This book was seriously SO fun. As a coder myself, this book was in the flow! I loved the idea of creating a matchmaking app to honor her aunt's business and help highschoolers make new friends, and the whole experience was totally realistic. We additionally got to see the microaggressions and bullying common to teens today. Gigi's friends are really the stars of this book, Kyle and Etta in particular. They really better her as a person and help her grow throughout. Overall this book was a quick and delightful read that I'd recommend to anyone wanting to read a YA contemporary with a bit of STEM and culture coded in.

*Thank you to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review*

This is a fun contemporary YA rom-com set in Manhattan that centers around Gigi Wong, a high-achieving Asian American student who has been raised to take over her Auntie's matchmaking business but secretly wants to be a coder. The detailed descriptions of Gigi's Manhattan dining experiences gave me a Crazy Rich Asians vibe. The characters were charming although not totally relatable. There was a lot of specific about their daily high school experiences and app usage that I think will mark this as a very 2022 novel. While the stakes did not always seem high enough to get me 100% invested in the characters, there was a sweetness and earnestness to several characters that made me want to keep reading. For a YA book, this had little/no mention of sex, drinking, or drugs.

Gigi Wong is a high school junior with ambitions to be the best at everything she does. However, her family is in the matchmaking business and Gigi wants to excel at finding true love for others as well. She struggles to compete with classmates and loves to win. Through the competition and struggles, her best friend Kyle always comforts her with food and movies. When Gigi meets a new transfer student, Etta, who struggles to make friends she comes up with a brilliant idea. She decides to create an app for her Computer Science class based upon taking quizzes and matching with similar friends. When she realizes the app will be submitted into a contest with the winner getting a summer internship, she forgets what truly matters to her.

Love, Decoded was a light and sweet read. I liked the inclusivity of different Asian cultures and the expectations placed upon Asian kids. It was also exciting to see a character like Kyle, who represented my struggles of being half Chinese in America. The story was full of fun and dynamic characters that discovered the meaning of friendship, through all the hardship high school offers. Gigi's character wasn't perfect and she had many flaws that made me dislike her a bit, but she came through at the end. The one aspect that was missing for me was the romance. The main relationship started within the last few chapters of the book. I would have loved to see their connection strengthen, rather than evolve quickly in the last pages.

3.5 stars

Thank you to Penguin Teen for sending me an eARC for an honest review.

A third of the way through, I was bored. Halfway through, I was just over it.

I really enjoyed Yen's previous YA book, A TASTE OF LOVE, so I had high hopes for this Emma-inspired book. Unfortunately, it just wasn't for me. The pacing was so slow that was bored for the whole first half. I decided not to finish the book because I was not enjoying it and didn't want to waste anymore time on it.

That being said, there were a couple of things that I did like and hated to let go of. Our main character, Gigi, was nice to get to know. She had a side to her that could be just like Emma (i.e. entitled, a bit ignorant, etc), but then there was a side that was completely her own (observative, sympathetic, kind). I was really excited to see where her character development would take her. Also, I thought her best friend, Kyle, was so stinking nice and I definitely had a little book crush on him. I was sorry to have to say goodbye to these characters and their journey.

Overall, I really wish the pacing hadn't been so horrible or I could have really enjoyed this book and its characters.

After enjoying A Taste of Love from the same author, I was excited to read this book.

What's in this book: Asian-American rep (characters of Korean, Filipino, Indian descent)

I highly recommend if you enjoy: Not Here To Be Liked, A Pho Love Story

RATING: 3.5 stars

Seeing that this was sort of an Emma retelling I was SO excited since I love everything to do with Jane Austen but sadly, this book didn't work for me. I felt soooo detached from the characters and portions were just about how rich she was. It got really dull for me. There wasn't much romance, and it wasn't funny at all. It really dragged for me. Emma is a hard to like character but most times I find her endearing, but I couldn't see that in Gigi. Nothing about her made me root for her or wish to know more about her. I didn't feel any chemistry between the characters, and nothing felt tense enough to get me really invested in the story. I really wish this one had worked for me because I wanted to love it.

Full review will be on pop-culturalist.com closer to the pub date. This is perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Jane Austen. Gigi is entering an app contest and her app goes viral. She made it to help her friend Etta out but now she’s caught between Kyle and Etta.This was so freaking cute and if you’re a fan of the k-drama Start-Up, you’ll love this one!

I absolutely loved Yen’s A Taste For Love, so when I heard that her next book, Love, Decoded, is another Jane Austen-ish rom-com, I was sold! But for a rom-com, it seemingly lacked in the “rom” department. I guess you could call the romance slow burn, but it was so slow and practically non-existent that I had a really hard time shipping the couple.

Especially when it comes to friends-to-lovers romance, there needs to be some sort of romantic chemistry or unrequited angst between them. Since Gigi was totally oblivious to the fact that Kyle liked her until around the 92% point, it made the romance as a whole feel really lackluster.

Even still, I think as a coming-of-age story, Love, Decoded holds its own. In true Emma fashion, Gigi passes oh so much judgment on others. A lot of her actions are enough to make me physically cringe. Which would have been fine with a stronger character arc by the end. I wish Gigi would have taken more time to reflect on her privilege as an upper-class student towards the end of the book.

I would also say that Love, Decoded had a lot going on. With the coding competition, matchmaking, and lots of character relationships— there is a lot to keep track of. I wish there would have been a bit more balance and closure for all of these things towards the end of the story.

Also— there was a comment made by Etta (I'm pretty sure??) about how fat a particular outfit made her look. It just felt unnecessary and tossed in there for no reason.

Overall, I liked how this book is a creative take on Emma and how Yen’s writing and humor shone through. If you go into this one with the expectations of a romance light coming-of-age story, then you’ll probably enjoy it more than I did. Love, Decoded is a solid read and I look forward to reading whatever Yen comes up with next!!

Thank you so much to Penguin Teen for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I’m a sucker for Austen retellings, especially ones featuring an all-Asian cast. I really enjoyed A Taste for Love, so I was super excited to read Gigi’s story in Love, Decoded next. I think overall, it’s a really cool retelling of Emma, but I think overall I enjoyed A Taste for Love much more. Love, Decoded felt way less cohesive as a story than A Taste for Love. I was left with a lot of questions by the end of the novel, even after everything had been wrapped up. There were also so many characters and relationships to keep track of that my brain was having a hard time keeping up. I also felt like the cover of the book was slightly misleading. I got the impression that this novel would be focused on Kyle and Gigi’s relationship, but Kyle was barely in the book compared to characters like Etta. In general, this book felt like a coming-of-age story intended for younger audiences compared to a romance novel like A Taste for Love, which felt much more sophisticated and grounded. However, this could easily have been because of the fact that Pride and Prejudice is a much more sophisticated story in nature, whereas Emma has a much more youthful and fun vibe. At the same time, it does respectfully discuss topics such as classism, racism, sexism, and more with the lighthearted nature of Gigi’s matchmaking shenanigans.

As with all Emma retellings, though, I felt so much secondhand embarrassment reading Gigi inflict her ignorance as a more privileged student on lower-income students like Etta. We barely see much of Gigi in A Taste for Love, and it was interesting to get in her head in this book, but there were times I had to take a break from the book because of how hard I was cringing at her actions. I’m intrigued to see if Jennifer Yen has more books planned for this series + universe, but for now I’d give this book about 3 stars!

I loved this book and the beautiful writing style from Jennifer Yen! I definitely had quite a bit of Jane Austen vibes with it all.

Overall, I think the MC was stunning and an amazing, strong woman!!