Player VS Player virtual tour Spotlight, Review & COMMENT Giveaway {Riptide Publishing}

Hi and welcome to the Player vs. Player blog tour!

Player vs. Player marks my first attempt at writing a whodunit, which was a bit of a scary endeavor. I’ve always been better at stories that are about character growth and exploration, of taking a character and putting them in a situation and then sitting back and watching the evolution of that character as they work their way out the other side. PvP was a much different experience, and something which took me outside my authorly comfort-zone.

Writing Player vs. Player also gave me an opportunity to combine four things I’m deeply enthusiastic about: gaming, fandom, activism, and of course, LGBT romance. I’ve been a gamer since early childhood, back when Atari had just released their first consoles. My teenage years were marked by NES and Sega, and early adulthood saw the transfer of my gaming allegiance to PC gaming.

It was because of my involvement in the fandom for Bioware’s Dragon Age franchise that I began writing m/m romance, and I eventually published courtesy of the encouragement I received from a friend I made through that fandom.

It’s also Dragon Age fandom that opened my eyes to some of the toxic undercurrents in gaming and geek culture. I had, of course, been witness to the casual misogyny and homophobia within gaming culture at various times, but until I witnessed the vitriolic free-for-all against former Bioware writer Jennifer Hepler, and then the attacks on feminist critic Anita Sarkeesian. It brought to my attention the subject of convention harassment and the Fake Geek Girl trope that is used to marginalize and invalidate the presence of women in fandom.

So when the idea occurred to me to write a book bringing all these things together, both acknowledging my roots as an author and a gamer, I had to take it. I know that the LGBT romance audience is full of other people who have experienced marginalization, misogyny, homophobia, racism, negative stereotyping, and inadequate positive representation in geek and fan culture (which by all means are not issues limited to gaming.)  And I know we’ve all been witness to, and maybe even targets of, the toxic backlash that comes of speaking up and trying to change that culture.

This book is for all of us. It’s for the critics who have been driven from their homes and forced into silence by threats of violence. It’s for the cosplayers who have been groped and assaulted without their consent. It’s for the LGBTQ/POC/female geeks who have heard casual slurs in fan spaces that left them feeling alienated and unwelcome. And it’s for the people pushing to change that culture, and to make geekdom something inclusive for all of us.

*****

Pushing for change can be dangerous when change starts pushing back.

Video game writer Niles River loves the work he does at Third Wave Studios: creating games with mass appeal that feature women, people of color, and LGBTQ characters. To make his job even better, his best friend is his boss, and his twin brother works beside him. And they mostly agree that being on the forefront of social change is worth dealing with trollish vitriol—Niles is more worried about his clingy ex and their closeted intern’s crush on his brother than he is about internet harassment.

But now the bodies on the ground are no longer virtual, and someone’s started hand-delivering threats to Niles’s door. The vendetta against Third Wave has escalated, and to make matters worse, the investigating detective is an old flame who left Niles heartbroken for a life in the closet.

No change happens without pain, but can Niles justify continuing on with Third Wave when the cost is the blood of others? If he does, the last scene he writes may be his own death.

Niles River is a Video Game Designer with a vision to create more diverse games that don’t put woman, gays or people of color into a tiny, one sided view box. While he and his twin brother are happy to bring this new face to the gaming world, they are also aware there are people out there that won’t be happy about their approach. Niles and Jordie have to deal with bullying, cyber bullying, a not so open crush and an ex-boyfriend that didn’t get the memo on the ex part.

While Niles is passionate about his work and following through with his vision, can he justify his cause when people are dying as a result of the changes he is trying to make. Somewhere in the middle of all the madness and mayhem, Niles gets a second chance with the one that got away. But will he survive the insanity and actually get that chance?

This was a suspenseful and powerful story. Bullying, cyber bullying, hate and vengeance are a norm of society today, sadly. And if there is one thing that Gormley does well it is take real life situations and circumstance that are twisted and hateful and write about them realistically, yet tastefully. I was on the edge of my seat throughout this entire story, wondering what lurked around the next corner and who would drop next.

Loved the way the relationship between the twin brothers was written, and that almost juicy little tidbit at the end, that was just mean to dangle that carrot and then jerk it away. How rude! And anyone that follows my reviews knows I do LOVE me a bitch on wheels, enter Rosie. Strong, fierce and she ain’t taking no shit off of nobody, I just loved her! It wouldn’t be a true Gormley novel without at least one twisted SOB though, now would It? I give you Patrick.

My only issue here was the conversations and back and forth between characters. I got lost a few times and had to go back to be sure I was hearing the correct voice in the story. Aside from that I was just completely engrossed in this story and was seriously upset when I reached the end, I wasn’t ready for it to be over.

The subject matter is series and the content is definitely not for the faint of heart, but the story is so well written and conveyed that I have to tell you this one is a must read. If you like strong characters and storylines steeped in reality from an Author that is not afraid to tackle the darkness of our world and society today, this one is a must read I assure you.

Amelia C. Gormley may seem like anyone else. But the truth is she sings in the shower, dances doing laundry, and writes blisteringly hot m/m erotic romance while her son is at school. When she’s not writing in her Pacific Northwest home, Amelia single-handedly juggles her husband, her son, their home, and the obstacles of life by turning into an everyday superhero. And that, she supposes, is just like anyone else.

Her self-published novel-in-three-parts, Impulse (Inertia, Book One; Acceleration, Book Two; and Velocity, Book Three) can be found at most major online book retailers, and be sure to check Riptide for her latest releases, including her Highland historical, The Laird’s Forbidden Lover, the The Professor’s Rule series of erotic novelettes (co-written with Heidi Belleau), the post-apocalyptic romance, Strain, her New Adult contemporary, Saugatuck Summer, and of course, Player vs. Player, available now. She is presently at work on two more novels set in the Strain universe, Juggernaut and Bane, coming summer/fall of 2015.

You can contact Amelia on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, BookLikes, Tumblr, or contact her by email using the form at http://ameliacgormley.com/

Every comment on this blog tour enters you in a drawing for a choice of one a book from my backlist (excluding Player vs Player.) Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on December 13th. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries.