Harriet Smythe’s AI was supposed to create sports legends—not encourage her crush on her best friend’s totally off-limits, hot younger brother. But when funding runs dry, she has no choice but to enlist Gale Knight as her test subject. The same Gale she’s been secretly crushing on for years. The player who follows her every instruction with a knowing smirk that threatens to short-circuit her carefully maintained system.
Everything changes when The E.M.M.A. determines that finding Gale’s perfect match is essential to his peak performance. Even worse? According to its data, that match is Harriet.
Determined to keep things professional, Harriet makes it search for new candidates. But as Gale dutifully endures awkward outings with pop stars and athletes, the chemistry between them only intensifies. And his willing cooperation during their sessions definitely isn’t helping her stay focused.
With her deadline approaching and The E.M.M.A. still playing cupid, Harriet must choose: trust in pure logic, or admit that sometimes taking control means letting go.
Maybe The E.M.M.A. knows something they don’t—even if they’re not ready to compute it yet.
PJ's Thoughts:
Part STEM, part hockey, and full-on best-friend's-younger-brother romance, Lia Riley has crafted a funny and emotionally complex romcom that kept me entertained throughout.
I love the best friend's brother/sister trope. This one gave me the tried and true plus interesting twists that made it original. It was fun to watch Gale and Harriet dance around the attraction between them. Their interactions are endearing, sometimes awkward, sparkling with chemistry and at times, a bit frustrating.
Nobody is more frustrated than E.M.M.A, the AI creation of Harriett and her team. E.M.M.A. is a shining star of this story. I loved how she gradually evolved throughout the book, gaining surprising insight and capabilities not only into Gale, the subject of Harriet's testing but into Harriet as well. She may be AI but she's a pivotal character in her own right and surprisingly believable.
Harriet is brilliant, accomplished, and totally lacking in relationship self-confidence. She also has control tendencies, in and out of the bedroom, which have not been appreciated by past boyfriends. Hence, her current rock-bottom dating self-worth issues. But, then there's Gale, her best friend's younger brother, her secret crush, a man who, unbeknownst to Harriet, is more than willing to relinquish bedroom control to the woman he's been half in love with since middle school. Bring on the spice. And the kittens. Can't forget the kittens.
If you enjoy STEM, hot hockey players, younger men, adorable kittens, spicy romance, humor, emotional depth, and sassy, know-it-all AI computers, check out Lia Riley's The E.M.M.A Effect.
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One randomly chosen person who posts a comment before 11:00 PM, December 15, 2025 will receive a print ARC of The E.M.M.A. Effect.
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