DNF @ 30%.

Y’all, I can’t keep going.

I was initially drawn to this own voices story because it was an enemies to lovers romance featuring a Korean-American female protagonist working in the male dominated gaming industry.

I emailed the publisher when Melody was describing her favorite mug that has the atomic structure of caffeine on it (C8H10N4O2). That is a molecular formula. Not an atomic structure. I immediately was put off because I can’t stand the misuse of chemistry terminology to sound more intelligent especially since it’s my field.

The sheer misogyny and racism that is constantly thrown in the reader’s face makes it difficult to focus on Melody, our MC. As a female who got a Ph.D. in a male dominated field, all this did was give me flashbacks to the bullshit that I had to endure in grad school. And considering this is supposed to be a romance, I couldn’t get past this. This book is so triggering.

I understand that Melody’s parents are Korean immigrants and the author portrays them as being set in their ways (to the point of toxicity). The comment about the Black car hire driver was infuriating since it was just glossed over. That was an opportunity for the author to address that her parents’ views were problematic versus just saying “uh-oh”.

Also, I want the feminist video game that Melody came up with was zombie apocalypse featuring male strippers who attacked supernatural characters. Why do female gamers need male strippers in order to be interested in a game? Isn’t that doing the exact same thing that male game developers are doing? That was so gross and honestly showed that the author doesn’t know female gamers.

This book is a huge nope.

“Loathe at First Sight” by Suzanne Park is a timely and relevant women’s fiction novel that sheds light on the struggles of a female/minority placed in a predominantly white male working environment in the gaming industry.

Snarky, entertaining, and glaringly accurate, this book makes for a compelling argument on why the work force needs more diversification and inclusivity. I wish I could make every white male CEO read this book!

Blurb: Melody Joo is the newest video game producer at her gaming company and faces sexism, racism, and internet bullying at every turn. Melody fights hard to overcome each obstacle, embarking on a journey of learning to accept help and find love along the way.

There is almost no romance in this book, but I immensely enjoyed the topic of inclusivity and sexism. Pretty much every sort of harassment a woman faces in the work force was addressed. Melody was a bold, kick butt female heroine and I loved the hints of attraction laces through-out the book. There’s even a little surprise in the epilogue that left me completely satisfied. A solid new voice for women, Park made this book an easy read for me, despite having little to no romance.

A rom-com with a video game twist! This book is smart and funny and such a good read. I am already recommending it to book clubs and rom-com fans. The writing is great. The characters are a lot of fun. I can't wait to see what else Suzanne Park has to offer in the future.

This was SUCH an entertaining read! Melody, our heroine who has such great voice and is trying to thrive in a male-dominated profession!

The romance is sweet and engaging.

Highly recommend!

When I saw this book advertised as being for fans of Jasmine Guillory or Sally Thorne, and had an Asian protagonist, I snapped this one right up, and I’m so glad I did!

I’m a big fan of enemies to lovers romances, although the enemy in this one is not truly an enemy, Nolan is actually a great guy pretty much from the beginning. Melody’s real enemy (and there are lots of them) is far more sinister. I actually think the marketing of this one is a little off. The romance doesn’t seem to be the main storyline, taking a back seat to Melody’s work life. Luckily, that is super interesting, so I did not mind very much.

I really liked the setting of this book. I enjoyed seeing a hardworking female in a male-dominated industry handle both sexism and racism, which ran rampant. I thought Melody’s game idea was hilarious, and I liked seeing a behind-the-scenes look at how video games come to life.

With no explicit sex, this is a great book for those who just want a little romance and love story along with their story of female empowerment. Not a strict romance, but sweet and fun, and a great read.

REVIEW {gifted} #LoatheAtFirstSight by Suzanne Park follows Melody Joo. Melody is thrilled to land her dream job as a video game producer, but her new position comes with its share of challenges, including the infuriating ― yet distractingly handsome ― intern Nolan McKenzie. After creating a mobile game that has male strippers fighting for survival in a post-apocalyptic world, Melody's running the show on her studio's most high-profile project. But a slew of complications arise, including a social media trolling scandal that could end her career. Could the man she’s falling hard for help her play the game to win ― in work and love?

