Reviews

Love, Decoded by Jennifer Yen

thecutestlibrary's review

fast-paced

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

2.5

zer0desu's review

DNF at 29%

I really couldn't get into this... I wanted to like it since I want more STEM girls (as I am one myself). But Gigi (suitably fitting her name) is so pretentious and annoying to the point of being insufferable. I don't mind having a rich kid as the MC, but her actions really say "spoiled brat" and I just can't deal with those types, especially since it's literally her only quality and it doesn't seem like there will be an "improvement arc" for her.

readbyuna's review

3.0

2.5 ⭐

lack in romance it wasn't even slow burn???? didn't dig deeply into the relationships or characters' development… in fact, i was bored some of the time. the book felt a bit unbalanced in terms of pacing? but ok i liked the coding aspect.

cravebooks's review

2.0

So I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t finish this book because there was just a LOT lacking in the story. I loved the concept and I thought it was going to be a really great book, but I made it last 100 pages and realized I simply did not care about the characters or what happened in this book. I think my main issue with the the main character, Gigi. She is a very rich girl who seems to have everything handed to her in life and yet all she did for the first third of the book was just complain about the most trivial things. Also, I know that this is supposed to have remnants of an Emma retelling, but it did not work out for me because it seemed to have kept more of the rich classist side of that story, instead of the nosy matchmaker side. Gigi is very rich and the fact that in todays day and age, she still doesn’t realize that not everyone has as ,cub as she does just seemed too unrealistic.. Also, Yen made at least three references to Covid and I would like to leave that in the real world. So, I just did not connect with these characters and did not care enough about the story to finish this.

ananascanread's review against another edition

3.0

Thank you kindly to Penguin Publishing Group for providing me with an eARC to read and review

I was so excited to read this book, but I'm sad to say that it did not live up to my expectations. I thought it was a rom-com, but the romance aspect was severely lacking.


Love, Decoded was a coming-of-age story, that followed Gigi an upper-class student that strives on being the best student. It's an innovative retelling of Emma by Jane Austen, yet with less character growth by the end of the novel.

I'm not going to lie; I was little bored reading it, even though it had so much going on! It had so many relationships, the matchmaking, the competition; I honestly couldn't keep up at times. I do wish that by the end of the book, we had more closure, I had so many questions left unanswered. *sad*

Love, Decoded was supposed to be a friends-to-lovers romance, which made me super excited about it, but Kyle was barely in the book.

If you are looking for a light coming of age story, with a touch of romance that deals with some important issues Love, Decoded is the one for you!

jolyn_'s review

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? Yes

3.5

101jazzy's review

lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.25

charisanorris's review

4.0

This was an easy, fun modern high school retelling of "Emma." The plot was believable and I felt like Gigi truly understood the mistakes she made and showed some good growth by the end of the story. I felt like her romantic feelings for Kyle could have started a little earlier on, as it felt rushed at the end, but I thought they were very cute and Kyle was very loveable. I do think Gigi could have been punished a little more for what happened, but again it's a feel good story.

This is a clean YA book which is refreshing(aka no sexual content or cursing). I look forward to reading A Taste for Love.

kylaslittlelibrary's review

4.0

Love, Decoded by Jennifer Yen
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

wenwanzhao's review

Not really into it and realized that it was an Emma retelling, which made it worse because it’s not as good as Emma.