#lovehacks 2

[linlyschoices]

🫣

[lover-also-fighter-also]

P.S the poll is limited to only 12 options, so feel free to comment/reblog with your favourites ❤️❤️

[choices-binglebonkus]

#LoveHacks book 2 >>>>>>>>>> #LoveHacks book 1

[lavastories]

UPDATE!!!Everything I’m Currently Reading to Completed to Everything on my Interactive TBR!

LOL, brace yourself guys this is gonna be a pretty long list from all of my interactive platforms across the grid. This will be going by apps with list of stories.

What I completed reading will be in red crossed out. What I’m currently reading will be in green. What’s on my TBR will be in pink. And what I’m considering to read will be in orange. And what I’m unsure about will be in purple. And what I’ll drop reading will be in blue. And undecided will be in black.

Romance Club

1. And The Haze Will Take Us

2. 7 Brothers

3. Astrea’s Broken Heart

4. The One: Vol 2

5. Garden of Eden

6. Soulless

7. W: Time Catcher

8. Song of the Crimson Nile

9. Elite Tag

10. The Desert Rose

11. Vying for Versailles

12. Psi

13. The One: Vol 1

14. Hell and High Water

15. Theodora

16. The Flower from Tiamat’s Fire

17. Heart of Trespia

18. Gladiator Chrronicles

19. Seduced by the Rythum

20. Arcanum

21. Shadows of Sanitfour

22. Sophie’s Ten Wishes

23. Path of the Valkyrie

24. Love from Outer Space

25. Dracula. A Love Story

26. Legend of the Willow

27. Wave Patrol

28. Queen in 30 Days

29. Sails in the Fog

30. Heaven’s Secret- Requiem

31. Kali: Flame of Samsara

32. Love, Sin, & Evil: Vol 1

33. Chasing You 2

34. Heaven’s Secret 2 (Currently rereading for LI)

35. Kali: Call of Darkness

36. On Thin Ice

37. Sins of London

38. Rage of the Titans

39. Heaven’s Secret

40. Chasing You

41. My Hollywood Story

42. Moonborn

43. The Thunderstorms Saga

44. Shakespeare's Code

45. The Parallel Universes Bureau

46. The Missing

CHAPTERS (Keep in mind this app has SOOOO many books, so I’ll be putting the one’s I’ve started, all 27 books. I see to which ones I’ll be continuing, finished read, on my TBR, or not going to continue.)

1. Paying My Dues - Story by ME

2. Knocked Up By the Hockey Team

3. Bride of Anubis

4. Bad Boy Blues

5. Dangerous Guilty Pleasure - User Story

6. My Best Friend’s Baby

7. Having the Convict’s Baby

8. I Lost My Innocence to the Mafia Boss

9. Slashes In The Snow

10. Hot Hot Hate

11. Ruined

12. Pregnant by my Ex’s Dad

13. Addicted

14. My First Time - User Story

15. Our Story - User Story

16. The Darkest Kiss

17. Emergency Engagement

18. Night Prince 3: Bound by Flames

19. Love In the Deep End

20. COLE

21. Seven Day Fiancé

22. Burn for Me

23. The Dark Ones

24. Promise Me - User Story

25. Nico: A Mafia Romance

26. HALO

27. Waking up Pregnant

Choices (For the sake of the post, I’ll keep the books for this general and away from the VIP books. However, only will have the books of the VIP books that became wide release)

