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It's difficult for me to write a review about this book, because I read it over a time where a lot was happening in my life, and the book touches on many things that are not easy to process (at least for me, at this point of time). So this is just what surprised me the most while reading, which is also what ultimately stuck with me: I could feel the depression through the pages.

This is my first Emily Henry book and I loved it! The setting was fun, the humor appealed to me, and the characters were relatable. The conflicts got me rolling my eyes, but I'm happy about how they were resolved.

At this point, I don't know why I'm still reading Ali Hazelwood. It's probably just FOMO, and a bit of hope that she might make something interesting out of her favorite trope after all? To spare myself of going through the book's content again – in short, the novellas are re-skins of the same old formula (big broody man magically falls deeply in love with small quirky woman, but small quirky woman doesn't realize it before things are cleared up after some misunderstanding). There are some fun bits in there, I can't say that I didn't enjoy it at all, but all in all I wouldn't really recommend it.

I like the premise, the plot, the narrator and the discussion about cultural appropriation. The writing flows nicely. The pop culture references and the tweets were fun at the start too, but eventually it got too repetitive for my taste. I get that the main character was spiraling, but it felt tedious towards the end. At times, the villain-ness of the main character felt too heavy-handed, verging on rage-bait (or was it just too close to home?). And the ending didn't do the book justice.

This book made me realize that the author is only writing the same story over and over again. Big man broody, small woman quirky. This "STEMinist" branding irks me a lot, and the """STEMinist""" elements are extremely on the nose and get annoying very quickly. The way I got annoyed at the main character tells me that this book really wasn't for me.

The book is nothing deep and the writing isn't anything special – but it's fun. Like a popcorn movie.

This book ticks all the boxes for me. It's not only about game development and unrequited / platonic love, it touches on so many things. Honestly couldn't put it down, for good reasons. I kept raving about it for days after finishing it, still think about it sometimes. Could have done without the communication issues creating unnecessary drama – they made the characters feel really frustrating at times, but those are the flaws they come with, I guess.

I enjoyed reading this a lot. It's good historical fiction about a sad part of history that isn't well-known. The writing flows well, the characters have character, and I feel that the author cares a lot about the material. My only issue with the book is that the cultural references are at times a bit too on the nose and stereotypical, therefore felt like pandering to a western audience. But it's my culture so I'm obviously biased here.