Book Review: The Love Game: Tales from The Thirsty Meeple #1

The Love Game by Sheryl Nantus
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This quick-read short story serves as our introduction to the author’s new series, “Tales from The Thirsty Meeple”.

You may be asking yourself, “What is a meeple?” And you need to know what it is. From https://mykindofmeeple.com/what-is-a-… “A meeple is a small person-shaped token used in some board games to represent a player’s units. ‘meeple’ was originally said in 2010 in reference to the wooden follower tokens used in the board game Carcassonne. The word is said to be a combination of the words ‘my’ and ‘people’.”

Now that you know what a meeple is, you might be catching a clue that board games are somehow involved in this story. And you’d be right. Avid gamer and handsome guy Jake has achieved his dream: a gaming pub in a comfy old converted house. It’s a popular hangout for the local gaming community.

Kathleen is a pretty journalist who’s unhappy with her life and ready to make some changes. She decides to write one last article for a local magazine, a puff piece about the Thirsty Meeple. Why didn’t she choose a more substantial article to be her grand finale? Well. It just so happens that Jake is an old flame that she hasn’t seen in decades.

What really brings Kathleen to The Thirsty Meeple? Is it her article, or is she looking for Jake? The answer to that question is… complicated. This may be a short story, but it packs a lot of punch as Jake and Kathleen try to work out the rules of this unexpected new game they’re playing.

Crisply written descriptions, engaging conversations, plenty of excitement and a good deal of frustration kept me reading straight through to the end in one sitting. A new game is being played at The Thirsty Meeple, so new that the players are still figuring out the rules. And the winner is… ?

After the story you’ll get a sneak preview of “Rolling The Dice”, the first full-length adventure in the Tales from The Thirsty Meeple.

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