personally i think this book wasn’t not for me. i wanted to like it but i just unfortunately couldn’t into it. i do plan on giving it another try once it officially comes out🥰

ARC read from NetGalley

This book was a bit of a mess. The time jumps were super confusing, like one second she’s in the car, and suddenly she’s eating dinner with no explanation. Or the baby was in the crib and then suddenly appears in the MMC’s arms??? There were also some grammar issues (hopefully just unedited), and the same info, especially about Gale’s dad, was repeated way too much!!! The whole book kept trying to be deep, but it felt really forced and surface level. Definitely needs more polishing and better structure.

This was not my favorite book. I found parts I was wanting to put it down but kept moving along. I know there are others that will enjoy it so don't want my rating to sway their opinions.

While I was interested enough to finish the book, it’s not one I felt like I couldn’t put down. It fell flat for me. I genuinely loved that Harriet was intelligent and had her own career she felt childish in other aspects of her character.

I wanted to like this book way more than I did. The only character I liked was Gale. I felt like Harriet never became a fully fleshed out character. There was lots of hand waving to make things happen and as a result the conclusion was not satisfying. I found the E.M.M.A parts cringy enough that I skimmed most of the second half of the book.

This book had a lot of potential. Gale was a well written character with nuance and depth, although the way he suddenly recovered his game seemed completely sudden and illogical. However, Harriet lacks any depth. I spent the majority of the book waiting for the entire AI premise to present itself in any real way but it felt like an early 2000s take on something that is an actual part of our reality now. Overall, this book did not live up to its potential.

Harriet Smythe is a tech genius who invented an A.I. program called E.M.M.A that is supposed to analyze the data of athletes to determine how they can improver their performance. Gale Knight was a star ice hockey player for the Austin Regals, but he's been in a slump and is not playing to his full potential. Harriet's boss finds out that Gale is the younger brother of her best friend and insists she get Gale to be their E.M.M.A test subject. When E.M.M.A.'s analysis concludes that the best way to help Gale's game is for Harriet to date him, well, she's not going for it. Is E.M.M.A. right? Is becoming a couple what both Harriet and Gale need to succeed?

This book is inspired by Jane Austen's Emma. It's not a retelling, adaptation, interpretation, or continuation of the original story. Emma (the original) is a story about a naive young woman who believes she thrives at matchmaking, but eventually learns to reign in her meddling. E.M.M.A the AI is a self-evolving program that serves as matchmaker in this story. That is the inspiration.- Emma as matchmaker. There are a few story beats and phrases that come from the original Emma, but for the most part this is going to disappoint Jane Austen fans looking for a more direct comparison.

This story has a lot of potential that it is just not reaching. It is more telling than showing. Telling us about these characters and events rather than bringing us into a deeper emotional depth to help us truly understand the characters motivations. Harriet is underdeveloped. Aside from wanting her AI to succeed and prove that a woman can achieve in STEM, we don't really get to know her. I'm not sure if she's supposed to be written as neurodivergent, but it seems like a strong possibility. She's smart and creative, but very fact based. She holds on to a lot of random information that she shares whenever she's socially uncomfortable. She also has an odd impulsivity to her actions while also being somewhat clueless or delayed to the repercussions of those actions. She wasn't believable or relatable as written and doesn't show much growth.

We get more of Gale's struggles and inner turmoil. His story and development as a character is much more interesting than Harriet's. Again, we are told rather than shown many of the major turning points in Gale's life. He is the more sympathetic character, but I would have liked to have seen more of his history that led to his current struggle. Flashback chapters told from both perspectives would be very useful in engaging the reader, Instead we get a lot of present day remembrance descriptions of the past, which just isn't the same.

Unfortunately, by about the halfway point, I was simply trying to finish the book without caring too much about the characters. By the time Harriet gets called out on having manipulated E.M.M.A's data (to find Gale matches that aren't her), I'd forgotten she'd done it in the first place. It is then too swiftly resolved and glossed over so that Harriet and Gale can have their HEA.

I hope the author and publisher will take this as constructive criticism to go back and do re-writes and edits so that this book can fulfill it's potential.

