#seressia glass

[whereintheworldiskamalakhan]

My new favorite literary genre is ✨ fat nerdy romance ✨

can I just find a whole section of that in a bookstore??

[bookishfreedom]

The Love Con was a quick and fun romcom with a super cute subplot. I loved the environment of the cosplay competition and all the art and nerdiness. This one's also got my fav trope: fake dating❤️ never gets old

[scentedsstuff]

The Love Con

By Seressia Glass

Rating: 1/5⭐️

DNF at 60%

I wanted to give the romance genre a try, I really did, but somehow I came out of this perhaps even more sure that romance isn't the genre for me, and possibly never will be.

*Quick disclaimer/heads up: This book does have spicy/steamy scenes

Quick Plot Summary:

The Love Con finds our main character Kenya as a contestant on the reality cosplay competition show ‘Cosplay or No Way.’

She’s made it to the finals and is one challenge away from not only establishing herself in this industry but also proving to her parents that this was the right choice for her, that she could do this.

The next challenge is unlike the rest, it’s a duo challenge. When faced with the reality of the challenge Kenya names her long time best friend Cameron as her partner, which is no shock to Cam, the real surprise comes when Kenya announces on live TV that Cam just so happens to be both her best friend and boyfriend to the shock of both everyone they know as well as Cam himself.

What follows is a story which dives into the more technical side of cosplay, the pressures of both societal and familial expectations, the micro-aggressions faced by a woman who is both black and plus sized as well as the complications of falling in love with your best friend.

Thoughts:

I can see how this might appeal to fans of the romance genre, especially those looking for more modern and diverse stories. It’s packed with romance, romantic tropes, pop culture references and all the cheesiness to go along with it, but me personally, I couldn’t get into any of it.

However, not all was lost so let’s start with what I did like about the book:

1) The Dual POV.

If you’ve got dual POV in a book that is immediately one thing I like about the book already. I enjoy getting to see a situation from both perspectives and in this case it’s getting to see how their relationship develops.

2) The exploration of what it’s like to want to pursue an artistic career especially when you're family aren't as supportive

I get this, I understand the feeling of not wanting to voice your interest in more artistic fields especially when your parents only see value in anything but that. I appreciated getting to see this explored in the book, especially through the main character.

3) The way the interracial romance was handled

I like the way the author handled the fact that this was an interracial romance. By this I mean that it was acknowledged that it was such but then the story goes on because it is first and foremost just A ROMANCE regardless of who is involved, which as a black girl I love to see. I’ve found in a few books that the race aspect is heavily focused on at times and that can get annoying. If it’s in a book set in a time where this aspect of the relationship would greatly affect it, I can understand that but nowadays I think we can have romances that focus solely on the romance that just so happen to involve two people from different backgrounds.

Now for the things I didn’t like:

1) It reads as very YA and not in a good way.

These two were supposedly adults but it all read as very YA. I cringed a lot at the dialogue between them which I don’t think helps as the two romantic leads. Once anything resembling dirty talk was introduced, I WAS OUT.

2) The pacing of the romance

This book utilises both the friend's to lovers trope and the fake dating trope which in this case meant a lot of miscommunication. I get it, there has to be some drama and the characters can't just immediately resolve it (which I can appreciate) but it was getting well past halfway in the book and these two were still lost, heck, I WAS LOST! The pacing was just too slow when it came to the romance which is supposed to be the main event here.

Besides that I couldn’t bring myself to really care about the romance/relationship in the first place. I read hoping that with each page I would grow to like the characters more and be invested in their stories but instead I felt mostly indifferent. As a result of this, other events and situations in the book regarding the main characters failed to matter as much. This included the whole situation regarding Kenya and her parents (even though I can understand where she’s coming from), the relationship drama etc.

The reality cosplay competition itself took a bit of a back seat for a while before being brought back but by then any interest for the book had slowly dwindled.

So, suffice to say, I took a chance on a romance book and things just didn’t work out.

[whimsicaldragonette]

Blog Tour & Arc Review: Game On by Seressia Glass

Welcome to the Game On book tour with Berkley Publishing Group. (This blog tour post is also posted on my Wordpress book blog Whimsical Dragonette.)

Publishing Date: December 12, 2023

Order

Add to Goodreads

Synopsis:

When an unexpected Player Two enters her life, a gamer must decide if their relationship is worth leveling up in this new romance from the author of The Love Con. Samara Reynolds has built a large following as a gamer under an anonymous screen name, and uses her skills as a DEIA consultant to advocate for equal representation in video games. When she posted a video critiquing the popular game Legendsfall, she knew she’d get a reaction from her fans, but the video leads to hundreds of female gamers critiquing the game and its company, Artemis Games. The only thing more unexpected than starting an online movement is getting a job offer from the handsome CEO of Artemis. Aron Galanis has been on a mission to get his company certified to create gaming content for people with disabilities. When he sees Artemis trending online for all the wrong reasons, he’s determined to right his wrongs and offers the originator a mea culpa, as well as a job offer to overhaul the character options in Legendsfall. Working together turns Aron and Samara from adversaries into allies, allies into friends, and after that—something more. But once their relationship goes public, will Aron and Samara be able to weather the storm and fight for their happy ending, or is it game over?

