Dating and Dragons (Review)

Information:

• Author: Kristy Boyce
• Genre: Romance
• Page Count: 311
• Year Published: 2025

Read This if You Like:

• Stories where the love interest starts as an annoying grump
• D&D
• Fluffy YA Romance
• Cute Friendships
• Predictable but still fun books
• Hidden Relationships
• Romantic Banter
• Overambitious seniors
• Awkward situations

Synopsis:

Quinn Norton is moving to a new city and a new school so her family could help out her grandma, and Quinn is also treating it as a welcome escape from her old friends. But turns out starting over in a new school is harder than it seems. Luckily, Quinn soon learns of a local D&D group with kids from the school, and it seems even better when she learns that not only will she get to engage in her favorite hobby, but the group includes Logan, the cute and friendly guy she met on her first day. But Quinn discovers that there’s a lot of surprises within the group- they livestream all their D&D games, and it turns out when it comes to D&D, Logan is actually a bickering, insufferable person and not the person Quinn thought he was. As Quinn deals with life’s curve balls and develops closer friendships with those in the D&D group, she also gets closer with Logan and it turns out that they may actually have feelings for each other… if the group’s strict no dating rule doesn’t make everything fall apart.

Review/Opinions:

It’s been a while since I just read a simple YA romance- no focus on emotion, angst, or social commentary, just a fluffy little story where a high schooler falls in love. So the main thing I liked about Dating and Dragons was that it was refreshing for being basic. It even was exactly how I’d expect a YA D&D focused romance to go (D&D romance is practically a mini-subgenre at this point, and almost all of them have the main character joining a D&D group for the purpose of either making friends or having a romantic agenda.) Also, this was technically book 2 of a maybe-series, with the first book, Dungeons and Drama, having a different couple that was focused on, but I read this one first and there were no references to the other characters, so it’s safe to read this one as a standalone.

Overall, the romance between Logan and Quinn was standard- good enough to satisfy a craving for romance, but not the greatest thing of all time. My main grievance is how little the no-dating rule actually added to the plot- since the book is more enemies-to-lovers and not forbidden love, there was a larger focus on the two working through their differences and falling in love, rather than hiding an already established relationship. There’s some conversation about how the rule can shatter the group and the reasons for it, but not a big scene where all the characters find out about the relationship and severe tension emerges. It just felt like the rule was added for extra intrigue to hook the reader. In addition, this book once again has a completely forced third-act breakup between Quinn and Logan that emerges in just one chapter and is simply “maybe we just need some time away from each other.”, before they get back together right near the very end of the book. But there’s some positives to the romance- Quinn and Logan were cute overall (the scene where Quinn visits Logan’s family’s farm was especially adorable), and even though there was a bunch of whiplash where Logan went from friendly to a grump to friendly again, there was decent pacing overall from enemies-to-lovers.

The book also had a really good development of the side characters, including Quinn’s family and friends, alongside Quinn and Logan. My favorite part of the book was the wholesome friendship of the D&D group that Quinn joins, especially with the character Kashvi, who represents the perfect way to write a beat friend character into a story. The rest of the D&D group also got along well, with each character having a clear personality and interests that set them apart. However, Quinn also had a very toxic (partly in a cliche, unlikely to happen in real life way, partly in a realistic way) past friend group that she does interact with in the book, but they aren’t fully dealt with, as they are dismissed by an extremely lucky plot twist and not in a meaningful way for Quinn’s growth, which I wished happened because they were some of the most insufferable, unlikable characters I’ve ever read about. I also liked the inclusion of Quinn’s family, including the focus on her grandmother and her own character arc, but there were issues with that too- it was highly obvious something was going to happen with one of the family members by the way they behaved, and the sub-romance with Quinn’s brother and another character was weird and unnecessary. But a lot of these complaints come from the fact that I’ve read a lot of YA romance and have high standards for them, so these are all really technical complaints that won’t really ruin anyone’s enjoyment of the book.

When it comes to the mini-subgenre of D&D romance, one major thing that can happen is that there’s more emphasis on the actual D&D gameplay and the techniques only actual players of D&D will understand, and less on the romance. But this time, it was combined neatly- there wasn’t a lot of explanation of D&D terms for newbies, but there was an equal amount of scenes dedicated to D&D as there was to Logan and Quinn’s romance. I liked how much thought was put into the group’s characters and the lore in the D&D game, which made it feel more immersive. The live streaming aspect was cool too, but like the “no-dating” rule, it felt like a plot addition to add extra tension and make it seem like “not another basic D&D group”. And again, a bit more explanation on the D&D terms could’ve been used for anyone reading that didn’t play or know about D&D, but I’ll excuse this because probably the main audience for this book is people who actually play D&D.

Overall, if we remove all my tiny critiques of this book, I found this to be actually really cute and simple to read through. I have a bunch of issues with the pacing and the characters, but I understand that this book isn’t trying to win an award- it’s just trying to be a fluffy romance. So I would still recommend this to any enemies-to-lovers fans or D&D fans, and I would also read the first book in this series.