Role Playing

By: Cathy Yardley

Narrated by: Chris Brinkley, Elyse Dinh

Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

An AudioFile Best Romance Audiobook of 2023

From Cathy Yardley, author of Love, Comment, Subscribe, comes an emotional rom-com about two middle-aged gamers who grow their online connection into an IRL love story.

Maggie is an unapologetically grumpy forty-eight-year-old hermit. But when her college-aged son makes her a deal—he’ll be more social if she does the same—she can’t refuse. She joins a new online gaming guild led by a friendly healer named Otter. So that nobody gets the wrong idea, she calls herself Bogwitch.

Otter is Aiden, a fifty-year-old optimist using the guild as an emotional outlet from his family drama caring for his aging mother while his brother plays house with Aiden’s ex-fiancée.

Bogwitch and Otter become fast virtual friends, but there’s a catch. Bogwitch thinks Otter is a college student. Otter assumes Bogwitch is an octogenarian.

When they finally meet face to face—after a rocky, shocking start—the unlikely pair of sunshine and stormy personalities grow tentatively closer. But Maggie’s previous relationships have left her bitter, and Aiden’s got a complicated past of his own.

Everything’s easier online. Can they make it work in real life?

©2023 Cathy Wilson. (P)2023 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

A New York Times Best Romance of the Year

“Chris Brinkley and Elyse Dinh pair up for a delightful performance in this fresh nerdy romance.… Dinh's and Brinkley's performances have the right intense beats when narrating gameplay. The romance unfolds more slowly so that listeners can savor its moments. Both narrators depict the genuine struggle faced by characters who are coping with life's new chapters and finding joy in unexpected places.”—AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award Winner

“If ever there were a story for our times, Role Playing…is it. …deftly narrated by the team of Chris Brinkley and Elyse Dinh who are able to bring the entire story along with its distinctive characters to life in a true theatre of the mind experience for the listener.”—Midwest Book Review

“Elyse Dinh's narration…hits her stride once Maggie and Aiden meet IRL. Chris Brinkley, who narrates for Aiden, captures the rumbling, warm nature of this lovable character. Yardley's (Ex Appeal) latest is a perfect fit for patrons looking for heartwarming, slow-burn romances featuring middle-aged characters.”—Library Journal

great read!

the story was lovely. very different than your average, surface-level rom com. I thoroughly enjoyed this one.
I love both narrators however, it was a bit incongruous to have the female main character be raised by whites and still have a slight Asian accent.

So cute

Love this realistic look on romance. Queer representation which is amazing as well! Low on the spice level for those wondering also. Super good and nerdy!

So Full of Awesome

“If you can’t handle me in sweatpants, you don’t deserve me in stilettos.”
This was a very slow burn, friends-to-lovers tale. I think this is my favorite romance trope. We get to know each of the characters and I love how they got to know each other. Ms Yardley is a new to me author and I’m so happy I discovered her work. I will be reading more from her.
Part of the Kindle Unlimited catalog.

A unique and entertaining romance

I loved this romance by Cathy Yardley. I listened to the audiobook, and the narrators were wonderful - Chris Brinkley is one of my favorite narrators, but Elyse Dinh was new to me. They both really brought the story to life for me.

Role Playing was very entertaining, and really kept my interest from start to finish. I highly recommend.

ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE

I loved the characters and I related so much to Maggie! I hope to be like her when I’m in my 50s. 10/10

Loved it!

This book was a lot more than I went into it expecting. I honestly didn't read the description, I saw rhe title and cover design and wanted to read it. I've been increasingly interested in Tabletop RPG's so I thought it might be about that. While it was more MMORPG, I absolutely loved the book. complex characters and family dynamics, lots of nerdy references, LGBTQ+ themes that I haven't really read about in other books. Being in a complex LGBTQ+ relationship myself, it was refreshing to hear a story about a couple with similar challenges. Highly recommend.

Great LBGTQ+ representation

I love the queer representation and the real isolation and pushback those who fall into the LGBTQ+ spectrum face from family members. It was some great representation on some of the LGBTQ+ letters that people don’t understand as well/have as much representation. In this case, covering terms like asexual (ace) and demisexual does a world of good toward helping others understand and accept. Great and cute storytelling!

Lovely story.. sweet!

This story was a huge surprise for me. I wasn’t sure what I was getting into but the characters were likable and their story refreshing.

I was engaged the whole time.

A great majority of romance readers are over the age of young adult, yet most romance are YA. It’s so refreshing to have a romance of people with grown children. It was well done. I enjoyed it all the way through, and the narrators were great.

Great story, narration is well done!

Let ved this nuanced, inclusive story. Very heartfelt as well as funny. Performance of the narrators was spot on.