This was a fun and sweet retelling of one of my favorite Jane Austen novels Emma. I liked the cast of characters and the coding competition added an extra element. The only things that took away from the story for me was that I felt the characters pretty one dimensional. Issues that were presented (like misogyny and bully) were not presented in a way that taught the reader to evolve their thinking but instead presented in a blatant manner assuming the reader already has concluded how certain actions and thinking patterns are not right. I would recommend to younger readers who may be fine with a fun surface level sweet high school romance.

It starts off cute enough, back in high school. The book feels original with the story and characters and from the beginning, I'm very intrigued to see where things will go. It's a fast and fun contemporary YA read and very enjoyable. I've gotten so invested in the story because Emma is so oblivious to what's right in front of he and I just want to shake her like, 'Girl, what is right in front of you!' And then, George, gah, this boy, this boy is indecisive and is messing with m head because it all seemed so obvious, but I don't know what to think anymore. But that being said, I couldn't put it down and ended up devouring it in one night. That ending is beyond is cute, like heart-melting, earth-shattering, grand romance, and all that stuff. It's so cute and that ending/epilogue is precious. It's a love story for all us nerd types out there, and proof that you can't rationalize everything. For a YA romance, it's just what I want.

This was a super cute story; I enjoyed reading it. The characters were fun to follow along during their journey to their competition.

I really loved this book! The pacing was just right, and I thought most of the characters were likable. Of course she would end up with George, but I still enjoyed their journey toward each other. Emma was often frustrating, but I kind of like when a narrator/protagonist isn’t perfect - it made for an interesting read. I think this is the perfect book for a numbers-loving teen. Being in my late 30s, I often struggle with YA romances, but this one really stuck with me. I chalk it up to the fantastic writing and pacing.

Sorry to say I didn't love this one. The attempt to recapture Jane Austin's EMMA in today's digital age is a fun idea. But this felt forced and awkward, and the use of the names was more a distraction than an enticement - I had a hard time figuring out who these characters were and why it mattered. That said, I've enjoyed other books by this author and look forward to what she does next.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Emma Woodhouse (yes, based on THAT Emma) gets math. People? Not so much. As the co-president of the Coding Club, she believes that the best way for them to win their big competition (and guarantee her a spot at Stanford) is to design an algorithm for love. Co=president George doesn't seem to agree. What follows is a reimagining of Austen's Emma for the 21st century. As the coding competition draws nearer, Emma finds herself making matches between her classmates and teammates, but can numbers really determine who your best match is?

TBH, Emma is my least favorite Austen (unless it comes in the form of Amy Heckerling's Clueless). And this book was...fine. I struggled to figure out if Emma was just socially awkward because she's smart (and let's be honest. I'm a little over the awkward genius trope) or if she was supposed to be a person on the Autism spectrum. By the end of the book, I still wasn't sure how I felt about her, or most of the other characters. Especially her sister Izzy (moping because her boyfriend who she has dated since high school AND goes to college with went to Mexico with his family over Christmas and she didn't get invited...gag. And also clearly not listening to Emma and trying to force her to do things she doesn't want to do? No thanks).

Over all, the book was a cute, quick read but I didn't love it.

The Code for Love and Heartbreak is supposed to be loosely based/retelling of Jane Austen's Emma.  I hadn't ever read Emma before, so I'm not so sure about that. (I will look it up a synopsis and let you know similarities at the end of this review.)  The book follows Emma who is a math genius that loves to code and is co-president of the coding club at school.  I saw a lot of myself in Emma - would much rather stay home and code than be social, doesn't want a boyfriend, etc.  Except we never had a coding club when I was in high school and the guys in the one coding class that was offered at school couldn't manage to figure out "Ctrl Alt Delete" (seriously!)   One part of the book really hit home "Sometimes I dream in code. When I work on a lot for a project, or right before bed, my subconscious is still there, filled with lines of code, and my dreams are laced with numbers and sequences.  I often wake up with the new ability to solve a problem that was bothering me in the code the night before, my mind having worked it out somehow while I slept."  This has happened to me on multiple occasions and people think I am absolutely nuts when I tell them, so having someone else say this - even if it is a fictional character - made me feel validated.

