The Dating Game

January 1, 2019
Three college freshmen strike gold with their successful dating app created for a class project, but will they stay united when business and romance mix? Sara, Braden, and Roberto meet in a competitive entrepreneurship course at the fictional Warren University in Silicon Valley, California. When their famous venture capitalist professor challenges them to pitch a winning product idea--or fail the class--they knock out the competition with Perfect10, a dating app in which users rank one another based on desirability. Sara, a whip-smart Midwestern blonde, has already developed a flourishing software system; Braden, a privileged social climber, is set on establishing his own legacy apart from his father; and Roberto is Latinx on scholarship from Oakland with a Spanish-speaking father and deported mother in Mexico. Sara and Braden are presumed white. In Roache's (Frat Girl, 2018) sophomore effort, multiple voices rotate narration of each chapter. As the trio faces difficult decisions that illuminate their individual values about greed and profit, this had the potential to be a timely story about ethical entrepreneurship in the tech industry. However, the overarching and predictable romance plot dilutes the impact. Sara's voice is the strongest, with perceptive insights on roommates and love, but Robbie's story frustratingly lacks depth; his chapters often serve as a vehicle for dialogue between Braden and Sara. An author's note about undocumented immigrants is a blithe period at the end of a thin story. Swipe left on this one. (Fiction. 14-18)

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February 15, 2019
Grades 10-1 On the first day in billionaire technology entrepreneur Professor Thomas' college course, three freshmen reluctantly agree to work together on a project that will determine their entire grade. Sara, brilliant yet socially unsophisticated, has already earned a kind of fame as the cofounder of an education software. Roberto is yearning for financial success that will allow him to bring his mother back to the U.S. since her deportation to Mexico years earlier. And insolent, handsome Braden wants to prove his worth to his wealthy father. They surprise themselves by putting together Perfect10, a dating app that gets them an A+ in the class. But Braden wants more, and the trio is sucked into the gritty world of business rather than the challenges of computer programming. Predictably, there is a romantic triangle as well as an eventual dilemma as Braden fixates on financial gain, while Robbie contemplates ethical work. Readers will enjoy the insights into the latter, however, as well as a glimpse into the complicated injustices of our immigration system.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)