Level Up

A Geek Girl Rom Com

By: Cathy Yardley

Narrated by: Serena St. Clair, Dirk Slade

Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Geeky introvert Tessa Rodriguez will do whatever it takes to get promoted to video game engineer - including create a fandom-based video game in just three weeks. The only problem is, she can't do it alone. Now, she needs to strong-arm, cajole, and otherwise socialize with her video game coworkers, especially her roommate, Adam, who's always been strictly business with her. The more they work together, though, the closer they get....

Adam London has always thought of his roomie Tessa as "one of the guys" until he agreed to help her with this crazy project. Now, he's thinking of her all the time...and certainly as something more than just a roommate! But his last girlfriend broke up with him to follow her ambitions, and he knows that Tessa is obsessed with getting ahead in the video game world.

Going from friends to something more is one hell of a challenge. Can Tessa and Adam level up their relationship to love?

©2015 Cathy Yardley - Original, 2017 Cathy Yardley - Reissue (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

My first romantic novel and i think its good

Well we all seek connections and listening to romantic novel was unique experience. So i will be reading more to come to absolute review about this project

Fun Story

A realistic view of a female software engineer working in a man's world and trying to beat the odds with her considerable talents. She learns not only how to succeed but a lot about herself, as does her male roommate.

Delightful!

Stumbled upon this book and was pleasantly surprised. A cute fun romance wrapped around the issues of women in a male dominated field and what they have to go through. Well done.

Cute Geeky Romance

I really liked this book. I think I have the potential to be a gamer nerd but I have lots of other interests too where it’s not a priority. I loved Tessa and Adam. I love how Adam encouraged Tessa to break out of her shell and she would up finding a group of girls she really likes. Adam was a really break from the typical alpha a-hole guys in most books. He was sweet and a little clueless but it was cute. I can’t stress how much I loved them together.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Selena St. Clair and Jay Skelton. Both are new narrators to me but I think they worked for this audiobook. Their voices matched well with the vibe of the characters. I would listen to a book narrated by these two again.

Surprisingly Delightful

Heavy literature this is not - but if you're looking for a fun, light read I would highly recommend.

While there are a ton of light fluffy romances out there, it's so rare to find one where the characters are still distinct, compelling and nuanced. And there is actually enough non-sex/romance plot to keep the reader engaged with turning the page. Yes, this is light and a little campy. But it also felt a lot closer to reality than many romances I've read, and was a delight to listen too.

Definitely will not be my last book by this author.

Fun story

I love geek books, and this is a pretty good one. Adam, a 27 yo project manager, was burned in love, so he’s a little gun shy. However, that doesn’t stop him from stepping up to help his roommate when she needs him.

Tessa, a 25 yo coder with serious social anxiety, wants to make that promotion in the male dominated gamer world, and at the same time she will help her new friends. Friends Adam encouraged her to make. Getting out of her comfort zone is hard, but so very worth it.

I really liked both characters, but Adam was particularly refreshing. He actually wanted a girlfriend, not just a quick lay. None of the guys talked about conquests, and the women were strong without being obnoxious. It was so great to listen to a romance that didn’t make a hero out of a man whore.

As for the narration, Serena St Clair was absolutely fan-freaking-tastic. Her voice for Tessa was a little deeper than normal, and forceful, in a good way. Tessa came across as knowing her own mind, confident of her abilities. Ugh, I get so tired of whiny heroines. Dirk Slade was less awesome, focusing on Adam’s nice-ness a bit too much, so he sounded sweet even when he was angry. Ah well, can’t have it all.

Meh

It was a okay story. I was a little disappointed. I had trouble connecting with the characters. It does do a good job of highlighting the plight of woman in the male-dominating gaming industry. However, once the characters discovered a sex life, the plot seemed to take a backseat

The female audiobook narrator might have been part of the problem. Many characters had the same voice, regardless of gender. it made some scenes very confusing!

Nerdly fun

I enjoyed the characters’ enthusiasms. I was less enamored of all the guys thinking they weren’t being sexist pigs while doing sexist things like default to hitting on the office manager/receptionist. But there was some good progress made, negotiations worked out, and the start of some community building with some partly fleshed out secondary characters who seem like they will be in other books. The fandom & cosplay was a nice bonus.

The plot was kind of fun for me, having hung out with friends who were coding Ultima Underworld from their living room back in the day, to see the same fun energy & a white board of goals/progress. Aside from the casual toxicity that gets worked on somewhat, it was a fairly low angst book because no central character (except Benjamin) created unnecessary drama. I thought at the start that it might have gone that way, but it smoothed out. I like reading about adults who reason things out and stand up for their friends and they didn’t disappoint. There were a few hiccups and oddities that were jarring enough to make me knock a star off, but not stop reading. I don’t know how they’d read for other readers.

Steam: Med Low. M/F kissing mostly, but they level up with some small page details.

Narration: I appreciated the dual POV with dual narrators, but early on I thought the female narrator made some odd choices with voicing a couple male characters. I didn’t notice it standing out later on so either it sounded better later, or I acclimated. It took me a while to figure out that one character liked to mess up the name “Snoqualmie” on purpose but that’s on me. (IRL There’s a decent, if crazy loud, pub there near the Snoqualmie ski resort, assuming we can go back to public dining, I hope it survives. And their snow is no joke.)

Good listen

Loved the book. Story was sweet and only a little predictable, but all in all a good listen. The Male narrators voice was a little quiter than the female so was constantly adjust ling the volume.

Best worst book ever.

This book is the audio equivalent of trash tv. The author seems to have gotten the main characters personalities off tumblr being a huge fandom faction I was waiting for actual tumblr lingo in it. The story is unrealistic to a point where it’s downright funny. But don’t let that fool you please, because as cringy and uncomfortable as this is it is downright funny for those exact reasons. It’s the equivalent of shows like bridezillas, dooms day prep, or pax YouTube videos if you like that and can muscle through some rather awkward (ok very awkward sex) this is the audio book for you! Thank you I’m going to go back to laughing at this now.