This book was hilarious in all the right ways. High schoolers in an after school club just trying to make an impact to everyone. This book hooked me from the very beginning with the different dynamics of every character that makes me wonder, will the code work for everyone? Easy and entertaining read.

I was provided with an eARC of this book in exchange for a fair review.

I am a sucker for modern retellings, and "Emma" makes for a great base story! This adaptation was fun and quirky and perfect for a summer read! I loved the cast of characters (both new and "old") and the premise of a matchmaking app. I will say that this Emma was sometimes hard to like, mostly because her motives seemed less altruistic (like those of Austen's Emma) and more selfish - her desire to prove her app worked and her math was accurate made her blind to whether she was ACTUALLY making people happy or not. Even so, it was wonderful to see her grow as a character, and to see the dynamic between her and George. All in all, 4 stars!

I loved this book, I felt like it was the perfect amount of angst on both Emma and Goerge's part. I loved the overall story, even though this kind of premise has been done before Jillian Cantor puts their own spin on it so it feels new and fresh. Overall I really enjoyed the romance and getting to see a girl main character who kicks butt and is really good at what she does, something that I applauded the author for doing throughout the novel instead of just saying she creates the app and leave it at that there is a followthrough through the entire book. I had one tiny grievance with this, but that's just my personal preference so I can kind of overlook it and isn't integral to how I felt about the book overall.

In this contemporary YA retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma, the code for love doesn’t go as expected when a matchmaking app that Emma designs for a coding club competition doesn’t work out quite the way the math proves it will. It is well written and is easy, lighthearted reading in this predictable, yet charming story.
3.5 stars

Advanced copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Although the story seemed predicable, I really enjoyed this retelling of a matchmaker gone wrong. I think students will love the story because they have not seen it play out many times already in other stories. At parts, it felt like a Disney movie but in a good way.

Emma is a high school senior who is the president of the coding club and socially awkward. Can you see where this is going? After her counselor tells her that her perfect grades and clubs aren't enough to get her into her dream school of Stanford, she tries to figure out how to bring the "social" aspect to her application. Enter again the coding club. She decides that she can code her way in.

The story is a light and easy to read tale that might help spark interest in coding for middle school girls. Often the STEM subjects are seem as geeky and dorky.

*3.5 stars*

*3.5 stars*
If you’re looking for a sweet, quick YA book, this is it! This modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma was really cute. The story starts off strong with a high school coding club, where the students help each other learn how to code, and their idea of creating an app that matches all the students in their school based on math. I mean, who wouldn’t want love to be that easy?

Our MC, Emma, was definitely frustrating at times, but somehow still likeable and relatable. And I like any story that has strong female friendships, and portrays young women as having goals that don’t just include having a boyfriend. The side characters really shone here, and I found myself wanting to know more about Jane and Ms. Taylor in particular! Also, just a personal preference, but the chapters in this book were really short, which I always like because it makes reading the book seem so much faster.

That being said, this is a YA book, so a lot of the plot (even the few heavier moments) seemed to stay at the surface level. This book also seemed to fall into that trap of “nerdy” girls all being socially awkward, while the more outgoing girls are all not as book smart.

Overall, though, I think young readers will really enjoy this book, and relate to these characters!

This book comes out October 6, 2020. Thank you to NetGalley, Inkyard Press, and the author for a review copy!

Emma, our main character, learns to lean on family, lead a club, and decipher a relationship with her co-president, George. What she learns is that life (and love) are unpredictable, and that coding isn't always the answer.
A cute coming of age story mixing high school and coding, this is a good add on for a middle or high school class library.

Thank you NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed this book. It was a fun and interesting romance novel that was also filled with self-discovery and growth.
In this book, we follow Emma. Emma is starting her senior year of high school. Also, her sister is leaving for college across the country. This is significant because Izzy is Emma’s best (and sort of only friend). So, her senior year is going to be very different than her previous three years. I really liked this aspect of the story because Emma is going to the same school with the same people, a huge part of her life has changed. I mostly liked Emma. She’s awkward and nerdy and almost never knows the right thing to say. She was frustrating and also inspiring. She really grows and I really appreciated that.
I loved the concept of the app that Emma’s coding club creates. I thought it was such an interesting idea to see how you can find love through math. I thought it was interesting to see how Emma struggles with her math not always working, too.
Overall, this book was entertaining and kept me interested. I liked that the characters really grew by the end of the story. I think this one will definitely be well loved by those that understand the math Emma does.

This was a fun and sweet retelling of one of my favorite Jane Austen novels Emma. I liked the cast of characters and the coding competition added an extra element. The only things that took away from the story for me was that I felt the characters pretty one dimensional. Issues that were presented (like misogyny and bully) were not presented in a way that taught the reader to evolve their thinking but instead presented in a blatant manner assuming the reader already has concluded how certain actions and thinking patterns are not right. I would recommend to younger readers who may be fine with a fun surface level sweet high school romance.

It starts off cute enough, back in high school. The book feels original with the story and characters and from the beginning, I'm very intrigued to see where things will go. It's a fast and fun contemporary YA read and very enjoyable. I've gotten so invested in the story because Emma is so oblivious to what's right in front of he and I just want to shake her like, 'Girl, what is right in front of you!' And then, George, gah, this boy, this boy is indecisive and is messing with m head because it all seemed so obvious, but I don't know what to think anymore. But that being said, I couldn't put it down and ended up devouring it in one night. That ending is beyond is cute, like heart-melting, earth-shattering, grand romance, and all that stuff. It's so cute and that ending/epilogue is precious. It's a love story for all us nerd types out there, and proof that you can't rationalize everything. For a YA romance, it's just what I want.

