I read both The Verifiers and The Rivals this week and enjoyed them. Claudia Lin is a complicated character and this series really shines when it is focused on Claudia's family life, complicated dating life, and when she is making a plan. I feel like the story kinda can drag when discussing the complex computer programming and the work of the matchmakers. However, this will definitely be a series worth continuing and, based on how The Rivals ends, the best may be yet to come.
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I enjoyed The Verifiers by Jane Pek, so I was delighted to receive a copy of The Rivals. This book is for underemployed English majors everywhere.

Claudia Lin is a superhero, and I loved the ensemble cast.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me.

Claudia Lin, lifelong mystery fan, has landed the perfect job. She co-runs Veracity, an agency that investigates potential or existing partners on behalf of the people they are matched with on a dating app. In the course of her work, Claudia and her two partners have discovered what appears to be a conspiracy among the dating app companies to use AI to secretly bolster their services — with potentially deadly consequences.

When one of their clients passes away, Claudia convinces his ex, who works for one of the apps, to help her figure out what the companies are actually doing. And at the same time, Claudia finds herself falling for both one of her co-workers and one of her targets — all while worrying her brother may inadvertently have been drawn into the apps’ dangerous plans.

I was a fan of the previous book in this series, so I was excited to see what came next for Claudia and the verifiers. Like the previous novel, this was an engaging and creative mystery. The author does a great job of blending Claudia’s love of mystery stories with the mystery she finds herself investigating. The story is bolstered by a dynamic cast of supporting characters.

Highly recommended.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this advanced reader's edition. Unfortunately, I will not be able to give it the time required to write a thorough review and will be unable to read it for this purpose.

Dating in the digital age is getting complicated

Meet Claudia Lin, a huge fan of mystery novels who along with two colleagues is running. Veracity, a sort of dating detective agency. if you want to know if your prospective date is all that they claim to be, you hire Veracity to check things out. The job seemed like a perfect match for Claudia, but now she and her two partners Squirrel and Becks have stumbled upon something they didn't expect. Dating platforms are utilizing AI in ways that their customers don't suspect (and wouldn't be happy about were they to find out), and keeping their less than transparent practices a secret is proving deadly. When one of her clients turns up dead, Claudia persuades his ex (who happens to work for one of the sites) to feed her some insider information. With her own romantic life becoming complicated and her older brother possibly getting caught up in the matchmaking mayhem, Claudia has her hands full. Maybe being a quasi-spy isn't all that she thought it might be.
The Rivals is the second in the Claudia Lin series, and while it would be helpful to have read the first book it is not necessary to have done so in order to enjoy this one, Claudia is a flawed but engaging protagonist, and has her share of struggles dealing with the dynamics of her Asian-American family and living a queer life. The mystery itself is well-crafted and the themes of authenticity in the world of AI as well as the tensions between obligations to family vs to self and the quandry of ethics in the digital age are all timely. Sometimes the technical details were a bit over my head, and the pacing slowed down in places, but overall it was an enjoyable read likely to appeal to readers of authors like Darby Kane, Emma C. Wells and Michelle Chouinard. My thanks to NetGalley and Vintage Books for allowing me access to The Rivals in exchange for my honest review.

This was a fine follow up to The Verifiers, but it didn’t work as well as the first one. I was curious how this would become a series and I still stand by that The Verifiers would have been better as a stand alone. This turned more into a spy book which I’m really not that interested in.

I think a lot of people will love this and the writing is great. I just wish this stuck to a more mystery format.

I am so disappointed that I am DNFing this book! I so so so wanted to love it because I loved the first one but this one was just too much. I had a hard time continuing to pick this one back up.

This was a good follow up to the original novel, but overall felt flat. The story didn’t recap book one so unless you’d read that recently you start off confused and on the wrong foot. Once you get your bearings the story picks up. Claudia’s character doesn’t develop much over the course of the novel and she becomes unlikable.

Second book in the Claudia Lin series. another page turner.I was drawn in from the first to the last page really enjoyed I am a fan of Jane Pek looking forward to more books by her. #netgalley#knopf

I was so excited for this sequel and that ending just makes me want the third book immediately!!!