This book was- for the most part- a fun, lighthearted, easy read. The author was a comedian in a former life, and this definitely comes through in the writing – it was witty and had me chuckling out loud in parts. It is billed as an “enemies to lovers” romance, but for me it was a little light on the romance, and also a little light on the “enemies” part – it felt a bit more like “mildly irritating colleagues to friends to lovers” (is that a genre??). It is also very heavy on the toxic work culture. The reader is bombarded with example after example of sexism, racism, harassment, humiliation, bullying, even all-out death threats. I know that the author was trying to make a point here, and I’ve never worked in a video game company so this could well be an accurate portrayal of the environment (in which case DEAR GOD why does anyone work for video game companies??) but it was just a little much for me at times, and was a bit too much of a contrast to the “feel good” message of the rest of the book. Having said that, I didn’t mind so much that there wasn’t really much romance, as I thought the focus on Melody and her career was great. I do love an underdog story and watching Melody come into her own by the end and prove her haters wrong was extremely satisfying

All up, an enjoyable enough read but missed the mark just a little for me.

Thank you to @booksforwardpr for sending me a free copy of this book for review. All opinions are my own

3.5 ⭐️’s
Release date: Aug. 18th

Loathe At First Sight is about a woman working within the gaming industry and the challenges she faces. When I say challenges, I mean she is degraded, harassed by co-workers and trolls online, threatened, stalked, doxxed...it is just atrocious. I was angry at the male population she was surrounded by for most of the book. It irks my soul that women are treated like this. It’s crap. I would use stronger words, but I’ll keep it PC.

That was the main subject the book focused on, so I’m still sitting here wondering why Loathe At First Sight was chosen as the title. Yes, there was a hate to love relationship that happened within the novel, but it was a smaller storyline than the atrocities Melody faced. So that threw me off a bit. Going in, I thought I was getting a love story, but it was a lot more than that.

Another thing I wanted to focus on was the conversations with her parents. I found them to be hilarious, and loved Melody’s interactions with them. Her best friends were also pretty entertaining! There were quite a few times I laughed literally out loud. Makes me happy when that happens.

If you are a part of the gaming world, I think you would enjoy this. It was a cute, funny, but also angering, read.

Thank you to @netgalley and @harpercollins for the advanced copy for my honest review! ❤️

This was more funny than romantic, which I wasn't expecting but did enjoy. It was honestly more about the challenges of being a woman in a male-dominated field over being a woman looking for love. It was really refreshing in that respect and definitely made me think. If you love a slow burn rather than actual physical contact, this is the book for you!

Loathe at First Sight comes out later this month on August 18, 2020, and you can purchase HERE. If you love gaming, I would highly recommend this one!

The group of developers gaped as I barged into the almost-empty conference room. The wrong conference room. With beads of sweat on my forehead and upper lip, I panted, "Is. This. Tolkien.Room?".

Thanks Net Galley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Loathe at First Sight by Suzanne Park was smart, witty, romantic, and charming. I liked Melody; she's smart, hardworking, a great friend, and a strong woman. Park did an excellent job of making Melody's experience at working in the gaming industry authentic and believable. Every time she was knocked down by misogyny, casual, and overt racism and just straight assholes, I rooted for her to get back up.

I don't think the title matched the book. I think the romantic aspect served as a good sub-plot, but the storyline very much centered around Melody being the underdog in a white male-dominated environment. Not entirely misleading, but the title doesn't really give what the story is about justice.

Another thing I didn't love, the budding relationship between Nolan and Melody was kind of lacking. It felt like I was reading about an office crush that should have fizzled out over time.

Overall, great read.

I so wanted to love Loathe at First Sight, a rom-com/chick-lit read featuring a Korean American mc *and* set in the cutthroat (and renowned den of toxic masculinity) set in the gaming development role. But everything felt so scripted: the mc is quirky! but also kind of a doormat who has to learn to really stand up for herself with her friends, family, her job, and herself! It's like every box of stereotypes you could check was brought out and crossed off and what could have and should have been a charming, clever read turns into a slogfest that left me feeling like Loathe at First Sight is sadly very aptly named.

Synopsis: Melody Joo just landed her dream job as a video game producer but the company she works for is full of issues, including but not limited to its CEO and the new handsome intern, who happens to be the CEO’s nephew. On top of all this, her jokey game pitch is now becoming a reality — and the pressure is on, especially when someone leaks top-secret intel and the internet trolls come after her. Failure is not an option.

I really, really wanted to like Loathe At First Sight by Suzanne Park and it had some great elements — but something kept holding me back. At first, I thought it was that I just don’t care about video games, but after some consideration, I think I just didn’t really like Melody or really many of the other characters? That sounds incredibly harsh, and I did like Melody’s go-getter attitude, intelligence and how dedicated she was to not letting the bullies get her down, but she wasn’t particularly nice to her friends, in like a concerningly old-fashioned women-hating-women way that acted as an antithesis to the overall message of “girl power” that the book was trying to push, and I felt like I never got to know her on more than a surface level. The male characters also felt somewhat underdeveloped, something I didn’t mind when it came from the sexist CEO, but irritated me when I wanted to know more about the romantic interest.

