I loved this book so much! The banter and tension was so fun in this book! And I loved the chemistry between the main couple!

Swiped by Paula Roger’s sounded like a fun rivals-to-lovers story on paper, but didn’t quite deliver for me. I found the lead character Nat incredibly frustrating and unlikable at times. She is so obsessed with proving she is right that she’s not willing to listen to anyone who cares about her. The fact that she does not do anything after she finds out the truth about Thom was infuriating. I appreciated her realizations at the end, but it was hard to swallow after she was so horrible to Allison.
The best parts of the book were when Nat and Rami were together, but unfortunately there weren’t enough of those moments overall.

Swiped may be the first STEM rom-com that I have ever read. It was cute, predictable, and a fun read.

I struggled getting into this book as I felt the characters were a bit unlikable and not relatable. The story was good so perhaps if the characters were different, I'd like this book more.

I did DNF this book at 70%.

It is a lovely story and i liked the Mains in it.
I really liked it at the start but then found it hard to get back into.
Was a me thing, not the books.

I just finished reading “Swiped” by Paula Rogers. This book had such a current feel to it with all the digital apps and everyone on their phones. I do feel like dating apps can be a little hard to find true lasting relationships and I liked how the book explored that. I totally understand how isolating creating a tech business in that’s mostly dominated by men. This was a cute rom com and I loved the story of Nat and Rami together…from their instant connection, to fights, to the ending.

I just couldn’t get behind Rami and Nat. I disliked the horrid dates they went on and their friends. They were obvious end game but I couldn’t get excited about it whatsoever. The premise was great but I never really got excited about this plot.

This was such an entertaining that I finished in a few hours.
A well written story that kept me hooked from the very beginning.
The characters draw you in and keeps you flipping the pages.
They are realistic and very well developed.
I really enjoyed the writing style. I found myself hooked, turning the pages.

4.5/5 stars! This was really cute and I enjoyed the storyline. Rami and Nat were so cute together! This is one of those romance books that made me excited about going on dates!Thank you NetGalley for the arc

Swiped is a breezy, clever rom-com that plugs right into modern tech culture. The STEM heroine grounds the story, the banter sizzles, and the slow burn payoff is both fun and heartwarming. If you enjoy playful tech-savvy romances with a data-driven twist—especially with that rivals-to-lovers arc—you’re going to smile your way through this one.
Nitpicks? Some modern references can feel a bit forced, and Rami might not land emotionally for everyone. But overall—totally worth a read

A super cute romance that’s easy to read and will definitely make you laugh! I really enjoyed the connection between the characters as their friendship was so heartwarming and fun to watch grow. A sweet, feel-good read.

This was a cute read and I loved the dog party thing at the beginning that was cute! It was funny but I did struggle to get fully into it and didn’t feel overly connected to the characters

For anyone who online dates, the commentary this book provides perfectly sums up that experience. However, it also gives off very deep "everyone sucks here" vibes. Nat and Remi deserve each other, but not in a way that makes me swoon. Neither were characters that I connected with or rooted for. It might be that everyone around was jaded, oversensitive, and reactionary. When I look for a romance, I personally look for a book that makes me want the characters together because there is a certain aspirational quality to their romance. That was not the case for this book. It was almost too true to life, and the happy ending felt extremely forced. The writing has some positive qualities, and I think that if the ending were a bit different, it might have some legs in lit fic, because the commentary on modern dating is clever and poignant, but as a romance, this did not work for me because I disliked the characters so much.

Thank you to NetGalley, Joffe Books, and Paula Rogers for the free eARC. All opinions are my own.

I am very split on this book. It is well written, engaging, and funny, but I hated the FMC. For a character who talks about mean girls often, she was terrible.

Nat is on a panel at a tech conference and ends up in a dating race with Rami, another panelist, about whether it is better to meet people online or in person. Once the challenge begins and Nat begins to create her dating profile, it's like her entire personality changes. She becomes a terrible friend and a very unprofessional boss. Nat spends a large portion of the book lashing out and pushing everyone away as she blames everyone but herself for her problems. I absolutely hated the final conflict scene because of the way Allison was treated. The fact that Nat not only said what she did but also never tried to find her to apologize is unforgivable, especially for someone who had been a victim of mean girls.

