CBR Bingo: Dungeons and Drama – Season “It occurs during the Fall season”
CBR Bingo: Dragons and Dating – Success “The gaming group is working on becoming successful online streamers”
CBR Bingo: Rolls and Rivalries – Left “Knowing your left from your right is fundamental in marching band”
I recently had a staycation downtown by myself for a couple days. As a full-time mom to two teenagers, it was a welcome respite! I brought several books with me, as one does. On Wednesday, I found an independent bookstore that was a combination of new and used books. In the YA section was a used copy of Dungeon and Drama. The book’s cover had caught my eye previously at Barnes and Noble. I love Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) and sometimes enjoy teen romance, and, since it was used, bought it around 2:30 in the afternoon. They also had a used copy of book two in the series. Off to go find a place with good cocktails to read! Around 5pm, I realized how much I was enjoying the book. Conscious of the bookstore closing at 6pm, at 5:30 I returned and bought the second book, Dragons and Dating. While on vacation, Mysterious Galaxy (MG) called to let me know that my pre-order had come in. By Thursday evening, I had finished both books. A quick Google search told me that there was a third book, and MG had a signed one their shelves. I also found out that Kristy Boyce had been at San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) on Friday the previous week. I had been at SDCC that day and could have attending her panel, but I didn’t know about her at the time! Friday morning, it was time to go to MG, pick up my preorder, and get a signed copy of Rolls and Rivalries. Which I finished that same night. Now I am rereading them to write reviews.
Dungeons and Drama is built on the ‘fake relationship’ trope. Riley is obsessed with Broadway plays and is determined to bring back the Spring musical at her high school, that has been cancelled due to budgetary constraints. While also strugglingly with an ex-boyfriend, Paul, who just can’t seem to leave her alone. A junior in high school, Riley has been grounded for two months for driving her mom’s car without a license. Her punishment is that she can’t be left home alone after school and must now work at her dad’s gaming store. This is complicated due to Riley’s parents’ divorce. Nathan is a loner who isn’t interested in any school activities but loves Weird Al Yankovic, long drives at night and most importantly Dungeons and Dragons. While normally keeping to himself, Nathan can turn on the charm but his first interaction with Riley leaves them both feeling antagonistic towards each other. Nathan is interested in dating Sofia, the type of girl who wants what is out of reach. Riley needs a fake boyfriend to put Paul in his place and off her back. So, they make a deal, fake a relationship until Sofia becomes interested in Nathan and long enough for Paul to believe it’s a real relationship. At which point they can “fake break-up”. Riley moves on and Nathan gets the girl he wants. Should be easy, right? To sell their relationship to Sofia, Riley joins Nathan’s weekly DnD campaign. To Riley’s surprise, and her dad’s delight, she falls in love with DnD. Being a bard allows Riley to indulge her love of singing showtunes when she casts spells. Part of getting Sofia’s attention has Riley and Nathan’s DnD characters flirting during games. Things become complicated as Riley starts falling for Nathan but is afraid that his attention is only due to their deal and not a genuine interest in her. How long can Riley keep going in this limbo?
Things I relate to in this book. My junior year of high school I was theater obsessed. Between my high school and community theater productions, I averaged participating in four shows a year either on stage, or doing tech. When Riley starts to get overwhelmed by trying to get the school musical back and knowing how busy she will become if it works out, I have a lot of sympathy. High School Drama is when I got my first introduction to Dungeons and Dragons. My guy friends invited me to play with them, but my religious parents wouldn’t let me. After reading Dungeons and Dating, I wonder how my high school experience might have been different if I had played. Maybe I could have developed a deeper friendship with them beyond our time in drama and band, and how things might have been different as a result. Growing up in rural Southeast Michigan with corn and soybean fields literally across the street from and bordering one side of our property, this little town surrounded by fields is familiar to me. As is Nathan’s love of driving at night and playing music really loud. There is something peaceful about driving at night in rural areas just for the enjoyment of going on a drive. A member of the game group in Dungeons and Dating does Larping (live action roleplaying) in addition to playing DnD. I met the guy I married at a Larp! Larping holds a special place in my heart. Last, but not least, is my devotion to Monty Python that became solidified in high school.
Dragons and Dating is built on a ‘forbidden romance’ trope also set in another rural, small town in Ohio. Quinn, her younger brother, and parents have recently moved to the town where Quinn’s grandmother lives. Ostensibly, the move is to be closer to Grandma due to her having fallen and giving everyone a broken hip scare. However, the move was in part to remove Quinn from a friend group that turned toxic and imploded. Not only did she lose her best friend, but she also lost her Dungeons and Dragons playing group, leaving Quinn with issues of self-worth and desperate to not make the same mistakes with a new DnD group. When Logan see’s Quinn arriving for her first day of school, with her grandma in tow requesting a picture to be taken, his heart skips a beat. He is instantly attracted to and interested in Quinn. Unfortunately, they don’t share any classes or lunch period, as a result they only have a couple of charming moments. A chance meeting between Quinn and Kashvi, starts the beginnings of a new friendship tentatively formed by their shared love of DnD. Kashvi invites Quinn to observe her gaming group. Upon arrival, Quinn is surprised to see Logan at the game. He warmly greets her, but the group quickly engages in a live stream of their DnD campaign, and she sits silently to observe the group. After the live stream has ended, Kashvi introduces the idea of Quinn joining the gaming group for the next campaign. Everyone is cool with the idea, except Logan who actively tries to prevent Quinn from joining. Quinn is taken back by the sudden flip between being warm to almost hostile. Logan is overruled and Quinn joins. What Quinn doesn’t know in that moment is that Logan is smitten with her and the DnD group has a strict no dating anyone else in the group policy. As soon as she joins, Quinn is off limits for dating. However, a bond begins to grow between Logan and Quinn. Soon they aren’t sure if their characters are flirting with one another during game or if it’s actual flirting between themselves, either way they shouldn’t explore their feelings more due to the no dating rule. Can Quinn get the guy, stay friends with everyone in the DnD group, and continue to be a player in their campaign? Or will her feelings for Logan blow up another friend group?
