Novel Haven: Levels of Love by Anabelle Stehl
Synopsis:
"Sie dürfen nicht verlieren - schon gar nicht ihr Herz
Zwei Konkurrenten
Lara vs. Luca.
Unsicher vs. Selbstsicher.
Cosy Game gegen Horror Game.
Sie könnten nicht unterschiedlicher sein und verarbeiten doch beide ihre ganz eigenen Ängste in ihren Spielen.
Ein Wettbewerb
Die GameChanger-Convention ist ihre Chance auf Anerkennung, Sichtbarkeit - und das dringend benötigte Preisgeld."
Unzählige Gefühle
Hinter der Fassade aus Ehrgeiz und Konkurrenz sehnen sich Lara und Luca nach jemandem, der sie auch abseits der Bildschirme versteht. Sie könnten perfekt füreinander sein - doch am Ende kann nur einer gewinnen und seinen Traum verwirklichen ..."
My thoughts:
This book was bad.
I got it because it looked cute (the sprayed edges, hello??) and sounded interesting (cozy games? Horror Games? Devs falling in love?? Hell yeah!) but it was so bland and badly written I don't know what to say.
The female lead, Lara, is supposed to be 25. She is one of the programmers of Novel Haven, the title giving game, and when her boss gets sick right before an important event she has to jump in and present the game to a jury for aome funding. Lara does a horrible job but the game is soooo good that they make it to the second round anyways.
The male lead, Luca, is also a developer, but he works on a horror-game, Desolate Dread (I wish I was making this up). He might be the only character with an actual character. Not a very good one, but oh well. He also works for a big Studio, Bytes and Bits, while Lara works for an Indie Studio, PixelPulse.
The two of them meet in their way to the convention. It's instant love (of course), but of course they can't be together. They are rivals! Or something. They still fall in love with relatively little drama, with only one thing stabding in their way: trauma. Because both are traumatized. Lara was trapped in a burning house as a child which made her voice all hoarse and gave her burning scars on her arms (conveniently on a place that doesn't make her any "less" attractive, because, scars aside, she is only described as beautiful!) and Luca was part of a terror attack as a student. He is deeply ashamed of not having done anything to stop it, so now he doesn't go to therapy and codes a horror game instead.
As one does.
But his horror game is special, you see, for it has.... story!!! And it's about mental health!! And! And! It's not a shooter!!!
Silent Hill says high. Slender Man says hi. Resident Evil says -
Anyways. I don't think the author ever played a horror-game in all of her life.
The drama of the book is that Sophia, Lara's Boss, kind of stole the idea for the game. She did have it on her own, she developed it on her own, but she started doing so on company time at another studio. I would be sorry for her if there waan't the fact that she was in her mid-twenties already and really should have known better. Sophia asks "Who even reads their contracts?" and I'm sorry my woman, if you work in an industry with NDA's you do read your contracts! Because of NDA's!!! And stuff like this, I guess.
The whole thing blows over, of course, because the Bytes and Bit's CEO, Hank, is blackmailed to take his allegations back.
The book is all about "Sexism in gaming" and how that is bad (it is!) but it doesn't feel like it's really important in-universe. Everyone seems to agree that sexism is bad, except for that one guy no one likes. The book is also about overcoming trauma, which is nice, but also misplaced. The book is advertised as a cosy read with no drama and then there's a terror attack and a burned down house. Thanks for nothing?!
Since the books seems to be beloved on instagram and other social media, this is all probably on me though. Maybe I'm just nit made for "pure" romance books or the whole New Adult genre. Or maybe it's because it's always the same horny female lead living through the same bland story slightly shifted to the left
Who said that??
I don't recommend reading this book, sorry. Save your time, read something else!
I finished reading this book July 12th, 2025.