Anyway. The book.  Coding Club needs to come up with a project to pitch for a championship and it comes down to George's idea vs Emma's.  George wants to create an app with karma points for how much you recycle and you can compete against your friends.  Emma wants to create an app that will match up the students at the school for love based on different attributes - what they look like, likes, dislikes, etc.  Emma's idea ends up winning and the book follows them tweaking their algorithm and setting up various couples in the school based on the outcome of the matches.

We never do find out who Emma's match was based on the algorithm and they have to create a "second chance" match option for those who broke up with their first, "best" option.

From reading a synopsis of Jane Austen's Emma - it seems a lot of the character names are the same.  Emma is a matchmaker.  But The Code for Love and Heartbreak is a more modern version. Now I'm thinking I might want to go read the original...

Either way this is a very cute YA book and I enjoyed it.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

This book was just okay for me, but I think it will be liked by fans of YA romance. It was a tough sell for me with the Code for Love app being chosen as the coding club's entry for the contest. I would imagine that any true coder would find the technology here to be immature and purely there to serve the arc of the characters, rather than based in any reality. I was cheering for Emma in her romantic pursuits, both with George and Sam, and even possibly Jane. Cantor does a good job keeping the lines open there, so that we're never quite sure which one she'll end up with, if any. I also enjoyed the pacing of this book. It's not too deep, so the brevity helps it. So often, it seems authors stretch out a weak plot just to fill pages, but here, the author is confident enough to give us a short and sweet story.

This was a cute, fairly straightforward retelling of Emma. The characters were fun and the idea of how the author adapted it for a modern setting was cute. Overall, it’s a gentle beach type read. Nothing I would go out of my way to recommend or will likely remember, but fun going down

I enjoyed reading this book about Emma, a girl in STEM, and her going through life and love by coding. However, I think it fell a little off the mark. I hate how it falls under the stereotype of the high school nerd who has no friends and has no clue on how to socialize with other people, especially since this led to some serious moments of second-hand embarrassment. The character development almost made this caricature worth it, and I did enjoy the friends-to-lovers trope. I love how the focus remained on coding throughout the book, instead of it becoming something that's pushed aside. Overall, it was an enjoyable contemporary read that makes me more excited to read the classic, Emma, that it's based on.

"The Code for Love and Heartbreak" is an adorable, sweet YA romance novel. Emma, a self-professed math nerd, is all about the quantifiable: math, numbers, and coding. Romance and relationships are too complicated and she just doesn't understand them. But with the help of her coding club and the "Code for Love" app they develop, she learns that people are much more important than anything else in the world.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Emma loves code, but struggles with people. The story of a high school coding club was original, but the rest of the story felt too forced. I know it was a modern retelling of Emma, but it just didn’t flow well or feel right. It was ok, and I might get a copy for my school library, but not a favorite.

“Falling in love beats recycling. At least, I would guess, since I’ve never been in love but I’ve recycled my whole life and it’s pretty boring.”
This retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma was such a sweet little bundle of fluff! Though I haven’t read the original, I really enjoyed this. This is the kind of book that actually makes you excited for school, because Emma is one of those people who enjoys doing her calculus homework and doesn’t need to study before finals because she actually pays attention in class. After reading this book, I was totally prepared to pop off in senior year, until I remembered that I’m literally graduating (?) in two weeks :))
Anyway, the characters in this book completely steal the show. Emma herself is a standard YA nerd, but her emotions are well fleshed out. Even when she makes mistakes, the reader can understand why she acted that way. She’s very closed off, but she really loves her friends and family. She’s a bit of a control freak and a perfectionist, but she always puts her people first. She grows a lot through the novel; even if a lot of it is very stereotypical (nerd who realizes that not everything follows a formula, falls in love etc.) it is well done and feels comforting instead of boring. George, of course, is a scene-stealer from the very beginning. He’s just as smart as Emma, and he’s a swimmer! He’s also far better at socializing than Emma, even if he prefers not to. All of the other characters, from Emma’s fellow coders to her sister, are well fleshed out. Everyone adds to the story, and no one acts irrationally. The story avoids dramatizing people and lets them be.
While the story moves along in a relatively predictable manner, there are a few heavier topics sprinkled in, which helps anchor the story to reality. These are, however, used effectively and sparingly. It served to humanize the characters, rather than having them live in a parallel fantasy world where a coding competition is their one and only problem in life.
Though The Code of Love and Heartbreak was extremely predictable, it’s sweetness provided a nice respite from the harshness of reality.

