Title: Perfect Game

Series: Legendary Pairs, 01

Author: Casey Cameron

Genre: Contemporary

Length:  Novella (112pgs) 12 chapters, plus page stuffing back matter with 5 different excerpts

Publisher: Casey Cameron

Heat Level: Low – Moderate

Heart Rating: ♥ 1 Heart

Blurb: “Hate the player, love the game…or was that the other way around?” 

Research biologist Neil Parkinson had to give up a lot in pursuit of his Ph.D–his friends, his music, his home town–but the one thing he managed to hang on to was Legendary Pairs, the hyper-competitive collectible card game that has propelled so many nerds just like him to fame and fortune. With a new job in a new city, loneliness drives him out of his apartment and into The Ogre’s Den–a haven for local players, amateur and pro alike. Neil never aspired to be a professional gamer, but that was before he met Robin. 

“Why even play, if you don’t play to win?” 

Robin Abboud is cocky, brash, argumentative…and absolutely gorgeous. He may be a lowly caterer with a crappy car, but this game is the one place where he’s a top dog, and boy does he know it. Robin’s end-game goal is to play in the Legendary Pairs Pro Tour; he’s got the skill to do it, and from the moment he meets Neil, he’s convinced Neil does too. His flirty bravado gets under Neil’s skin like nothing else, but he runs so hot-and-cold that Neil can’t figure out if the two of them are competitors, friends…or something more. 

“Don’t tell me this is just a game to you. I know better.” 

When Robin convinces Neil to join him on a road trip to a major tournament, there’s more on the line than just the cash prize. Even as the two of them clash on the field of the tournament, Neil’s feelings for Robin are growing impossible to ignore. But could Robin ever feel the same way? The longer they spend together, the more Neil risks showing his whole hand. Is a perfect match in the cards for these two, or will their in-game rivalry tear them apart? 

Perfect Game is a 25,000 word stand-alone romance novella with lots of heat, deliciously nerdy sweetness, and a happily-ever-after ending with no cliffhangers.

ISBN: n/a – ASIN: B01N7NQGWO

Product Link: Amazon US | Amazon UK 

Reviewer: Napoleon A. Chase

Review: I chose this book because I’m a nerd and because I’m forever chasing that rare black-haired, brown-eyed protagonist.

This book instantly hits the problem many books hit when describing someone of a race that is not your own: “He looked ambiguously ethnic in a faintly Middle Eastern way, with deep olive-tan skin, dark hair and eyes, and a hint of a hook nose that drew the eye naturally…”
“Ethnic” is a poorly named grocery aisle, not a human being.

That said: mixed race Middle Eastern guy. Go on.

Chemistry is established immediately, which I dig. Gamer dynamic is accurate. Neil’s your typical stuffed-in-lockers variety of nerd; Robin comes off as a little Gary-Stuish since we pan into him Evil Masterminding a win against another competent player with no suggestion that there’s some element of chance to a card game.

Robin’s showing off strikes the right chords. I might have enjoyed this novel more if it had been written from his perspective.

Neil could be rewritten easily into a cis straight girl, which was disappointing but par for the course.
If you enjoy the smell of fandom tropes, this author has the cologne for you.

There were parts I enjoyed that I‘ve been robbed of due to layers of racism that just get worse and worse as the book goes on.

[SPOILERS]
It was super creepy to have the one PoC painted as a guy without any real prospects, just one – and then sees that wiped out by the random white guy he brings along. Then we get to see him have an absolutely childish tantrum while Neil plays the Arbiter of Rationality White Guy role that all too often happens whenever an argument, no matter how valid, occurs between PoC and white people who can’t even agree that grass is usually green.

This particular brand of “stupid and childish” is one that gets thrown at Middle Eastern guys almost as often as it gets thrown at black guys.

I ended up reading reviews to see if there was any hint of it coming back from this. There wasn’t. Gave up reading in the beginning of the make-up sex scene in which Robin is made to grovel for being a bad little boy.