skygiants

Alyssa Cole has now written yet another novella that I like better than most or all of her full-length books -- Can't Escape Love, a tie-in to the Reluctant Royals series via Duke By Default protagonist Portia's twin sister Reggie.

The plot, such as it is: Reggie is a a wheelchair-using feminist-geek-culture website entrepreneur who's been using the puzzle-solving livestreams of old internet acquaintance Gus as a sleeping aid. When Gus shuts down his Twitch channel and the videos go offline, she reaches awkwardly out to ask for substitute recordings of his voice.

Coincidentally, puzzle-proficient Gus has just been hired to design a themed escape room for Reggie's favorite anime, a hilariously bonkers-sounding show about Sleeping Beauty at battle school. Unfortunately he Doesn't Get the Fandom Appeal and so is having trouble with the project. The descriptions of this anime were half my enjoyment of the book; it's total nonsense designed exactly to be relatable to Reggie's id and I also one hundred percent believe that it could be a real show, probably including a spinoff manga series and dating sim. God bless.

Anyway, Reggie and Gus decide to trade fandom knowledge for sleep aid vocals, rapidly develop mutual crushes, and transition from "internet friends" to "friends with benefits" to "dating."

...and that's it! That's the plot! There's some very minor drama towards the end when Reggie catches up on the much more significantly dramatic plot of A Duke By Default while Gus worries about a relationship enthusiasm gap, but it's all pretty normal relationship insecurity and is resolved rapidly and with reasonable communication.

For the record, unlike Let It Shine and Once Ghosted, Twice Shy, I don't actually think this particular novella is better than most of Alyssa Cole's other books -- there's really not a whole lot to it -- but it was such a pleasant and soothing airplane read. Just two nice people having a nice time hooking up while binge-watching an anime. My only big complaint is that we never get a full description of the final design for Gus' Sleeping Beauty Battle Escape Room. Come on! Give the people what they want! (What the people want is lovingly described nonsense-anime-based puzzles.)

(Sidenote: Reggie as aforementioned is a full-time wheelchair user, Gus is autistic, as always I am not really qualified to talk about how Alyssa Cole writes about either of these things.)