Reviews

Love, Decoded by Jennifer Yen

maidmarianlib's review

emotional funny lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

 Playful and fun, feels a lot like Jane Austen's Emma, strong characters and love the main female character is a coder. 

mayar_reading_stuff's review

2.0

1.5/5

I did not enjoy this at all.

I appreciate the author's choice to have a flawed protagonist, but that's about it.

The love story wasn't interesting, the characters were not interesting, and the climax was so frustrating.

aprilbooksandwine's review against another edition

funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

phua_jieying's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

charms_professor_noble's review

emotional lighthearted medium-paced

4.0

xeponine89's review

emotional lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

mrasche23's review

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

cedarwishes's review

funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.75

afi_whatafireads's review

funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

“Everyone around me has this idea of who I am and how I should act,” . “If I don’t match up, then I’m not perfect, even if I am the best.”

A coming-of-age story on accepting yourself, inclusions of women in STEM and also of friendship and family relationships.

Personal Ratings : 3.25

If you've read the first book from the author, A Taste for Love, the story revolves around James younger sister Gigi Wong. She's ambitious, privileged and mostly someone who strives to be the best, and also a coding genius. When her dream to continue the matchmaking legacy of her family is mixed with her feelings of wanting to venture out into something more fitting for her, she found out that things are not as easy as it seems.

Personal Thoughts
Somewhat a retelling of Emma, Love Decoded is more of a coming-of-age novel that included a slice of romance at the end. The author was consistent in a way that, the representation of culture, the constant stereotypes that Asians in a white people country has to face, and also the inclusion of food in her stories is what I liked about her stories from the first book till now. She stuck true in a sense that she made both her books a retelling of Jane Austen with a modern twist. Whilst it was endearing at best, this book unfortunately did not deliver it.

Not all of the book is bad in a sense. The first half was actually decent, with us meeting James again in this book which made me smiled at his antiques with Liza. The one thing I liked about the book was how I could understand Gigi's feelings at a certain point. I've read reviews on how some people feels she's super insufferable, but honestly, in a sense, I kind of understood where she came from. Gigi is a perfectionist and honestly, she's a people pleaser to a fault in which makes her want to appear perfect and strive to be perfect. Whilst it may be good for some people, it was a toxic act for herself, in which I liked that the author took the time to build her character and gave her a redemption that she needed.

However, that was also the point that made me a bit irked with the book, and I felt like it had the same problem with the first book. The pacing of the story was quite inconsistent, and it became choppy at times. Whilst the first half was fine, I felt like there were too many filler scenes and that some scenes were not balanced. The author kind of just did not bring any depth to anything in this book, be it Gigi's character, Kyle's character, the romance, the coding part of the book and mostly the relationships too. I loved it, but I also felt like everything was just surface level and not balanced, which is a shame as it would be a good light read!

Honestly, I don't mind if the author included the romance at the end, where it will be more a coming-of-age novel and more on discovering yourself and appreciating your strengths, but like I've mentioned earlier, scenes of Kyle was so unbalanced that it made the romance chapter super bland :( It was a shame because I love a long best friends to lovers story, but towards the end, everything seemed to happen at once and everything just ended up with a rush.

Mostly, for this book, I think its more of missed opportunity. I wasn't disappointed with the book as I liked how the author explored about Gigi as a character and showing the ethics in coding and also how things can go wrong in a millisecond, which shows on surface level what it means to be a developer of a website or an application. However, it the author spent just a little time adding finesse to Kyle's character, and adding a more in-depth level to the coding part, it will be a good book. Still will read work's from the author, but I figured by now is more of her writing style at this point haha.

Thank you to Times Reads for generously providing me this gorgeous copy of the book.

Disclaimers: All my reviews are my thoughts of the book and according to my personal preferences. Even though I had received a review copy, it does not affect my review and honest thoughts for the book.

pagesinkedinshadows's review against another edition

lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This was a cute quick read.