I wanted today give this one the benefit of the doubt, despite what many reviews already say. Unfortunately I have to agree with many of those reviews.

From the start I found the FMC’s friends to be so annoying. They are loud and just keep taking. Then they force the FMC on a date with a stranger in Paris, and things keep getting weird from there.

The FMC makes a lot of references to movies, people, and other things that just don’t make sense to me or are so far out that I’ve never heard of them. Maybe it is just me, but it was hard to follow at times.

There was absolutely no chemistry between the FMC and MMC. In fact, they pretty much hate each other after they meet for the second time, and it’s all because of a stupid misunderstanding.

The FMC acted like she was better than other people, and the MMC said some really inappropriate and sexists things to the FMC while they were in a work environment. I was not okay with any of this.

*An ARC was provided in exchange for an honest review

“𝙉𝙤𝙗𝙤𝙙𝙮 𝙞𝙨 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙚𝙘𝙩, 𝙇𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙞𝙚. 𝙉𝙤 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙤𝙧 𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥 𝙞𝙨. 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙝𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙬𝙨.”

This book had all the making for a great romcom. The premise was good and the character development was great (even if I did hate some of the characters). I did get lost amongst the tech talk at times where things weren’t explained in layman’s terms but it didn’t take away from the overall feel of the book. Leonie went through an absolute roller coaster of emotions and it was nice to watch her grow so confident. The suspense in the relationship kept me intrigued throughout. A lovely rom-com and a potential five star for the tech minded readers out there.

*received and e-arc in exchange for an honest review*

Once Upon An Algorithm made me laugh, but not in the way I think this was intended to. It's supposed to be a rom-com, but I didn't really get that. I laughed at how immature the couple was, there was more of a love/hate thing going on and not love/laugh.

I was excited that the main character was not a young 20 something, but around 40...until I realized she was emotionally, at least to me, still very young. I didn't enjoy the way Leonie and Jack, at least to me, didn't really like each other at all! Antagonizing isn't flirty or fun, and that's who they came off to me.

I actually enjoyed the technical parts, but the romance fell flat.

This book was provided to me by NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This was a fun fast paced book. I love any enemies to lovers book and this one didn’t disappoint. I do think it was a bit techy but other than that i really enjoyed it and would highly recommend for all contemporary romance readers.

It seems to me that in all this effort to write contemporary romances with STEM topics, we have lost sight of the fact that plot remains a fundamental point for any book that is not an essay or is not written by a Nobel laureate in literature. The second fundamental point then with regard to romance books is of course the drama that results from misunderstanding of any genre. In both cases, this book fails rather miserably in my opinion, because the plot is rather flimsy and the drama comes from an inexplicable decision made by both characters not to talk to each other, period. That said it goes without saying that I did not like the book and I do not think I will read any more by this author.

Mi sembra che in tutto questo sforzo per scrivere dei contemporary romance con degli argomenti STEM, si sia perso di vista il fatto che la trama resta un punto fondamentale per ogni libro che non sia un saggio o non sia scritto da un premio nobel per la letteratura. IL secondo punto fondamentale poi per quanto riguarda i libri d'amore é ovviamente il dramma che deriva da un fraintendimento di qualsiasi genere. In entrambi i casi questo libro fallisce piuttosto miseramente secondo me, perché la trama é piuttosto raffazzonata e il dramma deriva da una decisione inspiegabile presa da entrambi i personaggi di non parlarsi, punto. Detto questo viene da sé che il libro non mi é piaciuto e non credo ne leggeró altri di questa autrice.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

I was so excited for this book after reading the blurb but it definitely fell flat. I think Leonie and Jack lacked chemistry. There was no angst or pining. There is way too much technical jargon and it's a huge turn-off when reading for anyone who isnt knowledgeable about coding/tech start ups. There is also some problematic stuff that didnt sit well with me (the FMC's friend is very bi-phobic in the opening sequence, and the MMC technically cheats on his wife). This book is also billed as a rom-com but I didnt find anything in this book to be funny. The author has the FMC call her mother both "mom" and her given name in the same paragraph for no discernable reason and it's really confusing. Lastly, the author allows the FMC's step brother just manipulate her from the beginning with no recourse. The ending felt entirely rushed for the disappointing HEA.

