One hour...

In Paris, American Leonie is set up with Jack. He does not possess anything on her list.
He's younger than her, she's pushing forty, he's closer to thirty.
He's Irish. He's her best tumble in bed.
And he's her boss.
I wish there was more STEM angle to this book.

I wanted to like this one and I really struggled with finishing it. The premise sounded cute but alas the execution was, umm, not great. There was a lot of coding references. I mean a lot. Which is all fine and dandy but when there’s pages of it and then the two main characters have zero chemistry it makes for a challenging read. Then the fact that they are workplace rivals that turn to lovers but again, they have no chemistry between them, added another challenge to get through it. I can usually read a book in a day but this took me almost a week to get through because it wasn’t too much fun to read. The FMC was kinda annoying and then we find out the MMC is married like 75% of the way in!?! Nope. Not cool.
Anyway, there may be some that will enjoy this story. I just wasn’t one of them.
Thanks to One More Chapter and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.

I wasn't sure about this book when I started and I'm still not sure now.

I feel a lot of it was very cliched and standard book tropes.

I enjoyed it wasn't a story about 20 year olds and was closer to my age, but it felt like the only difference was the ages, some characters still acted like your standard rom-com characters. Making decisions and acting like they don't have life experience on their side.

This is such a great STEM romance. Leonie and Jacks chemistry is off the charts. I loved the Paris setting for a portion of the novel and the lesson how sometimes are best laid plans end up surprising us!

Firstly, a huge thanks to NetGalley UK and One More Chapter for giving me the opportunity to read the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It took me a while to start this book because I had the chance to read some reviews beforehand (which also unfortunately spoiled a significant part of the plot). The initial feedback wasn't positive, and it's rare for me to witness such a unanimous opinion. However, despite the general ratings, I try not to let reviews influence me entirely, as my experience with other books has shown me that my opinion can sometimes be the complete opposite.

I have to admit that this book initially gave off positive vibes: the cover is adorable, and I expected a cute, funny rom-com with a bit of spice. However, it didn't quite live up to expectations. The first few chapters were decent, as they were giving off the impression of a romance with great potential. However, it slowly started to become SO boring. While I usually enjoy the workplace setting in books, this one didn't kept me interested at all (I also skipped a few pages ngl).

In a rare occurrence for me, I found the MMC to be odd and disrespectful throughout almost the entire book. I don’t know if it was solely due to my knowledge of the awful plot twist regarding him, but I don’t think so: that made me hate him even more for sure, but I think I wouldn’t have liked him since the beginning anyway. He just gave off an uncomfortable vibe, so I really couldn’t connect with him at all.

The FMC was definitely better than the MMC, but the potential that the couple showed - especially in the beginning - failed to ignite that spark I seek in romance book couples.

I really didn’t want to agree with the many negative reviews I’ve read, but unfortunately I can't bring myself to rate this book higher than 1 star.

So, a nice read.

It had a bit of too much work in it so it was paced a lot, but..

▫️ wish it had MMC pov

About this book:
📕 her brother is an ass who sleeps with his business partner wife, use FMC for his benefit
📕 MMC isn’t really cheating when his wife has someone else - it’s not cool, but they had an agreement
📕 she stands for herself, I liked that

In the end, it should have his pov, things would be more understandable and loved more.


Thanks NetGallery for this arc.

Absolutely brilliant, loved it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me an advance copy, I will definitely be recommending.

I tried so hard... but DNF at 75%.

I was really enjoying myself. The writing style was fine and the characters were relatable enough. Up to the point where it was revealed that the male character was already married and therefore CHEATING ON HIS WIFE, I had a relatively good time.

This just was a point for me where I stopped reading and lost all interest. I'm very sorry to have to DNF this, but this just isn't my cup of tea -- no matter how much they may love each other.

Harry Potter references in this day and age are unfortunately just an instant turn off for me. I also was struggling to care about the characters from the very start. This was unfortunately a very swift DNF for me.