Thank you #Netgalley for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review. This YAa novel was a fun read! Working in a high school library, I see so many similar kids to Emma and George, high achievers. I’m a struggle socially, but that never bothered her before. Until her sister makes an offhand comment about writing a code for love. Having searched for a project special enough for her final year and coding club with sights set high on college admissions, Emma decides to take on the challenge. Throughout the story, she learns that you may not be able to prove everything mathematically, And love and friendship may not be able to be statistically proven. I will recommend this book to the students who come in to the library this fall.

This book, a contemporary YA retelling of Jane Austen's Emma, was too close to the original Emma to be interesting. With the (perhaps unfortunately) recently released movie adaptation in mind, I found myself hoping that the plot would not be so entirely predictable as I moved through the pages. Unfortunately, my hopes weren't realized.

I had been looking for a quick and breezy read, but The Code for Love and Heartbreak was too bland for me to find it enjoyable.

DNF @ 49%

Having turned 21 this year, I think I'm starting to age out of YA contemporary — which is, of course, very much a me "problem" and no fault of this book (or any other)! But it does mean I have a decreased tolerance for the romantic angst, failure to communicate, and continued poor choices that often characterize teenagerhood, both in real life and in literature.

What I liked so far:
- The cover, title, and synopsis are all very intriguing, which is why I requested it in the first place! And they do match what I did get through of the book.
- I really enjoyed the little details that fleshed out relationships and shared history, such as the way George's and Emma's cupcake preferences complement each other while their pizza topping preferences clash.
- Strong but nuanced family relationships are always a plus for me.
- I am absolutely here for female friendships, though it's a bit of a bummer to have to first sit through snap judgments about the girls who will become the MC's friends.
- Emma's college-and-beyond ambitions are relatable from what I remember of being that age; I remember wanting to read about protagonists who were also dealing with the whole applications struggle.

What I didn't like so far:
- Not quite halfway through and I can already predict two major (and cliched) morals that will emerge by the end of the book, which is disappointing.
- The double love triangle + jealousy + obliviousness to/denial of romantic feelings is exhausting, especially because it feels stagnant. Although there are romantic developments of a kind, there hasn't been much net effect on Emma's romantic-adjacent relationships.
- It's been a while since I read Austen's Emma, but I don't remember that heroine being so all-consumingly arrogant yet naive, completely convinced she's always right and her way is the best way, even though she doesn't "get" people. Though some readers (especially teens) may find this relatable, I personally found it exasperating.
- On a related note, I'm just generally tired of STEM girls being overwhelmingly portrayed as socially isolated/awkward, <i>numbers are better than people because they're straightforward</i> types. It's one thing if it's, like, the (ownvoices) autism rep in The Kiss Quotient, but I don't think that's what's going on here?
- Every teenager in this book texts in what I call "essay case": complete, properly capitalized and punctuated sentences. Which is readable, sure, but not very realistic.
- The fact that 75% of the student body filled out the coding club's survey — having been a high school student myself, I find that extremely difficult to believe. Apathy is rampant among teenagers, even when you have connections. (The marching band was by far the largest student organization at my school, and even with their participation it was rare to get more than 50% of the school to participate in anything.)
- At one point their program is described as being "very beta," which I'm pretty sure isn't correct tech lingo.

The Code for Love and Heartbreak by Jillian Cantor comes out in October of 2020. As a librarian, I occasionally get early reader copies of books at the kindness of the publishers. This book is one of them. I didn't realize it was a modern re-telling of Emma by Jane Austen until I was looking up the main characters name to make sure I remembered it correctly and thought, "That's the name of the character in Emma!" Okay, I can be slow sometimes! I even recently saw the Emma movie although I've never read the book, so I don't feel as though I can really compare them. Movies are notoriously unreliable even if they can be quite entertaining.

