Loathe at First Sight

I recently read LOATHE AT FIRST SIGHT by Suzanne Park, and I am confused.
 
This is definitely not your average rom com. The premise of this book is an enemies-to-lovers rom com in the notoriously sexist video game industry. We start off with our protagonist, Melody Joo, jumping in head first to find her way – all the while trying to keep an appealing (and off-limits) love interest at bay. 
 
Content warnings: misogyny and sexism including workplace sexual harassment, internet harassment, and doxxing. 
 
The pacing, along with Melody's ability to getting scrappy with limited resources, really worked for me. Melody was great at not taking herself too seriously and I loved how she stood up for herself instead of letting the relentless sexism get her down. (Although there was one scene involving salary negotiation that had my blood boiling.) 
 
Overall the romance took a backseat to the gaming, work-related plot, and I'd probably label this more contemporary women's fiction than romance. Given that the comps for this book are “fans of Jasmine Guillory and Sally Thorne,” you would likely expect more of a leading romance plot with gaming to be secondary. 
 
I spent a lot of time thinking about this book after I read it. Are publishers setting up #ownvoicebook debuts (in this case, adult debut) for failure because they don't know how to market them? While this book wasn't a slam-dunk for me, it's partly because the marketing for this book made me think it was a romance. With a less “coupled” cover, a slightly different blurb, and a different title, I might have felt very differently about the book because my expectations were set. 
 
There isn't anything quite like this book out there, and I think it's a useful book if you want to get a peek into toxic gaming culture. I'm just concerned that this book is going to be very hit or miss with readers because of the marketing misalignment. 
 
Thanks to the author, @avonbooks, and @netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this e-ARC.

DNF @ 33% or so - was reading this for “work rivals” on 2022 romance bingo. Read some reviews here and apparently this is more women's fiction than romance, and also the characters aren't really rivals. Wasn't loving it regardless, what with the cardboard cutout characters (seriously, every man at the MC's office besides the love interest is cartoonishly awful). DNFing and moving on.

I'll preface this by saying I am not usually a rom-com reader and might not be the right audience for this type of story.

Let's start with the pros:
1 - This book is an Own Voices novel by a Korean-American author. I love that!
2 - The story is centered on a woman working in the video game industry, a field typically dominated by white men, and succeeding.
3- This book does not shy away from calling attention to the horrible treatment of women in the gaming industry, or any tech industry really. It is well-known that women in tech receive unwarranted harassment and threatening language from both male colleagues and tech users/gamers. I like that the author chose to shine a spotlight on this aspect of the tech world.
4 - It was a quick, easy read.

Now, the cons:
1 - Melody, the main character is SO annoying! As the heroine, we're meant to root for her, a non-white woman making her mark in a traditionally male-focused industry. However, she is so completely unlikeable that it was really hard for me to care about her. She throws childish temper tantrums, and is completely dismissive of her coworkers and peers. But before you think she is the only problem with the story, there is con #2.
2 - The blatant sexism and misogyny. Obviously, as this story takes place in the video game industry you have your typical “tech-bros” who treat Melody like crap. While I'm glad that the topic, which is a very real thing that exists in this industry, is not glossed over, it could have been handled better. The reader is continuously beaten over the head with it when it is something that could have been handled with more nuance in this particular genre. I feel it would fit better in a more serious genre, not a rom-com.
3 - A rom-com with no chemistry between the MC and the love interest. Their attraction feels very forced and it's difficult to understand what draws them to each other.

The book was well-written and had a lot of potential, but I think the ideas needed a bit more polishing. And as a rom-com, the romance aspect could have been better developed. Overall, this was a good book, not a great one. I'm glad I had an opportunity to read it, but I don't think it's one I would return to again. I would give this 3.5 stars.