Rolling Dice

by Beth Reekles

The second cool, sexy YA romance novel from seventeen-year-old Wattpad sensation and author of The Kissing Booth, Beth Reekles.They say that the higher you climb, the harder you fall - and Madison Clarke will do anything to keep her new life from crumbling to pieces. Moving from a small town in Maine to Florida, Madison grasps the opportunity to reinvent herself, to forget about those days of being a lonely, loser outcast, and jumps at the chance when the popular kids decide to take her under their wing. A hot boyfriend, parties, friends... If only there wasn't the slight problem by the name of Dwight, a cute, funny and totally nerdy guy in Madison's physics class who she can't help but enjoy spending time with. Running from her past and stumbling through the present, who knows what lies ahead in this new life in Florida?

Genres: Romance, Young Adult, Contemporary, High School, Audiobook, Fiction, Friends To Lovers

462 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 29, 2013

About the author

Beth Reekles is an author and creator best known for her series The Kissing Booth, which was adapted into a series of hit Netflix movies. She began her writing career by self-publishing The Kissing Booth on story-sharing platform Wattpad at fifteen years old, and earned a three-book deal with Penguin Random House at seventeen. Love, Locked Down is her tenth published book. After obtaining a Physics degree and working a day job in IT, she is now a full-time author and self-confessed nerd who loves to review movies on Instagram @authorbethreekles.

Her published works include:
The Kissing Booth
The Beach House
The Kissing Booth 2: Going the Distance
The Kissing Booth: Road Trip!
The Kissing Booth 3: One Last Time
Rolling Dice
Out of Tune
Cwtch Me If You Can
It Won't Be Christmas Without You
Love, Locked Down/Lockdown on London Lane

Reviews

[Johnny Hazelnut · Rating 1 out of 5]

Is another iffy novel which was spawned on Wattpad, that salted-earth electronic backwater of unspeakable teenage masturbation fantasies involving boybands, albeit indirectly, as the author of this effort is a young Welsh lass named Beth Reeks. This may seem familiar; she did The Kissing Booth previous and which has found its way onto these writeups.

You may wonder why I willingly read another novel by an author whose first effort I described as a "Category 5 cliché tornado." Well, the answer is... ahh, soddit, I was going to write something highbrow and intellectual there but I can't be arsed. Bile fascination, that's the reason. Also, because I had yet another Victor Meldrew moment recently about how stuff that is honest and meaningful never sees the light of day yet tripe such as this garners mountains of squeeing and suchlike. If I ever have children, I'm going to ban them from the Young Adult shelves at the bookstore, quite frankly. I never got into it; one moment I was reading thud and blunder involving woodland animals and the next I was nose-deep in Michael Moorcock and Bernard Cornwell and Margaret Weis and Neil Gaiman and A Clockwork Orange.

(Yes, I did have a go at Harry Potter, for the record, and the first five are okay but after that the author stopped caring, but I digress.)

Right. Rolling Dice. Shall we dive in?

Executive Summary

Sicky-sweet high school drivel written by a Welshwoman who's probably never been west of Abertillery, let alone been anywhere near a posh high school in Florida.

A bit more detail, if you wouldn't mind?

Well, we've got a protagonist called Madison here who's from Maine originally and all a bit dumpy really and boring. Her family inherits a metric fuckton of cash, so they all troll down to Florida and Madison gets enrolled in an upper middle class high school and gets a free makeover as well, a sparkly nose piercing, a haircut, a fresh wardrobe, and a look that's described as "rock chick." Really. A sparkly nose stud and large heels. Deary me. Can you imagine Angela Gossow in such attire. No, I think not, you research-shy fool. But this is just a minor quibble. Madison turns out, within minutes of the novel's opening, to be Beautiful All Along and all of a sudden, upon starting this new school, everyone's paying stupid amounts of attention to her. All the fit boys (who seem to have that surname-as-firstname thing that our colonial cousins seem to like - Bryce, Carter, etc.) want her, much to the chagrin of the obvious cheerleader stereotypes (who all have names like Tiffany and Melissa, natch). There's also the obligatory school nerd who sits with her in physics lessons, but he's not that much of a nerd really, and is called Dwight.

Oh gods, this is another cliché tornado isn't it. One made of icing sugar, rainbows, and aspartame, and whose epicenter is an incorrigible Mary Sue. I think I'm going to have to pause here while I have a little weep.

There. Done.