I really enjoyed the more in depth exploration into AI and dating apps, however the mystery itself lacked something for me. As much as I was invested in Pradeep and Matthew, I felt like it was a bit unresolved.

Claudia, along with Becks and Squirrel, are so dear to me and I loved how their working and personal relationships developed in this book. We also got more insight into Claudia’s family and I NEED MORE!

Also I’m excited to see where Claudia’s romantic relationship goes in book 3!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

The twists were amazing - so well done. I loved the complexity of family, friendships, working with your crush and all the behind the scene online dating. The slow build allowed for flawless execution of the twists - lots of ooohhh moments.
Pek does an amazing job calling out narcissistic mothers struggling to raise families on their own, the cost to the children, lack of family support. Just so well done!
A slow build that took too long.

Such a great follow-up to the Verifiers. This is a great addition to the pantheon of private investigators, but female Asian American queer and based in NY. Love the questions and grappling with modern issues of AI and data privacy. Great mystery series

The Rivals by Jane Pek is the follow up to her previous novel, The Verifiers, which follows Claudia and her coworkers as they are hired to verify that people are who they say they are in their dating profiles (and also stopping the Matchmakers from an increasingly dangerous plot).

The context of this mystery series is what has kept me hooked through the first two books. It is asking questions about data privacy, what it means to exist in online spaces, humanity, faith in others, and the role of apps and corporations in our lives, all while set in the context of a mystery procedural. I will definitely be picking up the next book in this series.

A sequel to Pek’s first novel — The Verifiers. Oddly enough, my review of the first book could be used almost verbatim for the second (with a few modifications which I have made below.
Claudia Lin is the tiny, stereotype-busting, Asian, lesbian, bicyclist hero of this tongue-in-cheek, semi-snarky, story of an amateur detective gone wild. Having become partner at the dating detective agency she joined in book one, she continues to ignore protocol and refuses to stop looking into a dead “almost client” whose death was ruled accidental. And so it goes…

The mystery lives within an interesting premise — online matchmaking systems using ”synths” in an AI conspiracy to control the masses. Claudia (and obviously the author) is an inveterate reader, and I enjoyed her literary asides and the source of Claudia’s detective know-how — the (fictional) mystery series starring the philosophical Inspector Yuan. Some interesting, novel like explorations of the life and background of Claudia and her family — including hopeful forays into a love life for each sibling that is hemmed in by the residue of a somewhat standard immigrant parent backstory. It’s a bit of a genre mishmash that started as a lot of fun with well-drawn characters but ultimately took too long to get to a reasonable end. And while I enjoyed Claudia in the first book, she kind of started to annoy me in the second.

I really enjoyed this tech / ethics driven mystery interlaced with family drama, romantic interests, and self discovery.

The Rivals is a sequel centered around young adult Claudia, as she and her colleagues try to get to the bottom of some suspicious deaths. It's equal parts whodunit, philosophy and technological ethics, and fun fiction!

Thank you to Netgalley and to Knopf, Pantheon, and Vintage for an ARC.

The second Claudia Lin book is perhaps even better than the first- the world of the matchmaking apps and verifiers is well established, and we really get to sink into Claudia as an investigator of all sorts. The New York City setting is vivid and vital to the story, and there is definite fodder for another book in this series.

Real Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars

The Rivals is the follow-up novel to Jane Pek’s debut novel, The Verifiers, and the second book in her Claudia Lin series, named after the novel’s protagonist. Given there is an interconnected story and overarching plot between The Verifiers and The Rivals (and this story will be carrying over into the next book, whenever it’s published), you must read The Verifiers before reading The Rivals (that certainly won’t be a chore, considering The Verifiers is an excellent novel).

This review will be as spoiler-free as possible, considering this is a sequel and I don’t want to spoil either The Verifiers or The Rivals.

