Review of Game On by Olley White

 by Olley White

3.5 Stars

Dear Author,
We met in the strangest way.

I was convinced he was a girl because of his choice of character, and he thought the same thing about me. You can imagine how surprised we were when we first met in person. How confused I was about my feeling for him. I was already in love with the person behind the character, but I had never been attracted to a man before.

Can you tell the story of how we became that happy couple in the picture?

Game On by Olley White is such a great premise to build a story.  Max and Stefan fall in love over a shared passion, gaming but when they agree to meet they realize they aren’t who each other thought they were.  Instead of finding a girl, they each find a man.    

We really enjoyed the first half of Game On, it is basically a gay-for-you story in a small package.  Where we really lost our attention was the side stories or roller-skating, the dog-adoption center etc.  The joys of a short story are that it is a glimpse into 2 people’s lives while they fall in love.  But Game On added lots of friends, new-father best friend (or was he a brother), drama at their jobs and on and on.  We wish it had focused a bit more on their growing love for each other.

One thing that Game On excelled in was the gay-for-you storyline, and their slow-burn relationship.  The building sexual tension between Max and Stefan was palpable, and so believable.  And their agreement to go ‘slow’ even though they were both barreling towards going fast was so hot.  This is a story about 2 friends slowly finding more than friendship, and it so works.

As short stories go, this one meandered a bit too much for us, but the sweet building relationship between Max and Stefan is on reason to pick up Game On!