See, I don't give a shiny shite if I come over as sour and bitter here, or repetitious, but this bears repeating. Teenagers cannot write. Granted, there's exceptions (Mary Shelley comes to mind, but then again her parents were both writers and everyone her family knew growing up were all eminent men and women of letters) but for the most part, teenage authorship is not recommended. And there is a very simple reason for this - in your teenage years you do not have the life experiences to write believable characters. In fact, I attempted to write in my teenage years, re-read it a while back, and screamed in agony at how hopeless it was. It was made of Mary Sues, flat characters, an idiot plot, and sophomoric sub-Rage Against The Machine attempts at being political.

This is no exception.

See, Madison, who used to be "Fatty Maddie" the forgettable sad act, is all of a sudden the centre of attention. She has incorrigible dress sense and stunning looks that other characters constantly compliment her on at every conceivable opportunity, even though she reckons she's not that attractive really. She also supposedly has a perfect elder sister that she's constantly pushed to live up to and suchlike and is prone to extended pouts about how she thinks she's letting the side down somehow. But other than these flaws-that-aren't, she's perfect in every way, and everyone wants to be her or be with her according to sex. Yes, it's a ten-alarm Mary Sue and it's heading this way.

Let's now examine the obligatory class nerd, Dwight, who despite being the also-ran in the competition for her affections, it is blindingly obvious she'll find true and perfect love with at the end of this mass of ill-fated paper and ink. He seems to like his physics and suchlike and indeed, given that Ms Reeks is reading physics at university, she can throw in a spot of what she knows about this. But that doesn't make him a nerd any more than my membership of E2 does. Nerditude is defined by not only being smart, but by being a bit of a misfit as well. Which then leads to the nerds of the local area clubbing together to indulge their passions and for mutual moral support. Taking physics doesn't make you a nerd. I didn't do any science subject beyond GCSE because I was better at languages and literature and stuff like that. Yet I was still a nerd. As were all my pals. Endless lunchtimes passed in room G2 with us slinging dice or cards at each other or suchlike, or discussing literature (we were book nerds) and trying to write stuff (usually purple-prosed and anvillicious, because we were disaffected teenagers). Dwight, in this novel... he's not a nerd. He's just the vaguely smart kid who keeps to himself and not part of any real crowd. Mediocre, if you will. A socially acceptable nerd at best, acceptable, that is, to the vapid in-crowd of Tiffany and Melissa and Bryce and suchlike.

Speaking of whom, there's some sub-Mean Girls bitchery going on there, which is sort of just thrown in. Someone's locker gets glued or suchlike.

Then she gets with Dwight, and the novel ends. Quite abruptly. But thankfully it isn't too long. I don't think I could have taken more of the stupid Mary Sue of a protagonist who everyone inexplicably loves or the fact that she constantly goes on about what people are wearing (an annoying trait that Beth Reeks continues to have; if you want to give people a character, show don't tell) or the fact that there's constant maundering by the protagonist about how she's trying to reinvent herself. But most offensive of all about this is that there is absolutely no meat to it. I don't object to high school novels and settings per se, but this is high school with the crusts cut off. The Breakfast Club, that's a good high school tale. As is The Inbetweeners (which is shockingly, shockingly accurate as to what teenagers think and get up to). But all those have some sort of crunch to them. Take Carrie, for instance. That's realistic (apart from the telekinesis stuff, of course), probably because Stephen King was a teacher in a high school in the 1970s when he wrote it and observed a lot of these goings on. However Beth Reeks doesn't have that life experience to make her characters anything more than pale one-dimensional imitations of what she reckons an American high school is like, or would be like, outside of having watched High School Musical too much. If she'd set it in a Bog Standard Comprehensive somewhere it would have been slightly more believable, but not much. Her attempt at a plot also is more full of derivatives than a calculus primer.

She's also cut out any of the real crunch from her work. There's nothing meaningful in this book whatsoever. Nothing that might step on anyone's toes or which is honest. In fact, it's basically Twilight without teeth, is this, and just as clunkily written, with short chapters to appeal to today's smartphone-wielding 140-character-crabbed generation and stumpy paragraphs that are mostly (tin-eared) dialogue. I defy Ms Reeks to write a good action sequence or soliloquy, because I bet you any money she can't. Good novels are willing to tread on toes.

Yet, for reasons that completely escape me, this sort of thing gets published, probably because it can be sold to parents of teenagers who want to shield their little darlings from the fact that growing up isn't about having a hawt boy friend, giving yourself a makeover, and, as Adrian Mole put it, "staying up late and having your own door key." So they buy this sort of stuff for their offspring in place of something that might introduce them to reality.

