When I first saw this cover, I thought this was going to be an office hate-to-love romance but this book is actually a YA contemporary romance happening in high school where the main character, Emma, gets the idea of creating an app with a code to match people up. After her sister left for college, telling her that she should get a boyfriend, Emma figures a way to be more social while still being able to code.

I have to say the main romance with her friend George (who was matched to someone else in the app) was very lack-luster. I expected more and by the end, I just didn't really care. Everything felt kind of flat and shallow to be honest. I read in a review that this book would have been a lot better if the author chose to write a sapphic romance between Emma and Jane and I have to agree completely! It would have made this book so much more interesting and perhaps it would have added some much needed chemistry.

As for this book being a retelling of "Emma" by Jane Austen, I can't really comment as I never read the book and forgot many things from the movie. Maybe I should remedy that...

(Thank you for letting me read and review an ARC via Netgalley)

I received a digital arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

In this modern retelling of Austen’s Emma, Emma is a senior in high school who loves math and coding more than anything and would much rather spend her days working on code or playing the piano then going out and making friends. When the annual coding competition for coding clubs rolls around, she is inspired by her sister to make a matching app for her school that will mathematically help users find love. But as she works closely with her fellow club members on this app, she learns just how wonderful friendships can be, what it’s like to truly care for others, and that there may just be no code for love.


I was really interested in this book as I am a huge fan of both Jane Austen and retellings. However, I was pretty disappointed.

The story seemed to drag on and was very, very repetitive and that got old quick. The characters were so flat. What do we know about Emma? She’s a math nerd and likes mushrooms and olives on pizza and volunteers to play piano. We hear these things over and over and that’s the sum of her character. One dimensional. We get it, you’re a math nerd (her words, not mine, repeated over and over and over and over and.... you get the idea). I had no attachment to any of the characters.

The romance was also super frustrating... and not in a great way. One is oblivious and has no idea what’s going on for 95% of the book and the other is a little better but still just frustrating.

Another big problem I had with the book was that there were a lot of seniors matching up with freshmen. I know this is often considered normal and romanticized, but to be honest, I think it’s pretty creepy and I thought we as a society were moving away from normalizing this. A 13-14 year old with a 17-18 year old? That’s a child with an adult basically and I hate that.

It did get super cute in the last couple chapters, but that’s it. A few pages of two cute scenes isn’t enough to redeem the book.

Overall, I did not enjoy the reading experience and have zero desire to waste another minute on this book. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you like extremely one dimensional and unlikable characters. 2/ 5 stars. (less)

The only real choosing I ever knew was bb code thanks to Myspace but The Code for Love and Heartbreak really made me rush I knew more. There was this continuous level of nerdiness that I absolutely adored. The characters felt like I could have been best friends with either one of them, and it was just a good story to read.

A pretty standard teen romance, with only a veneer of "nerdiness" or STEM integration. Yes, these teens are on a coding team. BUt at heart it's still just a romance, with the cute new guy that our protagonist makes a fool of herself over and the guy next door that she is often at odds with. Characters are okay but the plot points are pretty predictable.

I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I was very interested in reading this book based on the description, and I haven't read as much young adult lately. This book was the perfect amount of nerdy for me, I loved Emma's character. I was a little worried it might end up being too angsty (young adult can be hit or miss for me), and while it was a little angst-ridden it was just a reasonable amount for me. I think part of the reason it worked so well is that Emma's character is doesn't connect to her emotions in the same way as others. She seemed like she might be autistic since she was very literal, didn't really understand social interactions, and had trouble identifying emotions in others. I thought the author's portrayal of her was really well done and genuine. I loved all the nerd talk with coding (which I'm not familiar with the terminology on but could still get in the spirit) and the competitiveness of the competition. The romance plot line was a bit of a miss for me but I know it was kind of following along the lines of a classic plot line.  It just felt confusing with the switch on who liked who all the time. The other characters in the book didn't feel as fleshed out to me as they could have but I did really like to varied cast of characters. It was a cute read and I enjoyed it though I wouldn't say it was my favorite. I'd still recommend it though - it was a good book!

I found this retelling of Emma to be endearingly effective. I loved Emma and George after I got to know them more. The interpretation of Austen's novel was clear and I actually liked that Cantor kept everyone's names the same. It would be fun to book club this with my younger high schoolers to compare it to the original. It would make for a refreshing and light lit club read.
Thanks for the ARC!

This is an updated take on Jane Austen’s Emma. So the protagonist, Emma, believes everything can be solved with math. If the numbers doesn’t make sense, it can’t be true.

Emma and George are the co-presidents of their high school coding club and for this years project, she’s designed a dating app. But how does someone who doesn’t believe in love, create a dating app? With Math of course. Using algorithms, the app is suppose to calculate everyone’s compatibility and match them with up their perfect mate. But what happens when people start breaking up and asking for different partners?

It’s your typical YA romance. I’ve come to the conclusion that I am not a fan of YA romances. They’re just too blah. YA fantasy, however, are my jam. With that said, it was an okay read. Cute enough story to get through it.

