SINGLE PLAYER

A woman lands her dream job writing a romance arc for a video game, only to discover that her new boss doesn’t believe in love.

Catherine Li is thrilled to receive a one-year offer from Heartrender Studios to write the romance arcs for their forthcoming game Compass Hollow. Even more exciting, she’ll be working with Andi Zhang, a creative genius who was the victim of vicious doxxing after gamers discovered they were nonbinary and Asian American. Compass Hollow is Andi’s first game as narrative director since the doxxing; hurt and wary, Andi has resisted their higher-ups’ directive to add love interests to the game. Andi’s primary strategy is to ignore Cat, hoping she’ll go away. Meanwhile, Cat agrees to a blind date with a woman named Sally Jenkins. They don’t have much chemistry, but they agree to fake date as a convenience for when both of them need to have a significant other. As time passes, Andi is forced to admit that Cat has some good ideas for improving the game, but their working relationship remains chilly. The two barely appear on the page together, and most of the book is consumed with low-conflict workplace skirmishes and the revelation that Sally is Andi’s ex. Cat and Andi tangle and then ignore each other, a tedious pattern that isn’t resolved until they attend a gaming conference in Las Vegas. When Andi comes face to face with the man behind her doxxing, Cat’s heartfelt defense of Andi finally breaks the ice between them. The romance arc is jammed into the final quarter of the book, sharing the stage with a late-developing corporate espionage plot that is solved by coincidence.

A celebration of games and gaming culture with an underdeveloped romance.