That being said, when Nat and Rami are together, this book is 5 stars. Their banter is quick, they are emotionally vulnerable, and Nat has a personality. Their back-and-forth at the bar was amusing, and you could feel the connection coming off the page. They were a totally believable couple, and it was a stark contrast for all the terrible dates. For anyone who has dated since the apps got popular, you will likely suffer from the ghost of dates past. Nat's date with Eric was a slightly different version of multiple dates I have been on. Rami trying to talk to women and them having to pull out an earbud is a situation I see weekly at coffee shops.

Shout out to Ian and all of his ridiculous metaphors. My friends are all about to be real tired of hearing me say, "The shaman sends his own invitation" every time I am late.

Thank you to NetGalley, Joffe Books, and Paula Rogers for the free eARC.

Swiped by Paula Rogers is a fun and clever novel about two techies who can’t agree on the best way to find love in today’s world. Nat, the creator of a dating app, believes technology is the future of romance. Ravi, who built a weather app, insists that real connection happens the old-fashioned way. Both are single, both are stubborn and competitive, and when their opposing views clash, they strike a deal: put their theories to the test and see who can actually find success—online or offline.

This witty and realistic story perfectly captures the challenges of modern dating while also exploring friendship, connection, and what it really means to put yourself out there. The banter between Nat and Ravi is sharp, the STEM backdrop is fresh, and the romance feels both relatable and fun.

A perfect pick for readers who love smart rom-coms, STEM heroines and heroes, or stories that tackle the messy, hilarious world of dating today.

Thank you to Paula Rogers, Joffe Books | Choc Lit, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Book review: Swiped: The Rivals-to-Lovers, Slow Burn, STEM Rom-Com by Paula Rogers
Thank you to Joffe Books | Choc Lit and NetGalley for my gifted ARC.

Let me start by saying: if you’ve ever wanted to watch two emotionally constipated geniuses try and fail to outwit love using algorithms and smug banter, Swiped is your new religion. Paula Rogers has written a rom-com that feels like watching a romantic chemistry experiment in real time — complete with miscalculations, explosions, and two very attractive lab rats pretending they’re not into each other.

Our heroine, Nat Lane, is a woman after my own heart: brilliant, prickly, allergic to nonsense, and very convinced she can control her love life with data and zero emotional risk. She’s the founder of a wildly successful dating app and the human equivalent of a firewall — no feelings get through unless they’ve been triple-encrypted and peer-reviewed. She’s built her career on the idea that love can be optimized, charted, predicted, and delivered like a well-oiled Amazon package. Enter Rami — her rival, her nemesis, and possibly the most annoyingly charismatic man to ever walk into a panel discussion and start wrecking lives with a smirk and an opinion.

Naturally, he questions her entire philosophy in public, and because this is a rom-com, that means a bet. Not a normal, adult, “Let’s agree to disagree” moment, but a full-on, high-stakes, pride-on-the-line wager. Nat must find her soulmate using her app. Rami has to meet someone the old-fashioned way. First to fall in love wins. If that setup sounds like a slow descent into romantic chaos, you’d be right. Because here’s the twist: the people they keep falling for? Surprise — it’s each other.

Watching these two pretend they’re not catching feelings is like watching a cat try to pretend it didn’t just fall off the counter — aggressive denial mixed with wounded dignity. They are constantly sparring, constantly circling each other, and constantly ruining everyone’s day with how obvious their unresolved sexual tension is. You can almost hear their friends screaming in the background, “Can you two PLEASE just hook up and put us out of our misery?”

Rami is, of course, infuriating in the best way. He’s charming, exasperating, and just vulnerable enough to make you question your own emotional stability. He flirts like it’s a form of psychological warfare. He pushes Nat’s buttons for sport, but he also respects her brilliance, which makes him even harder to resist — for both Nat and the reader. And then there’s Nat, who clings to logic like it’s a security blanket while simultaneously having the emotional range of a locked filing cabinet. But the best part? You get to watch her unravel. Slowly, painfully, gloriously. It’s like watching a glacier melt — you know it’s going to take forever, but when it does, it’s beautiful.

And yes, it’s a slow burn. A slooooow burn. Like, so slow you’ll start Googling “how long can two people deny obvious chemistry before spontaneous combustion.” But the payoff? Worth every excruciating, will-they-won’t-they moment. The tension builds, the stakes get higher, and then — finally — they admit what we’ve known since Chapter Three: science can’t always predict love, but it sure can make it interesting.

