Calling all nerdy girls, gays and theys, Alexis Hall’s newest release, Looking for Group, is a quest for love in the world of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (or MMORPGs for those in the know). It’s a tender and sweet look at coming out and finding love where you least expect it.
Sure, Drew spends some of his time (OK, a lot of his time) playing Heroes of Legend, one of the biggest MMORPGs out there. But he still has friends (real ones, not just online), he goes out and has no problem getting girls. So yeah, he is a nerd, but he’s a cool nerd. When Drew gets tired of the looting and lack of camaraderie of his HoL guild, he decides to find a new band of warriors. Same Crit Different Day is a tight-knit guild led by Solace, a whip-smart healer played by Kit. As their characters quest together, Drew and Kit form a deep friendship. And maybe something a little more than friendship. Drew originally thinks that Kit is a girl, and while he’s thrown by the discovery that he’s actually a boy, it doesn’t take long for Drew to realize that his feelings for Kit are real. Turns out, the real issue isn’t that Kit is a boy, but that being online is Kit’s entire life.
While Kit and Drew are incredibly tenderhearted and winning leads (especially Kit), this book requires its reader to love not just romance and a good story, but also MMORPGs. Much of the novel is spent in the collective world of HoL, with a large cast of characters communicating via the game’s chat function. Keeping track of the humans behind the characters takes a bit of work, but Hall does provide an incredibly useful glossary at the beginning of the book to help readers along. There are also little symbols of crossed swords (tee-hee) throughout the book that cue readers to flip to the back to see Hall’s notes on their writing process when they originally self-published Looking for Group in 2018, and the annotations are a cool way to update this traditionally published new edition.
Drew and Kit are very endearing romantic leads, and it would have been nice to spend more time watching them navigate their budding romance instead of questing with their guild. However, the juxtaposition of their online dates, like fishing in a magical realm, versus their IRL dates at Starbucks makes for a cute storyline. There is something very charming about watching these doe-eyed college boys stumble their way into love.
Fans of Hall who are looking for a sweet romance with big nerd vibes and darling leads will be completely won over by Looking for Group.