As for Rolling Dice? It is nothing, absolutely nothing. And it is so saccharine it probably would cause anyone diabetic within the vicinity to keel over and die horribly. Far from being a natural 20, it's a critical miss.

(Originally written for Everything2.com)

[Gabby · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring, uninspiring and unoriginal.

[aashi singh · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good book, don't get me wrong. It is captivating and kept me reading for hours, but the rest of it is so stereotypical and it's like I'm reading an innocent version of Mean Girls all over again. The protagonist rose to fame with the "popular clique" and then that downfall is what many teenagers have seen in movies time and time again, and that plot gets boring. In saying that, this book differs from those movies in the backstory of the protagonist, Madison. Her characterisation of trying to find her identity physically and mentally as well as her intriguing transparency toward others kept the review at 3 stars.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Apparently Beth Reekles is an author to watch out for. Maybe I'll give her a few more years to develop her writing, because Rolling Dice was exactly how I envisioned a seventeen year old would write, in a breezy, awkward-with-emotions kind of flow, and of course, the typical YA plot.

I'd read a sample of The Kissing Booth and didn't even bother because it was such a silly fanfic type of writing - it was one romantic encounter after another, so idealized and imaginary that it was hard to read because of a lack of plot.

Rolling Dice was pretty much the same, enough said.

[Deardeers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’d say 3.8 stars. The book is amazing at the start but it seems like the author didn’t plan out a good ending. The book or her plot actually was made longer than Reekes wanted. She didn’t build up the aftermath or the ‘happily ever after so well. Her and Dwight’s relationship was so rushed and didn’t get time to it actually swell. Whereas her and Bryce did which i feel like she wasted too much time on. Anyways the ending could of been better but the story build up and climax was actually super duper good like 4.2 stars. I kind of didn’t like the MC’s personally but thats just me.

[Chelsea-ann Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the book as in REALLY liked it. But I honestly felt sad for Madison. Who got that picture of them in the library? And what happens to Justin? I'm guessing Madison and Dwight get together… I dunno. Maybe they shoulda just been best friends and Madison should be with Justin.
But that's only my opinion. It was a great story.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Iv'e had Rolling Dice on my to read pile for a while, firstly from a blogger event, then I purchased a copy for YALC last year.  To take a break from review books I took Rolling Dice with me on a recent trip to London.

Madison is new to Florida, moving with her family to relocate after her Nan passes away. After being bullied at her old school she is determined to turn a new page, and become a new person. So with a recent loss in weight, removal of braces and exchanging glasses for contacts, she is literally a new person, and pretty quickly one of the most popular boys at school has set his eyes on her. But Madison initially finds it hard to adjust to this new person she has become, unbelieving that people really do like her for who she is now.

Throughout Rolling Dice, there are a variety of issues that arise. The main one is Madison's past, which I will go into detail below, but first let's focus on the two new boys in her life.

Dwight first meets Madison at the coffee shop he works at, and helps her with her phone. They strike up an instant friendship, and I loved how thier personalities were great for each other. But Dwight isn't popular, he is a geek, a nerd, but someone who genuinely cares for Madison.
Carter is his best friend, who quickly joins this new friendship and is welcoming towards Madison. I do like how he too is non judgmental and goes on personality, rather than her new look as a basis.

Bryce is the popular boy, the jock. Being his friend puts Madison into the It crowd, and as she develops feelings for him, her association with Dwight and Carter is frowned upon. Bowing to peer pressure Madison soon finds her time with Dwight and Carter is dwindling, not wanting for history to repeat itself. I honestly didn't think much of him from the beginning. He is pushy and arrogant, and I have huge respect for Madison in how she deals with him, glad that the times that it mattered she didn't fall for peer pressure.

Now, back to Madison's past. In her old school she was bullied, for her weight, but her lack of enthusiasm towards sport, for her glasses, her geekyness. For this reason alone Madison was someone who I could instantly relate to as I know how she feels. I was teased about my name, my streak in my hair, and having a little bit of a belly. This was constant, especially my name and hair, from juniors right through to the end of seniors. I felt lost and alone, and even the 'friends' I had I wouldn't really call them my close friends, or someone who I could talk to. If someone would have taken me under their wing into a popular crowd I'm pretty sure I would have fallen under the pressure. But seeing this from another persons perspective really shows what she is doing and how she is hurting others, but also how hard it is for her to keep both sides happy.

