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A review by marimoose
Two Can Play by Ali Hazelwood
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Dude. When have I not loved any of the contemporary Aliverse books so far? Because it doesn't stop today. If anything, I only wished this novella was an actual full-length novel about two video game designers spending a majority of the time fighting and fucking over their love of this fictional video game story. I always maintain that Ali's strength for me is her fleshing out her characters' manicness and the men who are DOWN BAD for all the unhinged miscommunication between them.
Which is probably why Two Can Play was marginally better than her previous novellas; in book form, it probably runs about 200 pages tops, which gives just enough time for the characters to marinate on the page long enough to get to know them. The background setup of a "company retreat" was actually clever, too (that forced proximity trope at large!!!) but even so, there's still hints that the characters lived and somewhat interacted with each other even outside the scope of the story.
Needless to say, I enjoyed this book. The tropes signature to Ali are still there, and I will continue to eat them up (like Jesse Andrews TEEHEE) and at the end of the day, I will still hold out my bowl in supplication to my romance goddess queen ans ask, "Please, madam, may I have some more?"
I did wish this wasn't just on audiobook format. My enjoyment of Ali Hazelwood has always been in book form. It gets too awkward listening to the narration sometimes. Hopefully there will be a paperback released later on.
Which is probably why Two Can Play was marginally better than her previous novellas; in book form, it probably runs about 200 pages tops, which gives just enough time for the characters to marinate on the page long enough to get to know them. The background setup of a "company retreat" was actually clever, too (that forced proximity trope at large!!!) but even so, there's still hints that the characters lived and somewhat interacted with each other even outside the scope of the story.
Needless to say, I enjoyed this book. The tropes signature to Ali are still there, and I will continue to eat them up (like Jesse Andrews TEEHEE) and at the end of the day, I will still hold out my bowl in supplication to my romance goddess queen ans ask, "Please, madam, may I have some more?"
I did wish this wasn't just on audiobook format. My enjoyment of Ali Hazelwood has always been in book form. It gets too awkward listening to the narration sometimes. Hopefully there will be a paperback released later on.