1. The Ghost of Us

2. BloodBound Series

3. The Royal Romance Series

4. The Nanny Affair Series

5. Rules of Engagement Series

6. Open Heart Series

7. Laws of Attraction Series

8. Roommates With Benefits

9. The Royal Masquerade

10. With Every Heartbeat

11. Rising Tides

12. Hot Shot

13. Alpha

14. Dirty Little Secrets

15. The Billionaire’s Baby

16. Surrender

17. Untameable

18. Shipwrecked

19. Kiss of Death

20. Wolf Bride

21. Witness: A Bodyguard Romance

22. Endless Summer Series

23. Hero

24. The Heist: Monaco

25. The Phantom Agent

26. Most Wanted

27. Across the Void

28. Ship of Dreams

29. Desire and Decorum Series

30. A Courtesan of Rome

31. Distant Shores

32. The Duchess Affair

33. Murder at Homecoming

34. High School Series

35. My Two First Loves

36. Ride-or-die: A Bad Boy Romance

37. The Elementalists Series

38. HSS: Class Act Series

39. Immortal Desires Series

40. Wake the Dead

41. It Lives Series

42. Nightbound

44. Haunting of Braidwood Manor

45. Perfect Match Series

46. Foreign Affairs

47. Mother of the Year

48. Bachelorette Party

49. Kindred

50. Blades of Light and Shadow Series

51. The Cursed Heart Series

52. The Crown & Flame Series

53. Guinevere

54. Baby Bump Series

55. First Comes Love

56. A Very Scandalous Proposal

57. LoveHacks Series

58. Passport to Romance

59. Along Came Treble

60. Red Carpet Diaries Series

61. America’s Most Eligible Series

62. Hot Couture

63. Platinum

64. Slow Burn

65. Queen B Series

66. The Freshman Series

67. Wishful Thinking

68. Getaway Girls

69. The Deadliest Series

70. Crimes of Passion Series

71. Veil of Secrets

72. The Unexpected Heriess

73. Big Sky Country Series

74. Ms. Match

75. Save the Date

76. The Princess Swap

77. Home for the Holidays

78. Guarded

79. Hearts on Fire Series

80: Open Heart Series

Episode (So just like Chapters, keeping it close to my history. Because there is so many books)

1. The Mafia Bride

2. Eat Me Up

3. Flirting with the Villian

4. Barely Mine

5. Rule Breaker

6. Tempting Devil

7. Playing Princess

8. Blood Lust

9. Pregnant by a Vampire: The Curse

10. The Gamer Girl

11. Love Life

12. It’ll Be Our Secret

13. Feel Me

14. VAMPS & HUMANS

15. Behind His Mask

16. Unexpectedly Expecting

17. Kidnapped by a Prince

Journeys (This app specifically is more like the more stories you read the more books you’ll have access to. So, I’ll list the ones I have so far.)

1. Linda Brown Series

2. Recipe of Love

3. Don’t Forget Me

4. Love Lessons

5. Vampyra

6. #3SUM

My Candy Love (This app is pretty much one story but progressing with the MC life, which I love!)

1. My Candy Love: High School

2. My Candy Love: College Life

3. My Candy Love: Adulting

5. My Candy Love: Alternate Life

6. My Candy Love: Next Gen

Another World’s History (Wasn’t long since I discovered this app. Fairly new to me like some others that will be in this post but it’s great.)

1. My Name Is Hope

2. Neoxites: Child of Light

3. Codex of Consistency

4. Speculum

5. Parallels

6. Chimera

Forbidden Fruit (This app is very new. They only have 4 books so far. And I haven’t gotten around to reading any of them. So they are all on my TBR)

1. The Legacy of Rosefield

2. Undermind

3. Ghostpice

4. Daughter of the North Wind

League of Dreamers (Discovered this app not too long ago.)

1. Laws of the Beast

2. Wondering Spirit

3. Lullaby of Witches

4. Tablet of Isis

5. The Seal of Nostradammus

6. Silence of the Sea

7. Blooming Garden

8. Chronicles of Ark Dryden

9. Gates of Samhain

YourStoryLand (Discovered this app just recently, and it’s also fairly new as well. Most of the books are on my TBR and my not sure list)

1. Rock Wave

2. Audrey’s Dairy

3. Blue Abuss

4. Behind The Wall

5. The Lily of the Sands

6. City of Nightmares

Real Love (This app freshly discovered with 4 books. Haven’t started any of the books yet. Most are on the TBR.)

1. Look Around

2. Lame

3. The Codex of a Chess Player

4. Empire of Shadows

Seven Hearts Stories (This app recently made 2 years with 8 books. I honestly do like this app and have started reading one book from this app.)

1. The Deadly Biome

2. Illusion of Fame

3. Legend of the Celestials

4. The Era of Fatum

5. The Villain’s Last Wish

6. Mission Fortune

7. The Heart of Atlantean

8. Bride for a Vampire

TWISTMAX! (This app I freashly discovered just last week. Already started one book from there. And I got most on my TBR.)

