Book report #27
What I read April 20 - April 26
T’was was a bad week for reading for two reasons. One, I was in town for my brother’s wedding and there was a lot of socializing. Two, I accidentally left the book I was slogging through in the rental car. As you know, I was really struggling with Tess of the D’Ubervilles, which in turn hurt my pride, and so I dragged that book everywhere with me.
Here I am with it on my brother’s wedding day. And then I never saw it again.
Should I even finish it? I was sort of enjoying it; it’s beautiful, but also plotless and meandering. It was full of words I had to look up, like:
Heterodoxy: Deviance from accepted/standard beliefs
Pachydermatous: Having thick skin, like a rhino (which is apparently, a pachyderm)
Obsequious: very obedient or eager to serve
Anyways, perhaps I will find another copy, much the way I stumbled upon this one in Las Vegas.
Two Can Play That Game, by Ali Hazelwood 🎧
Genre: Romance
What’s it about: Viola Bowen has her dream job as a video game designer, and she has the opportunity to work on a game based on her favorite book series. However, the opportunity has strings - she has to work on it with Jesse Andrews, a rival game designer from a rival company - for Reasons that really do not matter plot wise. The powers that be decide to test these two companies by sending them on a winter team-building retreat in a ski lodge. If these rival companies can show they can get along, then they can get the contract.
The issue is that Jesse Andrews, a Hot Nerd, seems to hate Viola, and Viola doesn’t know why.
Was it any good: I mean, look. This woman keeps writing the same thing over and over again and I keep reading it, and so I must acknowledge that I am part of the problem. It’s the same formula over and over again: A plucky female scientist is at odds against a sexy man who is definitely not Adam Driver due to a miscommunication that could likely be resolved over text but instead simmers over many years until it boils over into some passionate (but still respectful) lovemaking.
But Ali Hazelwood does this very well. In fact, the formula allows her to quickly and entertainingly give you sketches of humanity you can drool over. The characters are always more than they seem, yet very Ordinary in a way that’s relatable except for the fact that they are all extremely sexy intelligent demisexuals.
Highlights:
Funny enough, the book and game described in this novella are right up my alley.
Ali Hazelwood got her start in the Reylo fanfiction world. It’s funny to me that I enjoy her books because I actually hated the Kylo Ren/Rey Skywalker pairing.