Sometimes logic takes things too far and I have to say this might be one of those examples. The Code for Love and Heartbreak is a retelling of Emma by Jane Austen following a modern character sharing the name Emma. After Emma’s older sister leaves for college, she decides to take the advice given to her to “code a boyfriend” by introducing a mathematical approach to dating. She ends up convincing her coding club to use this for their competition by setting up couples at their high school based on an algorithm.

The story itself wasn’t bad, I think that I would have loved this book when I was in high school or even middle school. Nowadays, I lean towards a logical mindset where I would love for an app to be able to find me someone I’m compatible to but I’m not sure how that would have gone over In my teen years. Dating apps are a precarious thing and while a unique coding project, high schoolers love lives are already messy enough without adding in “perfect” couples to the mix.

Emma as a character was infuriating and her codependent tendencies really harmed her. By the end of the book I could see that she was making growth and while I was rooting for her, I couldn’t help but dislike her immaturity. The rest of the characters weren’t anything really unique and I would even say that the cast was too large to truly get to know any of them. They were all known by one defining feature and due to Emma’s lack of socialization and want to get to know new people, we ended up not knowing much of anything about anyone apart from Emma.

This was a book about a lonely and slightly selfish high schooler who takes math a bit too seriously. It was somewhat unique but overall reminded me of many other YA contemporary books I’ve read and in the end isn’t too memorable.

Thank you so much @InkyardPress & @NetGalley for giving me this eARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 06 October 2020)

SYNOPSIS | Emma Woodhouse is a math genius, but quite clueless when it comes to people. Her & George run the coding club & as their final project submission they decide to create a dating app for their school (The Code for Love) using algorithms to calculate compatibility. Everything is going perfectly, until "perfect" matches start to break up, the wrong people end up falling for each other and her own feelings defy the algorithm

WHAT I LIKED:
- retelling of Emma by Jane Austen
- cute coming of age story
- that it focuses on STEM specifically coding

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- I wanted the primary romance to start sooner & go deeper

This book was super cute. Emma loves numbers. Math makes sense. But people and relationships? Not so much. Her coding club decides to use her algorithm to write the "Code for Love" for an app competition. The idea takes off at her school and Emma has to figure out how she really feels about love.
The start was a little slow but once the story got going it was so cute. Emma was flawed but relatable. The subtle love triangle was interesting and not played out. The female friendships were so refreshing to see in YA. There was quite a bit of coding but not so much that it was confusing. I would recommend this book to computer lovers or anyone looking for a light rom-com.

Emma Woodhouse loves numbers and coding. She is co-president of the coding club at school with George Knightley. Emma comes up with the idea to create a dating app for their competition project. Though George doesn’t agree with that idea, they create the app and start matching up students in their school with their ideal partner using a special algorithm. Most of the matches seem to work out at first, until they discover some problems with the algorithm. Despite the successful matches, Emma is reluctant to make a match for herself, because her love code may not give her the result she wants.

Emma is one of my favourite classic books, so I was so excited to read this adaptation. This story works perfectly as a modern adaptation. The original Emma liked to match her friends and acquaintances in her town with who she thought would be a good romantic match for them. In this story, Emma is also a matchmaker, but using a modern matchmaking app, rather than just doing it herself. Both of the Emma characters are clueless to her own love interest who is right in front of her the whole time.

I loved the coding theme to this book. I don’t know much about coding, and I find it fascinating to read about. Emma embraces her nerdy side by working hard in her school work and activities, such as coding club and playing the piano. She was a hardworking and intelligent character, even if she didn’t always catch on to the social cues around her.

This is a great Emma retelling!

Thank you Inkyard Press for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

3.5***This was a cute teen romance that I read at what felt like lightning speed. Jillian Cantor captures the reader right at the beginning and has an easy to read writing style. The story overall was pretty cute. There were a lot of moments where I wanted to scream "just shut up and kiss already", but there were also some other moments where I was like "holy cow- just stop talking. You're so cynical!!" LOL. Clearly this book left me with mixed emotions. It was an easy read which was a plus but at times I just couldn't relate to Emma. I felt like sometimes she was so hard on herself and so negative that she missed all the cues that would make her life a little less stressful. It was frustrating to say the least because overall she was a very quircky and socially awkward character which I enjoyed. Even though it didn't "wow" me... if you're looking for a pretty cute quick read pick it up!

ARC received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This was a super cute story, but it wasn’t really anything special. It follows Emma, and the other members of coding club as they strive to come up with a winning project. They finally decide on making an app that matches people based on their mathematical chances of love. Emma’s determination to solve love runs into a few roadblocks along the way, as her feelings refuse to cooperate with the algorithm she developed.

This book is marketed as a retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma, but as I haven’t read Emma, I can’t speak about whether or not it stayed close to the original story. In fact, some of my problems with this book may have even stemmed from the original book, but I can’t know for sure.

My main problem with this book was Emma, our main character. It may just be me, but I’m getting tired of reading the same characters in the same fonts. Emma was just another repeat of the socially awkward girl who loves math/art/reading. I didn’t like how controlling she was, and she was way too meddlesome for me. She went around messing with other people’s lives, which got irritating after about the third time.