1. Billionaire’s Revenge

2. Happily Ever After

3. The Boy Next Desk

4. Love & Scandal

5. Ace!

6. My Prince

7. Princess Escape

8. Touched by Love

9. The Prince’s Consultant

10. Threads of Desire

11. Love to Hate

12. All His Secrets

13. About Last Night

14. The Price of Polanco

15. Surprise Husband

16. Tutoring the Football Star

17. Freshman Flirt

18. Living With Guys

19. Undercover Lover

20. Broadway Baby

21. Forbidden Island

22. His Melody

23. Hometown Hookup

24. Lone Star Lovers

25. Go Fur Gold

26. Blood Red Moon

27. Stuck in the Past

28. A Powerful Choice

29. Handcuff Him!

30. Sultry on Set

31. Seduce Me, Senator

32. Chef’s Kiss

33. Dirty Work

34. Cold Case Chemistry

Dream Zone (Also discovered this last week. Haven’t started a story from here yet. So wee will leave all of the stories undecided.)

1. Hostel Story Series

2. Singles in Your Area

3. Half Human Series

4. Wildest Dreams Series

5. Behind the Counter Series

6. Teaching Undercover Series

7. Going Places Series

8. Incognito Mode Series

9. The Impossible Game Series

10. Devil’s Deal Series

11. Project Prometheus Series

12. Rogue Gang Series

13. Man for Hirer Series

14. Ubers Series

15. Time and Time Again Series

16. Colorblind Series

17. My Bloody Classmates Series

18. The Lookalikes Series

19. Honeywood Series

20. Family Business Series

21. Therapy Sessions Series

And the rest of the stories I read are single story apps which are…

1. Havenless

2. Dangerous Fellows

3. Killing Kiss

4. Henri’s Secret

5. Uncoven

I do plan to keep this list and update it with time. But I am happy I have this list so I can update as I go and keep ya’ll up to date. But this is going to be hella fun. Feel free to have this list if you are also using the same app as myself.

[storyofmychoices]

I think these can work for all three 😉

Do you have a comfort item? Tell us about it!

Best childhood moment?

Tell us about a memory you hold close to your heart.

Aww yay! Thanks for the ask!

Do you have a comfort item? Tell us about it!

Alex Hunt:

Coffee, coffee always makes her feel better

a charm bracelet she's had most of her live that she still adds to. It's not very expensive or glamorous but it's something she holds dear

photos she and Thomas took on one of their first dates

the "love among the stars" necklace from HWU, that HWU!Alex finds, but also RCD!Alex receives it from Addison who found it.

Bogart 🐾

Olivia Lahela:

a scarf her grandma knitted for her

her toy stethoscope she got as a child

a stuffed penguin Bryce got for her at the aquarium

Daenarya:

the woven bracelet Mal made for her

a worn leather bag she has of her moms

a journal she kept as a child

Best childhood moment?

Alex: Her on stage play in elementary school. She was in second grade and she will never forget how confident, comfortable, and empowered she felt on that stage, even if she only had 2 lines and was supporting the older kids.

Olivia: Playing doctor to all her stuffies and dolls

Daenarya: Daenarya doesn't have many memories of her parents, but she remembers one afternoon, sitting on the porch with her mom, the breeze blowing in their hair as they ate grapes they had just picked (Daenarya's parents were wine makers in my HC)

Tell us about a memory you hold close to your heart. I'll stick to more modern moments since I just did childhood ones

RCD!Alex:

Opening night of The Last Duchess

Marrying Thomas

Adopting Bogart

The birth of the twins

HWU!Alex:

Being accepted to HWU

The masquerade ball

the trip to Catalina

filming Centaurus Lost with Ben (from LoveHacks) (at least in my crossover series)

Olivia:

opening Sunshine Pediatrics of Boston (her own pediatric practice)

the birth of Malia and Makoa

saving the life of a young patient who they weren't sure would make it (heart transplant)

the death of a young patient (cancer)

Daenarya:

Meeting each of her companions and the relationships that developed from there

Opening the orphanage

meeting Rayden for the first time and later, rescuing Lydo

[Asks from this list]

[the-unconquered-queen]

For ongoing series, they count as completed if you're up to date, but it's up to you if you want to include a series' shorts/extras (like holiday specials) or not for 'completed'. (So, for example, if you've read the one available chapter of The Deadliest Gambit, then you've "completed" The Deadliest Game, but you decide whether you consider The Nanny Affair as completed if you haven't read The Dalton Affair.)

