Upcoming Book: The Gamer's Guide to Getting the Girl

As I was scouting Netgalley a month or two ago for a new upcoming book to read, this title caught my eye--The Gamer's Guide to Getting the Girl. Hm...sounded interesting and after briefly skimming the summary, I decided to give it a chance.

The Gamer's Guide to Getting the Girl by Kristine Scarrow is about a teenager named Zach and his best friend Cooper. They are typical nerds who like to hang out in their mall's video game store. This is where Zach meets the girl of his dreams, Samara. She is cool, beautiful and most importantly, she is a gamer too. What could be better?

But things with Samara don't go exactly as planned when a Tornado hits their town and they are stranded in the mall with half a dozen other patrons. Zach finds himself acting as a hero when the situation arises. All of this, however, seems to pull Samara away from him as she spends more and more time with Cooper. Will she ever fall in love with him? What will this mean for his relationship with his best friend?

Scarrow is from Canada and therefore, this novel is set in Canada. That was kinda nice and refreshing since I always find myself reading American authors. I also really liked her writing style. This is her fourth book so I'll have to give her previous books a chance.

I read a few other reviews from other readers. Many of them were disappointed that the romance between Zach and Samara wasn't as much of a focal point of the book as they wanted. While the book is called The Gamer's Guide to Getting the Girl, I'm grateful that Zach is more worried about taking care of people and doing the right thing than he is on flirting and wooing the girl he is interested in. 

To me, this makes Zach more likeable than your average YA romance character who is only concerned with getting the girl. I also loved that the names of the chapters were each "tips" for how to get the girl. There were a lot of other fun "easter eggs" for video game lovers that I enjoyed finding as I read the book.

I recommend this for YA lovers and gamers looking for a great new book to read. You can pre-order your own copy here for when it comes out on June 22nd!