Author Bio:

Seressia Glass is an award-winning author of urban fantasy, contemporary romance and paranormal romance. Her current series include the Shadowchasers urban fantasy series and the Sons of Anubis paranormal romance series. Seressia lives south of Atlanta with her guitar-wielding husband and two bulldozer cane corsos and a senior poodle. When not working on her next story, Seressia spends her free time watching way too much anime and Kdramas.

author photo from goodreads

My Rating: ★★★

*My Review below the cut.

My Review:

I enjoyed this but unfortunately not as much as I was hoping to. I think it was trying to do too much and so everything felt a bit shallow and glossed over. The diversity in gaming issue is a much needed take but it was occasionally a little too on-the-nose and I got tired of Samara constantly having to explain what things are like for women - especially women of color- in gaming to Aron. Yes, he is horrified and immediately takes action, but it's the fact that it has to be explained over and over because he is consistently oblivious that bugs me. It's realistic, but it gets old, maybe because its *too* realistic. The romance was wonderful. Samara and Aron instantly clicked and they were so cute together, especially in their casual gaming personas. Hoodie guy was adorable and I totally understood why Samara fell for him so quickly. The autistic brother storyline was a little odd to me in some ways. I wholeheartedly approve of Samara's interactions with Benjy and Aron's protectiveness of him. But I find it odd that Aron has all these "quirks" like hating to be touched and not being able to take crowds or loud noises and not understanding social cues AND a nonverbal autistic brother and yet there's not even a whisper of a suggestion that he might also be autistic / on the spectrum? That felt like a missed opportunity. I also thought the Mark issue was handled really oddly. Mark only appears a couple of times, always being all intimidating and trying to steamroll over Aron, when he finally is dealt with I found the entire interaction confusing. His rant was incomprehensible and I'm not sure if that was intentional or just clunky writing. I also found the writing throughout to be clunky and choppy and full of telling not showing. There were a lot of info dumps, especially about the prejudice and racism and sexism Samara faces. The emotions and tone of the characters also sometimes bounced around wildly in ways that felt soap opera levels of Overly Dramatic. It felt almost like a draft that needed more polishing and smoothing out. I really liked all the characters, and I wish we had seen more of Grayson because he was such a good and interesting character. While I had some issues with the book I did overall enjoy it very much and I will be seeking out more of Seressia Glass' books in the future. *Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for providing an early copy for review.

[sandythereadingcafe]

REVIEW:

GAME ON by Seressia Glass at The Reading Cafe:

'I’d recommend this one to gamers/slow burn romance readers.'

[thereadingcafe]

[librarianwithlove]

The Love Con - Seressia Glass Review

My rating- 3.5/7

This is a book that I have been picking up and putting down for months. I initially read it because the cover sucked me in, I saw Thor's hammer and thought it would be right up my alley.

I WILL BE PUTTING SPOILERS BELOW HERE

I am a sucker for fake dating to lovers, I am also a sucker for a slow burn. The angst of it all makes me really feel something. But, I didn't particularly love how it was done in this.

I think the reason I was picking up and putting down the book so much was because it seemed like a lot of the same for the first half of it. We learned about Kenya's deal with her parents & what she was doing for the finals. Then it was a lot of that and nothing else. It didn't really feel like there was much tension between Kenya and Cam.

Looking back on it now, it really feels like the last 25% of the book is when EVERYTHING happened. The final two chapters evoked more emotion for me personally than the rest of the book combined.

I gave it a 3.5/7 because I don't love it but I don't dislike it. So lets go onto the parts I really enjoyed!

I enjoyed watching each of their perspectives. The POV changes usually at least once in each chapter and while I haven't loved that in the past, I think it helped me understand how their relationship was changing for each of them.

I really liked the outcome of the show as well. I feel like if they had won it would have been too easy, and I liked that a result of losing, everything had to be spread out on the table. That's where I felt a lot of the emotion. Kenya had to face all of her problems at once and I just feel like that bit was really well done.

As a white woman, I could never understand the things Kenya had to deal with while on the show but I wanted to reach out and hug her as well as knock Rebecca down a peg. She (Rebecca) was such an annoying character but a fair example of who WOC deal with frequently (I'm assuming).