Full list under cut because why not, but you can just vote for an approximation/your best guess if you'd rather.

(In short, spin-offs like RoE/TRR and HSS/HSS:CA are each counted as their own separate series, TRR/TRH/TRF are all counted as one series, and finally ILitW/ILB and Untameable/Unbridled are counted as the same series respectively)

Series listed in the alphabetical order of the Choices library: A (1) Across the Void, (2) Alpha, (3) America's Most Eligible, (4) A Very Scandalous Proposal;

B (5) Baby Bump, (6) Bachelorette Party, (7) Big Sky Country, (8) The Billionaire's Baby, (9) Blades of Light and Shadow, (10) Bloodbound;

C (11) Crimes of Passion, (12) The Crown & the Flame, (13) A Courtesan of Rome, (14) The Cursed Heart;

D (15) The Deadliest Game, (16) Desire & Decorum, (17) Dirty Little Secrets, (18) Distant Shores, (19) The Duchess Affair;

E (20) The Elementalists, (21) Endless Summer;

F (22) First Comes Love, (23) Foreign Affairs, (24) The Freshman;

G (25) Getaway Girls, (26) Guarded, (27) Guinevere;

H (28) The Haunting of Braidwood Manor, (29) The Heist: Monaco, (30) Hero, (31) High School Story, (32) High School Story: Class Act, (33) Home for the Holidays, (34) Hot Couture, (35) Hot Shot;

I (36) Immortal Desires, (37) It Lives;

K (38) Kindred, (39) Kiss of Death;

L (40) Laws of Attraction, (41) Lovehacks;

M (42) Most Wanted, (43) Mother of the Year, (44) Ms. Match, (45) Murder at Homecoming, (46) My Two First Loves;

N (47) The Nanny Affair, (48) Nightbound;

O (49) Open Heart;

P (50) Passport to Romance, (51) Perfect Match, (52) The Phantom Agent, (53) The Princess Swap;

Q (54) Queen B;

R (55) Red Carpet Diaries, (56) Ride-or-Die, (57) Rising Tides, (58) Roommates with Benefits, (59) The Royal Masquerade, (60) The Royal Romance, (61) Rules of Engagement;

S (62) Save the Date, (63) Ship of Dreams, (64) Shipwrecked, (65) Slow Burn, (66) Sunkissed, (67) Surrender;

U (68) The Unexpected Heiress, (69) Untameable;

V (70) Veil of Secrets, (71) Villainous Valentine;

W (72) Wake the Dead, (73) Wishful Thinking, (74) With Every Heartbeat, (75) Witness, (76) Wolf Bride

[jerzwriter]

Rank your favorite LIs within your favorite stories. (i.e., rank the OH lis, BOLAS lis, etc.)

Hey Nonny,

Thank you for the ask! I want to preface that these are my opinions, and others have different opinions, and that's all right. I'll do this for all the Choices stories I've read (and remember! lol). But I'll start with the 2 multiple LI stories I write for first.

Open Heart

Tobias Carrick - I know he wasn't an LI, but it's not my fault PB is stupid! lol

Ethan Ramsey

Bryce Lahela

Jackie Varma

Raf Aveiro

Wake the Dead

Eli SIpes

Troy Hassan

Shannon Fox

Angel Savage

Sledge

More Below

A Courtesan of Rome

Cassius (from what I remember lol)

Sabina

Syphax (in fairness, I never completed the route with him)

Julius Ceasar (hated the fucker, but he was hot as hell lol)

Desire & Decorum

Ernest Sinclaire I really like all the other LIs, but I'm eternally devoted to Ernest. lol I've never been able to pick anyone else.

