Once Upon an Algorithm combines geeky tech jargon with a dash of sizzling romance, creating an ideal pick if you enjoy chick lit with a blend of both technology and passion. For those less inclined towards tech, be prepared for occasional detail overload, as the author has undoubtedly either delved deeply into research or boasts firsthand experience in the realm of product development!

I really enjoyed this book. It took me a bit to get into the office coding world of it. (I may have googled a few things to better understand the book) it was good. The main characters did not annoy me. It had a good built up story line, the dilemma, and the so called HEA.

There was moments while reading that my heart literally sank for the heroine. I wanted her to be happy and get the guy. I know it did not happen like all rom coms but I feel it worked out well for all those involved.

I would recommend this book to others. It was fairly light hearted and not dark romance. Did have a few 🚩 red flags. Don’t want to reveal more than that because I don’t want to ruin the book for others.

Rating: .5⭐️/5
Spice: .5🌶️/5

What just happened to me? We didn’t get an “I love you”? The love interest was married but kinda not in love with his wife but was but wasn’t? Like I just couldn’t with this book. I started confused, got more confused, and stayed mad about it. Also, the main character was classist af when she talked about other people not having educations. The banter was good until it bordered on sexual harassment. The spice was minimal and the writing confused me.

Five Emojis to Describe This Book: 😵‍💫😗🤨😳🤷‍♀️

Wow! This book was definitely not good
I tried giving it a million chances and it did not meet any of my expectations or excitement that were given by the cover.
The characters were all over the place and I don’t think I understood anything that was supposed to be written in this story

Thank you netgalley for the arc tho

Enjoyable rom com, but did we really need all the jargon and details of developing an app?
I found it interesting up to a point, but if you didn't know the jargon to begin with, it soon became quite tedious.

Cheating involving a married man enough said. This book just kept getting worse and I’m not here for it.

I don't know how to deal with this review, because this book is simply the worst thing I've read in a long time. I'm not going to say of my whole life, because I have read bad books and as time goes by I forget about them, but in the last years I have always been able to get something good out of books I didn't like, but I just can't get anything good out of this one. My feeling was bad when I was reading it and when I finished it, and it's bad now that I'm writing the review.

There is one thing that happens that for me makes the book horrible, but it's true that I wasn't liking it before that thing I tell you. In order not to make spoilers, I am not going to say it without putting the spoiler warning afterwards, but I want to emphasize that I was already not liking the reading and it is not that thing that makes me not like the book. A certain thing what makes it is that the book instead of being a 2 is a 0.

In general it is a book that I found quite boring, I think it doesn't have an agile pace and it was very heavy for me. And I think that's a big mistake when you're reading a "romantic comedy" because the theme itself invites you to be a fresher and more entertaining book, but here I found the opposite. However, I think that this point is something very character and that it can really be due to me and my personal taste.

I also think it is a book that sins of being overly technical or to put too many things of technology. It's not something that usually bothers me, in fact there are books that I love and these things have a lot of weight, but if you take this and add that it's a book without rhythm, I think it's the perfect cocktail to get bored. And, honestly, I kept reading out of responsibility to say "they sent me the ARC, I want to finish it".

DNF @ 72% - I really did try. I'm sorry. I also feel awful writing this but I'm hoping it's constructive in some way.

Okay firstly - there were too many characters. In the first few pages you meet your FMC and then 4 or 5 of her friends. I remember 1 of their names. Later on there's a team of people and their roles - again, I only remember one of them. Family and family friends too.

Secondly, I really struggled with the flow of the dialogue. I wasn't sure when one person's dialogue ended and another began, it was quite confusing. I had to re-read parts and go back to try and get the flow of the conversations.

Thirdly, I didn't feel any chemistry between the main characters. The dialogue was jumpy, things happened that made no sense and I was sure I'd misread. The MMC was very unlikeable. The spice really should have been closed door. When the main spice happened, I actually wasn't aware it was happening until about halfway through. It was repetitive ("moving on me, in me") and there was no detail at all about what was happening. I thought they were kissing but my guys were doing the nasty and I didn't even know.

