Rewarding romance between introverts

This has been a great story, with main characters who support each other and help each other overcome their problems, with no great misunderstandings or miscommunications along the way (except for the initial bit about the perceived age difference, which isn't milked for drama). If like me you prefer your romance plotlines without the obligatory Act Three Breakup before the characters get together for good, you will appreciate how things are handled here. The buildup is slow, but very rewarding, and when they finally do go from friends to lovers, the payoff is that much sweeter.

I have to applaud how the buildup is managed; the various ways the romantic progression is stalled / slowed down does not feel forced or contrived at any point. Even when the direction the plot was taking didn't seem ideal, there were no big unforced mistakes in how the main characters interacted with each other. No idiot balls here!

As a lifelong gamer, I have to say the online game bits feel very true to life and are portrayed well. It is mainly used as a vehicle for the characters to meet and get to know each other, however, and takes a back seat in the second half. Don't expect this to be a major focus throughout the entire book.

One part that some people might consider a flaw of this story is the cast of secondary characters, specifically the fact that there is very little support for our main couple to be found among them. The story is set in a small town with the kind of community where everyone knows everyone. Unfortunately, almost without exception every side character is some combination of annoying, small-minded and outright terrible. Between busybody gossips who live to stir up drama, relentless extroverts who don't understand that what seems like healthy socialising to them may not work for every other person on earth, and terrible friends, exes and family members heaping emotional abuse on the main characters in various ways and giving bad advice, both of them are just getting battered and smacked around by seemingly every other person in their lives.

I understand that these characters were created as foils to the main couple, which later allows them to show how much stronger and better off they are for knowing and supporting each other in the second half of the book, and don't get me wrong, that part is executed very well and feels very satisfying when it finally happens. But as someone who very much identifies with Maggie's tendency to self-isolate, I feel this just vindicates her approach to relationships. If you are surrounded almost exclusively by people who are this terrible, you really are better off living the hermit life, stocking up when you visit the supermarket and not leaving your house for days at a time.

The fact that trying to satisfy others' unreasonable expectations will not lead to happiness and that sometimes you have to protect yourself and cut terrible people out of your life is definitely one of the themes of this book. The problem is that having almost no positive interactions except with each other makes the social isolation feel a little too real at times and makes it difficult to get through those early parts of the book. It's also going to dampen my enthusiasm to re-read this book, since that's not really a place I enjoy mentally revisiting. I feel like this book might have benefitted from having just a couple more characters who show support to the main couple and do not have their own agenda which is at odds with theirs.

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