Rolling Dice was a book that I finished pretty quickly, and not only did I thoroughly enjoy it, bit is was one that left a clear message behind. Madison is a character that I am sure plenty of teenagers can relate to in one way or another, and while I do think she had her goals misplaced, I am glad to see that it worked out the way I wanted it to in the end, although I wish she didn't have to be hurt to finally see the truth.

Final Verdict
Rolling Dice was an enjoyable read, and although there are a few things left open in the end, I like to think it's easy to see how it all ended.

[Kirsty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beth Reekles is an author to watch out for. Her first book showed much promise and although I wasn't a huge fan I was keen to see how she developed as an author in her next books. I am pleased to say I enjoyed Rolling Dice far more as I thought it was a much better read and addressed a lot of the issues I had with the Kissing Booth.

I found the voice to be far better in this book than the Kissing booth. It felt truly American rather than a weird American / British mix which was my complaint before. I was completely drawn in by Madison as a character and loved her story. I enjoyed seeing her transition from a rather shy bullied teen to one of the popular crowd. I loved that she could see that actually maybe that crowd wasn't the best place to be and seeing how she started to question who she should be friends with.

Special mention has to go to Dwight and his friends who I loved loved loved. I loved his friendship with Madison and I could get enough of the scenes where the two of them are together.

What I also enjoyed about this book was that the storyline felt like it was going somewhere which was another complaint I had with the first book. I like books where I can see something going on and this book had that for me which was fab.

A read which I enjoyed and had me happily entertained throughout.

[Clo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ever felt left out at school? Well perhaps being in the popular clique isn't everything, not when you know that the cliques are so very defined. Popular's and nerds don't mix - but the higher you climb - the harder you'll fall; oh and everyone will notice! Her books are addictive, it pained me every time I had to put them down! Life and love is always a gamble. ;)

[Mary McFarlane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pretty cute, just like her other book I just read. I know growing up I always wanted to move schools and start over so I think that's why I like Madison so much, and you can't go wrong with nerdy boys. And how many Bryce's have I had in my life, god this book was just like my high school and I think that's why I liked it so much. Excited to see what else Beth Reekles has to offer.

[Himanika · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this book unti9l the end
the end part was a bit weird
I mean I wanted to know about how Madison deal with all the rumor stuff instead of running over the hills and a bit of Dwight and her love story
the middle part was a bit elongated otherwise the book was interesting

[Book_freak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good writing. Meh plot & story. Okay characters. So...kinda enjoyable :)

[reenie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The short version of how I feel about the book and my review told through emojis: 💓💗💕💞💘💖😱😱😱😨😢💓💓💓💓😪😰💖💘😨😢😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭💗💓💕😍😘😊💖💝💘💞🙂
The long version of how I feel about the book and my review told through actual words:
The main reason I read this book is that I trusted Ms. Beth Reekles based on how good The Kissing Booth's movie was [though I'm convinced the amazingness of the movie was improved greatly because Jacob Elordi was in it]. Also because I can't get my hands on a copy of the Kissing Booth yet because it's in high demand. It took me longer to finish reading this book than I thought it would take because I'm currently taking a cooking class, and the book is pretty lengthy.
I love that Madison has her own demons and insecurities that she still battles with. She openly admits her blindness to her "friends" because she was desperate for acceptance and to fit in. I love that she's quirky and she doesn't end up with the Prom King. It was vital to show her being slut-shamed as a tribute to all the young women out there being slut-shamed by society.
I love that Dwight is so sweet and kind to her, but he still has emotional baggage, much like Madison. These two people who don't look anything alike on the outside, but they have very alike souls, both lost and broken.
Happy Wednesday! Hope your day is going well. And if it isn't, I hope that tomorrow or sometime in the near future, it gets better. Because I promise that it will. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but soon.
with love,
Reenie
💋

[Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wanted an easy read after reading some fantasy, so I read this on audiobook (on 2x speed). I haven't read The Kissing Booth (only watched the film) so I was interested to see what Beth Reekles's writing is like.
I was intrigued by the title, but slightly disappointed to find there were no references to games, with the title referring to the main character's nickname "Dice". I quickly got over that and I figured I could read this quickly and it may surprise me. I liked some of the characters, but it felt like the book comprised mostly dialogue. I enjoyed listening to it, but it was a pretty basic story, with a very rushed ending with little solution between the main character and other characters at the end. The epilogue didn't feel like an epilogue, and I feel like there were opportunities for fun scenes and real character development through conflict resolution. If the ending had been more fleshed out, I may have given it 3-3.5 stars, but I'm giving it 2.5 stars.

