** - Silicon Hearts

SILICON HEARTS

ROBIN MIYASHITA & R.K. MORAVEE

**

The youngest and brightest of the tech world are invited to work for one of the most prestigious companies in Silicon Valley, but when they discover that only a precious few will be offered full-time jobs, reckless ambition and cut-throat competition eclipse their burgeoning friendships and romances.

Beekor Industries is the biggest tech company in the world. They have transformed the way society interacts with hologram technology, from mobile phones to public transportation to smart apparel. Every developer, coder, hacker, software architect, and engineer dreams of counting themself among the geniuses at Beekor.

Small-town twenty-one-year-old Camila Diaz has always dreamed of working in the tech world, but never even imagined she’d walk the hallowed halls of Beekor Industries, let alone be in the running to join the company she’s idolized her entire life. When she’s accepted to Beekor’s renowned Accelerator Program as a page, Cam knows everything is on the line. The six-month program brings recent college grads to the Beekor campus to live and work for the esteemed company in the hope of earning a coveted job offer.

Upon arrival at Beekor, reality quickly settles in as Cam discovers that the four other pages she is competing against—and living with—are each more impressive than the next. The well-connected and effervescent Avery, the chic and brilliant Sofia, the thoughtful and gifted James, and the enigmatic and way-too-charming Marcus make up this year’s page class and prove to be formidable opponents. Driven by stiff competition and the chance for a life in Silicon Valley, they’ll soon learn that they need each other more than they know, finding friendship—as well as a little romance—along the way.

MY REVIEW **

I hadn’t really realised when picking up this book that it was a Young Adult mixed with quite a lot of romance. From the blurb, I had thought it would be more focussed on the technology side and competition between the new recruits of a giant tech firm.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very readable book, and I was able to finish it quite quickly. However, if you are expecting a deeper story, perhaps look elsewhere as this is a bit of a shallow read. Main character Cam is smart; she is from a poor background and wants to use her gifts to bring technology to the wider world. She wins a scholarship to an internship at tech giant Beekor and competes to earn her spot on the wider team. We should be with Cam from the outset, particularly as all of the book is written from her point of view, but to be honest I found her naïve to the point of irritating. Some of the mistakes she makes feel incredibly unrealistic and I also don’t understand why her tech team didn’t mentor her properly, instead letting her run wild with her first ever project and run all of them into the ground to keep up with her. A very expensive way to teach her a lesson.

The characters all felt a little stereotypical - there’s quiet kid James who hates socialising and just wants to work on his headphones project – he later hooks up with the goth girl from IT. There’s they/them Avery, an outlandish extrovert who’s all about networking, knows absolutely everyone and whose main priority is giving Cam a fashion makeover. There’s Sofia - a smart women with hardly any personality other than liking one film. There’s Marcus, the love interest who Cam seems to love from looks alone as he’s too busy focussing on his career to actually say anything to her. He then inexplicably introduces her to his parents after a few dates and she gets upset when something is revealed about him that she didn’t know but most of us had guessed half a book before. Then there’s Lee, the co-founder of the company, I really thought there was going to be an interesting side-plot and twist about Lee which would expose a darker under-current about Beekor, but nothing is really revealed.

The overall story is about family and that is quite cute - it could have easily been edited down by getting rid of some of the repetitive scenes of them all going out though. The main romance scene was also incredibly cringe-worthy.

Overall Silicon Hearts is a Young Adult Romance book with an incredibly irritating main character and a predictable plot that’s been done many times before. Thank you to NetGalley & Hyperion Avenue for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

LINKS TO BUY

Amazon UK Waterstones