Review: Single Player

 Title: Single Player
Series: Stand Alone
Author: Tara Tai
Illustrator: N/A
Publish Date: January 7, 2025
Publisher: Alcove Press
Genre: Romance, LGBTQIAP+
Age: 18+
Started Reading: December 12, 2025
Finished Reading: December 27, 2025
NetGalley?: Y 

Book Summary from Goodreads:

Two video game creators go head-to-head in this delightful, queer enemies-to-lovers workplace romance debut.

Cat Li cares about two things: video games and swoony romances. The former means there hasn't been much of the latter in her (real) life, but when she lands her dream job writing the love storylines for Compass Hollow—the next big thing in games—she knows it’s all been worth it. Then she meets her boss: the infamous Andi Zhang, who’s not only an arrogant hater of happily-ever-afters determined to keep Cat from doing her job but also impossibly, annoyingly hot.

As Compass Hollow’s narrative director, Andi couldn’t care less about love—in-game or out. After getting doxxed by internet trolls three years ago, Andi’s been trying to prove to the gaming world that they’re a serious gamedev. Their plan includes writing the best game possible, with zero lovey-dovey stuff. That is, until the man funding the game’s development insists Andi add romance in order to make the story “more appealing to female gamers.”

Forced to give Cat a chance, Andi begrudgingly realizes there’s more to Cat than romantic idealism and, okay, a cute smile. But admitting that would mean giving up the single-player life that has kept their heart safe for years. And when Cat uncovers a behind-the-scenes plan to destroy Andi’s career, the two will have to put their differences aside and find a way to work together before it’s game over.

My Two Cents:

Goodreads Rating: 4 Stars

To start off I will say, I quite enjoyed this book. Overall it was a cute romance, and that was what I was looking for. That being said, there were some issues I had. First, the main relationship is between a Manager and their Intern Employee, while there are many other reasons the characters think of for why they can't get together, this power dynamic is hardly a throw away thought once or twice. This dynamic broke up the Try Guys, I was expecting it to be a bigger hurdle to get over. Second, apparently the universe's only goal was to get these two together because the amount of 'coincidental meetings' that happened required a bit of suspension of disbelief. I listened to the audio book for this and Natalie Naudus does a fantastic job of switching her voice between POV chapters. The writing was well done, the geeky references were fun, and the periodic 4th wall breaking wasn't too off putting. The intimate scene was enjoyable and just the right length and descriptiveness. All told this was a nice romance with a fun geeky twist. I listened to this audiobook through NetGalley.

To Sum Up: A cute romance with a geeky twist.