Emma Woodhouse focuses her attention very well. Little if anything distracts her. She is whip smart and learns quickly. She plays the piano perfectly, can do anything with math, and resides at the top of her class, expecting to be first or second in her graduating class. That other people's opinions don't matter to her proves beneficial for her focusing abilities. Her sister Izzy has kept Emma close to her so that she doesn't miss out on anything after their mother died years ago. Their father works a lot and comes home late. Even though Emma finds joy with math and not with tagging along with her sister, she always goes because she loves her sister. Distraught that Izzy is leaving for college, Emma wonders how she will overcome the loneliness that will ensure. She does have math--always reliable. She also has George--always reliable. With Izzy gone after giving her advice to be more social by jokingly telling her to use her math to code a boyfriend, Emma begins to see a path to winning first place in a coding contest. She decides to code love. She and George are co-presidents of the coding club for their senior year. George wants to create a recycling app. Emma, focused, believes his plan is too mundane while her plan is creative, meaning a better chance at winning. Thus, Emma's senior year begins!

As the app progresses so does the school year. The coding club needs beta subjects to test the app. As they experiment, they need information about why people date or stay married for decades in order to create an algorithm for love. The students at their school are more than willing to be test subjects and start asking for matches as word gets around that people are happy with their matches. Suddenly, Emma is popular, which she didn't pursue and doesn't really pay attention to. She also ends up with a host of friends from coding club. She discovers that she isn't lonely. She takes time to spend time with people in the club and discovers that she likes them and likes having friends as they keep tinkering with the app to adjust for changes or breakups with their matches. Her closest friend, George, knows Emma best and helps her when she starts getting too focused. When changes are needed and Emma is too focused to consider them, George can open her lens to see better.

I like Emma because she isn't the typical girl in a YA novel. There's aren't bullies; she isn't upset about teenage stuff. She has a goal and she has a plan. Although she is stubborn about doing her app idea for the coding competition, she does listen to others when it comes to developing and modifying the app. I also like that she honestly questions how to react to other people. I think a lot of kids navigate these social situations--even adults--wondering what the right response is supposed to be. She makes friends with Jane, whom she considered rather odd before. As Emma gets to know these students as real people so does the reader. Emma can be challenging. She gets so focused that she can't see what's in front of her. Her friends give her a lot of slack and accept her as she is. If there is a problem, they apologize or talk it out--eventually. George knows best how to handle Emma. His presence can calm her and motivate her to do better on a task. She truly would be lost without George as her compass. Of course problems must ensue with the app because love cannot be solved with math, but they do a pretty good job getting people to date and to meet new people. As Emma navigates love for everyone during her senior year and possibly may find it herself, the reader encounters an entertaining read and a good message about getting to know people and forgiving people their idiosyncrasies in order to form solid friendships and relationships.

I really enjoyed this book. It's a retelling of Jane Austen's Emma (which I have not yet read but it's on my TBR) and I know the premise of the book from the movie Clueless, so I had a little but of an idea of what to expect going in, but I think that only enhanced the story for me. In this novel, Emma is one of the presidents of her school's coding club and in thinking of an idea of a project to hopefully win them a national championship in coding, she decides that people can be matched together based on math. Initially, not everyone loves this idea, but it does get selected to be their project and the book goes through Emma and her friends working on coding this app, and she learns a lot about herself and love.

The Code for Love and Heartbreak is a sweet YA contemporary, and while I don't tend to read a lot of contemporaries (I do like contemporaries, but I can be very picky with the ones that I like), I thought this one was really well done. I really felt for the characters, and I went through some of the same emotions that they were feeling as I read. As someone who has always loved math and numbers, it was really cool seeing a character who I could relate to on such a basic level. There are definitely differences between us, but I really liked that. I think there is a really positive message for girls and women in STEM as well, because half of the club was female, and they all contributed so much to the project.

