🎧 Reviewed by LD | Rating: 3.7/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥

⚠️ This is a full spoiler review. If you haven’t read Two Can Play yet — go read it first. We’ll be here when you’re done.

The Opening

An enemies-to-lovers novella set in the world of video game development, written by Ali Hazelwood — so you already know what you’re getting: STEM adjacent, forced proximity, hidden pining, and a miscommunication that drives the whole thing. The difference here is that for once, the miscommunication is actually believable.

The Full Story — Spoilers Included

The Setup

Viola is a lead game designer at FlyButter Studios, and she’s just landed the project of her career: developing Limerence 3, a video game adaptation of her all-time favorite high fantasy book series — a series she bonded over with her late father. There’s one significant catch. The publisher insists on a heavy combat component and forces FlyButter to collaborate with their fierce rival studio, Nephilim. And Viola has to co-lead the project with Jesse Andrews — Nephilim’s star designer and, as far as she’s concerned, her long-time professional nemesis.

What Viola has never told anyone is that she actually developed a massive crush on Jesse years ago when they first crossed paths. Years of what read to her as coldness, avoidance, and dismissal — culminating in a mortifying almost-moment under the mistletoe at a party — convinced her he despised her. She locked the feelings away and decided to despise him right back.

What she doesn’t know is that Jesse has been completely, desperately in love with her from the start. He’s the one who originally found her portfolio and got her an interview. He froze up at the expo because he was so struck by her — not out of arrogance. The mistletoe moment wasn’t disgust. It was panic.

She overhears him telling someone at a wedding that he just needs to stay away from her, that it’s better that way. She takes it as confirmation he hates her. It is not confirmation of that.

The Retreat

Because the bad blood between both companies is threatening a multi-million dollar deal, their CEOs mandate a team-building retreat at a remote snowy mountain lodge. Viola trades rooms with a friend and ends up directly next to Jesse. When Jesse finds out, she reads his reaction as anger, irritation, and barely contained desire to get away from her. He tells her he’ll ask the housekeeper for a different room. She tells him she doesn’t snore. He says he’ll try to stay out of her way.

There’s also Ethan — Viola’s close friend and work husband — who Jesse has quietly assumed is Viola’s boyfriend. Jesse gets drunk one night and tells Viola she’s all he can think about. The next morning he corners Ethan thinking he’s cheating on her — because he’s seen Ethan with his actual girlfriend, who they’re keeping quiet. The whole thing is a mess of incorrect assumptions stacked on top of each other.

Jesse eventually pulls Viola aside and asks if she remembers their first meeting. It turns out he had asked her out — and she completely misunderstood. Everything starts to unravel from there.

Here’s what I’ll say about this: I often find the miscommunication trope almost impossible to believe. This one is an exception. The way the wires get crossed — the assumptions that build on each other over years, the signals that read completely differently depending on which side you’re standing on — actually felt like something that could genuinely happen to real people. That’s rarer than it should be and it’s the strongest element in this book.

The Resolution

Once the years of miscommunication clear up, Viola goes to Jesse’s room in the middle of the night and confesses everything. They spend the rest of the snowed-in retreat talking, bonding over their shared love for the Limerence series, and working through what’s been sitting between them for years.

They also have a creative breakthrough for the game together — instead of watering down the tragic love story at the heart of the source material, they pitch a secret alternate path where players can break the curse. It’s a genuinely sweet parallel to their own story.

By the time they head home to Seattle, the publishers have officially signed off and named Viola and Jesse as co-lead designers. They leave together.

“I haven’t thought about anything but you since the first time I saw you.” — Jesse

Best Part of This Book

The miscommunication. I’m usually the first person to roll my eyes at the trope — it so rarely holds up to even mild scrutiny — but this one is constructed carefully enough that I actually bought it. Years of incorrect assumptions, signals misread in both directions, one person too intimidated to act and the other too hurt to look closely enough. It works.

Worst Part of This Book

The sex scenes. I ended up skipping them. They’re over-described in a way that tips from steamy into awkward, and I genuinely couldn’t tell if it was the writing itself or the narration that made them land so strangely. Either way — I didn’t need them and I don’t feel like I missed anything by fast-forwarding.

The Steam Rating Breakdown

🔥🔥🔥 — There’s heat, but the execution of the explicit scenes is uneven. If you’re here for the emotional slow burn, you won’t be disappointed. If you’re here for the spice specifically, manage your expectations.

The Ending — Satisfied or Disappointed?

Satisfied. The creative breakthrough mirroring the personal breakthrough was a nice touch, and them heading back to Seattle together — professionally and personally — landed exactly right for a novella.

Would I Reread It?

Yes — already have. I skip the sex scenes and enjoy the rest.

The Twist We Didn’t See Coming

Jesse being the one who originally found Viola’s portfolio and got her that first interview — years before she ever thought he knew she existed. He’s been paying attention the entire time.

Who Is This For

Ali Hazelwood fans who are already familiar with her formula and enjoy it — STEM adjacent setting, hidden pining, forced proximity, a hero who has been quietly gone for the heroine the whole time. If you love the emotional beats but find her explicit scenes hit or miss, you’re in good company.