Foreign Affairs

Blaine Hayes (M and F Versions)

Tatum Mendoza

Ayna Seth

The Freshman Series

Zig Ortega (eternally devoted to Zig! lol)

Becca Davenport

James Ashton

Chris Powell

Kaitlin Liao

Guinevere

Tie. I loved Arthur and Lancelot, I can't pick! lol

Hot Couture

Marco Di Vincenzo

Luz Estrada

Hazel Nguyen

Travis McKenzie (really not my type...)

LoveHacks

Marc Collins

Ben Park

Leah Myers

My Two First Loves

Noah Harris (Bad Boy/Default) LOVE Noah

Ava Lawrence (Best Friend/Default)

Mason Jennings (Childhood Crush/Default) Really didn't care for him.

Perfect Match

Damian Nazario

Alana Kusuma (sorry, she's hot) Didn't romance others. Sloane irritated me, and Hayden... they're a robot. lol

Queen B

Ian Kingsley (Sorry, not sorry!) Didn't romance others, Zoey was too friend zoned for me, and Poppy, absofreakingloutely NOT.

Red Carpet Diaries * I'm only about 5 chapters in - so this is subject to change.

Matt Rodriguez Really don't know enough about the rest just yet. Teja's stupid hat ruined her for me.

The Royal Romance

Drake Walker (Sorry, curmudgeons with a soft spot for LI are my kryptonite)

Liam Rys

Hana Lee (Love her, but to quote Hozier, she's too sweet for me)

Maxwell Beaumont (he's totally friend-zoned for me)

Rules of Engagement

(I barely remember this story, but from what I recall:)

William (Business Guy)

Leo (Prince)

Dean (Bartender)

The Unexpected Heiress

John Somerset

Gemma Montjoy

Hugh Crawford

Veil of Secrets *

(I am 11 chapters in, but pretty confident with my choices here:)

Grant Emerson

Naomi Silverhawk

Flynn O'Malley

Kate O'Malley

I started BOLAS but didn't get far. Based on what I read, I would say:

Mal Volari

Nia Elarious

I'm too human-centric for Tyril or Imtura, and I never met the others.

Thanks for the ask, Nonny!

[cadybear420]

My Proper Tierlist Ranking of Choices Books (as of late November 2023).

I'm kinda tired of using the tiermaker templates because they're not always up to date lol. So instead I'm just doing it as a basic ass text post. Keep in mind that all of these placements are subject to change.

Feel free to ask me about any of my placements because I love to talk about my Choices opinions!

Diamond Tier: Choices’ Bests. 10 stars. YAAAAASSSS!

The books and series that clearly had the most effort and heart put into them. They’re not all perfect obviously, but they do feel like actual interactive stories, and they’re easily the most enjoyable of the bunch.

OG High School Story

Endless Summer

It Lives Series

A Courtesan of Rome

The Heist: Monaco

Blades of Light and Shadow

Platinum Tier: Exceptional Quality. 9 stars. YES! 

They probably didn’t have quite as much meaningful player interaction put into them and/or weren’t quite as enjoyable as any of the Diamond Tier books. But they’re still really high quality and very respectable, and even possible contenders for being moved up to Diamond Tier after I give them a replay.

The Crown and the Flame

The Royal Romance- Book 1 (have yet to play the rest)

Perfect Match

BloodBound

Mother of the Year

Murder at Homecoming

Gold Tier: Memorably Fun. 8 stars. WOOO! 

They’re maybe not really the best quality stories, but they were fun to play and had elements that stood out to me. Maybe it was just an absolute wild ride of a story, or maybe it’s a guilty pleasure story. They’re memorable and certainly worth replaying.

LoveHacks

The Haunting of Braidwood Manor

Hero

America’s Most Eligible

Across the Void

Bachelorette Party

The Phantom Agent

Silver Tier: Enjoyable. 7 stars. Yay! 

The “vanilla is still a flavor” of the app. The stories that were mostly simple and straight-forward and didn’t greatly wow me, but were still at least fun to play and could be worth a replay. Pretty good as “cozy” stories. 

The Freshman Series- Special Date Side Stories (have yet to play the actual main series and the holiday side stories)

Home for the Holidays

High School Story: Class Act (if you pretend it’s not a HSS spinoff)

Open Heart- Book 1 (have yet to play the rest)

Baby Bump- Book 1 (have yet to play the rest)

With Every Heartbeat

Shipwrecked

Crimes of Passion- Book 1 (have yet to play Book 2, and Book 3 is on its way)

The Princess Swap

The Cursed Heart

Immortal Desires

Copper Tier: Decent, Average. 6 stars. Eh.

