Blog Tour - Level Up by Cathy Yardley - REVIEW & Excerpt

Welcome to my tour stop for Level Up by Cathy Yardley. This is a romantic comedy and the tour runs January 4-22 with reviews, interviews, guest posts and excerpts. Check out the tour page for the full schedule. 

About the Book:

Geeky introvert Tessa Rodriguez will do whatever it takes to get promoted to video game engineer– including create a fandom-based video game in just three weeks. The only problem is, she can't do it alone. Now, she needs to strong-arm, cajole, and otherwise socialize with her video game coworkers, especially her roommate, Adam, who’s always been strictly business with her. The more they work together, though, the closer they get…

Adam London has always thought of his roomie Tessa as “one of the guys” until he agreed to help her with this crazy project. Now, he’s thinking of her all the time… and certainly as something more than just a roommate! But his last girlfriend broke up with him to follow her ambitions, and he knows that Tessa is obsessed with getting ahead in the video game world.Going from friends to something more is one hell of a challenge. Can Tessa and Adam level up their relationship to love?

Goodreads

REVIEW:

This wasn't a fast and easy read as I was expecting, because it took me more time than I hoped and maybe I was willing to give.

I'm not saying that I didn't like it and that it wasn't fun, but for me the first chapters were slow, they didn't grip me and I was ready to put in on hold if a voice in my head wouldn't have pushed me to go on. And it became better, little by little. 

I don't know if my problem with this book was because of the characters and the fact that I didn't connect with them, with the plot, because it was slow and sometimes very repetitive and it needed time to pick up. Or it was the writing style, because somehow I was out of the story most of the time and this is no good. I can't engage in a story if I'm kept out, even though I'm trying.

This is not a bad novel, it's fun, it has very cute moments, some hot ones, the characters are nice, the atmosphere is beautiful, but for the ammount of pages that it has compared with the ammount of hours that it took me to read... 

I think, I had too high expectations, because I loved the cover and the synopsis, and when I read it, it didn't blew me away. Even though it was very cute, relaxing and heart warming. But after that beginning, it came a bit late for me.

 It's a good read if you want something contemporary or romance or something easy, but don't read this if you want something fast. Or maybe it will be a fast read for you, I don't know. For me it was cute and fun, I wanted more and I didn't receive. But I still enjoyed it and I recommend it.

About the Author:

Cathy Yardley needs to get out more. When not writing, she is probably cruising the Internet, sleeping or watching D-list movies and adding to her unnatural mental store of character-actor trivia. 

She is a closet fangirl for Supernatural, Sherlock, Doctor Who, and too many others to name. Her family is considering performing an intervention for her addiction to pop culture.

 Want to read more of her writing? Sign up for her notification list, and get a free novella, Hooked, from the Fandom Hearts series! -   http://www.cathyyardley.com/notification-sign-up

EXCERPT:

"Um. Looks like snow, huh?"

He glanced at her, then shrugged, and she wondered if he was really awake enough for this conversation—as she recalled, he wasn't really a morning person. The problem was, if she waited until he was up and running, or God forbid until they drove home that night, then everybody else would have had a crack at him all day long. This was her window.

"Probably no snow for another few days, maybe a week," he finally said, as they pulled out of the driveway.

Success! Conversation! She took heart. Then, without preamble, she said, "I want that engineering position once Mac’s gone."

Unfortunately, at that very moment he was also sipping from a to-go-cup and did a spit-take on the steering wheel. "Whoops. Sorry. Really hot," he apologized, wiping at it with the sleeve of his jacket.

"I think I'm ready," she said. "You know how hard I work. And I think that I could use a promotion. I've been with MPG for four years, since I graduated from U-Dub."

"I know.”

"So why not?"

He took a deep breath. "Listen, I'm not firing on all cylinders. Can't this wait till tonight?"

"No," she said, surprising herself. She put her cup in the holder and turned a little. "This isn't because I'm a woman, is it?"

"God, no," he said.

"Because I know it’s a boys’ club,” she said doggedly. “It’s hard to be respected as a female coder. I don’t expect it to be handed to me, but if I’m being passed over or ignored just because…"

"I swear, it isn't because you're a woman,” Adam interrupted quickly. “Hell, most of us don't even think of you as a woman."

That took her aback. He glanced at her, looking aghast.

"And I totally didn't mean it that way," he said. "I think of you as a woman, trust me."

Now a little, wayward hormonal burst erupted, surprising her. This is Ani’s fault, she thought, scowling.

"And I mean that in as non-sexually-harassing a way as possible," he quickly added. "I just mean I think of you as a programmer. Who happens to be a woman. Whom I totally respect. Who is probably more than capable of handling the job.” He groaned. “Who I also wish would just shoot me and put me out of my misery because eight o'damned clock in the morning is too early to be having this conversation which I seem to be totally butchering."

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