I enjoyed this book! The concept was interesting and the twists worked well to advance the plot and complicate our heroine's situation.

In the first half, the THEN/NOW structure split the vibe between a romance (behind the scenes from the "the bachelor"--esque reality tv show and a thriller (her husband's disappearance). I enjoyed the back-and-forth at first, but then both sections dragged out for too long. I started skipping the romance sections entirely and skimming the thriller sections. Basically, I got bogged down in the middle of the book.

Jumping ahead to the end, the pieces came together neatly. Well-paced writing that also explored character, and the supporting cast had their own tidy arcs.

With less material and more editing, this could have been an "A" for me.

This was such a funky story that is so ahead of its time…, well actually not really! I enjoyed the fun out of the box ideas but it was a tad hard to follow.

AI meets reality television in this entertaining, thought-provoking thriller. Julia Walden is a Synth (synthetic human) designed and built for one purpose: to compete on a reality TV show called The Proposal and win the heart of handsome bachelor Josh LaSala. It’s all dates, roses, and falling in love… until it isn’t. Julia may have gotten the man, but her dream turns into a nightmare when Josh goes missing – and she’s the police’s number one suspect.

I was blown away by how much I enjoyed Jenna Satterthwaite’s genre-bending debut novel! This mash-up of thriller, sci-fi, romance, and pop culture is not only totally entertaining, but also deep and keenly observant. Told on two timelines, the Then sections take us from Julia’s creation, through her time as a contestant on the Bachelor-esque reality tv show, and brings us up to date on her life as wife and mother. The Now timeline is all about the suspenseful aftermath of Josh’s disappearance. Both timelines are so well-written! I was able to perfectly envision everything that took place during filming in the past and was totally enthralled as Julia tries to figure out what really happened to Josh in the present. This story kept me guessing the entire time and I was completely surprised by the big reveal! Julia is fantastic character: well developed and sympathetic in her almost-humanness, and her experiences really had me thinking about prejudice, the ethics of AI, and the morally grey area of programming vs. culpability.

Fans of Annie Bot by Sierra Greer will definitely enjoy Made for You! Many thanks to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing, and MIRA Books for providing me an advance copy of this book.

This was my first ever science fiction read and I really enjoyed it! It really makes you stop and think about how life would be (or might be in the future!) if we ended up with synthetic humans. That being said, I do wish we had’ve gotten a bit of a deeper explanation as to what Julia was? Was she a robot? Was she a super human? I’m still not clear and would’ve loved if they had’ve laid it out a bit more for us. I also think there could have been a little more character depth. They all felt just a tad hollow!

But other that that, I didn’t see the ending coming and it felt complete and satisfying while also making you a little uneasy at the very end. Overall though, it was great!

You’ve heard of The Bachelor. Now imagine it with a Synth woman competing against her human counterparts to capture an eligible bachelor’s heart. Jenna Satterthwaite’s phenomenal debut novel Made for You brings this futuristic idea to life … but will this unconventional love story have a happily ever after?

Julia, one of only three Synth women in the world, is seemingly human in every sense of the word, apart from her body being built with robotics instead of cells and DNA. Julia, implanted with a donor’s eggs, can even become pregnant and have a child, and if you didn’t know any better, you would never guess she isn’t human. Which is why she is able to compete on the reality TV dating show, The Bachelor, and no one is the wiser. When Julia makes the choice to tell bachelor Josh that she is, in fact, not human, she fears that he will send her home. But Josh can’t deny that there is something between him and Julia … she was, after all, made specifically for Josh by Andy Wekstein, Julia’s creator.

Now, a couple of years post-Bachelor, Julia and Josh are happily married with a new baby Annaleigh. They are living in seemingly marital bliss in a rural Indiana, but even there, they can’t escape the harassment they receive by people who do not believe Synths should exist. Their lives take an even darker turn, however, when Josh leaves one night for a hiking trip and never returns. Julia soon finds herself as the prime suspect in his disappearance, targeted by the town’s Synth-hating sheriff. Can Julia put together the pieces of the mystery and find Josh before she finds it’s too late … not only for him, but also for herself?

Contemporary novels featuring robots are quickly becoming a favorite of mine. I love when the concept of robots is introduced into real-world settings and the robots are given the opportunity to interact with society in a relatable, accessible way. This may very well be our near future with the recent surge in AI capabilities, and I find stories featuring humans and robots co-existing to be fascinating. This is the first robot story I have read that falls into the suspense category, and I love the questions that it raises about the culpability of robots when confronted with a crime.

Told in dual storylines, featuring the past and present, Made for You slowly unravels the mysteries of what happened to Josh that fateful night. It takes us back to Julia and Josh’s days on The Bachelor and shows the intricacies of their complicated relationship up until Josh’s disappearance. The present day storyline follows Julia as she tries to unravel the mystery of what happened to Josh, while also attempting to clear her name.

