Matrus- a city ruled by women that dominate and suppress men. 
 Patrus- a city ruled by men where women are second-class citizens. 
 Between the two is a toxic river that holds their conflict to an uneasy peace. 
 To it's credit, The Gender Game, a sci-fi romance novel, attempts to tackle a challenging subject (battle of the sexes) in an entertaining manner. Unfortunately, in my opinion, it falls short in presenting a well-developed setting to support some interesting characters. 
 Spoilers coming, but general setting weakness include virtually undefended borders between adjacent enemy states, poor operative training leading to contrived and predictable scenarios, a lack of well-developed societies, no consequences for flaunting the laws and customs in an oppressive enemy state, and dictatorial monarchs having no guards. 
 I don't want to suggest that it's all bad. The plot of the story is interesting and engaging and is what kept me reading. I haven't yet decided if it's enough to take me on to the second book in the series. 
 (view spoiler)[ 
 As promised, more discussion on the biggest short-comings. All of these relate to an under-developed setting, in my opinion. 
 (1) The two cities of Matrus and Patrus are separated by a toxic river with no bridge. There are hints, near the beginning, of some kind of shoreline patrol, but flying a homemade helicopter across both borders and over the river without even the fear of being shotdown? That just doesn't seem realistic. 
 (2) When going on a mission to a foreign land where you know none of the customs, do you spend three days training with ranged weaponry you may never use (and won't have general access to), or do you spend the time studying and practicing the customs so you can blend in? Apparently, in the world of The Gender Game, you learn fire-arms so that every single social interaction you're part of you mess up, constantly demonstrating that you're not a native. 
 (3) A body suit and stuck-on facial hair is regularly enough to convince the entire population of men that the main character is not a woman. Despite the fact that men constantly hit each other in the back or shoulders and should notice a suit, and women walk differently and have different mannerisms that take days or weeks of training to overcome - even more so in a society that highlights the differences (some interesting YouTube vidoes on this exact thing). 
 (4) It might seem unfair to suggest that the social settings are poorly developed, because we are told how men and women are treated in each society and we get a description of parts of Patrus such as shopping, physical training facilities, and the arena for what seems to be the main sporting interest of extreme fighting. 
 However, what is clearly missing in these highly gender-segregated societies is any discussion of how the rulers manage to control the sexual desires of the population. One would expect either a high percentage of homosexual relationships, mandatory supression drugs, or legalized, state-controlled prostituion. 
 The development of this aspect would add much more background to the story (including the love-interest, possibly adding a forbidden aspect to it). 
 (5) The main character, Violet Bates, due to her hot-headed nature and lack of training in Patrus ways, continually flaunts the laws and commits social faux-pas (these two are almost the same in Patrus). And yet, in a society apparently so bad to women, she never once has any consequences for her actions. 
 (6) Finally, it is apparent that neither the Patrus, nor the Matrus monarchs have any significant body guards or palace guards. 
 (a) The king of Patrus visits the labs for a dinner and his people never swept the building first 
 (b) The queen of Matrus and (her consort?) meet with a secret operative in the palace with no guards present so the operative can conveniently kill them. 
 (hide spoiler)] 
 It's entirely possible my impressions of The Gender Game are due to expectations of something in a different direction from where the author wanted to go. There is some evidence of this in the degree to which the romantic part of the story was concentrated on. Nevertheless, I do believe improved world-building and concentration on a few important realities would have benefitted the story and made the setting more believable.