not opening up to each other. I loved how their first few kisses went and it was so freaking adorable! What didn't quite work for me was the two different "conflicts." They didn't feel like big conflicts, but I would've been happy to just have Tessa have the possible job offer in a different state. I didn't really need the not-really drama with Adam's ex-fiancé as well.

This was such a fun book and really hit my fangirl heart. I'm so excited that I was finally able to pick up Cathy Yardley and can't wait to dig more into both this series and her backlist as a whole. I glanced through the blurbs for the rest of the series and was pleasantly surprised to see that the other books don't just focus on the the girl friend group, but also the other video game engineers. I can't wait to read more and am more than happy to add another contemporary author to my list!

Have you read Level Up?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Level Up, Cathy Yardley, 4.5-stars, 0 days, eBook, 181 pages, published in 2015, indie published