Speaking of colliding worlds...

Dungeons and Drama
By Kristy Boyce
Publisher: Delacorte Press (January 9, 2024)
Paperback: 304 pages
ISBN-10: 0593647017
ISBN-13: 978-0593647011
Reading age: 14+ years, from customers
Lexile measure: 690L
Grade level: 7 - 9

Publisher’s Blurb:

Musical lover Riley has big aspirations to become a director on Broadway. Crucial to this plan is to bring back her high school’s spring musical, but when Riley takes her mom’s car without permission, she's grounded and stuck with the worst punishment: spending her after-school hours working at her dad’s game shop.

Riley can't waste her time working when she has a musical to save, so she convinces Nathan—a nerdy teen employee—to cover her shifts and, in exchange, she’ll flirt with him to make his gamer-girl crush jealous.

But Riley didn’t realize that meant joining Nathan's Dungeons & Dragons game…or that role playing would be so fun. Soon, Riley starts to think that flirting with Nathan doesn't require as much acting as she would've thought...

My Thoughts:

We see a lot of books about girls who hope to make it big as the star of the show. I love that Riley doesn’t want center stage. Her love is behind the scenes.

However, her love for the stage gets her in trouble, and her punishment is, basically, constant parental supervision. Which means afternoons at her dad’s game store. She’s not a fan of the store or, really, her dad, since he split from her mother. She doesn’t think he’s very interested in her life.

There are some of the usual tropes: hate to love, fake dating. We pretty much know what to expect. But the tropes are executed well.

The teenagers act like typical cliquey teens. Riley looks down her nose at the RPG crowd, and Nathan doesn’t seem to have much use for her dramatic flair. One of the things I really loved about this story is how the groups learned to work together. Once Riley realized RPGing was really just acting, she embraced it—and brought in a friend. Both groups are enriched by their ultimate mingling.

Riley finds a whole new support group from the regulars at her dad’s gaming store. And she learns a lot more about her dad. They develop a closeness that had been lacking from their relationship.

Another think I really appreciated is the storyline of kids advocating to keep a program they love in their school—especially an arts-based program. So many programs are cut, and Riley works really hard to remind school administrators of the value of the drama program she loves. But she can’t do it alone—friends from both of her groups come through to help her make it happen.

The adults in this book are not painted as clueless or oppressive, just typical parents and teachers. Another plus!

 Possible objectionable material:

Dungeons and Dragons like RPG and LARPing. Same gender couple. Teenage hijinks—including sneaking behind parents’ backs. Parent/child drama. Divorce. Parental health scare. There might have been some minor cursing, but I didn’t make note of anything in particular.

 Who might like this book:

D&D fans, drama lovers, romance fans, coming-of-age fans. I think either gender can appreciate the story. The lexile level is lower than the suggested grade range, and that's okay--sadly, many teams are not where they should be.

 Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.