Thanks Netgalley for this opportunity.
I enjoyed this story, but probably for the wrong reason. Leonie and Jack end up meeting when she is looking for someone "completely opposite" of her desires, and have a wonderful but relatively PG-13 time. But they are forced to be around each other when they end up working for the same company, and chaos ensues while they deal with work, budding romance, desires, checklists, and ultimately what makes for a good match.
I won't lie to anyone: I did not love the romance here. I didn't really get the attraction between Leonie and Jack, and I didn't think their chemistry was believable. I think her interiority was a bit difficult to follow and while I LOVED the greek chorus that was her friend group, the detachment from her real life was a bit difficult.
BUT I did really love all of the work scenes! As a person in STEM, I really enjoyed hearing about their work, building an app, going after a buisness sale, etc. It wasn't the point of the heart of the story but I thought it was done really well! I think that helped counterbalance some of hte issues in their love story and was the better basis for how they grew to like each other.
So I gave this three stars because I enjoyed part of the story, but its probably more of a solid 2.5

I really enjoyed 'Once Upon an Algoritim' and ended up reading it in one night. It leaps straight into the chemistry between Jack and Leonie very early on and at first I thought it was a bit much too fast, but it set up the story between them both perfectly. There are lots of mishaps and funny moments, plus the stress of working in a tech start up that all comes together to make it an entertaining read. I would recommend it to others who enjoy a romance novel with a 'will they/won't they' trope.

I really liked the premise of this book but I just didn’t connect with the characters and felt there was the lack of clear and direct communication between Leonie and Jack. I also felt there was too much going on and I was a little lost with all the tech world descriptions and did find myself skipping most of this. Unfortunately it just wasn’t for me which is a shame.

I literally fell in love with Once Upon An Algorithm by Clara O'connor it was an ARC read but it has been one of my favorites to read in the month of November. This new romance book that comes out in January is a new STEM romance that has all the banter, spice and character chemistry. People who are fans of Ali Hazelwood and Sally Thorne will definitely enjoy reading this novel. This is an opposites attract where Leonie and Jake 3-5 list into this algorithm app that results your date into being the opposite of the their own list. Leonie and Jake fun story starts but ends abruptly before it even began. The two main characters paths cross again at their place of work. This book has an evil step brother, family trust is tested along with each character having some type of baggage. Can the good outweigh the bad, and will they be able to make it or break it? If I could rate this book 100/100 stars I would. I don't want to give much away otherwise it will spoil the book before anyones read it yet. But trust me when I say you won't regret reading Once Upon An Algorithm and I hope you cherished their love story as much as I did.

Leonie had one night with a stranger Jack who is the opposite of what she's looking for. But when she goes to her new work place, she sees him again....

The step-brother is a total villain. Leonie and Jack both have LOTS of issues to work through without his involvement! I am glad that they work things out in the end. I like Leonie is smart and tech savvy. I prefer a bit more swoon in the book but it's a great book otherwise. It's a terrific book.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

Once Upon an Algorithm by Clara O'Connor was just so long. And so full of needless technical detail. Fixing the second problem would have helped sort the first. I kind of like Jack and Leonie but they drove me mad with their inability to communicate. And the lack of discourse between Leonie and Eric was even worse. It's an opposites attract love story derailed for me by too many issues.

I did not like this book because it felt like too much was going on at the end and we didn't get to see enough of the couple finally being secret free and happy.

I'm between 1-2 stars. This book called my attention because it has a beautiful cover and women in STEM vibes however it was a bit disappointing.

The beginning of the story was good, interesting base but as it progressed a few things through me off! First Leonie at the beginning portrays herself as a self assured woman with high walls so it was super disappointing how Eric walks over her an manipulates her feeling while well aware of how wrong he is behaving. Then we have Jack who is married and does not disclose that fact, sure he never said he was divorced but when he talk about it it implied that was a thing of the past. It does not matter his marriage was just for appearances he still did not say anything.

Finally the cherry on top was their goodbye when Leonie offer him a solution (sure it was not fully well thought) but he rejected it and her, only for a while later take that solution and ask for forgives with only a "I won't walk away again" Please!

.

This was a decently solid romance. Leonie and Jack have great chemistry, and there was definitely constant motion in the plot. Unfortunately, the tech developer language was pretty hard to follow, as someone not in the field.

I'll start by saying this is a cute, quick read.
I have a degree in computer science, so I understood the computer-ese that was used throughout the book, however I do believe it could impact the potential audience of this book. Not everyone will understand what is being said all the time.
I also felt like a lot of the "problems" could have been solved with better communication. Though, I must admit, I am not a fan of the miscommunication trope. If you love it, this might just be the book for you. Overall, I'd give this book a solid 3.5 out of 5.

While I enjoyed reading this book, the lack of clear and direct communication between Leonie and Jack is really annoying. There are so many times when they just needed to be honest with the other, or at the very least, let the other person explain before deciding what they meant and walking away.

Leonie is in her late thirties, from the US and lives in London as some kind of consultant while Jack is an app developer from Ireland, but living in the US. They meet through an app for a drink while both happen to be in Paris but they realise they have a connection and they spend the night together, though nothing actually happens between them apart from the odd kiss.

When Leonie gets back to London, her stepbrother, Eric, asks her to help him out with getting their app across the line in time for him to sell to an investor. She agrees once she finds out that Eric has put all the family money on the line. Instead of speaking to her mum and stepfather about the situation and finding out what is really going on, she blindly believes Eric and decides she's the only one that can save their fortune.

