The Game by Angie West
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: October 7th 2015
Pages: 60
Add It: Goodreads
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Do you want to play a game?
Lei Guthrie and her best friend, Iris, have a tradition. Every Friday night after work they play a game, preferably vintage, the weirder the better. So when Lei finds a romance novel trivia game rumored to be cursed, she couldn’t be happier. Until she and Iris become trapped in the game. The rules are simple. Make it through three romance novel scenes gone horribly wrong and retrieve a silver key from each. Oh yeah, and stay alive.
Lei Guthrie is having a horrible day. She did save an old lady from getting hit by a bus but then the old lady told her she was psychic and that Lei was going to die if she didn’t prevent it. Ooookay. Weird. Since Lei had thrown down her shopping bags when she saved the old lady, all of her purchases – a game and wine included, had been ruined. She stops by her local thrift store and finds a game that says it’s a romance trivia game. The owner of the thrift shop tells her it’s supposedly cursed but that only intrigues her more.
Lei and her best friend Iris put the game out and are a bit confused that this romance trivia game would have a game board that looks like a graveyard but they’re not put off. The minute they start to play, however, strange things start to happen and soon they find themselves in the game. Lei’s house has disappeared and a guy calling himself the crypt keeper is explaining that they have to go into 3 different doors – find a key, give it to him and return back out the door in order to return to reality. The problem is that it might be easy to find the key but getting back out the door isn’t easy at all. Also, if they die in the game, they die for real.
When I read the blurb for this novella I was more than curious as to what was going to happen to Lei and her friend Iris. No, it’s not a romance, but since it had a romance trivia game involved I couldn’t pass it up and I’m really glad I didn’t. The story is well written and completely compelling – I was sucked in from the first page.
Now when the book says romance trivia it’s more like acting out scenes in a book and of course this is the absolute darkest side of romance you can get. Lei and Iris had their work cut out for them, that’s for sure. The end of the book left us hanging just a bit as to what happened but only enough to make me sit and think about the possible outcomes. Though a darker story it was a totally enjoyable. Don’t judge this book by its horrid cover – it’s worth reading.
Rating: 4 out of 5