My biggest issue though - I had no idea what was going on. I didn't understand the tech talk at all regarding the app development and at nearly 3/4 in I still don't know what a ticket is or what they were doing. Unless you have a pretty in depth understanding of app development and coding, it was really hard to follow and understand. I loved thay the FMC had an important and technical job but for readers with absolutely no knowledge in that area it was just too confusing.

Lastly.. my absolute least favourite trope of all time - cheating. That was the last straw for me, I'm sorry.

There was soooo much promise with this book. I was really looking forward to another STEM romance but this one just did not work for me. I gave it my absolute best shot but there were just too many things I didn't like to rate it any higher than I did.

Thank you so much to Harper Collins for sending me an advanced copy to read - I wish the result had been different

I’m afraid this book wasn’t for me, I would’ve loved it to of been, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. I tried my best to get into this story but I couldn’t no matter how hard I tried. I wasn’t a huge fan of either of the main characters, and the tropes that this book included which ultimately led to the low rating. Really wish I could’ve enjoyed this one!

I actually loved this book, the perfect bit of escapism, I found myself genuinely liking the characters and invested in what happened. Of course it was slightly predictable as are most chick lits but I would 100% recommend to others to read

This was a completely different romance novel, which I really loved! Jack and Leonie are brilliant characters in this dating app story that really proves opposites attract!
The chemistry between the characters makes you laugh along their journey together - also with their roles being computer-based this book is great at highlighting computing is for women as well as men, with a real don’t judge a book by its cover attitude.
I will certainly be looking into reading the other titles by this author as their style was completely refreshing and once I started I devoured this book over a weekend (I couldn’t wait to find out how it ended)

I was so disappointed with this despite initially finding it intriguing and the cute cover suggesting I was getting a fun, light, stem workplace romance. This is not romance, nor is it funny and it’s not even really spicy. I don’t understand why this is marketed as a cute spicy stem romcom, it is none of those things. Unfortunately I really struggled to finish this book because I was not enjoying it at all.

There was never a point where I was actually routing for these two, they simply don’t make any sense, there is zero chemistry between them and I straight up dislike the male protagonist. And it’s not just him, even Leonie grated to read. Both main characters were problematic, acting better than others or saying sexist things. And most of the plot hinges on miscommunication over a stupid misunderstanding from their first and second meetings. Also the fact that Leonie is an enormous pushover when it comes to her insufferable brother and this perceived familial/emotional guilt.

Her friends and her mother were all awful, not a single one of them acted like they cared about her or liked her the slightest bit. And the advice they give her, or how they respond to genuine points she makes regarding her relationship, was awful, toxic and lowkey misogynistic. They’re all awful friends and she deserves so much better. This entire situation comes about due to their peer pressure because god forbid a woman be almost 40 and single in the friends’ minds - so whilst on a trip to a city she’s never been in before, she goes to a bar alone to meet up with a stranger from an app (based on matching opposites??) with the intention (from her “friends”) to have a one night stand.

SPOILERS NOW — Moving past the fact these two have ZERO chemistry, their conversations are so dull and they don’t even really seem like they like each other - this man has a wife?!!?! Like what? And other than Leonie, no one seems to think this is a big deal. This was revealed late in the book and it threw me completely, there were honestly enough issues for these two to resolve before adding this craziness in.

Thank you to the publisher for this arc. All views are my own. In a way I’m glad I went into this with zero research and an open mind, but every review I read I agree with. This is not a terrible book but it is marketed completely wrong, (beyond the tropes and labels not being accurate) I just don’t think this is a romance at all and I think this is a disservice to the author who has obviously spent time, effort and money on a story she wanted to tell. Perhaps if readers could go into the story having a better idea of what it was about, there wouldn’t be such shock/disappointment and low reviews over reading something completely unlike what you expected.

Once Upon an Algorithm was a delightful read that captured my interest and held it all of the way through. The characters were real and relatable and I cared for their outcome. Definitely a great way to spend a day! Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

This one of those books that they had a sliding scale for ratings. I kept waffling between three and four stars. I enjoyed the premise of the story. Unfortunately, at times I felt overwhelmed, lost within the words. It would take some time to fall back into the story. The enjoyment would continue until the next time. In the end I am glad that I kept going. Jack and Leonie's journey to happily ever after had a lot of obstacles.