I loved the female friendship between Emma and Jane! So many books like to make girls rivals, and leave the main character isolated with only a love interest. I loved seeing them interact and slowly become friends, but I would’ve loved it even more if it were consistent.

The romance was pretty predictable, but I liked that it stayed away from a love triangle. I really expected it to go that way, so it was nice that it didn’t. In fact, I was trying to pick out the love interests from the first page, and I was really scared we were going to fall into several tropes. Thankfully, we didn’t!

The plot was pretty slow, and super character driven. I didn’t really care about any of the characters, so it was somewhat hard to read. I did still like it though, because even though it wasn’t my favorite book, it was cute, and it did occupy my time. I’d recommend this for lovers of romance!

Emma is one of my favorite Austen novels and I've been so happy with many of the adaptations over the years - probably because the story is just so strong. This retelling serves its purpose by connecting the math and coding lovers to one of the great romantic tales, but I don't believe it will stand the test of time. The characters felt flat and the plot was less than believable.

Who doesn't love a good retelling of a classic story? This book was sweet, interesting, addicting and quote enjoyable to experience. I don't know much about coding but I still love that there is a book talking about it.

Emma and George are the best, you can just feel the tension between the two of them and the comparability. You just couldn't help but root for them, screaming for Emma to open her eyes to what's right in front of her.

All the characters played a great role throughout the book, they all had their unique points all while still having the same interest in coding. O loved their interactions with the main characters. I completely felt their friendships and all their trials and tribulations.

Overall this book was a great read. I couldn't wait to read through the whole thing and experience everything Emma was feeling and reaching out to George. They are nerdy cute. I enjoyed this book so glad I had the opportunity through netgalley.

Cute YA retelling of Jane Austen's Emma.

I do not often read YA novels, but this was a very cute read, and would definitely recommend to anyone who is looking for a YA rom com.

Thank you Netgalley for this e_ARC in return for my honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Inkyard Press for providing an eARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

The Code for Love and Heartbreak is Emma rewritten in the digital age injecting a tinder-like application into a high school setting and it ultimately shows that there isn't an algorithm for love, an emotional that sometimes defies all logic.

When I first read that this was an Emma retelling including coding and math, I was down, mostly for the coding and less for the math which is why, ladies and gentleman, I decided to focus more on web design and development than software development. I suck at math. I love English so I am very much an Izzy in this equation.

The problem with this being an Emma retelling just like when I read Pride and Prejudice retellings, which are oh so much more common, I have to really be pulled into the story in spite of that. If that makes any sense. A good retelling should be able to stand on it's own and not heavily lean into the source material. I want to be able to peel away the layers of an enjoyable narrative to see, oh this relates to this part of the original book. So on and so forth.

From the beginning I felt like someone was holding my hand and pointing out the similarities between the two books including a run down within the first chapter of the players doing little more than name dropping the characters from the book, placing them on the board like we're playing chess. That really pulled me away from the story and felt like it was kind of setting me up for an Emma AU (alternate universe) fan fic instead of an actual retelling.

You might look at me and go, wait, what is the difference? Now, there's good fan fiction and then there's lazy fan fiction, hate to say it. Both can be enjoyable, but I was looking for something a little more. I just couldn't get past the fact that, like I said above, someone was taking me on a tour of the story instead of showing me these characters and developing them to their full potential.

I really wanted to like it, but at the end of the day it wasn't memorable and irritated me more than entertained.

this was a great modern retelling of Emma, I really enjoyed the ways they made it work for a modern setting. I'd be interested in reading more from the author.

Although Emma is not my favorite Jane Austen story, I love stories of love between friends and cupid so when I saw that this book was inspired by that one I didn't think twice and I took it to read and I really liked it.

The story revolves around Emma, a shy nerd who feels abandoned when her sister goes to college far from home. Determined to fulfill the missing items to submit her application to the college of her dreams, she focuses on the school's Coding club project.

As she is excited to create an app to connect mathematically compatible couples, she begins to realize that life is not as precise as mathematics. However during this journey, she begins to make new friends and realize that she may be enjoying her fun and sociable colleague George.

Between confusions, unusual dates, confessions, Emma will need to rediscover herself and decide what she wants to fight for.

Does YA not work for me anymore? I hope not, because that would make me sad.

This is an Emma retelling. As someone who has read multiple Emma retellings this year, let me say that it is hard to do a good one. I’m starting to think Austen herself could only write this story and make it work.

Mostly, this was boring. I think it would have been better off without a love story for the main character. I have no idea why she ended up with someone other than it was expected. It was definitely a change in her character, which is good, but it wasn’t well explained. I get why he wants to be with her but not the other way around.

I did like the friendships, but I wish they could’ve been explored more. It felt very surface-level. I was kind of rooting for a Jane/Emma relationship if there was going to be one, but I think that’s just because their friendship was probably the most meaningful one.

I don’t have much to say. This was pretty forgettable, but it wasn’t a horrible book and I wouldn’t tell someone not to read it.