I also think that this book comes across from the cover and description as somewhat of a romance and I want to warn everyone that it’s an incredibly small portion of the overall plot. Primarily, it deals with the extremely sexist and racist aspects of the gaming industry and how hard it is to be a woman, much less a Korean-American woman, in any male-dominated industry. I want to issue full TWs for sexist and racist remarks, including slurs, threats of violence, and doxing.

So for me, I’d recommend this one if you’re a woman in the gaming industry, wanting to learn more about the gaming industry or love video games — otherwise, I’m just not sure what I missed because I felt like I should’ve liked it and just didn’t.

My first @netgalley ARC! 😻🙌 Available August 18, #LoatheAtFirstSight by #SuzannePark is a fun romcom about Melody Joo, a Korean American video game producer who is trying to succeed in a white male-dominated industry. But being a smart, resourceful, modern woman with a penchant for junk food and snarky comments, Melody plows ahead and figures out how to succeed despite having an obnoxious CEO who facilitates the boys club mentality in the company and a distractingly attractive, smart, and charming intern who happens to be the CEO’s nephew. While this book throws some serious topics like sexism and racism in as obstacles to overcome, this is isn’t a serious drama that’s going to solve the world’s problems, it’s a light-hearted funny romcom with ridiculous situations that make for a fun fast read. I enjoyed it quite a bit!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / Loathe at First Sight by Suzanne Park / Pages: 368 / Genre: Romance / Release Date: August 18, 2020

Melody Joo is a junior game producer at her new company, and she is more than excited to see her creation, Ultimate Apocalypse, come to fruition. However, the fiery loopholes she needs to jump through to become worthy, to be deemed successful, to be acknowledged for all her damn hard work? You will not believe her journey. Way to stick it to The Man, Joo!

Real talk: There was romance, but not the main focus of Melody’s story. Told in her POV (and her POV only), I learned more about the gaming culture, what it’s like to be a female gamer, the insane amount of bashing that occurs on the Internet before a game even releases (much like ARC reviews), and the unfair treatment of women in a male-dominated workplace. The CEO of the gaming company was a total dickwad, but there were also some male colleagues who were on Melody’s team—one of which was her love interest. All the trolling and threats, racist comments that Melody had to endure made me feel so bad for her. Overall, I still enjoyed it! The Korean parental dialogue was my favorite; I laughed almost every single time because they reminded me of my Filipino grandmother.

Tallyho (when you read the book you’ll get that, I promise!)

The title and cover sold me right away, because it’s obviously going to be an enemies to lovers rom-com...or is it?

Melody is a new assistant producer at a gaming studio and Nolan is the intern who has stolen her coffee mug, and, oh yeah, he’s also the nephew of the world’s worst boss and that’s how he got the job (and the ability to steal Melody’s coffee mug). See enemies to lovers and rom-com ready.

While Melody and Nolan do start off on the wrong foot, they don’t stay that way and their relationship development does have it’s funny and charming moments BUT neither of those things are at the forefront of the story. Loathe at First Sight is much more about Melody’s journey as one of few women, and a Korean-American woman at that, in the gaming industry and the ugliness that comes with trying to succeed where you’re not wanted or valued.

Suzanne Park pulled few punches when diving into the nastiness that online trolls, of every walk of life not just gamer trolls, spew at anyone they deem not worthy or as having trespassed. She uses the vulgar language that is spewed at women and the racist slurs that are hurled at people of color and she shows the very real and scary realities of being doxed, including the often ineffectiveness of law enforcement. So you may want to check out some of the more specific content warnings before diving into this one.

But to balance out the heaviness of Melody’s work life there is her personal life. Her wonderfully imperfect relationship with her parents, who only want what is best for her according to them, and her best friends, who both have their own issues but are there for Melody when it counts, provide a perfect escape for Melody and the reader.

And then there’s Nolan! There is a romance there and it’s got some nice slow burn vibes but for me it was very much a tertiary part of the story. However, he comes in big at the end and gave this romance reader a little happy sigh.

I’m excited to read more by Suzanne Park!

I received a complimentary review copy of this book but all opinions are my own.

This was not the book for me. I liked the premise, but it didn't deliver. The characters were unlikable and there wasn't good chemistry between the leads.

DNF 26%

While the title of this book is Loathe at First Sight, it is deceiving. The Heroine Melody and the Hero Nolan have a few mild arguments/discussions near the beginning of the story, but that’s it. Not enough for me to consider the enemies-to-lovers trope.

The basic plot is that Asian-American Melody is working at a new job at a video game company. There she experiences a ridiculous amount of racism and misogyny. While that is 100% realistic and does happen in today’s world, it felt exaggerated. She was doxxed on the online gaming community purely for being a woman?! It just felt overdone.

