Nerdplay

Cricket Abernathy has no qualms about letting her geek flag fly. For two weeks every summer, she welcomes like-minded adults to a specially curated camp, where they release their inner children and participate in activities like Hero 101, fan fiction collaborations, and zombie apocalypse training. It's their safe space, and Cricket would rather eat ramen noodles for the rest of her life than sacrifice the camp to the financial gods, which is exactly what she tells the big city lawyer who seems to think his client is entitled to her property simply because the numbers in his bank account require commas. Charles Owen Frederick Thorpe IV, Esquire is a man on a mission-to become the youngest partner in his firm's history to appease his demanding parents and match the career successes of his siblings. Unfortunately his one shot at partnership happens to be the acquisition of real estate currently owned and occupied by a headstrong woman wearing a Nerdy By Nature T-shirt and special edition Converse. With the deal and his partnership in jeopardy, Charlie is determined to do whatever it takes to wheedle Cricket's land out from under her, so he does what any ruthless lawyer would do-he registers for camp. He'll play her game of cornhole with cornballs, and by the end of the two weeks, he'll have that contract signed, sealed, and delivered. How hard can it be? Too bad love has its own endgame. It's all fun and games until... Well, nobody loses an eye, but they might just lose their hearts.

Review :
Kirkus ReviewsA sparkling love story with richly depicted lovers and a sly comic sensibility.A lawyer trying to dispossess the proprietress of a sleepaway camp ends up falling for her instead in Chase's fizzy romance. She's Cricket Abernathy, owner of the run-down Camp Abernathy by gorgeous Lake Willa in the Poconos; he's Charlie Thorpe, a Philadelphia lawyer tasked with convincing her to sell the camp to his real-estate developer client-with a promotion to partner riding on his success. When Cricket rejects the offer, Charlie decides to look for secrets that could force her to sell by signing up for the two-week-long Comic-Camp for adult nerds who are into everything from Star Wars to Lord of the Rings. Cricket knows about his subterfuge, but lets him in anyway because of his granite jaw, muscular chest, and adorable dimples. Other campers include Adam, who plays a Sith Lord; Stefan, who dresses as a Viking; Hunter, who portrays a zombie from an apocalypse-set game; 11-year-old Olivia, who's a dead shot with foam-tipped arrows; Angela, a cougar on the hunt for a fourth husband; and Esther, an old lady who crochets plushie penises as gag bridal gifts. Charlie, who is basically a nice guy and a good sport, bonds with these oddballs and, smitten by her toned physique and infectious humor, falls in love with Cricket. Cricket reciprocates Charlie's ardor, and their relationship escalates from flirty banter to Cricket inspecting Charlie's genitals for ticks, thence to skinny-dipping and...nature taking its course. Complications arise when Cricket's old flame, Patrick, shows up. The situation worsens when Charlie discovers a lien on Camp Abernathy, giving his client leverage to take the land-and threatening Cricket's home and livelihood. Chase's yarn follows a classic screwball-comedy formula, pairing a nervy heroine with a manly but menschy hero amid a constellation of loveable eccentrics in a narrative that's full of blithe, energetic contrivances. It's also a valentine to nerdishness and the pop-culture icons it feeds upon, spoofing them but also acknowledging their moral seriousness and relevance. ("Peter becomes a hero when he develops a genuine connection with others," Adam explains to Charlie in a rather pointed interpretation of Guardians of the Galaxy.) The romantic leads are complicated and unfinished, with Charlie needing to release the emotions that his judgmental parents forced him to suppress and Cricket unable to break free from the safe but isolating cocoon of Camp Abernathy. Chase writes vigorous, evocative prose that crackles with smart and salacious repartee ("Your hand is on my ass, Charles Xavier Thorpe....[e]ither that or this lake has a small octopus") and makes her characters, unlike many of the bland protagonists who populate romances, feel quirky, colorful, and alive. ("The memory of Cricket's laughter rings in my head. It was a wicked, bawdy laugh that ought to belong to a gangster's moll and not the bespectacled woman in the Tree of Mordor or Gondor or one of the 'dors T-shirt"). Readers will heartily root for Cricket and Charlie to get together and save their geeky paradise. A sparkling love story with richly depicted lovers and a sly comic sensibility.