Natural Twenty by Charlie Novak kicks off the Roll for Love series with a sweet, lighthearted MM romance set against a backdrop of tabletop gaming and business to run. Best friends Leo and Jay decide to roll the dice and see if their bond can evolve into more. Packed with witty banter and slow-burn chemistry, this story is perfect for readers who love cozy queer romances with a playful twist.
Natural Twenty by Charlie Novak Series: Roll for Love Book #1
Genres: Contemporary, MM Romance
Buy Links:Buy on Amazon
Plants are easier than people—that’s Leo’s rule of thumb. After all, nobody really wants a man who looks like he belongs in a biker gang but would rather spend his time buried in books and flowers. It’s just easier to be single. Until he meets the owner of the new book shop.
Jacob Morris knows two things: he’s really attracted to the man who runs the local flower shop, and he doesn’t date. Not when he’s still healing from a bad breakup, has a new business to run, game nights to organise, workshops to host, and a website to build.
When friendship blooms into something more, Leo and Jay must decide whether to roll the dice and take a chance on love or keep forging ahead on their quests alone. Will their roll yield a one or a perfect, natural twenty?
Natural Twenty is an 80,000-word contemporary MM romance featuring Dungeons & Dragons, secret flower language bouquets, a spoilt Staffy (or two), and a best friend who is basically a gothic prince. It is book one in the Roll for Love series and can be read as a standalone.
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This book caught my attention right away because of its gorgeous cover, but also because the series premise really intrigued me.
Natural Twenty is a sweet, low-angst friends-to-lovers romance that’s perfect if you’re looking for something soft and cozy to curl up with.
We follow Leo, the golden-retriever-hearted owner of a flower shop, and Jacob (Jay), the new guy in town who opens a geeky bookstore and hosts Dungeons & Dragons nights to help connect with the community.
Jay is recovering from a long-term relationship that ended badly, while Leo has never really been in a serious relationship before. Slowly, they start learning to trust again and open up to something new and honestly, I loved every moment where Leo gave Jay flowers based on their meaning. It was absolutely adorable!
But… not everything worked for me.
Given the title of the series (Roll for Love) and the D&D-heavy synopsis, I expected some roleplaying references but wow, it was a lot. So much, in fact, that I started skipping sections because I don’t know the rules and, to be honest, I just wasn’t interested in that level of detail.
My engagement with the book dipped in the second half. The pacing slowed, and the focus shifted more toward Edward, Jay’s best friend and business partner (who looks like Legolas). It became pretty obvious that he’s going to star in book two, but his presence was just too much here. He kept pulling attention away from the main couple, and I feel like it came at the cost of deeper development between Jay and Leo.
Another thing that didn’t work for me was the “dream scene”. That super vivid, steamy dream about the love interest that happens before the characters actually get together. I know it’s common, but I personally don’t like it. It takes the tension out of the real first time, and that’s one of my favorite moments in any romance.
So in the end, Natural Twenty is a sweet, predictable, feel-good romance, but a little too sugary and uneventful for my taste. I’m still a bit curious about Edward’s book… but we’ll see.
Final Rating: 3 stars!
Have you read Natural Twenty or any other books by Charlie Novak? Are you into D&D-heavy romances or prefer less roleplay, more real tension? Let’s chat in the comments!
About Charlie Novak
Charlie lives in England with her husband and a dachshund named Biscuit. She spends most of her days wrangling other people’s words in her day job and then trying to force her own onto the page in the evening.
She loves cute stories with a healthy dollop of fluff, plenty of delicious sex, and happily ever afters – because the world needs more of them. Charlie also believes that love comes in all shapes and sizes.
Charlie has very little spare time, but what she does have she fills with cooking, pole-dancing, reading and ice-hockey. She also thinks that everyone should have at least one favourite dinosaur…