This was a super cute story; I enjoyed reading it. The characters were fun to follow along during their journey to their competition.

I really loved this book! The pacing was just right, and I thought most of the characters were likable. Of course she would end up with George, but I still enjoyed their journey toward each other. Emma was often frustrating, but I kind of like when a narrator/protagonist isn’t perfect - it made for an interesting read. I think this is the perfect book for a numbers-loving teen. Being in my late 30s, I often struggle with YA romances, but this one really stuck with me. I chalk it up to the fantastic writing and pacing.

Sorry to say I didn't love this one. The attempt to recapture Jane Austin's EMMA in today's digital age is a fun idea. But this felt forced and awkward, and the use of the names was more a distraction than an enticement - I had a hard time figuring out who these characters were and why it mattered. That said, I've enjoyed other books by this author and look forward to what she does next.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Emma Woodhouse (yes, based on THAT Emma) gets math. People? Not so much. As the co-president of the Coding Club, she believes that the best way for them to win their big competition (and guarantee her a spot at Stanford) is to design an algorithm for love. Co=president George doesn't seem to agree. What follows is a reimagining of Austen's Emma for the 21st century. As the coding competition draws nearer, Emma finds herself making matches between her classmates and teammates, but can numbers really determine who your best match is?

TBH, Emma is my least favorite Austen (unless it comes in the form of Amy Heckerling's Clueless). And this book was...fine. I struggled to figure out if Emma was just socially awkward because she's smart (and let's be honest. I'm a little over the awkward genius trope) or if she was supposed to be a person on the Autism spectrum. By the end of the book, I still wasn't sure how I felt about her, or most of the other characters. Especially her sister Izzy (moping because her boyfriend who she has dated since high school AND goes to college with went to Mexico with his family over Christmas and she didn't get invited...gag. And also clearly not listening to Emma and trying to force her to do things she doesn't want to do? No thanks).

Over all, the book was a cute, quick read but I didn't love it.

The Code for Love and Heartbreak is supposed to be loosely based/retelling of Jane Austen's Emma.  I hadn't ever read Emma before, so I'm not so sure about that. (I will look it up a synopsis and let you know similarities at the end of this review.)  The book follows Emma who is a math genius that loves to code and is co-president of the coding club at school.  I saw a lot of myself in Emma - would much rather stay home and code than be social, doesn't want a boyfriend, etc.  Except we never had a coding club when I was in high school and the guys in the one coding class that was offered at school couldn't manage to figure out "Ctrl Alt Delete" (seriously!)   One part of the book really hit home "Sometimes I dream in code. When I work on a lot for a project, or right before bed, my subconscious is still there, filled with lines of code, and my dreams are laced with numbers and sequences.  I often wake up with the new ability to solve a problem that was bothering me in the code the night before, my mind having worked it out somehow while I slept."  This has happened to me on multiple occasions and people think I am absolutely nuts when I tell them, so having someone else say this - even if it is a fictional character - made me feel validated.

Anyway. The book.  Coding Club needs to come up with a project to pitch for a championship and it comes down to George's idea vs Emma's.  George wants to create an app with karma points for how much you recycle and you can compete against your friends.  Emma wants to create an app that will match up the students at the school for love based on different attributes - what they look like, likes, dislikes, etc.  Emma's idea ends up winning and the book follows them tweaking their algorithm and setting up various couples in the school based on the outcome of the matches.

We never do find out who Emma's match was based on the algorithm and they have to create a "second chance" match option for those who broke up with their first, "best" option.

From reading a synopsis of Jane Austen's Emma - it seems a lot of the character names are the same.  Emma is a matchmaker.  But The Code for Love and Heartbreak is a more modern version. Now I'm thinking I might want to go read the original...

Either way this is a very cute YA book and I enjoyed it.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

This book was just okay for me, but I think it will be liked by fans of YA romance. It was a tough sell for me with the Code for Love app being chosen as the coding club's entry for the contest. I would imagine that any true coder would find the technology here to be immature and purely there to serve the arc of the characters, rather than based in any reality. I was cheering for Emma in her romantic pursuits, both with George and Sam, and even possibly Jane. Cantor does a good job keeping the lines open there, so that we're never quite sure which one she'll end up with, if any. I also enjoyed the pacing of this book. It's not too deep, so the brevity helps it. So often, it seems authors stretch out a weak plot just to fill pages, but here, the author is confident enough to give us a short and sweet story.

This was a cute, fairly straightforward retelling of Emma. The characters were fun and the idea of how the author adapted it for a modern setting was cute. Overall, it’s a gentle beach type read. Nothing I would go out of my way to recommend or will likely remember, but fun going down

I enjoyed reading this book about Emma, a girl in STEM, and her going through life and love by coding. However, I think it fell a little off the mark. I hate how it falls under the stereotype of the high school nerd who has no friends and has no clue on how to socialize with other people, especially since this led to some serious moments of second-hand embarrassment. The character development almost made this caricature worth it, and I did enjoy the friends-to-lovers trope. I love how the focus remained on coding throughout the book, instead of it becoming something that's pushed aside. Overall, it was an enjoyable contemporary read that makes me more excited to read the classic, Emma, that it's based on.

"The Code for Love and Heartbreak" is an adorable, sweet YA romance novel. Emma, a self-professed math nerd, is all about the quantifiable: math, numbers, and coding. Romance and relationships are too complicated and she just doesn't understand them. But with the help of her coding club and the "Code for Love" app they develop, she learns that people are much more important than anything else in the world.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Emma loves code, but struggles with people. The story of a high school coding club was original, but the rest of the story felt too forced. I know it was a modern retelling of Emma, but it just didn’t flow well or feel right. It was ok, and I might get a copy for my school library, but not a favorite.