I received this as an ARC through NetGalley - thanks to Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley for a chance to read in advance!

This book was all cringe for me. I’ll say up front that I’m not a fan of fantastical plots or too much of a stretch in my rom-coms, I like them rooted in some reality. This book is not. The AI is a sentient character who keeps pushing matchmaking as the only solution for an Athletes middling performance?! And the woman with a PhD working on supposedly one of the most groundbreaking future programs keeps getting distracted by this? Also, the huge leaps that the writer takes to move the plot forward with very little if any explanation or exposition really annoyed me. At that point I just started skimming bc if the author wasn’t going to put thought and time into it, neither was I.
The banter at times was cute but overall this was a total skip for me.

When a scientist’s AI sports coach advises that the best way to improve the performance of her best friend’s pro hockey playing little brother is to get romantically involved, things get a little silly, and a lot romantic. Although Harriet is resistant to this advice even though it’s coming from her own AI, her and Gale have obviously been pining for each other for years (and the chemistry is soooo good and so obvious to everyone around them).

Although I’m still a bit scared of EMMA, this book was an absolute joy to read. It continues in the same world that Puck and Prejudice is set (although there are only a couple interactions with Tucker and Lizzy), although it feels like it stands on its own in the best way. Really, the only similarities are them being unique Jane Austen retellings, and the fact that both books are absolutely hilarious. All around, this was a wild and highly enjoyable book for everyone thats looking for a unique romcom.

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager, and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Oof. I did not have a good time. There was a lot of promise and it started out strong. Harriet and Gale seemed like they would be interesting characters. But….

They didn’t really feel fleshed out. Sure, Gale had a tragic backstory, but it wasn’t deep. And we didn’t know anything about Harriet besides the fact that she’s super smart, wears glasses, and has a ponytail. Even her “bossiness” in the bedroom didn’t translate to the page.

Let’s talk about the conflict. What was going on with Harriet and the Chads at work didn’t come off great. It was barely there. And the conflict between Harriet and Gale barely amounted to anything.

I think there could have been way more story development instead of the whole “will they, won’t they” that dragged on for far too long. Harriet, you’re 30. Make up your mind.

There were also some continuity errors that stood out to me. The most obvious one was when Brooke, Harriet’s BFF and Gale’s OLDER sister, called Gale “big brother.”

I wanted to like this so bad. I just couldn’t.

I have a lot of things to say about this book and none of it is positive.

First comparing this to Ali Hazelwood is one of the biggest insults. While Ali writes well throughout and well developed STEM romances. Lia Riley gave us a train wreck of STEM romance. Also classifying it as STEM is even a stretch. Harriet focus is setting up a AI software and using her boy crush as the first ever beta tester. In what universe would a PHD woman think that was an intellectual idea. That’s right they wouldn’t because that would be a huge conflict of interest. And yes I understand this is a work of fiction but if you’re going to market this as a STEM romance at least make it a little bit believable. Instead it felt degrading.

My next big issue was how the two POVs were portrayed. With Harriet we an a first person view. Meanwhile with Gale we had a third person view. This made the reading experience a jumbled mess and often so jarring it pulled me out of the story. Also speaking of jumbled story line, the time line and lack of consistency was a joke. Like there was one point when Harriett mention it would be like 20 minutes and then 5 minutes later it’s done. Like wait what. And you may be thinking that seems such a silly thing to focus on but when it happened repeatedly throughout the book it becomes beyond obnoxious.

Overall, this book was not for me and I can’t in good conscience recommend it. Lastly I do want to thank the HarperCollins and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this.

This book is really cute! The strongest aspect of it is the author's voice and writing. At around the midway point of the story the plot slows down a bit, but the writing keeps you going until things pick back up again.

If you are itching for a fix of women in STEM finding their Happily-ever-afters in between Ali Hazelwood releases, this is a good book to pick up! It is its own work and I would caution going in expecting too many similarities, but I think fans of Ali Hazelwood are likely to find that this book works for them. And if you are familiar with Jane Austen, there may be a few cheeky little references here and there if you know where to look!

Harriet and Gale definitely have chemistry, but I was missing something. I think the whole AI plot is not for me. Apart from that it was a cute sports romance.