*thank you to the publisher for giving me a free ARC*
*all thoughts are my own*

*SPOILERS AHEAD*
Let me start with the fact that I initially really enjoyed this book up to about the 75% mark. I thought it was pretty good and had the potential to be a solid 3.5/4 stars. However, the last 25% absolutely destroyed it. Finding out the MMC is MARRIED and LIVES with his wife AFTER the FMC and MMC sleep together?? That is crazy. And the rest of the book just made it even worse with the very end just so unrealistic that I simply cannot believe they stayed together more than a week after the end of the book. And after finishing the book, i started thinking back and noticing little red flags throughout the book from the MMC being so rude to the FMC and refusing to communicate with her, instead just harassing and undermining her, to the FMC's step-brother never seeing sufficient consequences for his absolutely horrible treatment of the FMC the entire book. I really held out hope after the marriage bombshell that there would be some sort of amazing turnaround for the end, but there just wasn't and I was really disappointed. I am absolutely sure that some people will really enjoy this book, I am just not one of those people. If a really techy/ software startup-type romance seems interesting and you think you might enjoy this book, maybe pick it up and try it, you might love it, I just decidedly did not.

I tried giving it a million chances and it did not meet any of my expectations or excitement that were given by the cover. The characters were all over the place and I don’t think I understood anything that was supposed to be written in this story.

I originally stopped reading after 4 chapters because it was boring and nothing clicked for me. Not the characters, the settings, or the story. But I HATE leaving anything undone. I had unanswered questions (the main one being would she find love and how would it come about) and I needed that answered. So, I forged thru but then came to a complete stop. I literally could not go further cause I felt let down, as should every woman who reads this story written by another woman who thought it was ok to write this?! Are you serious?!

At nearly the end of book, we learn that the love interest (the guy) has been married the entire time he embarked on another relationship! He didn't tell the heroine of the book this fact before he had sex with her!! And to make matters worse, she only found out because her step brother told her the guy was still married!!! This was acceptable and would turn to a HEA?! SERIOUSLY?! But it didn't end there. Not only is he still married, but he still lives with his wife? I'm sorry, but after that, I didn't care read any explanation as to why he kept her in the dark, that status of his marriage or the HEA that comes after. This book was/is officially DNF'd. There is just no coming back from that.

Okay, nope!

No matter what I thought of the story throughout, the revelation that he is married ruins everything for me. I cannot get in board with that relationship being romanticized or shown in a good light at all.

No, no, no!

There was honestly nothing good about this! This felt poorly written, with annoying characters, terrible pacing and the worst part? A cheating MMC! I jumped on this title because it sounded like an Ali Hazelwood type of STEM-novella, which I love, but this was the furthest thing from it.

Would not recommend, sadly.

Once Upon An Algorithm follows Leonie who is a product manager that has promised to put herself out there more in searching for a partner. After meeting a one-night stand through an “Opposites Attract” app, she meets him again in London at her new consulting gig. As things heat up with Jack, will their respective secrets mess things up for them?

Starting out strong, I really liked the writing style and the settings of this book! We jump from London, Paris, and a bit of California, all with some great descriptions and atmosphere. I’d definitely be interested in O’Connor’s future books.

I also enjoyed Leonie’s friend group. A mixture of successful women at varying stages in their life, the sisterhood that they had through group chats and the gatherings, really felt awesome.

Now onto something that wasn’t great, there are a lot of reviews already about a significant plot point that I didn’t love. This plot point definitely played into my rating and enjoyment of the book but knowing it beforehand might have made it more palatable to me. I have lived in LA and brushed elbows with a few rich people/celebrities that definitely live their lives in a way similar to some of the “rich people” attitudes we see here. As much as I didn’t enjoy it in a romance book for our main character, I can’t deny that it’s partially realistic. This is a fairly large plot point so it’s not something that could just simply be removed, but I do wish there was some other event to pull it all together. Typically, romance readers don’t want to root for characters a part of a situation like this.

