The Code for Love starts with a promising setup—a prickly software engineer forced to fake-date her laid-back surfer neighbor on a road trip to sell her matchmaking app. The enemies-to-lovers angle had potential, and the travel backdrop added charm.

But unfortunately, the romance didn’t fully land for me. The chemistry between Pandora and Ozzy felt more told than shown, and their emotional connection developed too quickly to be convincing. For a story that hinges on opposites attracting, their dynamic lacked real tension or depth.

The plot also veered into the implausible a few too many times. The app concept was fun, but the work setup and competition felt thin and sometimes confusing. It was hard to believe that a major job promotion would be determined by fake-dating Instagram posts on a road trip.

That said, the writing is breezy, and there are some cute moments and funny dialogue. If you’re looking for a light, sun-soaked romance with a tech-meets-travel twist, it might still be worth a read—just don’t expect it to completely compute.

A fun and unexpected read! The characters had great chemistry, and the plot kept me intrigued without giving too much away. Definitely a twist on what I was expecting—in a good way.

Pandora is a software engineer up for promotion while developing a new travel dating app. She wrote the algorithms to match potential couples and ends up getting paired with a rival coworker named Ozzy, former professional surfer. The two are opposites and up for the same promotion. To see the app succeed they agree to a fake travel dating rouse. As a someone who dabbles in software engineering, loves alone time, and struggles socially, Pandora is my people.

The Code For Love was a cute, fun, steamy, enemies to lovers romance that I couldn't put down.

I loved Pandora as a mfc. I loved her nerdy side when she was doing coding and also playing the outer space video game she created. BUT the best part of her character was being able to see her insecurities and see her develop and go out of her comfort zone and try new thing.

Ozzy was a great MMC. He was definitely that surfer guy that everyone has a crush on and just wants to be around. I loved that he always challenged Pandora to try new thing but still remain herself. And all the nicknames he gave her had me swooning.

I loved everything about the couples dynamic and relationship. From the Prank wars to travel vacation to the steamy scenes, the book was just a blast to read.

I really, really tried but this book was NOT my cup of tea . The characters were immature and the dynamic was ridiculous . It was so hard to keep track of what was happening .

This is my first DNF ever . Sorry Netgalley .

Thank you NetGalley and Afterglow Books for the opportunity to read and review the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Forced proximity
Fake dating
Work place romance

Pandora, a software engineer, designs a matching app for single people that are traveling. Her system glitches and matches her up with a surfer named Ozzy. He also happens to be her neighbor and nemesis. She’s prickly and everyone loves him. Their romance just didn’t work for me. Neither did the plot itself. A lot didn’t make sense.

Enemies to Lovers ✅
Cute Surfer ✅
Woman in Stem ✅
I was so excited to get an ARC of this book since I love surfing and traveling. I thought Code for Love was such a fun summer read. I loved Ozzy’s golden retriever personality and appreciated Pandora’s grumpy attitude. This steminist romcom also had one of my favorite tropes…enemies to lovers.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. Opinions are my own.

This was such a fun romance book. I loved the coding aspect and I think it would be great for people who love romance and coding. I would recommend this to friends.

There were several elements of this book that I liked, but also quite a few that I didn't.

Ozzy was my favorite part of the book by far.

His unwavering gleefulness and, as the story progresses, ability to be vulnerable, pulled me in and kept me interested in how things were going to end up between Pandora and him.

Unfortunately, Pandora didn't hold a candle to his character. I feel like I never got to learn anything about her other than she's obsessed with coding/work and being a doormat for people to walk on.

The road trip in the second half of the book was a definite improvement to the first half. I finally felt like there was movement in the story that wasn't just Pandora planning her next prank.

Overall, I felt that the book left some to be desired. The cover and the premise sounded really cute, but Pandora and Ozzy's love story just didn't do it for me.

I'd like to thank NetGalley for providing a free ARC of this book.

1 STAR — and that’s for the cover and the surfer abs. That’s it.

I wanted to love this. I really, truly did. A workplace rivals STEMinist rom-com? An algorithmically mismatched enemies-to-lovers road trip? YES, PLEASE.

But what I got? A messy, glitchy plot where emotional growth and character arcs were nowhere to be found, chemistry fizzled out like a soda left in the sun, and the “STEMinist” rep? Yikes.

As someone who LOVES nerd girl meets sunshine boy tropes and devours fake dating like it’s a food group, this had so much potential. But from page one, it felt like a first draft that never got debugged.

Don’t get me started on the tech inaccuracies. If you’re writing about engineers and code, please Google Java syntax at least once. Pandora invents a whole matchmaking app and the payoff for that arc? Nonexistent.

Honestly, I felt gaslit by this book. It promised a fun, swoony rivals-to-lovers, but what I got was a relationship built on miscommunication, boundary-pushing, and pure physical attraction with zero foundation. By the end, I didn’t buy the romance or the resolution. All I wanted was a Ctrl+Alt+Delete.

