Britin Frazey

In the opening of Love, Rebooted by Katy Summers, we follow Olive’s thoughts as she takes the initiative to kiss her best friend, Finn, during university, which she then refers to as a huge mistake. We don’t gain insight into why this is a mistake, just that this is how she feels about it in the modern day.

After that chapter is over, we come to the present, where both Olive and Finn are in their early thirties with jobs at two competing corporate software companies. Both have worked their way up the ladder, earning respect and prestige in their respective offices.

The story gets going when a merger is announced between Olive and Finn’s two companies, and they run into each other in the office– talking again for the first time, since the incident at university.

A four-star read for me, this book was an adorable story that was more of a second-chance romance than the rivals-to-lovers it claims to be. And yet, even more so than a second-chance love, this story was a classic friends-to-lovers arc with some awkward tension before their friendship is reestablished.

Their alleged rivalry comes into play when they are appointed to share a position at the company, essentially becoming the two second-in-commands. Olive is icy to Finn at first, feigning indifference despite knowing she still cares about him. Usually, she’s great at compartmentalizing, but it doesn’t work the same with Finn.

Olive has autism, which is always treated as important, but not defining, to her character. I really enjoyed the way this was portrayed– it felt natural and authentic. She was diagnosed post-graduation, so this is news, but not shocking information, to Finn.

With two narrators, we get insight into both of their perspectives and lives. As soon as we get into Finn’s head, we learn that he has a daughter named Max, who’s fifteen and also has autism. At the start, listeners don’t know what the situation is with Max’s mom, but readers of this review won’t get the same mystery. That’s to say: spoilers are ahead.

Max’s mother and Finn dated in high school, resulting in a teenage pregnancy. Their families were all close in the wake of this, and everyone agreed that Finn should go to college, so he did. Meaning, the entire time he was at university, Finn had a baby daughter back home with the woman who was technically still his girlfriend. Despite this, Finn fell for Olive and was completely honest with Max’s mom when he returned home. This information didn’t change their relationship’s dynamic, just its title, because they both had known for a long time they were ultimately platonic. Eventually, Max’s mother got remarried to her wife.

Okay, tangent time! What the heck, Finn? Olive definitely deserved to know he had a daughter. How he never mentioned precious baby Max will never make sense to me, and I don’t even feel like addressing that Finn cheated on his child’s mother. I guess that if the character isn’t hurt by it, readers shouldn’t be either (and really, I’m not because I still ship Finn and Olive), but it’s still weird.

Regardless of this being the entire reason for the miscommunication– and boiling down to something Finn should have told Olive prior to dubbing her his best friend– the story is still cute. Because while it makes no sense for the emotionally intelligent Finn we come to know and love in the story, teenage Finn was an entirely different person. It’s actually quite plausible that a teenage boy would do something stupid like this. I’m just glad we didn’t ever have to hear the internal monologue of teenage Finn.

Anyway, the two are established as besties again pretty quick– with lots of complications standing in their way. For example, Finn’s boss is an ignorant bigot stuck in a decade that I’m proud to say I was never part of. Eventually, they find a way to take him down, but for most of the story, he annoyingly looms in the foreground– like when your grandmother takes your picture, but catches her thumb over the camera. Except the boss has no love for anyone but himself.

Another detail worth mentioning is the well-woven obsession with The Lord of the Rings that we find shared in all three of the main characters. They’re even fluent in Elvish, which made me want to read those books, but also scared me that I’d need to learn a fantastical language. I don’t know a lot about Tolkien’s world, but I loved the way references were sprinkled throughout, explained well enough for me to understand and grow curious.

Finn and Olive are a great couple who truly love each other, and their story was delightful to listen to. Their story is a bit convoluted, especially for a friends-to-lovers arc, which are usually a lot more straightforward. Having to jump through the hoops of human resources and having a teenage daughter, there were genuinely some complicated issues that stood in their way, making it all the sweeter when they were finally able to make it work.

The resolutions for the characters were good, in my opinion, and the ending was so sweet. Being a romance, you know the gist of it, but I won’t sum up the details that you could find by downloading this story– that’s where the sweet stuff is!