I enjoy, what I call, geek stories. I always find myself learning and I read a nice romance. Once Upon an Algorithm actually gave me some insight into my own son. His computer language has always left me with a headache.

From the beginning, there interactions between Leonie and Jack kept the story flowing. Who knew a blind date set up on an app could be so interesting. Jack and Leonie's interesting conversations about programming were riddled with so much more. They are keeping secrets. Secrets that could destroy them.

Leonie's real life was her girlfriends. If you like reading text, you will be quite happy. They do a lot of group texts that got this old lady lost and reading them twice. There were some giggle worthy responses from some of the gals as she discusses all things Jack.

Jack and Leonie's attempts at love need a reboot frequently. Every time I thought they had got their stuff together, one of them would say or do something stupid. It was like real life. Like real there are a lot of ups and downs for Jack and Leonie.

Its a cute book but I can’t get over the fact it involves cheating. Honestly it would be much better with that part of the storyline. I feel like this had so much potential with the office set romance but it had to involve an affair and ruin everything. If you can look past the infidelity I guess you would enjoy this book. 2/5 stars

GIRLBOSS alert. This is for all the girlies who want to be ( or wish they could be) women in stem. It reminds me of all the best parts of an Ali Hazelwood book. Clara is a star.

I was really excited to read this book but unfortunately had to DNF around the 40% mark. I kept trying and trying to read it but just couldn't connect to the book nor the characters. The overall idea was great but sadly it just wasn't for me! I will try and reread this is the future.

I read an eARC of this book so thank you to the author, the publisher and Net Galley.

I’m not normally a romance reader but I really enjoy STEMinist romance. I like that the characters have passions and careers outside of the romance and it’s interesting to read about different careers.

This book certainly has a strong female protagonist with a rich life of close female friendships and a career they are passionate about. I also really liked that she was closer to forty and she felt really believable.

A lot of the book is about work. The main character and the love interest both end up working at the same place on the same project. I liked that there was a story and a driver beyond the romance. I work in a similar role to the main character so I understood what was positioned but I did feel there was a lot of jargon. I wondered if this might be confusing or offputting for people who aren’t familiar with these tools/ processes I.e talking about Slack and Jira.

I enjoyed this, I thought it was a good balance of the romance and the characters’ other passions and goals. I did feel the main character was manipulated by her step-brother too much to the point it was frustrating that she let it go on as long as she did, particularly where she could see it was harming others. The lack of communication felt self-destructive. Overall though an enjoyable read and I was really rooting for the main character!

Mein Leseerlebnis

Da das Buchcover ansprechend aussah und sich auch der Klappentext interressant und frisch anhörte, wollte ich dem romance Buch eine Chance geben. Doch leider hat sich der Liebesroman als für mich nicht passend herausgestellt.

Von Beginn an wirkte der Schreibstil auf mich nicht so einnehmend wie erhofft und vor allem die Dialoge hörten sich etwas hölzern. Zunächst dachte ich noch, dass ich mich daran gewöhnen könnte, das passierte aber leider nicht.

Zudem fiel es mir schwer die Freundinnen der Heldin auseinander zu halten und der Held war mir nicht in jeder Szene sympathisch. Darüber hinaus konnte ich die Chemie zwischen den beiden Hauptcharakteren so gut wie nicht spüren.

Da ich das Lesen der Liebesgeschichte daher nicht genossen habe, habe ich den Roman schlussendlich nach gut acht Kapiteln aufgegeben.

Mit romance Büchern, die im United Kingdom spielen, habe ich überraschenderweise selten Glück, keine Ahnung woran das liegt.

Abgebrochen.

Für wen?

Wen das Buchcover und der Klappentext ansprechen, für den könnte sich das Lesen der Liebesgeschichte lohnen. Schaut vor dem Kauf unbedingt in eine Leseprobe rein und achtet darauf, ob euch der Schreibstil und vor allem die Dialoge ansprechen.

I love this book. I love anything that Hass to do with reading and reading. A book about reading really is just a fantastic way to spend the day.