An accidental meeting and a misunderstanding lead to a life-altering connection.
A new job, a new city, and hopefully a new life. When chubby gamer Oliver Barnaby receives a job offer from the best boutique game developer in the country, he leaves his family and his less than spectacular existence in Oklahoma without a second’s hesitation. Determined to change more than his career and his geography, Oliver implements a plan to finally land a boyfriend. Step one is improving his skills in the bedroom.
A life that looks perfect on paper, but feels empty in reality. Attractive, successful, charismatic Jaime Snow has a life other people envy. His already booming business is growing. He isn’t lacking in friends. And he has no trouble finding a date. But there’s an emptiness in Jaime’s heart and a hole in his life that only the right man can fill.
An accidental meeting, a misunderstanding, and falling in love. When Oliver and Jaime end up at the same bar at the same time, they each see something they want in the other. Going to bed together that first night is easy. Building the lifetime relationship they both desperately crave will require trust, time, and a little misunderstanding.
Word count: 55,872
Chapter 1
He had chosen the bar because of its name: The Bookstore. It was clever and unusual and he had laughed internally at how happy his mother would be if he told her he was spending time at the Bookstore instead of in front of his computer. Oliver’s entire life, she had mourned the fact he wasn’t a reader, and even though he had now moved two thousand miles away from their home in Oklahoma City, she still sent him books she was sure he’d love. Maybe someday he’d open one of them.
For now, he glanced down at the only book he had read countless times and adjusted it at the edge of his table to make the spine as visible as possible. The title—Coding—wasn’t as clever as the bar name, but the information and the way it was phrased had clicked perfectly in Oliver’s…
These characters have great chemistry together and their journey towards the HEA that you can always count on Cardeno C to provide was believable, sweet and full of emotion. I even loved the secondary characters and that was a surprise. I hadn’t expected to feel any connection to them, yet they just wove themselves right into my heart along with the MC’s. When I was learning the Pot of Gold ratings, I was told that a 10 out of 10 Pots of Gold meant it was the best book ever. This book, for me, is definitely that.
I enjoyed Not a Game and highly recommend it. With its distinctly different characters, strong scenes of physical and emotional connection, and sweet HEA, it is a lovely m/m romance with excellent promise for a new series.
'Not a Game' is a wonderful, light, feel good read for anyone who doubts that love is the one thing that comes in all sizes and shapes because it's not the package that matters but the heart and soul that resides within.
I’ve always loved this author and this book is exactly the reason why. This story was so real and cute and believable and funny and unique and fresh and tons more things I won’t sit here and bore you with.