This was an entertaining read with the two main characters being fun and relatable. the story was a bit far fetched but that made it more fun to read! thanks to Netgalley x

This book is marketed a spicy, STEM romance and it just felt way off mark for me.

LA-born, London-based Leonie Durant is in her late thirties and painfully single. One of her best friends is recently engaged and her group of girl friends all head to Paris to celebrate. Leonie is a planner and a list girl but her friends urge her to try something different. They sign her up to a dating app called OPP/ATT where you input what you like and the algorithm recommends opposites that would suit you. Leonie reluctantly agrees to meet Jack.

When she gets back to London and is helping her stepbrother with his app/tech start-up, who is there too? Yep, Jack.

When I first started this book, I got all the romcom vibes, I LOVED the set up but it quickly went downhill for me. It was very work-based and I found myself losing interest. The biggest disappointment for me was that Jack (spoiler alert) was married. When reading a romance, I am looking for the perfect book boyfriend so having a "cheater" of sorts instantly puts me off. I know the relationship is described as them not being properly together but I couldn't get past it.

The spice was also non-existent and any scenes that did happen were closed door.

I did love Leonie's friend group and it was an easy read. I flew through it in a day(!) but unfortunately, it just missed the mark for me personally.

The beginning was a bit hazy and confusing. There was so much information and names to keep up with that I somehow got lost trying to figure it out.

It took more than a quarter in before the plot started to make sense. Even then, the morality of the characters is a big question for concern.

Written in the first person, the continuous monologue of the FMC was nerve grating and did not help the monotonous plot.

Also, it featured a lot of coding and tech/geeky stuff which was both good and bad. Good in the sense that you can learn a bit from them. Bad in that it was a lot of jargon not needed in a rom com.

Despite the above, it was entertaining and I was really curious to see what would happen with both main characters.

If you are into the nitty gritty of the tech industry mixed in with some drama and ‘romance’ then you will enjoy this.

I got an advance copy via Netgalley and the review is mine and voluntary.

I really wanted to like this book. But it's pretty bad.
I'm giving it two stars because I think the concepts are really interesting, and novel and had a lot of potential. So I think the author came up with an interesting idea but the execution was prettyyyy msierable. Honestly, where was the editor on this book???
First, unless you're in tech, the book working plot is incredibly hard to follow and brings nothing to the reader.
Second, there's a lot of plot points and subplots that make absolutely no sense in the real world and detract from the book.
Third, the main character is made pretty unlikeable. She's pretty classist, misanthropic, reallyyyy cares about age (and her tone and age didn't match...) and just made no sense to me. The first chapter I thought oh my gosh, she's so relatable but by the third, I was more 'I hope I'm nothing like her'
Fourth, a good editor would have helped clean the objective mess that is making the MMC married and a cheater. This brings down the book's potential to be a seller for sure. No one will be recommending this book because of that I think.
There's a lot of raw potential but it wasn't shaped well. Is it too late to go back to editing and not publish yet?

I was very much due an easy going rom com read and this book came along at the perfect time for me. I needed something to read that didn't require me to think and just sweep me away in a story and Once Upon an Algorithm delivered.

One of the big reasons I got so lost in this book was because I could relate to so much of it; not the romance part though. The work setting and all of the references to software development were basically my day to day life. Leonie stood at a board with post it's trying to prioritise an MVP produce was me. Leonie trying to get engineers to estimate their work was me. Some of it I cringed at, but only because it was so close to home.

The enemies to lovers storyline had me hooked but my word was I frustrated with these characters. It was classic enemies to lovers in that if they just communicated like normal human beings, their story would have been so different. But that would make for a very boring book. So I guess I just enjoy being frustrated at people.

I devoured this book, reading it in pretty much two sittings. It was straight forward rom com with lots of angst and the personal familiarity with the professional setting was the icing on the cake for me. Very much enjoyed!