This tightly-woven novel had twists and turns that I did not see coming, and the perfectly composed ending where everything came together was the icing on the cake for me. I sat back in awe at Satterthwaite’s cleverness as the pieces of the puzzle fell into place in my mind. A nicely done romance-suspense-sci-fi hybrid by an up-and-coming new author!

Recommended for fans of Annie Bot.

Who knew a Bachelor meets AI murder mystery would be so deep?

Made for You felt like an exploration of the vulnerability we have as humans - through the lens of a synth. The dual timeline mystery had me guessing all the way through while I empathized with the main character as she navigated/discovered the feeling of joy, grief, otherness, pain, friendship, love... and all the paradoxes that comes with being alive.

I didn't expect to walk away with several apt observations on culture, philosophical questions, and personal takeaways from a story like this. I was simply delighted.

Not a fan of AI books/cyborg type characters usually, but I enjoy reality shows from time to time, so I wanted to see what this book was all about. I like the bright cover and title. The story was a bit off for me. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Perhaps at a later date it will capture my attention more.

This book was a wild ride that kept me turning digital pages as fast as I could for as long as I could. I loved the dual timeline narrative showing us how the main character got to be in this position, loved the whole concept of a synthetic human being on a Bachelor-esque show, and the way the author addresses deep, existential concepts naturally and sincerely, without beating the reader over the head with them. A delightfully entertaining and thought-provoking mash-up of reality-TV, science fiction, and crime thriller. I would definitely recommend this book to friends and family!

This book was a fun ride. The break-up of Now and Then really helped in building the story into it's final conclusion. I really enjoyed the "Then" parts when The Proposal was going on. Since I was a fan of The Bachelor, it allowed me to very easily visialize those scenes as if they were real and not just words written on a page.

I really loved how Julia was written, but also the whole story behind her creation. It gave me pause to think of what liberties humanity could take in creating something like her or LARS - who at the end of the day was the real hero of the story.

I really enjoyed this story, even with some of the more hard to believe liberties that were taken in order to make the twists and turns of the story work. It made sense in the storyline and I don't read fiction for reality anyway, so it worked perfectly for me.

This is definately a book that should be on your shelf and I look forward to subsquent books by this author in the future.

Hmmm….this one is a little tough to rate. I think, ultimately, I will give it 3.5, rounded up to 4.

The premise is fantastic. A Synth competes on a reality show like unto “The Bachelor”, and she has been expressly created for the bachelor himself. We get scenes from the show, when Julia first wakes up, interspersed with scenes from 15 months later, when Josh is declared missing after an impromptu hiking trip.

There are some creepy characters in here. Bob, the peeping tom neighbor. An unknown female who *really* dislikes Bots. Josh & Julia’s home has been vandalized a number of times. A looming, small-minded small-town sheriff. The author does a good job of creating suspense and a general sense of unease.

However, I just could not get into this until the last three-quarters. It’s a very slow burn, and I kept putting it down and reading other books. I wanted to love it, but the pacing is a large part of why I can’t give it a full four stars. The other reason is because on the reality show, Julia was reduced to a puddle of goo every time she thought of/was around Josh. Like, insta-love to the extreme, fawning and gushing, and it extremely annoyed me. I guess that’s why I don’t watch “The Bachelor”. 😄

With all that said, I was really into the last part of the book, and I’d definitely try another of Satterthwaite’s books.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary eARC—thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing and MIRA!

I am shocked at how good this was!! I was expecting nothing more than an entertaining read; akin to watching reality TV (which is completely fine).

BUT I was wrong; this book was paced perfectly and also well written. As soon as I started it, I found it near impossible to put down. I literally gasped at some moments out of surprise but also had some of the "aha I knew it" moments too.

Julia's inner monologue made her seem very real and relatable. She didn't feel flat which made it easy to root for her. The fact that she was a Synth and her personhood was generally questioned reminded me of other science fiction and fantasy novels I had read. There are some parallels that can be made from this novel as to how otherness is viewed in society at times.

There weren't any plot holes I could sus out and the ending felt satisfying. I was ready to ignore any shortfalls due to how much I liked the main character but I didn't need to since the plot and dialogue blew my expectations out of the water.

1000% would recommend this book to anyone. I might have to do a reread with my book club once it is officially out! Honestly, this should be made into a Movie or a TV show.

I am giving this a 4.5/5 which I'm rounding up to a 5.

Thanks Netgalley for the ARC!!

I really enjoyed this book!

It's romance reality show, sci-fi, mystery and thriller all wrapped in to one.

While on the surface it seems like a book about AI/Bots and how that would play out if they could be created to function in society, it really feels like it's a lot deeper.

Misconception, prejudice, society, Creator/creation, abuse...there's a lot...but it didn't FEEL like a lot.

Everything was laid out well as far as timeline and flashbacks. Sometimes when book go back and forth between past and present it can get tiresome or confusing. I think Jenna did this wonderfully. We learned things exactly when we needed to learn them. I was actually surprised by the twist and that's rare these days. Thrillers are becoming more and more predictable and I didn't' find this one to be at all.