When she arrives in the London office she meets none other than Jack. They have some angsty back and forth for a few weeks but things don't really heat up until the are both called back the US to help with the launch of the app. This is also when Leonie finds out Jack is actually Eric's business partner and part owner of the app that Eric is trying to sell out from under Jack.

Finally she realises what is going on and speaks to all involved about what is happening but I can't for the life of me work out why someone of her age would think it would be best to deal with the whole situation on her own! She's not a teenager though she certainly acts like one most of the time.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

This book has a fun premise and I did enjoy it but it definitely could have been better. I want to piggyback on what another reviewer stated in that this is way too techie for the normal person to read and understand in parts. My husband works for a big techie firm and has for many years, and we have had many conversations around coding, apps, etc. and I still didn't understand half of what the author was trying to portray. It will definitely put some readers off and I did find myself skipping those parts.

The romance was just ok. I felt Jack was acting like a baby and getting pissy for little to no reason. He way over-reacted to a couple of situations. I did like their chemistry when they were together but then like a light switch it just shuts off. Also, if you are going to do open door, then do open door. I felt like the author wanted to make it spicy but skipped some of the good parts lol.

Solid start for a debut author and with a bit of fine-tuning future works will be even better.

Thank you to NetGalley, HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter and Clara O'Connor for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

They say opposites attract so what happens when you put your list into an app and your date is the opposite of your list.
The fun starts and ends. A one time meeting until your paths cross again in the workplace.
Family loyalty, emotional baggage and a conniving step brother are all obstacles. Can they be overcome or is it time to walk away?
Enjoy the romance, misunderstandings and the attraction between Leonie and Jack.
I did

An emotional roller coaster of a contemporary romance novel

I expected this book to be the usual "they get together, there's a conflict or misunderstanding, but then it gets resolved, happy ending" type of story. I didn't expect the situation to be so complex and for the story to be such an emotional rollercoaster, where you can barely untangle the strings to decide how you feel about it all. I felt just as frustrated, confused, and at times hurt as our main character, Leonie.

The setting: STEM but make it SaaS

Let's start with the setting. Leonie, our main character is a senior product manager, while Jack is a lead developer (or so she thinks) working on a new app. They're surrounded by other developers and a UX/UI designer, working in sprints, doing sticky note brainstorming sessions, all that jazz.

As someone who works on a SaaS product in real life, although as a marketer, it was almost weird (in a good way) to be placed in a setting that's so familiar. I'm used to not understanding much of what they professionally talk about in STEM romances, so it was fun to be on the other side this time.

The characters of Once Upon An Algorithm

Leonie. I have mixed feelings about her.

Overall I liked her character, especially when she decided to hear Jack out towards the end to make decisions after hearing both sides of the story. MCs so often get stubborn and do the opposite that it was very refreshing.

But having been so hung up on the age difference, and falling for Eric's gaslighting and manipulation still annoyed me quite a lot. I know she needed the latter for the storyline's sake, but it still annoyed me a little.

Jack. He was an emotional rollercoaster in himself. First I was all "oh I somehow trust him as Leonie does" then I went "how could I think that he's such a jerk" and it kept going up and down and up and down. Until the very last page.

Eric. Just eww. The most awful asshole with his manipulation and gaslighting. Since his character was written very well, he and his audacity and entitlement made me so mad I almost threw my Kindle across the room a few times.

The girls. They were so fun to have around and I just wish we could have seen more of them and their friendship dynamics. I'd love to even read a whole separate book starring this group as a whole.

Mia & Mike. They're the good characters that are unfairly looked over, but whom our MC reconciles with at the end. I felt like their relationship with Leonie wasn't very well done, as the author scratched the surface but didn't go deep enough.

This way Leonie does sound more like a priviliged girl complaining, as Jack also saw her, making it harder to justify the strain in her relationship with her wonderful mother and actually really nice stepfather.

Is Once Upon An Algorithm spicy?

I feel like the categories and the blurb made this book seem more spicy than it actually is. Whatever spicy scenes it has are very nicely written, but not as explicit as I expected them to be.

They complement the book nicely but I definitely wouldn't call this a spicy romance -it's about the same level as The Love Hypothesis and all these other STEM romances are. Maybe even a little less?

The story and my overall impression

Overall, I really liked the author's writing style, which made it really easy to read. It was fun to read a contemporary romance in a STEM setting so familiar to me with a storyline not as straightforward as they usually are.

With that said, I wasn't the biggest fan of the romance between the main characters. It felt too messed up and the resolution of their conflict was too hasty. I wish there was more time spent on the romance and that we got a better MMC.

Since it's a quick and easy read though, I give it 3.5/5.