Abigail Hing Wen delivers a delightful blend of intrigue and romance in Kisses, Codes, and Conspiracies. This YA novel masterfully weaves the high stakes of tech-world competition with heartfelt exploration of identity, family, and ambition. The protagonist’s journey through love and loyalty feels authentic and engaging, making it hard to put down. Fans of her earlier work will adore this fresh, dynamic story that keeps you guessing until the very end. A must-read for anyone who loves tech-savvy heroines and smart, swoon-worthy romances!

This book is so focused on external action, and the characters are only vaguely sketched out. But I also found the action to be unbelievable and rambling… not a good fit for me. I won’t be sharing this review publicly on other sites since I ended up DNFing at 30%. Thank you to the publisher for the ARC.

Heist and a well executed love triangle what more could you want?!? How about babysitting a 5 year old as well?

This action packed romance is fast paced and enthralling. You won’t want to put it down. You get to know the characters throughout the story as I believe books should be. Nothing worse than half a book of boring backstory and character building forcing the second half to cram the whole plot in. This book is definitely not guilty of that it’s moving through plot from the very start.

If you like romance but need more excitement than a standard contemporary romance book offers I recommend you give Kisses, Codes, and Conspiracies a try.

A new YA book by @abigailhingwen that reminded me so much of Adventures in Babysitting!
🧑🏻‍💻
After getting very close to one another after prom, Tan Lee and Winter Woo agree to cool things off between them because Winter and her mom rent a room from Tan’s parents and also, Tan is just getting over a breakup from his dream girl. Months pass and Tan and Winter’s parents decide to go on vacation to Hawaii leaving the two home alone to care for Tan’s little sister. Suddenly Tan’s ex busts back into his life carrying some stolen coins she is trying to sell to escape her overbearing parents in Shanghai. Now she, Winter, Tan and his sister, Sana, are all on the run from thieves trying to steal the coins!
🪙
This was not at all what I thought this book was going to be in the very best way possible! I assumed #lovetriangle but the action and adventure was such a great surprise because I don’t see enough of #books like these in young adult books It kept the pace of the novel moving quickly and I adored the romance as well. Sister Ava is a saint BTW. Happy release (last) week! Grab your copy now!

CW: violence, assault, violence, death of a parent, grief, kidnapping

Thank you so much NetGalley for this ARC! I very much enjoyed how fast-paced the story is with never-ending action! *wipes tear* the friendship building, the way the characters think, the #foundfamily trope. You can't help but love these characters immediately! Especially my girl Rebecca :) The ending makes it all worth it and if you're like me where you don't care too much about things in the story being realistic and just let it be, you'll have a fun journey the entire time!

3.5 rounded down to 3

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc!

I enjoyed this! It was a nice spin on a normal romance book, the mystery and suspense aspects of the book worked really well. All of the characters were pretty smart and were able to navigate the San Francisco area quite well for being teens with limited access to technology and other supplies. It had the classic trope of parents being gone so there was no adult intervention in their escapade, but I didn't mind that since that played a role in the plot towards the end. Most of the book was pretty good, but there was one thing I didn't like as much: there were too many characters. Some of the characters could have been combined because most of them served the same purpose.

DNF
this was way to chaotic and all over the place and a novel where if done correctly, all this outlandishness pulls you in and keeps you going because you just have to know how it ends no matter how foolish or unbelievable it is. But with that being said I didn't connect to the characters and that tanked my interest in everything else. Maybe if I had read it at a different time it would be a different story but it just did not work out for me at this time.

If you like plot-driven books (vs romance or character driven), this is definitely one to put on your TBR. It was one of those stories that felt like a movie (in a good way!).

DNF after a few chapters. I just couldn't connect with the characters, and the pace felt slow to me. I was expecting action right off the bat, and the slow beginning didn't work for me. I was disappointed because action/adventure-romance is my favorite genre, but the way this one was written just wasn't my cup of tea.

(Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advanced copy and may be subject to change upon final publication.)