I think the premise and plot were great and I'd definitly recommend it.

Hi! Author here to drop what's basically a pretty personal Author's Note. First, I hope you enjoy reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it. I like to joke that on the surface, this book is pure suspense candy. But underneath, this book is a piece of my heart.

I wrote it during one of the worst times in my life. My youngest sister Heidi, only 34 years old and mom to four little kids, was dying from MDS, a blood cancer. After 4 years of treatments that nearly destroyed her, the ride was finally over.

MADE FOR YOU was the last of my books that she read.

My main character Julia’s journey through the experience of pain mirrors my journey, and some of Heidi’s as well. In the beginning, Julia’s pain has positive results: it exposes her vulnerability and makes her seem more ‘human,’ which opens up the potential for deeper connections with others. But as the story progresses, pain pushes her to her very limit, severing her connections, isolating her, and driving her to make choices that would be otherwise inconceivable.

Going into the cancer journey, Heidi and I both believed ourselves to be strong people, strong enough to ‘survive’ cancer mentally if not physically, but cancer broke both of us in ways we never could have imagined. As Julia starts to break down, with enemies on every side, people seeking to objectify and control her, and no true help to be found, I poured my cancer trauma onto the page.

This book was a cry of anger against the Maker who had always felt like the loving center of my faith, but now felt like a traitor. Why do we exist? Are we made for love or for pain? Why aren't we strong enough to deal with the awful things that happen? Do we even matter, or are we nothing but dispensable parts?

The book may not answer any of these questions, but despite the fantastical set-up, I hope you feel the honesty shining through. These were my actual questions about my existence and humanity’s relationship with the divine. These were my very real fears about whether my creator was cruel or kind. About whether there is meaning in pain, or just senseless chaos. About whether love truly wins the day, or pain and death are stronger. In a way, Julia is my "if only"–my cry for a strength I could not find within myself.

I hope that in reading MADE FOR YOU, you find what you need. Delicious reality-TV-flavored escapism with that fun speculative dash … or a cry of anger against the suffering in this world.

Thank you, dear reader, for picking up this part of me that is so personal, and for touching my journey through the nightmare of cancer without perhaps even realizing it.

You hold a piece of my heart in your hands, and I am so honored. I like to think Heidi is honored too.

Thank you, NetGalley for a chance to read this book. I was surprised at how much I LOVED this book. Honestly, I hope this author writes more books because of how much I enjoyed reading this one.

There were twists that I didn’t see coming and I really liked the plot of this book.

I absolutely loved Julia! She was my favorite character in this book ❤️

Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing and MIRA Books for providing this book, with my honest review below.

Made for You was a fascinating book that played with the idea of modern pop culture, in the form of a show reminiscent of the Bachelor, and synthetic humans and bots. Julia and Josh meet on a dating show just as Julia has gone ‘live’, as she is a synthetic human designed to be Josh’s perfect match. Post competition the couple faces some rough times with the locals in their small town (in a reflection of society as a whole) not being accepting of a synthetic human, and challenges as Julia becomes better acquainted with Josh.

This book was both a reflection of our society today, with prejudices at play while also closely aligning itself with modern pop culture. In doing so the sci fi elements didn’t feel like a massive stretch. The mystery was so interesting, because it played with the idea of AI and non-human agency - in addition to a classic ‘who dunnit’. I was supremely creeped out by the end in the most delicious way, as Jenna Satterthwaite presented issues in glorious grey that resonated. I highly recommend this for readers who want to be similarly fascinated and left thinking after reading, with a sci fi interest (I will say, again, due to how this is written it’s not deep sci fi and should appeal to any adult fiction reader). My only complaint is that I wanted to explore the world the author created and its implications for even longer!

Thank you Netgalley for the arc of this upcoming release!

I am seeing a trend for some 2014 releases. Cyborg, bots, AI, all sprinkled into mystery and romances. This takes all that we love from reality TV, blends it with the dual timelines and sci-fi elements of AI. This was so eerie because this felt too real.

Fun little thriller with fun little characters! I totally loved the main char she was so great to read from and I don’t think I’ve ever read a thriller that mixes standard thriller stuff with fake humans/AI AND dating games at once. Thanks for the arc

I really enjoyed this book! Great story, nice pacing, and amazing characters! I sense that this one will be quite popular.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC!

AI meets the Bachelor in this murder mystery thriller in which a synth (synthetic human) is accused of murdering her reality TV husband. This is a genre I didn't know I needed until I read this one! This concept is so intriguing and engaging. Do the other contestants know she is a synth? Does she tell them? Does she tell Josh?

Fast forward 15 months and Josh and Julia are married with a baby. Josh goes missing and she is the prime suspect. With all the haters, including the police force, what is she left to do but investigate Josh's disappearance on her own. During her investigation, many truths come to life and mysteries are unraveled.

This story is told via dual timelines and will keep you guessing right up until the end. It is engaging and thought provoking and downright fun.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing, MIRA and Jenna Satterthwaite for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.