My favorite quote from the book?
“You can’t quantify a heartbeat.”
Four words that perfectly summarize Nat’s journey from control freak to full-blown romantic mess. She tries, of course — spreadsheets, data modeling, all the usual tools of the emotionally unavailable — but at the end of the day, love refuses to be crammed into a formula.

What makes Swiped work isn’t just the banter (which is excellent), or the tropes (which are satisfying), or even the chemistry (which is off the charts) — it’s that Rogers manages to poke fun at our obsession with logic while gently reminding us that the most important parts of love are often the most chaotic. She lets her characters flail, fall, flounder, and feel, all while keeping the tone light, smart, and irresistibly snarky.

If you’re a fan of Ali Hazelwood’s STEM heroines, Christina Lauren’s sparkling banter, or the exquisite pain of watching two idiots fall in love against their will, then you’ll eat this book up like it’s the last cupcake at a coding conference. Swiped is a clever, sexy, laugh-out-loud, swoon-until-you’re-stupid rom-com that proves formulas may get you dates — but it’s the unpredictable moments that make it love.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆ (4 out of 5 stars — because I needed at least one more kissing scene to recover from the slow burn-induced emotional whiplash)

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Who doesn’t love an enemies to lovers troupe?

Their chemistry is instant until he realizes who she is. The c creator of the app he hates…. Then suddenly put on the spot, they have to prove what way to date is better: Organically or using the app?….

After both going on awful dates, they accidentally run into each other and start to meet up after their dates.

But what is more important, winning the bet or ending up with the right person?

This is the kind of rom-com that had me grinning from start to finish. Nat Lane is a wonderfully smart, relatable heroine—a STEM-savvy founder of a dating app who trusts data more than emotions. Her rivalry with Rami, equal parts infuriating and charming, makes for the perfect slow-burn tension. Watching them spar, compete, and gradually crumble under their own growing attraction is pure rom-com gold.

I loved the rivals-to-lovers trope here because it’s paired with brains and banter. The stakes feel personal yet fun, with the “bet” driving both the plot and the chemistry. Nat’s scientific approach to love contrasted perfectly with Rami’s more intuitive, unpredictable style, and the mix of grumpy x sunshine energy between them kept me laughing and swooning in equal measure.

The pacing is spot-on, with the romance unfolding gradually, making the payoff satisfying without ever feeling rushed. Swiped is witty, smart, and full of heart, and it’s a perfect pick for anyone who loves clever, STEM-smart heroines, slow-burn tension, and opposites-attract romance that actually delivers on both the laughs and the feels.

Books have always been my “happy place.” I’ve been a romance reader for as long as I can remember, and if you throw in a main character working in STEM, I’m pretty much sold. So when I came across this book, I was instantly excited, and let me tell you, it did not let me down.

Right from the start, the story had me hooked. I’ve never used a dating app (been with my husband since I was 20), but I’ve been on social media since high school. It never really clicked with me that app developers basically see everything you’re doing in there. Creepy, right? This book peels back the curtain on that world in such an entertaining way that I found myself both fascinated and slightly unsettled, but also totally glued to the page.

Now, about the characters. I adored the FMC. She was smart, funny, and just so easy to root for. The MMC? Eh, he wasn’t my favorite at first, and honestly, I never warmed up to him quite as much as I wanted to. But their back-and-forth kept me entertained, and I love when a romance has a little bit of friction instead of everything being perfect and predictable. Plus, there were a few twists that had me wide-eyed, like “wait, what just happened?” moments, and I ate that up.

As for the ending, I liked it, but I’m greedy when it comes to epilogues. I wanted more! Just a little extra peek into their future would have made me ridiculously happy. Still, this was such a fun read overall. It gave me romance, techy intrigue, and just enough drama to keep things spicy. If you love romance with a twist, this one is worth picking up.

**I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

This is light and fun STEM-tinged rivals-to-lovers story that follows Nat, the founder of a dating app, and Rami, also developer of an app. Their wager - she putting her faith in dating algorithms while Rami sticks to old-school matchmaking - sets the scene for a lovely read. There is witty banter between the two, making this an enjoyable read.

Thanks Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.