The Rivals has the same quick wit and wry humor as The Verifiers, which was what made me fall in love with Pek’s writing in the first place, but The Verifiers had this deft exchange of heavy and light throughout the book that kept the story from becoming too bogged down or overwrought, which is what I feel The Rivals lacked. The moral and social implications of the plot elements in this book are rather depressing and I spent the whole second and third act of this book wishing for a little more levity or some kind of break from the swelling cynicism.

Claudia Lin is still a terrific protagonist, with her romantic soul, impulsive manner, and flighty nature. Her head is everywhere and nowhere at the same time, which makes it all the more endearing when she puts together the pieces of the puzzle. Her fraught situationship with Becks proves to be both entertaining and frustrating, full of the same will they/won’t they some of the best prime time television shows of all time were marked with.

There is a lot of technological jargon in this book. I mean, a lot. It almost all went over my head. I did okay when I read The Verifiers, but my eyes started to glaze over a little while reading this one. I still don’t regret picking it up.

I was provided a copy of this title by the publisher and author via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: AAPI Fiction/Amateur Sleuths/Book Series/Dark Comedy/LGBTQ Fiction/Mystery/OwnVoices/Sci Fi

Well written and structured, but difficult to become invested in if you don’t care about a) dating apps or b) creepy tech activity.

There’s an audience for this, but as someone who has never used a dating app and probably wouldn’t even if I wasn’t married, and who doesn’t care about tech much, I found myself alternately bored and even more disturbed by AI than I already was.

The humor isn’t bad and I liked the protagonist, but it just isn’t a book that transcends personal interests in terms of enjoyment. In other words, if you’re into the things that are central to this book’s world, you’ll likely do fine with this one. But just being a fan of mysteries or an appreciator of solid writing won’t make this a good read for you.

The first book in this series was fresh and unique: a fascinating insight into the corporate hand behind modern dating culture. However, the sequel fails to differentiate from the original premise, trying for a murder mystery spy thriller but getting tangled up in its own web of interlocking storylines and conspiracies. The emotional dynamics remained the heart of a story that often feels dry and overly complex. I found myself unwittingly skimming some of the sections unpacking the ongoing investigations, but pulled back in by scenes dealing with Claudia's close but dysfunctional family and her developing relationship with her colleague Becks. I wish the story had struck a better balance between these emotional beats and unraveling of information. Nearly all of the action in the story occurs in the last 10%: improvements to pacing could have done a lot of align the story with the author's intention.

The second Claudia Lin mystery by Jane Pek The Rivals (Vintage, 2024) has generated some impressive street cred before the book is even released: a starred review from Kirkus and one of the Washington Post’s best mysteries of 2024. Some crime fiction writers work for decades and don’t achieve either one.

The story picks up shortly after the first book in the series The Verifiers ends. Claudia is now co-owner of Veracity, a firm that checks out the dates of their clients to confirm the accuracy of the information the client has been given. It is a curiously 21st century sort of job, looking up online accounts to review public profiles and tracking them via GPS to determine if the individual is actually where he or she told Veracity’s client they would be. Of necessity the third person in the tiny firm is deeply technical while Claudia and her partner handle the interpersonal and research aspects of the work.

Part of their job is to understand how the big online matchmaking systems function. While delving into the background of one application, Veracity’s technical guru discovers fake profiles that seem to be set up to manipulate the system’s subscribers, a capability with far-reaching implications. The sudden death of one of the engineers working on this hidden part of the system intrigues mystery reading Claudia, who decides to investigate. She inevitably conflates client research with this more involved corporate reconnaissance.

A second story line is Claudia’s dysfunctional family. Claudia’s father deserted the family years ago, leaving their ill-equipped Chinese mother to support three children. All three of the now-adult children and their mother continue to flaunt the scars of the experience. Their interactions are painful to read and envision.

A complicated, multilayered narrative with complex characters and diverse motivations. Anyone with anxiety about conspiracies should not read this book. The repercussions of a system that can influence human behavior as described here are consequential and the idea of a secret society formed to disable it is mindblowing. I am intrigued with the level of data science detail here; Pek has some authoritative sources. New York City is ever-present in the background, akin to a lurking character who doesn’t say much. While the primary storylines are resolved, the cliffhanger ending leaves some threads dangling for the next book in the series.