Virtual Book Tour: Looking For Group by Alexis Hall #Review #Giveaway

About Looking for Group

Author: Alexis Hall

Publisher: Riptide Publishing

Publication date: August 29, 2016

Length: 341 pages

So, yeah, I play Heroes of Legend, y’know, the MMO. I’m not like obsessed or addicted or anything. It’s just a game. Anyway, there was this girl in my guild who I really liked because she was funny and nerdy and a great healer. Of course, my mates thought it was hilarious I was into someone I’d met online. And they thought it was even more hilarious when she turned out to be a boy IRL. But the joke’s on them because I still really like him.

And now that we’re together, it’s going pretty well. Except sometimes I think Kit—that’s his name, sorry I didn’t mention that—spends way too much time in HoL.  I know he has friends in the guild, but he has me now, and my friends, and everyone knows people you meet online aren’t real. I mean. Not Kit. Kit's real. Obviously.

Oh, I’m Drew, by the way. This is sort of my story. About how I messed up some stuff and figured out some stuff. And fell in love and stuff

Purchase on Riptide

Review

I wasn’t at all sure what to expect when I started reading Looking for Group by Alexis Hall. I’d read the blurb a while ago, saw some discussion about it, but still was a bit in the dark about what the book would be about. I was intrigued for sure because there is no doubt about Alexis Hall’s incredible talent. His writing is always rich and complex and the story lines are always tightly woven and the prose beautiful. I’m always impressed and interested when I see such an established author step outside their “normal” scope and try something new, and a book about online gaming sure seemed a bit outside of the box for Alexis Hall. But by the end of this book, maybe that’s not so much the case.

I’m not a gamer, but my son is, so while some of the language and terms were a bit hard to understand, I was able to follow along well enough. Yes, gaming plays a heavy role in this book, maybe a bit too heavily at some points, but beyond that, this book is about online relationships, both friendships and romantic ones. It’s about figuring out who you are and finding your place and your people. The ones that you can be yourself with and not worry about being judged. 

Drew and Kit were just fantastic. Both as individuals and as a couple. The complimented each other so well and brought out the best in each other. I liked seeing them grow and their relationship deepen. Their relationship, much like the book, is a quiet, growing thing. Drew and Kit aren’t perfect, and their relationship is very realistic in terms of the ups and downs at the beginning of a new love. 

Balancing friends, time for each other, time for gaming, and other outside forces is just part of it. I really liked how supportive Drew’s and Kit’s friends are and they all really added a lot to the story.

I found it quite easy to get into the flow of the book once I got past the first few pages and the way the book is laid out—with all the gaming sections and such—made it so that falling in to the rhythm must be what it’s like to find yourself immersed in the world of Heroes of Legend. If you’re a bit leery of trying this book because of the gaming aspect, don’t be and give this one a try. You’ll be sorry if you miss it.

About Alexis Hall

Alexis Hall was born in the early 1980s and still thinks the 21st century is the future. To this day, he feels cheated that he lived through a fin de siècle but inexplicably failed to drink a single glass of absinthe, dance with a single courtesan, or stay in a single garret.

He did the Oxbridge thing sometime in the 2000s and failed to learn anything of substance. He has had many jobs, including ice cream maker, fortune teller, lab technician, and professional gambler. He was fired from most of them.

He can neither cook nor sing, but he can handle a 17th century smallsword, punts from the proper end, and knows how to hotwire a car.

He lives in southeast England, with no cats and no children, and fully intends to keep it that way.

Connect with Alexis:

• Website: quicunquevult.com
• Blog: quicunquevult.com/blog
• Twitter: @quicunquevult
• Goodreads: goodreads.com/alexishall

Giveaway

To celebrate the release of Looking for Group, one lucky winner will receive their choice of 3 ebooks from Alexis Hall’s backlist. Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on September 3, 2016. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!