I wanted so badly to love this book but despite my perseverance I just couldn’t get there. A beautiful setting and Silicon Valley success story couldn’t make up for unsavoury characters and overkill on the technical jargon.

Maybe if I was a bit more tech savvy but as I am not This one fell flat for me.

⭐️⭐️ 2 stars with a 14+ rating

I listened to the audiobook of Riding High in April. It follows the story of tech entrepreneur who is following his dreams in the Asian tech market. Hi longtime girlfriend follows him there and both are irrevocable changed. The book is very heavy on techno speak which I believe woudl make the average reader put the book down - too difficult to follow. Since I can speak that language, I persevered. It was a little tedius at time and I felt like I was back at work in the '90's. they story was all biz dev. There were big gaps in the story with people who were supposedly main characters that just fell off the pages. Jackie Townsend obviously know the tech industry. The rabbit hole they go down is totally accurate. I just don't now that UI was invested enough to care.

My thanks to NetGalley for the ALC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I listened to this book as an audiobook. A tech entrepreneur is trying to build something great but his bank account is dwindling. He is over in Seoul working when his girl friend of 15 years shows up. She realizes how different life is in that part of the world. The book seemed to be heavy on technical jargon that was hard to follow. It may have been easier with an actual book instead of the audio version.

Loved the story in this one. It was thrilling and engaging. The narrator was amazing and brought life and movement to the telling of the story.

I rated this book two stars. I normally would give a book I DNFed 1 star, but there were some good aspects to this book, so I don't think it deserved that. As someone who lived in South Korea and then worked at a South Korean corporation in the US, I can say that the corporate culture described in the book was spot on. The writing style also was pretty good, but got quite head-hoppy in a way I didn't enjoy with the girlfriend. I could have done without all the specifics on the IT side of things, but for the right audience, I think they would appreciate the technical jargon. The narrator is also good.

The main problem I had was with the two main characters. Stuart is honestly...just a completely unlikeable human being. He is a slimy corporate jerk all the way. He verbally abuses his partner of fifteen years. Who is such a non-entity in the first five chapters of the book that I can't even remember her name. All I wanted in those first few chapters was for her to dump him and the book to end. I realize that the story will probably redeem Stuart by the end...but I typically give a book three chapters to grab me and get me to like the characters before I give up. I gave this one five and still couldn't stand either.

Nothing I like more than a silicon valley story, but this one was just lackluster. Maybe it was the difficulty of listening to the novel--the voice of the main character just felt incredibly off and I couldn't relate to the characters motivations at all.

Wow, that was one heck of a ride! Definitely a good listen that came across so realistic that I nearly forgot it was a novel. I’d recommend it to others who are interested startups and Silicon Valley reads. Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for ARC.

Content Warnings: suicide, death and mental illness

I'm not sure whose idea it was to "bleep" every expletive, but it made the book unlistenable. I gave up without finishing it.