The second time I was introduced to DnD, it was through my now husband. After starting dating at the Larp, I would go with him to his DnD sessions as I was curious about the game. It wasn’t long before I joined the campaign. While streaming wasn’t a thing back when I was playing DnD, we were a very committed group. For a couple years we would meet up for Sunday morning breakfast, go to someone’s house and game until nighttime. In one of our campaigns, my husband and I played the exact same character combos, with a similar backstory, as Kashvi and Sanjiv do at one point in the book. It was a pleasant surprise to read, and I immediately had to tell my husband. Over the years I’ve met many a gamer who has dice superstitions like Mark (I’m a little superstitious), I often would buy new dice for new characters, and I have done the salt solution testing method used in the book to determine if my dice were truly rolling randomly. I actually threw away a few dice as they were not well made and unbalanced so they wouldn’t give a clean (truly random) dice roll.
Rolls and Rivalries is set in another small, rural Ohio town. A fun moment in this book is when the three couples from the series happen to cross paths with each other at the game store Riley and Nathan work at in Dungeons and Drama. Rolls and Rivalries is a ‘childhood friends to lovers story’. Hazel and Max were middle schoolers thrown together every Sunday as their parents played Dungeons and Dragons in Hazel’s basement. In the beginning it was uncomfortable but as time went by Max and Hazel formed a strong and competitive friendship. Bonding over board games, nachos, the Lord of the Rings movies, and a shared love of DnD. They never ran a game of their own but would talk about campaign ideas and characters concepts endlessly. At the end of middle school, Max’s family moved away and any unrequited feelings Hazel had for Max never came to anything. Then she lost contact with him. Now it is senior year, and Hazel is determined to lead the Glen Vale Knights color guard to a Best Auxiliary award and Superior rankings at marching band competitions during her final season. However, she knows it will take work as it is a rebuilding year for the color guard. The other challenge for the marching season will be to deal with the rivalry between color guard and the nearly always perfect percussion section of the band. On the first day of band camp, Hazel spots Max in the band room and her heart leaps. Her former best friend has gone from awkward tween to handsome teen and Hazel’s childhood crush on Max comes rushing back. Unfortunately, Max doesn’t seem eager to resume their friendship and he’s in percussion, making him an automatic rival. As tensions in band rise, Max’s mom rejoins the DnD game group run by Hazel’s mom and forces Max to come along. After clearing bad air between them, and away from band dynamics, Hazel and Max quickly resume their Sunday friendship, as they still love the same things. With encouragement Hazel decides to run her first DnD campaign on Sundays with Max, her best friend Nova, Li from color guard, and Felix from percussion. As the marching season progressions tensions remain high between percussion and color guard. Things quickly become complicated as Max and Hazel begin to move from friendship to romantic relationship but have to keep it under wraps during band to not create further drama. Can Hazel be content to have a hidden relationship with Max? Will Max ever step up and proudly say that he and Hazel are dating? Will the marching band make it past regional competitions to get to state?
This book resonated with me in a different way than the other two. My high school marching band wasn’t nearly as intense as Glen Vale’s however, we were dedicated and adored our band director, Mr. Whitehead, the way the kids in the book like Sire. I played bass drum in percussion for two of my four years in marching band. Having marching band camp in August in Southeast Michigan is quite similar to Boyce’s description of Hazel’s camp, sweltering weather and sun burns. I have such fun memories of marching band. I loved learning and performing routines, but it was all the time spent with friends that made it so memorable. Camp, weeknight rehearsals, bus rides to away games, hanging out in the bleachers. And Boyce is right that there is something automatically sexy about good drummers. Quads, what Max plays, are particularly hard so it’s always impressive when someone can show off their ability to play them. Objectively, there is less DnD in this book as the marching band storyline is important to Hazel and Max’s development. I particularly like how being a dungeon master is portrayed, challenging and rewarding. You can have the best laid of plans and think you know how things are going to go to having players decide on a completely different direction and suddenly you’re scrambling to accommodate them on the fly. Ultimately there is no wrong way to play DnD, as it is a collaborative storytelling game. When Hazel figures out how to accomplish her characters’ goals and lead them to the story she originally planned, it’s a magical moment.
I tremendously enjoyed all three books in the series; they brought up a lot of personal memories. However, it’s Boyce’s writing and characters that drew me in. The teens are such teenagers and the emotions run high. You feel Riley, Quinn, and Hazel’s yearning and anguish as they navigate the tricky world of high school dating. It was a treat to see how accurately Dungeons and Dragons was portrayed. And I loved how LGBTQ+ positive the books are. I would like more but aren’t sure what angle a fourth book would take on high school dating and DnD. I would be happy to be proven wrong though!
Note: The dice and miniatures are from my personal collection.