I love me a good STEM rom com where the woman is unapologetically smart. I enjoyed the reverse age gap and the power dynamic between them. You do not often see the woman being so forward and taking charge in the spicy scenes and it was a refreshing change from the usual. Overall not a bad romance.

I was able to get my hands on an arc copy of this book.
The story is described as Jane Austen meets Ali Hazelwood.
This is a best friend's little brother and hockey romance. And it also has a very interesting AI software involved.
Harriet is a kick ass software engineer and she develops an AI program to improve the performance of sports players. And Gale is her best friend's little brother, who is a hockey player.
Harriet ends up having to pick Gale as her test subject to test E.M.M.A. the AI program.
Things gets complicated between them, when E.M.M.A. determines that Gale's performance will improve if he finds himself a perfect girlfriend, because both Harriet and Gale have been secretly crushing on each other for years.
And the rest of the story is how they both navigate through this mess.
I really enjoyed reading this book, especially E.M.M.A.'s quirky responses. There were many lol moments. I also loved that Harriet was portrayed as a strong female character. I love that there is no third act breakup. They both have a lot of baggage and I love the way Harriet communicates with Gale and his sister (her BFF) to navigate that.
Also love the best friend (and Gale's sister) character!
This was a great read.
If you like the tropes best friend's little brother, sports romance, FMC older than MMC, STEM FMC, please pick up this book when it releases. You will have a great time!

This was super cute! I really enjoyed how E.M.M.A. came to life on the page! I wasn't expecting it but it was such a nice surprise. Gale and Harriet's story kept me engaged from start to finish and I was rooting for them the entire time! I don't believe I've ever read a book where the woman was the DOM and I can say I am here for it! For me this was different then other books I've read and I would definitely recommend it! I will say get past the first few pages, the writing flows better after that point. At the very beginning I didn't quite connect with the writing and it felt over the top and pulled me from the story but it's worth! The author hits her stride!

This book had so much depth for the characters and was a great read! Gale, MMC, had such a healthy type of masculintiy presented that was graceful and refreshing. There was not a big third act break-up which is a big plus for me! All of the relatinships presented were rich and fulfilling, they also represented real-life quandries in an uplifting way! I also loved a close brother-sister relationship, I don't feel like I see that too often in books! The only thing that took me out of the story was in the beginning there were a little too many Texas references for me.

2.75 🌟 rounding up

This is the second book I have read by this author and unfortunately this did not hit the mark as the first one.
The story follows Harriet, an AI developer who created E.M.M.A the AI and Gale, a hockey player. Harriet recruits Gale as beta tester for her AI pilot program to measure success rates in athletes.
My major issue with the book was forced female power. Harriet is supposed to be dominant and badass but that’s about all we know of her. What’s worse is that these things are repeatedly told to us rather than showing it. Her character was not fully explored and her inner monologues were extremely repetitive. In short she came across as bland and unoriginal.
Gale, though slightly better than Harriet, still was not as exciting. He is a struggling athlete with traumatic past and has always been obsessed with Harriet. His comeback came out of nowhere and he was “fixed” overnight.
Due to underdeveloped characters, I was not sold on their chemistry. Furthermore, the plot was not as engaging and had several unnecessary monologues repeating the same thing in different words.
While the concept was intriguing, the execution fell flat.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. My opinions are based solely on my reading experience.

This book had a lot of good ideas and an interesting premise but unfortunately when it came to the execution of the story it fell flat. There was supposed to be a connection with Jane Austen story Emma and other than the title there did not feel like one. It struggled with a very unlikeable female character and a weird plot line with the Ai. There was a lot going on ans it did not quite work.

Harriet has created an AI called EMMA to help athletes develop their skills. She needs a guinea pig for human trials. Enter her best friend’s little brother Gale, a once promising hockey star who is struggling with his game. When EMMA takes on a life of its own it demands that Gale’s last hope will be for he and Harriet to become romantically involved.
The story is a fun idea but some of the execution is lacking. Both of the characters have great potential but the story doesn’t really fully develop before they are tossed together. Harriet acts out of character and should lose her job while some of the other story lines are basically non starters. Not a bad read but not great.