Overall, the book was well written but it wasn't the pace that I was looking for. Kenya and Cam are great characters that I was rooting for the whole time. I would definitely be willing to give other books by Seressia Glass a read in the future.

[ofdreamsanddoodles]

seen a lot of different fake dating but i think “this host in the reality gameshow im on implied i couldn’t get a boyfriend so i saw red & lied and said that i was dating you so now we have to finish the final round together” really takes the cake

[lila-rae]

Rilzy Adams

Go Deep

Treble

Birthday Shot

Surrender

Spiked Hot Chocolate

Danielle Allen

Truth or Dare

Business Casual

Sweatpants Season

Bolu Babalola

Honey and Spice

Natasha Bishop

Lost and Found Series (3 books)

Seressia Glass

The Love Con

Joya Goffney

Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

Confessions of an Alleged Good Girl

Mimi Grace

Make a Scene

What a Match

Along for the Ride

Jasmine Guillory

The Wedding Date Series

By the Book

Mia Heintzelman

The Friendship Contract

Talia Hibbert

Take a Hint, Dani Brown

The Roomate Risk

Christina C. Jones

Behind the Scenes

Tracey Livesay

American Royalty

K.C. Mills

Implied Consent

Informed Consent

N.G. Peltier

Sweethand

Don’t Go Baking My Heart

Farrah Rochon

The Boyfriend Project Series (3 books)

Kennedy Ryan

Long Shot

Hook Shot

Queen Move

Reel

J.L. Seegars

Restore Me

Revive Me

Alexandra Warren

Can’t Catch Me

On the Rebound

Distracted

One Last Shot

Two Minute Warning

[bookclub4m]

Episode 189 - Romantic Comedies & Humorous Romance

This episode we’re discussing the fiction genre of Romantic Comedies! We talk about the difference between “fun” and “funny,” crossover romance genres, cataloguing romance fiction, and more!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jam Edwards

Things We Read (or tried to…)

The House Witch by Delemhach

A Witch's Guide to Fake Dating a Demon by Sarah Hawley

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston 

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes

Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake

Take Me Home by Lorelie Brown 

I Kissed a Girl by Jennet Alexander 

The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams

Other Media We Mentioned

When Harry Met Sally… (Wikipedia)

The Bear (Wikipedia)

Nominated for Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy

The Martian (Wikipedia)

Golden Globes change comedy rules after controversial win for The Martian

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Beetlejuice (Wikipedia)

The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare

A Week to be Wicked by Tessa Dare

You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Judgment (video game)

Bridgertons Series by Julia Quinn

Crazy Stupid Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams

A Very Merry Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams

The Duke Who Didn’t by Courtney Milan

Cats (2019 film) (Wikipedia)

Links, Articles, and Things

Episode 119: Regency Romance

What does a happily ever after look like? (romance novel covers)

Sensible Chuckle (Know Your Meme)

There Is Only One Bed (TV Tropes)

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!

Does the Dog Die?

20 Humorous Romance by BIPOC Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

Courting Samira by Amal Awad

The Wildest Ride by Marcella Bell

A Proposal They Can't Refuse by Natalie Caña

Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

Rent a Boyfriend by Gloria Chao

How to Find a Princess by Alyssa Cole

You Had Me at Hola by Alexis Daria

Game On by Seressia Glass

Manhattan Dreaming by Anita Heiss

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

A Dash of Salt and Pepper by Kosoko Jackson

Much Ado about Nada by Uzma Jalaluddin

Serena Singh Flips the Script by Sonya Lalli

The Stand-Up Groomsman by Jackie Lau

Booked on a Feeling by Jayci Lee 

The Secret to a Southern Wedding by Synithia Williams

Pride and Protest by Nikki Payne

Tastes Like Shakkar by Nisha Sharma

The Worst Best Man by Mia Sosa

The Donut Trap by Julie Tieu 

Give us feedback!

Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Instagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, February 20th we’ll be talking about our reading resolutions for 2024! 

Then on Tuesday, March 5th we’ll be discussing the genre of Dark Fantasy!

[clinchcoverenthusiast]

January is finally over! The only good thing about it lasting forever is I got a lot of reading done. A tumblr friend brought The Tea Dragon books to my attention and bless her for it because they were so soothing and beautiful. Overall, it was another satisfying reading month but other standouts were Parasocial, The Saint of Steel series, Game On, and The Love Con. I own Chain-Gang All-Stars but switched to the eaudio from Libby about halfway through. The Anti-Hero was on KU, and everything else was from either Hoopla or Libby.  

