This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.
My Review:Title: Dewey Belong Together
Author: Ann Whynot
Series: Green Valley Library #7
Published by: Smartypants Romance
Release Date: February 18, 2021
Format: eARC
Pages: 305
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Potential Triggers: View Spoiler »
Source: Smartypants Romance
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2021 COYER Winter, Lenoreo's 2021 Diversity Reading Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:
Blurb:Librarian Maxine Peters lives her life behind the scenes. By day, she's a buttoned-up cataloguing whiz in the basement of the Green Valley Public Library. By night, she's secretly dominating in an online role playing game as the legendary Maximus_Damage. Her in-game persona has the skills to back up the hype. But every hero has an enemy; every saga,a villain. And by her own invitation, Maximus’ arch nemesis, Wrath, has just landed in Green Valley.
Jonathan Owen is not at all who Maxine expects when she meets Wrath face to face. Eager to leave the past in the game, Jonathan takes this golden opportunity to win Maxine's heart. There's just one wrench in that plan: he may have, on a few occasions, acted like a bit of a jerk online. And to his puzzlement, she has taken their fun rivalry to the level of epic dislike.
When Jonathan and Maxine are unexpectedly alone for a weekend, secrets are revealed that make love hard and hatred even harder. Jonathan quickly learns fighting his own demons will take more than one elite gamer. And Maxine, who is busy rebooting her life in Green Valley, might not be up to the task.
When real life starts to override the game, can Maxine and Jonathan find a way to make it work? Or will it be game over for this player versus player adventure?
'Dewey Belong Together' is a full-length contemporary romance and can be read as a standalone. Book #7 in the Green Valley Library series, Green Valley Chronicles, Penny Reid Book Universe.
I received a free copy through Smartypants Romance in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.
3.5 stars — For me, this was a book with very diverse ratings depending on what I’m talking about. The characters/story/depth/emotion were like 4-4.5. The writing could sometimes be more at a 3, and maybe it’s just me. I’m left feeling very torn, b/c the thing I loved I LOVED!
Let’s start with the writing, b/c seriously: who actually likes talking about the less fun stuff? For me there were moments where the flow of the writing didn’t work for me. It wasn’t the pacing of the story as a whole, but the actual way it was written. It was most noticeable for me in the dialogue. There would be these large almost monologues without any break in between with subject changes. I’m not a writer, so I don’t know any technical descriptions, I just know that I kind of want them to pause…maybe shuffle their feet, or brush their hair back, or look at the other person, or have some internal thought. That’s the only way I know how to describe it, but in those instances it felt more like the debut novel that it is.
Now the characters I loved, despite them being super flawed for me. But there was so much going on there, it just kept me on the hook. Maxine was pretty easy for me to love right from the beginning, and in a strange twist for me I found myself getting cranky with her in the middle. There was so much to her, and I didn’t expect some of the emotional damage she had and how that would manifest into hangups. In some ways she was the stereotypical “guy” in this romance novel. I still love her, but I think by the end I found it harder and harder to connect with her (just personally). But I did appreciate how different she was from your typical romance heroine, and all the different things she brought to the table. She was that beautiful mix of strong and vulnerable, sassy and kind. And I loved that she was a plus sized woman who wasn’t hung up on her weight — the little bits of body positivity made me cheer!
On the other hand, I was worried I wasn’t going to love Jonathan at all. He starts off so cocky, and as a bit of a jerk. It took me much longer to warm up to him. But I kind of like that we got to see that whole perspective of him, b/c I think I judge some peacocky guys pretty harshly, and this gave me someone to humanize the guy behind the peacock (if that makes sense). PLUS, OMG, what he was dealing with?? Wow. I have a brother who suffers from the same mental illness, and I could see pieces of him in Jonathan. I LOVED Ms. Whynot’s note at the end about how she put pieces of her own experiences into Jonathan, but that it is just one manifestation. Regardless, it gave me so much to think about. And as someone who suffers from my own mental illness, I really loved the inherent positivity of this story — of showing that everyone deserves their own love story if they want it.
I will also say that through Jonathan we also got some great LGBT positivity as well. This book was just full of examples of how I want the world to look, how I want people to be.
I will admit that I was only so so on their steamy chemistry…there were some awkward moments there that might have been the writing thing that wasn’t working for me. But their connection? Their friendship that turned into love? Oh yeah, that was fantastic.
For the gamers and general nerds out there — I have a feeling this is going to be a love letter to you. I don’t have a whole gamut of nerdy tendencies, but I love watching folks geek out on what they love…and there was a shitton of that in this book. It was delightful, and I have a handful of friends I am IMMEDIATELY going to recommend this book to.
So yeah. A bit of a mixed bag, but I might be pickier than most about the writing thing. I think this book has an audience that is going to be clamouring for it, and I can’t wait to hear them geek out about it. And I can’t help but hope there’s a Norman book in the works… *hint hint*
Thanks for the detailed review, I think the dialogue issue you described makes sense.
Even if this book wasn’t perfect, your review was. I liked knowing what was good and what wasn’t. It sounds like the positives were important ones.