e-ALC, 07:49:27
Narrated by: Jennifer Sun Bell
Release Date: November 18, 2025
Published by: HarperCollins
Read from: November 19-20, 2025
Stand-alone
Source: Netgalley (I received this ALC free from the publisher and Netgalley. This did nothing to influence my review!)
Content Warning: Panic Attacks/Disorders, Homophobia, Biphobia, Cursing, Child Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Car Accident
For Readers Interested In: 2sLGBTQ+, Audio, Sparkly Covers, Racial/Ethnic Diversity (Asian), Realistic Fiction, Romance, YABestselling author Lyla Lee delivers a deliciously fun YA K-drama remix of Pride and Prejudice—if Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett were a college-run reality TV dating show.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that when there is a hot person, there is also someone with a crush on them.
Mia Yoon has a plan for everything. Get a full ride to her dream film school in Los Angeles, behind her mom’s back, and escape her middle-of-nowhere hometown—check. Produce her own dating show starring other people and their crushes—check. But everything goes off the rails when she has to enlist the help of her own secret crush, Noah Cho, a boy she’d rather hate.
Despite being a campus celebrity voted “most eligible student bachelor,” Noah can’t remember the last time he was in a relationship. And he’s perfectly content with that, thank you very much, especially since just the word feelings makes him uncomfortable. But he can’t stop staring at Mia, who keeps glaring at him in class. And when she asks him to be on her dating show—as one of the contestants—he can’t say no.
As Noah goes on more and more romantic dates on The Cuffing Game and Mia watches from behind the camera, something feels off. With the showrunner and contestant slowly falling for one another, can the show still go on?
*MY THOUGHTS*
This was a lot of fun, but ultimately I wanted a tad bit more. And let me just say ONCE AGAIN, I really need to start reading the synopsis because I had no idea this was about a dating show lol Reality tv is not my jam, so it was weird to see this come up in my book lol
Ok so the main thing about this was the age of them. They’re supposed to be in college? It seemed like they were when talking about their workload and classes, but they acted like high school freshmen instead. And yes I do know that this is YA, but it actually should be NA based on their ages and the college they attend. But it was just weird. Everything is so aged up now. If this had been a NA book I wouldn’t even have mentioned anything, but this is pubbed as YA, so yeah, the characters were young acting and I wish if they were in a college setting they acted more grown. Having a temper tantrum and running away with someone you just met….. Yeah kinda crazy if you ask me.
The romance was cute, but I did want to see more of it. They just got together at the end and we barely saw them together at all. I understand the concept of slow-burns, but when its so slow that the book is basically over when something finally happens, what’s the point? She gave them so much time hating each other that they didn’t get enough time together. And then to do it after all that torture of making her watch him go on all those dates with everyone else too? It just felt weird lol I wanted to see them go on a couple dates and get to know each other more the way the others did. Not when people would think “they were cheating.”
The one thing that kept me tethered to this was the plot. So basically the game itself. I loved seeing the way they came up with things, the way they delegated tasks, and I loved seeing the entire campus get involved by watching. As someone with a major in mass comm in broadcast production, I understood how important those things were to her. I also enjoyed being able to have a front row seat to all the couples and being able to hear about what happened on each date. Although I do wish we had more scenes where Mia was there and saw the things that happened in person rather than watching it or seeing it later. But all in all, I liked the game and thought it seemed fun.
This book was a lot of fun, but I still needed a bit more. I love Lyla Lee so I am willing to read more from her. It just means this particular books wasn’t my favorite. With that being said, y’all still need to go pick this up too. Go make your own decision. If nothing else, read it for the cute romance and the cute game lol
Overall, I give this
