The Friend Zone Experiment by Zen Cho
Rating: 4/5
Release Date: 8 August 2024

Zen Cho's “The Friend Zone Experiment” offers a unique blend of romance and social commentary that pleasantly surprises readers. While the core of the story is indeed a second-chance romance between Renee and Ket Siong, the novel delves deeper into pressing issues such as rainforest destruction and corporate ethics.

The story follows Renee, a successful businesswoman from a wealthy Singaporean family who has established herself in London. Her path crosses again with Ket Siong, her university flame, who has fled to London with his family after their friend Stephen's kidnapping during a protest against deforestation in Malaysia. This unexpected reunion reignites old feelings and sets the stage for a gentle, slow-burning romance.

Cho's approach to the romance is refreshingly subtle. The rekindling of Renee and Ket Siong's relationship feels organic and gradual, with both characters supporting each other through their respective challenges. Renee faces a competition for control of her family's business, while Ket Siong grapples with finding his missing friend. The author skilfully weaves these personal struggles with broader themes of environmental conservation and corporate responsibility.

The novel's strength lies in its ability to balance intimate character development with larger societal issues. While the environmental themes might catch some readers off guard, they add depth and relevance to the story without overshadowing the central romance.

Minor miscommunications between the characters are handled well, avoiding the frustrating tropes often found in the genre. The ending is perfect, a satisfying conclusion to both the romantic and thematic elements of the story.

In summary, "The Friend Zone Experiment” is an engaging read that offers more than just a typical romance. It combines a sweet love story with thought-provoking themes, making it a standout in the genre. Readers looking for a romance with substance and a touch of social consciousness will find this novel particularly rewarding.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Pan Macmillan | Macmillan, and the author, Sandy Barker, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

Really enjoyed this romance of young Malaysians living in London. Who hasn't secretly been in love with a supposed friend? I enjoyed the mystery subplot, which gave an added depth and layer to the romance.

‘The Friend Zone Experiment’ by Zen Cho is a romance novel that goes heavy on the family dynamics and the cut-throat world of business. The main character, Renee Goh, is the CEO of a fashion and lifestyle brand and the daughter of the wealthy head of a Singaporean conglomerate living a seemingly perfect live in the upper echelons of London society. After a brutal break-up and an unexpected call from her father triggering an escalation of sibling rivalries, the last thing she needs is to run into Yap Ket Siong, the ex who tore her heart into pieces in college…

I really admired Renee as a character - especially her strength in advocating for herself, her bravery in calling her tormentors’ bluff, and her attitude towards her company. The flashback scenes exploring her college romance were heartwarming and sweet. The sophisticated layers of Ket Siong’s twisted loyalties and tragic past were well explored and his motivations were well-rationalised. The book combined elements of Crazy Rich Asians and Succession to create tension.

However, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would, for a couple of reasons: (1) the blurb called it a rom-com, but honestly there was very little humour for me - definitely more dramatic and less funny than most of the genre, and (2) the title implied that the novel would be a trope-driven light read, but there was no “experimentation” and the plot was much more driven by Renee’s quest to win her dad’s trust and respect in business.

Overall, I am giving this three stars and recommending to those who want to sink their teeth into a family drama with an intriguing girlboss main character and an important subplot about class and corruption. Just don’t go in expecting the fluffy beach read implied by the package.

I received an advance Digital Review Copy of this book from the publisher Pan MacMillan via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I am not really a blurb reader, so it may just have been me being unprepared, but this book was not about what I thought it would be about - granted it is still a romance between Renee and Ket Siong. However, I was not expecting it to go hard about the ethics of rain forest destruction in Malaysia and the ways in which big businesses contribute to deforestation on sacred native land. Was it still an enjoyable read? Yes!

Renee comes from a wealthy Singaporean family and has moved to London to escape them as she grows her business. Ket Siong, his brother and mother have run to London after their friend Stephen is kidnapped on his way to protest a business's attempt to pull down an ancient rain forest in Malaysia. Renee and Ket Siong met 10 years ago in university and haven't stopped thinking about their failed fling since. Now, they run into each other in London and find a way back into each other's orbit.

I liked how gentle this romance was. It really felt like they were creeping back into loving each other and supporting each other through Renee's competition to head the family business (a la Succession) and Ket Siong's desperation to find Stephen. There is slight miscommunication along the way but not in an agonizing sense. The ending is perfectly delightful.

It would be a great beach read (probably not one for the poolside in Singapore though!) but it didn't wow it's way into my favs.

I read “Black Water Sister” by Cho and adored it.
This book is a mix of romance, shady companies, and family rivalries. I don’t think the title suits the book that well.
Most of the book is narrated by Renee Goh, a Singaporean now living in London where she bumps into her ex Yap Ket Siong.
The Renee storyline is a mix of her managing her own company, fighting with her brothers to take over her dad’s company Chahaya, talking to her one friend and rekindling a friendship with Yap Ket.
The Yap ket storyline delves into his friend Stephen who disappears after protesting in Malaysia.
The story bounces back and forth from the present to the past.
Because the same events are narrated by both characters it feels repetitive, which makes the pacing a little weird at times.
While I found Yap Ket’s storyline more compelling, the book was missing something for me. That said, I’m not a huge fan of romance books. I wasn’t really rooting for either of them.

I’d not read anything by Zen Cho before but was intrigued by the London-Malaysia premise so started reading. A lot happens in the first day: Renee is dumped at breakfast, she gets the call from her Dad asking her to compete to succeed him and she re-meets Ket at an exhibition and takes him home for the night. But what will happen next?

Over the course of the novel, we learn about Renee and Ket’s history as students, the moment when they break up before anything’s really happened (and why) and see them fumble towards each other, each utterly unsure as to how the other feels. Who will speak first? Interwoven throughout are the business dealings of both families. Renee’s family has a large and successful business which may or may not have a chequered ethical past; Ket’s family are dealing from the fall out from the firing of his mother for whistleblowing and the kidnapping of a close family friend and activist. These business stories start to interweave: will they prevent Renee and Ket from getting together?

An entertaining read which does include both swearing and sex scenes. The sex scenes are there because the characters act thus rather than primarily there for the reader. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

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!