[Aspen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whilst the writing and execution of this book were done beautifully I found the tropes used to construct this teenage angst filled love triangle were not.

The classic early 2000s trope of the chubby, bespectacled girl having to lose weight and ditch the glasses for contacts in order to be beautiful, popular and well liked is overused and quite frankly degrading.

However, the nerd vs popular playboy love triangle was executed beautifully with our main slowly realising the 'Popular Clique' is not all its made out to be.

I found the popular clique's characterisation to be 2D and overused as we are hardly given an insight into their personalities beyond the blueprint popular group.

Overall, a lovely casual read that was quite enjoyable once I got past the tropes.

[Vee · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 ⭐

I found myself rolling my eyes and irritated by the main character more often than not throughout this book.

The fact she didn't see the numerous red flags throughout from her 'friends' and kept giving them the benefit of the doubt despite her past of being treated badly and bullied by people of a similar nature. Also ignoring the way her non-popular friends were being treated by her popular friends/boyfriend was equally annoying.

I know that it's a YA and it's all about growth etc but it was just very frustrating and the inner monologue of the MC was just too grating.

The saving grace being the messages it conveys at the end.

[Emily-Anne Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rolling Dice by Beth Reekles.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I love this story it reminded me of being back at school with the popular and non popular kids.

The emotion I felt through was nearly all 😆
I went from angry and annoyed Beth stand up or by Dwight who had been there for her since the coffee shop and then she started dating one of the popular boys. Well it was clear it wasn't going to work out as she isn't really like them.

But so happy and relieved she got with Dwight in the end!!

My only downside was it was a little slow in places

If you like a romance, with emotion etc then highly recommend

[Sarah Reichard · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 Stars for me but I decided to round down for the rating. This is a cute love triangle YA contemporary romance. While I did enjoy the story, I felt like the ending of the story didn’t finish strong and fell flat. Especially compared to the rest of the book. And it could have just have been me that didn’t care for the ending. But the story does suck you in and make it hard to put down. This was a fast read.

[Zaineb Merchaoui · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really my type of books. I feel like the main character is really insecure and has a low self-esteem and it really bothered me. Except that i really liked the fact that i can relate to some of the main character's thoughts. I feel like the ending should've been more detailed. Nevertheless it was a good ending with a good resolution.

[Libby Brennan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was quite an enjoyable read! The plot was good and it was your typical ya contemporary romance! I did feel nearing the end that the quality of the pacing was kind of all over the place and the main character was a bit too choppy changey for me but despite that I like her as a character and enjoyed the book!!

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh, this novel annoyed me. The characters were shallow and stereotypical and Madison frustrated me with the way she wanted to stay popular. She was happy to use Dwight and his friends when it suited her but ditched them as soon as one of the 'popular' people arrived on the scene. I found the plot boring and predictable, the reader knew who Madison would end up with from the start. A meh read.

[Meg R White · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, but it was so clumsily written, so unoriginal and so juvenile that I just couldn’t. It could have been really good, and I liked the whole Dwight friendship but I think she lost where she was going with the book. I had to force myself to finish.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this story. I loved the way it ended. I was kind of leaning towards Bryce for a little while, but then I kind of knew what was going to happen. When it did, I was SO happy with who she got with.

[Monika · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @ 35%
I'm sorry! I really do not wanna dnf books. I always finish them no matter how much I hate them but I wanted to just punch the main character the whole time and it was not good for my wellbeing especially during mid-terms rn.

I hope I forget about this book soon, for my own peace.

[Sophie Pentland · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook version of this. It was quite easy to listen to while pottering about cleaning or walking the dog. It's not something I'd say you need to go and read. It's very much 'mean girls' but a very quick end after a drawn-out story.

[Rayne Fire · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book, which I checked out after reading The Kissing Booth by this author. Great, inspiring messages, and plenty of love and romance. This book was also super exciting, and it was difficult to put down.

[Elvina Zafril · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the storyline and the ending is so cute.

[Danny Lynn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Story and writing are about as immature and amateurish as her first one. Definitely written by a 17 year old.

[Nicole Rodgers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always reading the YA books for my classroom library lol

[Tyra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute story, clean and teaches good morals. Good for tween daughter.