The Anti-Hero (The Goode Brothers #1) - Sara Cate

Parasocial - Alex de Campi, Erica Henderson

Dracula Motherf**ker! - Alex de Campi, Erica Henderson

The Hunger and the Dusk #5 - G. Willow Wilson, Chris Wildgoose

Mickey Chambers Shakes it Up - Charish Reid* **

Paladin's Grace (The Saint of Steel #1) - T. Kingfisher

Chain-Gang All-Stars - Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah* **

The Tea Dragon Society - K. O'Neill**

The Tea Dragon Festival - K. O'Neill**

The Tea Dragon Tapestry - K. O'Neill**

We'll Never Have Paris (Paris, je t'aime #1) - Adriana Anders

Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology - edited by Shane Hawk, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.* **

Game On - Seressia Glass* **

The Love Con - Seressia Glass* **

Paladin's Strength (The Saint of Steel #2) - T. Kingfisher

Paladin's Hope (The Saint of Steel #3) - T. Kingfisher

Nettle & Bone - T. Kingfisher

Swordheart - T. Kingfisher

* = author(s) of color

** = main character(s) of color

[cheshirelibrary]

Recent Adult Books with Reality TV Elements 

[via Book Riot]

Books with reality TV elements are a huge sub-genre! There are reality TV romcoms, YA reality TV novels, horror novels, literary fiction, the list goes on and on. We are obsessed with reality TV, and the cool thing about fictional reality TV is it can be pushed to its limits. So, here are seven adult books from the last six years that will give you that extra dose of “reality.”

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen

The Last One by Alexandra Oliva

Recipe for Persuasion by Sonali Dev

Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron

The Love Con by Seressia Glass

Hide by Kiersten White

[kelkat9]

17 Faves

Tagged by the talented @onthedriftinthetardis Thank you!

Answer, then tag some people you want to get to know better

coffee: Yes but I'm picky. I need milk or non dairy creamer. No sugar and no Starbucks.

tea: Yes, English breakfast or Egyptian licorice in the afternoons and again with creamer of some sort. No green stuff.

food: Right now, watermelon and taco salad

scent: Jasmine/honeysuckle

author: Ha too many to list - but I'm really into Seressia Glass right now

artist: So many but I'll choose the person who tagged me as her photography is gorgeous

movie: Oh lord. This varies as I tend to watch things repeatedly until I can't anymore. Probably Night Teeth because it doesn't get enough love

fictional character: Nine, Ten, Eleven, Rose, Donna and Bill Potts are my top faves a the moment. Then would be Crowley and Aziraphale. ummm hmmm. Prudence and Madam Satan from CAOS. Matthew Clairmont and Gallowglass from ADOW. I'll stop now LOL

band/type of music: I am so not a music person. Been listening to the soundtrack to True Lies at the moment

season: Fall

flower: Lilies or orchids

color: Lavender

animal: Cats

architectural style: American Craftsman and Gothic

mountains or beach : Mountains

meadows or forests: Forests

random fact about you: I'm very boring.

tagging: @darth-tella @gingerteaonthetardis @deardiary17 @toppbanana

[dragonbadgerbooks]

May 2022 Mid Month Update!

Finished: -->The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde (★★★★★) -->The Love Con by Seressia Glass (★★★★☆)

Made Progress: -->Radium Girls by Kate Moore --> The Song of the Quarkbeast by Jasper Fforde --> Saga, Volume 4 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

[valerieullmerromanceauthor]

Love and Valentines at Caynham Castle by Morgan Brice, Jeanne Adams, Caren Crane, Seressia Glass, Nancy Northcott

BLOG TOUR Book Title: Love and Valentines at Caynham Castle Authors: Jeanne Adams, Morgan Brice, Caren Crane, Seressia Glass, Nancy Northcott Publisher: Rickety Bookshelf Cover Artist: Lyndsey Lewellan Release Date: February 1, 2023 Genres: Contemporary, paranormal, MF, MM Tropes: Caren Crane’s story—opposites attract & forced proximity Jeanne Adams’ story—Grumpy-sunshine, forced proximity,…

[ofdreamsanddoodles]

23, 24, 25 for the books ask meme?

23. The book with the prettiest cover

oh almost certainly this one

24. The book with the best title

mmm, probably spindlefish and stars by christiane m andrews

25. Did you discover any new authors?

i've read a bunch of books from authors i hadn't heard of before, but i'm definitely going to read more from Justina Ireland who wrote Rust in the Root if I can. I think she had a really interesting & unique magic system & did a lot of work to weave magic into the history of her universe that i was kinda impressed. Also Seressia Glass! She wrote the love con, which is a fake dating story about a woman who goes on a cosplay competition show & when she's given the choice to do her final project with someone, she lies & says her best friend is her boyfriend bc she could see from the judges expression that they thought bc she's a fat black woman no one would want her & when fake bf hears that hes like "i am going to be the best fake boyfriend in your life." its just sweet! i think she has a fun sense of humor and you can really tell that above all else the characters are really good friends