The forced proximity/fake dating trips drew me in; the enemies trope nearly drove me out.
A lot of the progressions in this story felt like they were there because the author wanted to write them whether they had the appropriate transition or build up. Physical descriptions of actions were hard to follow and i had to start paragraphs over to try to figure out who was standing where our when he had moved across the room.
The main character was so set on hating the guy that she was completely blind to him saying he never hated her and only wanted to be her friend or more.
The guy did not listen to or respect boundaries, climbing onto her balcony when she didn't answer her door.
I couldn't make sense of why they would end together apart from physical chemistry. I wasn't rooting for them at all.
Any conflicts in the story were settled anticlimactically and, in one case, off-screen.

Brilliant coder Pandora is tired of putting in all the hard work and bringing all the brainpower, but being ignored and forgotten. She comes up with a fantastic new app to match people to their perfect travel companions. And her match is…Ozzy, HOT celebrity surfer, guy she kissed under a pier in the dark, and new neighbor who really gets under her skin. Her company insists she and Ozzy go on a road trip through Mexico—their perfect trip according to the app. If it’s successful, she’ll get a promotion and maybe her boss will actually learn her name.

The Code for Love was filled with hilarious banter, quips, and such clever writing. I loved the premise—road trip is one of my favorite romance tropes. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t get into it. Pandora’s hatred of Ozzy was pretty extreme for what seemed like petty reasons. I love a good enemies to lovers romance, but I need a solid reason for them to hate each other and it just wasn’t there. I also didn’t feel the chemistry between the characters, and there wasn’t much depth to either character or in the relationship; everything felt superficial. And the characters just weren’t very likeable, with Pandora always being so mean and Ozzy turning into a selfish jerk. But I would have loved getting Ozzy’s point of view too. Still, there were some beautiful moments, and the author definitely can write humor!

Lots of people will love the snark, wit, and fun of this book. I’m sorry, it just wasn’t for me.

e-ARC: 2.5⭐️ rounded up; I love the premise of this book. It had a lot of really cute moments, and overall it was a fun, quick summer read with a forced proximity, enemies-to-lovers plot line.

BUT unfortunately I feel like it fell short in numerous ways. The plot was kind of all over the place—rather than flowing as a cohesive storyline, it felt like we jumped from scene to scene and it often felt like the plot leaned on tropes in ways that left the characters and story feeling under-developed. Why did Pandora hate Ozzy, really? There was no real driving force for them to be “enemies” and as she continued to be hateful towards him it really made her feel unlikable. Both MCs lacked meaningful character development/growth, though there was so much potential there for both of them. Pandora was so strongly autistic-coded and I wish that had been explored more. I really would have loved to see her finally stand up in a more meaningful way. And I would’ve loved to see Ozzy embrace vulnerability and learn how to be more self-accepting and confident.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Anne Marsh and Afterglow Books by Harlequin for this digital ARC.

This author is new to me, but I will be keeping an eye out for anything else they publish. I loved the story and the characters. The pacing of the story was great and the characters were relatable.

This was a quick and easy summer read involving women in STEM, forced proximity, and he falls first. Pandora the invisible app developer and Ozzy the surfer are matched up to travel together to test a new single travel buddy app. Their former sizzling beach kiss fuels a casual romance that begins to turn into something more. Ozzy is a golden retriever man who follows Pandora around like a puppy. Pandora is constantly rejecting him even though she is attracted to him. There just wasn't enough angst or character depth to keep the story interesting. I also found the plot difficult to get behind. What company would send a celebrity surfer to travel to Mexico in a van with a software developer? One bed with no privacy seems like an HR nightmare. The third act twist was predictable and the spice was cringe. Overall, it was fine and I do support stories with women in STEM careers, but this one had a few issues.

Thank you to Net Galley and Afterglow Books by Harlequin for the ARC. I received this book in exchange for a review, but all opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this book. It was an enemies to lovers sort of workplace, close proximity story. The two main characters end up matched as the perfect companions for a travel app. There was some time where it seemed to drag but overall it was a good story.

The Code for Love by Anne Marsh
A charming blend of STEM and heart, this romance wraps you in wit, intellect, and sizzling chemistry. Marsh creates characters you’ll root for and a love story that feels refreshingly smart and sweet. Ideal for fans of nerdy, feel-good romance.

I liked that it was a bit of a reverse grumpy/sunshine and that the FMC was an independent STEM girly. Wasn’t a fan of the 3/4 fight or the contradiction describing her. First she says she a curvy nerd, then toward the end she’s not curvy. Which one is it? lol

The story was alright, but was not my favorite. Most of the plot was on the surface level, rather than diving deeper. I wish there was something more to the characters to make them even better. Predictable ending for the novel.

I had a really hard time getting through this one. I couldn’t connect with the characters and while the book itself is short, it felt like the story moved by so slowly. There wasn’t a lot of depth to the story. Unfortunately it was a miss for me.