And sidenote: I don’t think Melody was even a gamer. Why work at a video game company if you don’t play video games??

The romance was definitely a secondary plot point. There was very little chemistry between the two characters, and honestly Melody wasn’t even that nice to Nolan. Not sure what he saw in her.

I just…wish I enjoyed this more. My hopes were high and they were not met.

I was hooked on this book almost from the get-go.
Poor Melody working towards being great in her dream job and it turns out that the industry she entered is a misogynistic mess. There's the mandatory romance element of this rom-com, but the elements about Melody working her hardest to finish a project that her boss doesn't even support - - let alone encourage others to - and the horror that is the gaming-troll community are what really made this such an interesting read for me.
Of course, I'm all in with Melody's interactions with the romantic interest Nolan and there are some very entertaining side characters, so it's not just about the travails of trying to produce a video game while female. There are fun parts, romantic parts, stressful parts, just a little bit of everything to make sure that you get pulled into the story and enjoying it.
I also highly approve of the overall messages of not letting the trolls and horrible people of the world take you down, that asking for help doesn't make you less, and of supporting others to get things done.
There is so much to appreciate with this story. I highly recommend it.

Many happy thanks to NetGalley and Avon/Harper Collins Publishers for the great read.

Loathe at First Sight is a story about a female in the gaming industry who, through a series of unexpected events, becomes the producer and creator of her own video game idea.

This book was really frustrating for the first 60% of the book. Melody is a Korean female in the gaming industry. This means that she is subjected to all the racist, sexist, bro, boys club language one would expect in a male dominated organization without appropriate diversity initiatives. As a professional female I was begging her to go to HR, get a lawyer take action. She stood up in small ways, but for the most part she put a smile on her face, did her job, and was kind to others even when they weren't kind to her.

Melody is a girl with a backbone and does find her voice. I am glad I finished this book and got to see how she came into her own, but I was still dissapointed by all the missed opportunities to address the rampant misogyny in the workplace. I think especially due to the events of the Black Lives Matter Movements and Protests of 2020 I felt she should have intervened so much earlier in the story.

That being said, from 60%-100% I couldn't put the book down! There is a bit of a romance in the story, but it was definitely romance-lite. I really want to know how Candace is, and an update on Melody's parents.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and voluntarily give my review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon, & HarperCollins for the opportunity to read and review this book before it's publication date! This in no way affected my review, opinions are my own.

DNF @ 25%

I wanted this one to work for me so badly! There is definitely an onslaught of workplace negativity (in the way of rampant misogyny), and it was hard to read at times, but it wasn't the reason I set it down. I couldn't quite get into the main character's life or why things were happening or what she was doing - she was friends with people she barely tolerated, took a job that was full of jerks because it was somehow a bucket list item (even though I didn't see anything about her being super into video games herself?), and had a weirdly written relationship with her parents. There were also things that didn't seem to add to the story (although they could have come up later), such as Melody being an incredibly poorly related Lyft(er) passenger?

Ultimately, this one just didn't hit right for me - but these feel like personal gripes and I know this one has worked for other people!

CW: misogyny, racism, harassment, abuse

This was definitely women's fic and not a genre romance. I was expecting the storyline to focus on the hate to love relationship between Melody and Nolan, but it's BARELY a side storyline to the tremendous amounts of sexual harassment and abuse she endures at her job. This is DEFINITELY NOT A ROM-COM, and should not be billed as such. Sure, there is a bit of kissing and flirty and fluttery butterfly feelings, but the relationship is definitely not the focus of the book, and billing it as a rom-com or as a romance at all is misleading and sort of rage inducing, and is part of why I'm coming not to trust illustrated covers.

I was rooting for Melody being a minority woman in a male-dominated field. And as anyone who has lived through the #gamergate controversy (or is just a woman who games) can attest, gamers can be an especially hideous breed of troll. I loved the way Melody's brain works, like her joking idea for an apocalypse game with male strippers. And she even had some science (sort of) behind why they needed to be mostly naked!! Which is more than I've seen for some chainmail bikini ladies...

That being said, all of the characters fell somewhat flat for me. They're all just very two dimensional. Why is Jane rich? Why does Melody's other friend have these weird connections? There was just so much focus on Melody's internal monologue and her suffering that no time or attention was really given into fully developing any of the characters beyond cardboard cutouts to stand in for things for Melody to interact with.

There are several SEVERE roller-coaster moments in this book. It's like Melody will have something bad happen followed immediately by something good and then she gets less than maybe 5 minutes to enjoy the good bit when something horrible happens to ruin it all. After about the third little roller-coaster whiplash moment I was pretty sick of it.