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Cover of Roll For Romance. Cover is purple; background has a tower and a dragon flying through a land. There are many dice scattered over the cover. The couple is embracing, surrounded by the dice.

RPG and Renaissance Festival Romance

Written by alamancelibraries on . Posted in Book Reviews.

Fall is in full swing, and for North Carolina history and fantasy lovers, that means one thing – it’s ren fest season!  The NC Renaissance Festival just opened and runs on weekends through November 23rd.  Every year, thousands of visitors get dressed up in their finest historical costumes or their most whimsical fantasy garb and venture to what many lovingly shorten to the “ren fest”. Many people enjoy cosplaying as their favorite characters from various fandoms or even as their own originally created character from a roleplaying game (RPG), such as Dungeons & Dragons.  Get into the festive spirit with these fun romances where characters embrace the best of ren fest and RPG experiences with both friends and love interests!

Woods, Lenora. Roll for Romance. New York : Dell, 2025.

Cover of Roll For Romance. Cover is purple; background has a tower and a dragon flying through a land. There are many dice scattered over the cover. The couple is embracing, surrounded by the dice.

Sadie Brooks has always felt destined for the big city – the glamorous, fast-paced executive life where she can make a real impact.  So when she finds herself burnt-out, jobless, and couch-surfing at her best friend Liam’s for the summer in small-town Texas, it’s nothing short of devastating.  She gives into joining the Dungeons & Dragons campaign Liam’s been trying to form for years just to have something to do besides having an existential crisis while his cat looks on.  The group that forms brings new friends, including an attractive, freewheeling bartender named Noah Walker, who might just be able to show Sadie that there can be a certain joy in taking life one step at a time.  But when a glittering opportunity threatens to lure Sadie back to the big city, which kind of new adventure will she choose to walk towards?

DeLuca, Jen. Well Met. New York : Jove, 2019.

Cover of Well Met. Mint green background. Man and woman look like they are arguing in the center. There are white icons around the top of the cover - a sword, a hat with a feather in it, a goblet, and a chicken leg.

(1st in a series!) When newly single Emily moves in with her sister April to help her recover after a car accident, she expects to take on some responsibility.  What she doesn’t expect is for her teenage niece to rope her into volunteering at the local renaissance festival.  What she really doesn’t expect is to find it so hard to stop thinking about Simon, the uptight and unreadable schoolteacher who heads up the volunteers.  Emily’s new ideas for the festival shake up his traditionalist way of running things.  The two butt heads at every turn, but sparks of a more romantic kind fly once they’re in character.  Is the attraction only acting, or is there something between Emily and Simon worth staying for once the faire is over?

Glass, Seressia. The Love Con. New York : Jove, 2021.

Cover of The Love Con. Pink background, with a darker pink circle in the lower center. The two main characters are posing in the center. The woman is wearing pink boots, and a light and dark pink costume with thread hanging off. The man is holding a pair of scissors in one hand, and a Thor hammer in the other. There are tv cameras and microphones surrounding them.

Kenya Davenport knows that her creative talent for cosplay can become a career, and she’s finally getting the chance to prove it on the reality show competition Cosplay or No Way.  She’s weathered her parents’ disapproval of her choosing a non-STEM field.  She’s gritted her teeth through the judges’ microaggressions as a nerdy Black woman.  She’s almost to the finish line of winning it big.  Except now she’s hit a hurdle she might not be able to jump: for the final round, the judges want contestants’ significant others to participate in “iconic duos” cosplays….and Kenya has no significant other to speak of.  Fortunately, her best friend, Cameron Lassiter, agrees to be her fake boyfriend for the duration of the competition.  As the cameras roll, the pressure mounts to act as a loving couple, leading both Kenya and Cam to examine their feelings for each other.  Will they hide what they feel for fear of losing the friendship, or will they decide to be partners in more ways than one?

Yardley, Cathy. Role Playing. Seattle : Montlake Romance, 2023.

Cover of Role Playing. The couple is sitting on a red couch, with an open window behind them (the "o" in "role" is actually the moon in the window). The woman is curled up and leaning against the man, who has his arm around her. She's holding a mug in her hand. In front of them is a table with RPG (role playing game) miniatures, and two bowls of a noodle meal with chopsticks.

48-year-old Maggie is worried about her college-aged son, who’s something of a social recluse.  When he points out that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, she agrees to a deal: he’ll be more outgoing if she will, too.  Still not one to socialize in person, Maggie joins an online RPG gaming guild, naming her persona Bogwitch to ward off any would-be virtual pickup artists.  Behind Otter, the moniker of the guild’s leader, is Aiden, a fifty-year-old who plays to let off steam while caring for his aging mother.  Bogwitch and Otter become fast friends – but thanks to some classic rom-com miscommunication, she thinks he’s in college, while he thinks she’s in her eighties.  When they finally meet in real life, the pair get a chance to see each other for who they are, and sparks fly.  Can they work through their respective baggage from past relationships to have a chance at offline romance?

Joan H. is a Library Assistant at May Memorial Library

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