Loathe at First Sight by Suzanne Park

"Bursts with humor, heart, and great energy. I loved it! Park is a hilarious new voice in women's fiction."--Helen Hoang, author of The Kiss Quotient In a debut perfect for fans of Jasmine Guillory and Sally Thorne, a junior video game producer finds herself getting closer and closer to the one person she hates most after a mass troll attack online almost ruins her life. Melody Joo is thrilled to land her dream job as a video game producer, but her new position comes with its share of challenges. Namely, an insufferable CEO and a team that consists of mostly male co-workers who make the term "misogyny" pale in comparison to their obnoxious comments. Then there's the infuriating--yet distractingly handsome--intern Nolan McKenzie, a.k.a. "the guy who got hired because his uncle is the boss". Just when Melody thinks she's made the worst career move of her life, her luck changes on a dime. While joking with a friend, she creates a mobile game that has male strippers fighting for survival in a post-apocalyptic world. Suddenly, Melody's "joke" is her studio's most high-profile project--and Melody's running the show. When Nolan is appointed a key member of her team, Melody's sure he'll be useless. But as they grow closer, she sees he's smart and sexy, which makes Melody want to forget he's her intern. As their attraction deepens, she knows it's time to pump the brakes even with her Korean parents breathing down her neck to hurry up and find a man. But she's here to work--and nothing more. All she has to do is resist the wild thoughts coursing through her mind whenever Nolan is near. Easy . . . or so she thinks. With her pet project about to launch, Melody suddenly faces a slew of complications, including a social media trolling scandal that could end her career. She suspects one of her co-workers is behind the sabotage and is determined to find out who betrayed her. Could the man she's falling hard for help her play the game to win--in work and love?

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.