Etta Easton’s got her head back in the clouds in her new rom-com, The Love Simulation, her fun follow-up to 2024’s acclaimed astronaut romance, The Kiss Countdown. 

A headstrong vice principal at Juanita Craft Middle School, Brianna Rogers rarely looks before she leaps. Like her astronaut brother, Vincent (hero of The Kiss Countdown), Brianna likes a challenge. Most recently, she’s been putting all her energy into the school’s effort to upgrade the library. It seemed like a done deal . . . until her infuriating principal earmarks the funds for a new football field. Desperation and indignation spur Brianna to do something drastic, but adventurous, which is how she winds up being part of a six-week Mars simulation competition, which will award $500,000 to any team of teachers that makes it through the full term. That money could fund the library upgrade and Brianna’s a shoo-in to win—with a brother for an astronaut, what could go wrong, right?

Roman Major. That’s what could go wrong. The dreamy science teacher is Brianna’s nightmare: He may be handsome and good with his students, but he’s also their mutual principal’s son. Roman is determined to prove himself a strong member of Brianna’s team, and while he doesn’t have the benefit of an astronaut for a brother, he’s got the STEM chops to help the simulation’s experiments succeed.

Easton has written a tight romance with great pacing, a fun premise and relatable characters who are easy to cheer on. Roman’s father’s animosity towards Brianna provides some built-in tension, but the heart wants what the heart wants, and our nerdy science teacher dips into his hero reserves when it counts. Brianna is a hero in her own right, setting a strong example for the students and faculty, and standing true to her beliefs. As in most rom-coms, there’s a lot of introspection, miscommunication and external forces working to ruin a good thing, but there’s also Roman and Brianna, proving their chemistry is a force to be reckoned with—on Earth or on Mars.

Girl gets hired for her dream job only to discover her boss is a nightmare—and unfairly hot. Sound familiar? But what if I told you that the dream job was working for a video game company, and that both the girl and the superhot boss in question are queer people of color? Non-white, non-straight, non-cisgendered protagonists are still the exception rather than the rule, both in romances and in the gaming industry, which is exactly why Tara Tai’s Single Player is a breath of fresh air. Because everyone deserves the chance to have a goofy, tumultuous, accident-prone rom-com of their very own.

It starts with Cat Li, who gave up a profitable but soul-sucking career and her family’s approval to chase her dream of working in the gaming industry. She’s beyond thrilled when she’s hired to write romance arcs for a hot new game overseen by her idol, Andi Zhang, a wunderkind writer and creative director who uses both she and they pronouns. But when Cat and Andi actually meet, sparks fly in the worst possible way. Their interactions are full of misunderstandings, insecurities and a surprising mutual ex-girlfriend, and some readers may become frustrated by their inability to communicate. But then Cat and Andi finally, truly start to connect.

While Single Player waves its nerd flag proudly—there were probably about a million references that sailed directly over my head—there’s a lot here for even the least gamer-savvy reader to enjoy. Cat and Andi face hurdles aplenty to reach success, both romantically and otherwise, but that just means that by the time they reach the end of their gameplay, they’ve more than earned their happy ending.