The “just okay” stories. Far from terrible, but not much about them that really stood out to me. Not much interest in replaying them, unless maybe I need something completely mindless to play.

Nightbound

Distant Shores

Bronze Tier: Unsure, Mixed Feelings, It’s Complicated. 5 stars. Ehhhhh. 

I’m mixed on these stories. They aren’t really terrible as there are some things they did right, but there’s also so much that they did wrong. A lot of these could also use a replay for the sake of giving it a second chance. 

Rules of Engagement

High School Story: Class Act

The Nanny Affair- Book 1

Laws of Attraction

Wolf Bride

Wake the Dead

Stone Tier: Truly Mid, Lacking in Substance. 4 stars, Meh. 

I don’t quite dislike them, but there’s nothing they give to us. They’re just so empty. There’s “vanilla is still a flavor” and then there’s having no flavor at all, and these books just have little to no flavor.

Ms. Match

Slow Burn

The Nanny Affair- Book 2 (and the sum whole of the trilogy tbh)

Roommates With Benefits

Wood Tier: Boring. 3 stars. Bleh. 

The absolute snorefests of the app. Not only did they give nothing, but they were terrible at holding my interest and attention. They’re so poorly paced that even if they did have something of value, I completely missed it because I was either completely zoning out and/or I felt actual mental distress trying to follow the story.

Ride or Die

A Very Scandalous Proposal

Rotting Flesh Tier: Annoying. 2 stars. Uuuuggghhhh. 

The stories that are legitimately painful to play through. Just downright frustrating and groan-worthy. They aren’t quite the worst, but they only do very little right. And it’s even more tragic because these premises could have been done right. There are ideas for decent stories here, but they’re completely neglected.

Witness

My Two First Loves

The Nanny Affair- Book 3

PooPoo Tier: Literally the Worst. 1 star. AAAARRRRRGGGHHH. 

The absolute dogshit stories. The biggest doodoofarts of the entire app. The complete bottom of the barrel. The stories that had me actually verbally raging and close to throwing my phone into the nearest wall. Everything about each of these is doomed from the beginning. Anything that could have been done right or even decently is done terribly. 

Surrender

Untameable

First Comes Love

Air Tier: Opinions and Rankings Pending.

Quite simply, the ones I can’t properly judge yet due to not having completed or played

Haven’t even started playing yet: MW, TFS, RCD, VOS, D&D, BSC, TE, PTR, WT, PT, STD, TRM, HC, RT, FA, GNV, TDA, KND

Currently Playing that I haven’t yet completed: GG, KOD, OH trilogy, BaBu series

Currently Playing that’s still releasing to all: TBB, DLS

Currently Replaying: OH 1, AME 1, TH:M

Stories I started playing but then dropped mid-book prior to getting my new phone and have yet to pick up again: SK, QB 1, WT, TUH

Still VIP Only: Alpha, SOD, TCH 2

Coming Soon: Unbridled (UT 2), Guarded, Hot Shot, ID 2, A Taste of Royalty, Unnamed GOC Firefighter Book, The Most Dangerous Game, RWB 2, COP 3

[gutsfics]

the missed oppertunity to put Marianne and Faux Pas in choices :( sometimes the hwu -> rcd continuity is really good and other times its lacking

especially bc rcd 2 had a character from #lovehacks make a cameo appearance even though it was completely pointless. like the character just says her name. it meant nothing to me bc ive never read #lovehacks before

[korgbelmont]

Could you do all emotions for [1] Ajay Bhandari (all outfits) [2] Samir Bhandari (High School Story Class Act) [3] Shruti Bhandari (High School Story Class Act) [4] Mohit Bhandari (High School Story Class Act) [5] Eve (First Comes Love) [6] Keo Parata (LoveHacks) [6] Ronnie (Open Heart) [7] Marisa Flores (Open Heart)

Hi there. Apologies for taking so long to get to this. They've all been added to the Transparents folder.

