I’ve read several of Anne Marsh’s previous Harlequin entries in the Blaze and Dare imprints (I miss them both), so when I saw she had a new romance out in Harlequin’s Afterglow line, I was keen to pick it up. The Code for Love is a fun contemporary romance with a few flaws featuring a number of tried and true tropes that made for an enjoyable summer afternoon read.

Software engineer Pandora Fyffe is used to being in the background; after all, she writes computer code for a living. She’s even created her own online space exploration game, which is her preferred way to spend her free time. She’s the complete opposite of handsome and world-famous surfer Ozzy Wylde. During a beach resort work trip, the one highlight was a shared kiss on the beach with Ozzy though they never exchanged names or numbers. But never did Pandora expect to see Ozzy again, let alone for him to end up as her neighbour! She was completely within her rights to call the police when she saw a man scaling the outside of her apartment building to climb onto the balcony next to her suite. So what if it happened to be Ozzy who had forgotten his key – and that he apparently doesn’t even remember their intimate moment (ouch).

As Pandora gets used to living next door to Ozzy, he continually finds ways to spend time with her, despite her best efforts at one-upping him in a prank game to keep him away. She’s the grumpy one, he’s the ever cheerful and fun-loving one, and somehow that leads eventually into a friendship, as well as a little friends with benefits action.

When Pandora helps to create an online vacation app at her new company, one where the user inputs their vacation preferences and gets matched to a traveller wanting the same kind of trip, it’s Ozzy who helps her collect hundreds of survey data points to build it. And when she tries out the app in a demo meeting, it matches her to Ozzy and a driving trip to a bunch of oceanside locations in Mexico. Obviously there are some bugs in the system, as that’s the last type of holiday Pandora would want. But her bosses think it’s a great idea, especially making social media posts to look like she and Ozzy are dating while on the trip, so Pandora – who has a promotion on the line – reluctantly puts the idea to Ozzy. He loves the idea apart from doing any surfing – he’s retired now due to an injury and has no plans to go back in the water. Now Pandora is stuck with him (fake dating! forced proximity! there’s only one (small and very cosy) bed!) for a week or more. But is it all fun and games and sexy times, or can it lead to something real?

I laughed a lot reading this book. Ozzy is like a well meaning puppy, always underfoot and driving Pandora crazy. While I didn’t mind it, I could see that some readers might find him more irritating than amusing. Her inner monologues are also very funny (if a bit silly) as she battles her attraction to Ozzy (I mean, he is a very fit, very sexy man!). The story is told entirely from Pandora’s point of view and I wish we’d had Ozzy’s as well, as most of the time he appears quite superficial (one can’t be that happy and cheerful and goofy all the time), although we do get to see a more serious side of his character later on. Pandora is a very relatable heroine, a woman in STEM who does a lot of the work without the recognition she deserves. From a critique point of view, the plot of the book is a bit meandering and I didn’t find the late-book conflict all that believable. The Code for Love is a low stakes romance and has a happy ending with a qualifier – do Pandora and Ozzy have enough in common to keep them together for the long term? I’m not sure, but I enjoyed it all the same.