Book Review: Loathe at First Sight by Suzanne Park

This post contains affiliate links. I was provided with a free copy of this book in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own.

Title: Loathe at First Sight

Author: Suzanne Park

Sub-genre: Contemporary (but this is really more along the lines of women’s fiction)

Content warnings: Sexual harassment; racism; premature birth (side character, baby is fine!)

Alright, so full disclosh, Suzanne was one of my mentors for Pitch Wars, and along with being an awesome mentor throughout the process, remains someone who I look up to and turn to for advice. So obviously I’m going to say nice things about her book, but they are justified! (If I read it and hated it, I just wouldn’t review it ;o))

I will say, this book is being marketed as a romance, but I would probably shelve it under women’s fiction because while there is a love story, the central plot is more about the main character Melody and her internal and external struggles. Melody is a woman working at a prominent video game design company (please excuse all the phrasing and terms I get wrong here because I know nothing about video games). When her boss pitches one of her ideas to the board and they love it, Melody is given the task of making the game a reality because she is one of the few women at the company and this CEO guy is clearly looking to score some diversity points. Throughout the process of creating and promoting the game, Melody is given very little support from her boss, and when word gets out about the game and its designer, Melody faces a barrage of backlash from the online gaming community. It gets real bad, real fast. Gamers online call Melody every misogynistic and racist term in the book, and eventually end up leaking her phone number and address. Melody receives little to no support from the people in power at her company and even less from the police. Luckily, she has Nolan, the CEO’s nephew, to rely on. Despite getting off to a rocky start, Nolan proves to be just what Melody needs during the shitstorm that is making this video game come to life. In the end, Melody launches her game on time and to much acclaim, while also landing the guy.

Alright. Some things about this book. Suzanne is hilarious and I laughed out loud for reals like eighty million times. But then I also cried because Melody really gets put through the ringer and I just wanted to jump into my Kindle app and hug her. I legitimately started reading this book around 11:00 am, surfaced at some point for food and water, and then when right back to reading. It’s not unusual for me to read a book in a day, but in basically a single sitting? Yeah, it hooked me. I loved Melody, but I also really loved her friendships, partly because they felt so realistic. There is a threesome of friends, and while they all like each other and get along, there’s also the sometimes awkward dynamic of liking one friend more than the other. I saw a lot of myself and my own experiences in their little triangle. I also loved Nolan who wears plaid shirts and glasses, which is all I really need (and if you’ve seen my husband, you can attest to that!).

But for me, the best thing about this book is the way it handles the sexual harassment. I’ve read quite a few romances lately that have assault or harassment at the center of them, and just to be real, they feel a little trauma porn-y. But I never felt like that in LAFS. Everything felt real, the words and threats were gut-wrenching, but it never felt like the book was making a mockery of these experiences. That really stood out to me, and I appreciated how sensitively the topic was approached.

My only warning with this book is to not going into it expecting your traditional enemies to lovers plot, because again, I feel this is more about Melody and her journey and not so much about the romance. For me, that didn’t take away even a smidge of enjoyment because I was into this book from page one. I loved it and I hope you do too!

Overall Rating: 5 stars (duh)