[linlyschoices]

it also took me ….SEVERAL years to finish lovehacks 2 😭 all three li’s were great (and i ran out of keys before getting to Leah’s 😭)

[storyofmychoices]

My top 10(kind of) favorite Choices Books for @choicesfandomappreciation

Okay so I can't figure out a top 10. I have a top 5 and then a bunch of books I really like but my preference for what order changes depending on my mood

Top Five:

Blades of Light & Shadow (all time fave)

Red Carpet Diaries 2 (the second half is everything)

Mother of the Year (3 amazing LI, and the worst choices villain)

Crimes of Passion (Trystan Thorne, that is all)

Open Heart (It started strong, and Bryce Lahela got me through the Covid years and I owe him so very much)

Other Books I love (in no particular order)

The Elementalists

The Crown and the Flame

Wake the Dead

A Courtesan of Rome

The Unexpected Heiress

Veil of Secret

#LoveHacks

Most Wanted

Red Carpet Diaries 3 (It's filled with flaws, but it's the only book where I can romance Thomas Hunt for the entire book)

[choicesoutofcontext]

lovehacks | book 2, ch 1

[cadybear420]

Cadybear's Reviews- #LoveHacks

Welcome to the seventh official Cadybear's Reviews post! Today I'll be talking about #LoveHacks, which I have ranked on the "Gold Tier" at 8 stars out of a possible 10. My last and only playthrough of this series was back in February 2022.

I quite enjoyed this one and found it hilarious. 

It seems to get low opinions from other members of the fandom and while it certainly isn’t one of PB’s best works, I think it’s far from being in any of the bad tiers. I will say though, Book 1 felt like one hell of a fever dream. It wasn’t bad or anything, it just felt a little bizarre. The pacing of the plot was just fucking everywhere, and MC befriending Mark’s friends felt very rushed. 

I do like that they had a lot of free outfits, especially since I generally found them more appealing than most of the diamond outfits. But I hated that characters (in Book 1 anyways) would throw a hissy-fit when you chose free outfit options. Characters really wanna complain about my new formal fit looking too “plain” when not only do they wear the same shit every day, their own formal fit is the exact same style as my formal wear? Fuck off. 

Also, everyone seemed way too hard on Cole for some reason? I think they’re maybe going for a “Shut up, Meg” kind of gag with him or whatever you call that trope…? But… it could get a bit overbearing at times. That trope works best if the character actually deserves it, but some of the stuff Cole got shit for just felt way too innocuous to me? Especially in the earlier chapters, it didn’t really sit right with me. 

I definitely think the series picked up around Book 2. There’s much less shaming of free outfit choices, and the plotlines felt significantly more grounded and focused while still maintaining a sense of wild humor. “Unleash the panther” will always be iconic to me. 

As a side note, I would consider this one semi-pointlessly genderlocked. Or semi-pointfully genderlocked. Whatever, same thing. On one hand, a fair amount of the story is driven by Martin and TJ being misogynistic to MC, which eventually prompts her to leave ClickIt to start her own blog page with Leah. On the other hand, I feel like a sort of a workplace sexism story could maybe be adapted for a male MC too. 

Whereas a female MC deals with being looked down upon because the guys think she’s trying to “redecorate” or “feminize” things at ClickIt, a male MC might be looked down upon for refusing to indulge in their sort of “alpha male” mindsets. Considering it’s unfortunately pretty common for these kinds of people to deem other guys as “low testosterone beta male soyboys” if they stray even the slightest from being stereotypically masculine. I’m just spitballing here, but I do think it's worth exploring how these guys might have treated a male MC. 

Overall, it’s good as a “lighthearted chill fun” Choices series with a compelling enough storyline.

[cadybear420]

Evie also being from San Fran or at least around that general area :3c she's definitely getting very nostalgic for it and that's a detail I feel like I've slept on

I also headcanon she was best friends with Andi Myers (Leah's younger sis in LoveHacks 2) in 9th grade at her old school. Andi is fun and I think she and Evie would have gotten along

aahhh the hss crew going to san fran, where ryan is from 🥺🥺🥺 they stay the whole weekend at ryan’s mom’s house and ryan shows everyone his favorite places (which of course includes The LG Bean & Tea)

[chosito]

Finally we know what the C means