Backspace - an eRomance by Jules Whimsy

Gamers Do It Better
When Nathan was a teenager he was one of those kids wrapped up in the world of online gaming. Namely a game title The Land of Shallowsea. His screename was BitMe and his partner in crime was another boy called BarkingMadd. They were a legendary team in the game. Players created a catch phrase for the awesomeness that was Barking and Bite. And then one day, Nathan finds out that his best friend is gay and, because he's questioning his own sexuality, Nathan freaks and ends the friendship.

Oh, this story made me smile. I love reading romances set in the e-universe. In a world that's been made smaller by the internet, and where it's sometimes easier to connect with those online than with your neighbors, online romances are becoming common. Nathan is the quitissential teen who's caught up in his first-person shooter role playing game. He even has sexual fantasies and dreams about his and Barking's characters.

When the story starts, Nathan has just graduated from college and is home for a few weeks before his new job starts. After a conversation with his mom he decides to try and find his old friend Barking again so that he can apologize for rejecting the best friend he ever had. Nathan finds out that the old game has been shut down but they are accepting beta testers for a new version of the game. Nathan signs up to beta the game and that's where he meets one of the game's moderators, Hatter.

While Nathan is looking for Barking, and getting back into the game, he and Hatter strike up a friendship.

While those story isn't super deep or anything it was really, really cute in a very dorky way. There's cyber stroking and a bit of a twist to the story. It was predictable but I found myself not caring about the predictability. The ending was sweet and made me go "Awww, how adorable!".

One thing I do have to note here is that I read the Kindle edition of this story and the formatting was horrible. It was annoying because it kept distracting me.

I was in the mood for something cute and this hit the spot.