I have been looking for a YA book with pure Asian vibes like my favourite shows Hello Kitty and All the Boys I have loved series for a while. So when I came across the opportunity of getting a chance to read this book, I jumped on it, and well, I have been reading a lot thrillers lately as breaks in between deep books, so this came to me at a perfect time, a breath of fresh air with a mix of my favourites.

I loved the vibes instantly, felt like home. It started with a bang of some romance magic which came in with family ties, setting up the plot as we keep reading, smoothly that there is instant connection to the story, and some layers of past were added along which fleshed out the main character Tan, that it made sense why Tan chose to take some action for Rebecca even if its his ex.

And the ride forward into the plot was fun, kudos to the writer for keeping the pacing consistent throughout with more layers added, like the brother sister bond of Tan & Sana, and growing bond of Winter & Tan, each secondary character was given enough attention that I could still remember them even when the thriller part took a crazy edge.

Codes was definitely another highlight as I am always a fan of brainiac main characters. All in all, I loved reading this book, kinda got my mojo back after reading a really deep book.
Book Recommendation - Hell Yeah.

Tan has experienced a tumultuous romantic history. Initially, his socialite ex-girlfriend ended their relationship to pursue someone of higher social standing, and the woman he is currently interested in is hesitant to complicate their relationship further. "Kisses, Codes, and Conspiracies" is a fast-paced mystery and romance narrative. Hing Wen constructs the story in an engaging manner that encourages readers to continue turning the pages. While the three main characters are somewhat developed, there were opportunities to deepen their characterization that were not fully utilized. Additionally, the foundation for the mystery is somewhat uncertain, and the antagonist is fairly predictable.

This was a great story. I loved it. Thank you net galley for this arc. It had me laughing out loud. I would highly recommend checking out this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Feiwei and Friends/MacMillan Children's Publishing Group for this advanced copy of Kisses, Codes and Conspiracies. I really wanted to like this book, the premise seemed really interesting. One good thing was that they story was pretty short. But it was too unbelievable for a non-fantasy book. The romance wasn't really a love triangle and the friends to lovers trope was really underwhelming. The two main characters didn't sound like any teenagers I know, they sounded like middle aged fortune cookies a lot of the time. I really hated how Sana was inserted as plot armor to get the story moving. Like the candy crush at the cove, the pirates in Pink game to get the decoys. The fact that they were always able to outsmart or even outfight the trained assassins over and over really made it hard to finish.

Kisses, Codes, and Conspiracies promises to be full of vibrant characters, high stake hijinks, and a love triangle. Does it achieve these lofty goals? Yes and no.

I quite enjoyed the fast-pace of this novel, with our characters constantly on the move as they work to help our MC's ex escape from her family's clutches. With strong relationship building, heartwarming moments, and scenes full of action movie cuts, this book will have you on the edge of your seat. I truly loved the overall vibe of the story, the mystery of the pursuit for these golden coins, as well as the softer moments of connection between Tan and the other characters - Winter, Rebecca, and Sana - as they adventure through the Bay area.

That being said, this is a very plot-driven book. Those softer moments are lovely, but the characters as a whole are very one note - Winter is an aspiring actress who has a dead father, Tan is an expert code cracker at 16, Sana is 5-going-on-11 in craftiness, and Rebecca is a frustrating heiress running from her abusive family. At the end of the day, I feel like Rebecca was the only character to truly grow from the events of the book, giving more main character energy than the rest of the cast.

Additionally, this book asked for a lot of suspension of belief. A sixteen year old knowing more about code cracking than his professional parents, or a PhD student? A bunch of children outsmarting goons for hire? A helicopter in a highly populated area of the city? Geographically incorrect landmarks (I don't know whether this was intentional or a huge editing oversight)?? There were also consistency issues that bothered me, and as a whole, I felt like this needed to go through a couple more edits and a thorough dig through Google Maps.

All in all, this was a brain-off, vibes only kind of read that just didn't meet expectations for me. That being said, I'm not the target audience, so someone younger who doesn't know the Bay Area really well would probably be fine with this. I was just so bothered by these details that I couldn't get on board with it all at the end of the day.

