The Code for Love and Heartbreak by Jillian Cantor Published by Harlequin on October 6, 2020
Genres: Young Adult Fiction, Romance, Romantic Comedy, Contemporary, Social Themes, Dating & Sex, Coming of Age
Pages: 304
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Goodreads
In this contemporary romcom retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma by USA TODAY bestselling author Jillian Cantor, there’s nothing more complex—or unpredictable—than love.
When math genius Emma and her coding club co-president, George, are tasked with brainstorming a new project, The Code for Love is born.
George disapproves of Emma’s idea of creating a matchmaking app, accusing her of meddling in people’s lives. But all the happy new couples at school are proof that the app works. At least at first.
Emma’s code is flawless. So why is it that perfectly matched couples start breaking up, the wrong people keep falling for each other, and Emma’s own feelings defy any algorithm?
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Code for Love and Heartbreak is an inventive and cute contemporary retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma. It centers around Emma, an analytical number focused, top of her class student. Numbers are black and white and make sense to her – they always do what they’re supposed to and she much prefers straightforward numbers to subjective feelings. As co-president of her school’s coding club, she comes up with the idea for an app to predict a person’s “perfect match” based purely on algorithms she comes up to evaluate their compatibility. She thinks it’s a perfect idea and determined that it will win the coding competition. People at her school start pairing up and she thinks it’s all going perfectly — until it isn’t.
This take on Emma was a lot of fun and so cute! The idea of the app was really clever and in this day and age of apps and online dating, seemed like a very plausible thing! But of course there’s much more to love and relationships than quantifiable facts which Emma doesn’t take into account. I think one of my favorite parts of the story was seeing Emma open up and start to become friends with the other people in her coding club. She previously only tagged along with her older sister Izzy who has moved away for college and now that she’s left on her own, it was great to see her forge those friendships.
George was adorable. He is the classic boy next door and has been friends with Emma since forever. He’s just so nice and such a good person. You can’t help but root for him and Emma even as all these other pairings happen because of their app.
I did take a bit to warm up to Emma though. She’s very stubborn and hardheaded and she would say or do things that kept irking me. I understand that’s her personality though and part of her character arc as she discovers how there is more to people than straight up facts. People are more than just a number. Feelings can’t always be put into clearly labeled boxes. She has a lot to learn and I believe she does figure it out as the events unravel.
I also liked the coding club aspect and the competition and the club members working together as a team was great. It had a very authentic high school feel.
In Short…
What a super cute contemporary twist on a literary classic! This retelling took the familiar bones of Emma and gave it a fresh, new spin. Matchmaking in high school today via an app is the perfect basis for unexpected things to happen. Really enjoyed this story about how love and feelings can’t be quantified. At its core is a friends to more romance that is sweet and is sure to leave you with fluttery happy feels.
About the Author:
Jillian Cantor is the author of award-winning and bestselling novels for adults and teens, including In Another Time, The Hours Count, Margot, and The Lost Letter, which was a USA Today bestseller. She has a BA in English from Penn State University and an MFA from the University of Arizona. Cantor lives in Arizona with her husband and two sons.
Do you have any favorite classic retellings? It’s so fun to see the classic plots set in modern day!
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