There were a handful of minor things that I wasn't too fond of (for example, when a teacher claimed that something couldn't be bullying if it was anonymous), but overall, it didn't effect my enjoyment of the work, and I am really glad I read this! This was so cute, and it you enjoy cute contemporaries, I definitely recommend this!

Fun, G-rated, STEM, girl-power, YA romantic comedy

Emma Woodhouse is an extremely introverted, high school senior who is a genius at math and also gifted at playing the piano. She is trying to expand her extracurricular activities on the advice of her academic advisor in order to increase her chances of getting accepted to her dream school, Stanford. One such activity, Coding Club, which she has participated in during previous school years, seems as if it could become a real addition to her Stanford application when Emma comes up with what she considers a terrific idea for a computer programming project which might take their team all the way to the top in the annual State competition. Her idea is a dating app which she dubs, The Code for Love. It uses algorithms to calculate romantic compatibility.

Prior to this year, Emma’s best and only friend has always been her older sister, Isabella, in spite of social-butterfly Izzy being Emma’s complete opposite. But Izzy is now a college freshman. She has been madly and mutually in love for many years with a boy named John Knightley, and she has followed John all the way across the country to California for college. Emma feels lonely and abandoned when she no longer has Izzy to talk to and generally help her relate to the rest of the human race. John’s younger brother, George, who is Emma’s age, is someone she’s known for years, but they’ve never been close friends. And as co-presidents of the Coding Club this year, they immediately butt heads over what project the club will do for the State competition.

George dislikes the whole concept of Emma’s app, which he views as an intrusive form of meddling in people's lives. But he and his allies in the club are outvoted by those who like Emma’s idea, and The Code for Love becomes the app they develop.

At first the app seems to work really well, and all the students in their high school who use it to gain a match are delighted. But then, suddenly, to Emma’s dismay, many of the matched couples begin to break up. And along the way of figuring out why, Emma’s competitive and often combative relationship with George begins to shift in ways that no computer code could ever have predicted.

This is a G-rated novel suitable for all ages and is a fun retelling of Jane Austen's Emma. The author uses the same character names from Emma, and each character she recycles is a modern update of Austen’s characters. Unlike in the original, instead of George Knightley being 17 years older than Emma, who is 20 in the Austen book, in this story the two are both 17. In addition, instead of Emma’s sister Isabella being much older than Emma and married to John Knightley for many years, in this book they are only one year older and not yet married. Mr. Woodhouse in this story is not a hypochondriacal old man but a vital, middle-aged attorney. Mrs. Weston is currently still Miss Taylor. She is a teacher at Emma’s school and faculty supervisor of the Coding Club. During this book, in a humorous subplot, Ms. Taylor is courted by Mr. Weston, who is a nerdy calculus teacher at Emma’s high school. Frank Churchill, Jane Fairfax, Harriet Smith, Robert Martin and Phillip Elton appear in this book as student members of the Coding Club.

Emma is a cute and lovable female protagonist. I could relate to her struggles with social situations as an introvert, and I enjoyed the emphasis on her as a STEM heroine. I also liked this version of George Knightley. Humorously, he has some of the same stuffy bossiness as the original, and his competing idea for an app is quite funny.

I rate this book as follows:

Heroine: 4 stars
Hero: 4 stars
Subcharacters: 4 stars
Romance Plot: 4 stars
Coming of Age Plot: 4 stars
Writing: 4 stars
Overall: 4 stars

I started reading this at just the right time. I'm a sucker for an "Emma" story. I like knowing what's going to happen and how the author makes the story his/her own. Bringing a coding club and algorithms to match-making is just perfect for today's audiences.

At one part of the book, Emma states she hates "Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan movies". Why does a screenwriter get to determine these two will fall in love? A tongue in cheek reference to the book the words are written in.

There wasn't a character I didn't like. Bringing in todays elements of the #metoo movement and gay/lesbian romances weren't pointed as major plot points, but included in the story as a reflection of our teen world.

I'd recommend this for grades 6 and up. Anyone who needs a happy ending - knowing it's coming but still reading anyway - will fall in love with this Emma-version.