I'm a big fan of Zen Cho's SFF: I absolutely adored her short story collection Spirits Abroad and loved her novel Black Water Sister. So when I saw that she'd made an unexpected genre-switch into contemporary romance, I had to check it out. First things first: I think this is a bit misjacketed and definitely mistitled. It's less of a straightforward contemporary romance and more a knotty Asian family story, with romance: I'd have called it something like Family Business. Both our Malaysian-Chinese protagonists - Renee and Ket Siong - are deeply entwined with their family's problems and held back by family secrets. For me, this made The Friend Zone Experiment a lot more satisfying than the typical will-they-won't-they, as both leads have genuine reasons to hesitate about getting involved, both in the past and the present, that aren't based on stupid misunderstandings. The dry humour that I've loved in Cho's other writing is still present here, as well. I was fascinated by the way that familiar plotlines, e.g. breaking free from the corrupt family business, took on new emotional weight in this novel because of the way Cho wrote them. I got properly invested in the relationship between Renee and her brother, for example. Having said all this, The Friend Zone Experiment, unsurprisingly, is much more conventional than Cho's SFF, and for me, less interesting. It does what it does well but I hope Cho doesn't continue to focus on this genre.

I absolutely love Zen Cho I am so excite. To read and review this novel. I apologize due to an unexpected health issue ai am dealing with at the moment I’m a bit behind on reviews but very much looking forward to sharing my thoughts on this one very soon!