TW: kidnapping, hostage taking, violence, threats of gun violence, injury detail; mentions domestic abuse, toxic family, threats of deportation, death of a parent

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 2/5
World Building: 2/5
Writing: 3/5
Pacing: 2/5
Overall: 2/5

eARC and finished copy gifted via NetGalley by Feiwel & Friends via Macmillan Children's Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this one! I love Abigail's writing and she created such a fun world in this story! I loved the different cultural elements and the way all the characters truly cared about each other.

I really enjoyed this one! It definitely gave me Adventures in Babysitting with a side of Hackers vibes. I loved how action-packed it was while finding time for tackling some serious family issues and a splash of romance. I also loved that it was the perfect length to binge in a day so I didn’t have to sit in suspense wondering what was going to happen next!

Thank you so much to Macmillan Children’s for this eARC. All opinions are my own.

Title:  Kisses, Codes, and Conspiracies    
Author:  Abigail Hing Wen       
Genre: YA      
Rating:  4 out of 5

After a magical kiss at Prom, best friends Tan Lee and Winter Woo agree to cool it off, a plan that goes awry when their parents jointly head off to Hawaii and leave Tan and Winter to babysit Tan's sister Sana together. If that isn't complicated enough, Tan's ex-girlfriend from Shanghai arrives on his doorstep with money stolen from her billionaire father and thugs on her heels.

Tan soon finds himself on the run, trying to out-manuever international hackers and protect his friends, family and sister - and his own heart.

Okay, the premise sounded a little bit far-fetched to me, but this was a fun read. I liked Tan and Winter a lot, and Sana was such a handful! If you’re looking for a cute, fun read with a happy ending, this would be perfect. Fortunately, there wasn’t a lot of talk of code to eliminate the fun

Abigail Hing Wen is a bestselling author. Kisses, Codes, and Conspiracies is her newest novel.  

(Galley courtesy of Macmillan’s Children’s Publishing in exchange for an honest review.)

I wish Abigail Hing Wen's books were around when I was a teenage girl. I love the way she writes smart, funny, and complex Asian female characters. And of course, there's fun romance in her books. This one is different in the others in that the plot moves quickly because of a mystery. There's so much fun in the heist and conspiracy plot!

Tan, the male lead, also is dealing with a love triangle. He has a magical kiss with Winter at prom, but then decides to not progress things further. Of course, he has no choice because they end up in forced proximity when Winter is hired to babysit Tan's sisters. Then the ex-girlfriend show up. So many hijinks set up in San Francisco. So much of this book feels cinematic, and I can see teens especially getting drawn in, and not wanting to put the book down. It's sort of a younger version of Crazy Rich Asians. Very fun.

This was quite enjoyable. It kind of gave me The 39 Clues vibes, which I loved. There is some romance, but not much, as this is a YA book. Tan and Winter have a bit of a makeout session after prom, and Winter decides they need to cool it, which, from her perspective, I understand entirely. I appreciated that Tan also understood where she was coming from. After avoiding each other for a while, their parents take a holiday together to Hawaii, leaving them to babysit Tan’s little sister, Sana, who is absolutely adorable.

Enter Rebecca. She took something from her father, and he wants it back. This leads the three to solve puzzles and avoid the people chasing them. There is a bit of a love triangle, but you kind of really know who the endgame is.

Tan and Winter were fantastic characters, and Rebecca served her purpose. Rebecca probably had the most character growth, but as I said, she served her purpose. For most of the book, I was utterly enthralled by the heist more than the characters. It’s not that they were bad characters, but the lack of communication did drive me a bit batty.

Overall, this was quite enjoyable, and I hope to read more from this author.

I enjoyed this author's other book - The Loveboat so was excited to check this one out. I enjoyed the plot of this book - it was full of action - it was entertaining and fun. This is a definite YA novel - solid book with a wild adventure. Thank you to NETGALLEY and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.