REVIEW: Love, Technically

Love, Technically, by Lynne Silver
Published July 29, 2013
Publisher:  Entangled Publishing, LLC
Format: e-copy obtained from publisher in exchange for an honest review
Genre:  adult contemporary romance
To Buy:  Amazon * Barnes & Noble

Rating:  3 STARS

(From Goodreads) Billionaire CEO and computer whiz Noah Frellish is a king among geeks. Women are attracted to his money, but he'd love to meet someone who's actually interested in him. When he helps the sweet and sexy Michelle Kolson with a printing problem, she confuses him for a help desk technician. Noah knows he should clear up this case of mistaken identity, but would she still like him if she knew he was the boss?

Michelle thinks life in Chicago is perfect, as is the whirlwind romance with her smoking-hot coworker. When she unexpectedly finds her job on the chopping block and the man she fell headfirst into bed with running the company, will she abandon her dreams?

Noah must convince the small-town girl to stay in the big city—and that he really is the man she fell for.

Love, Technically was a nice premise. Michelle is having some computer problems late at night when Sark, the help desk technician, shows up to help her. An instant attraction is discovered and a romance ensues. The big snafu is that the help desk technician is actually the rich CEO of the company Michelle works for. Now he's in a pickle. Either tell her the truth and risk her being angry and never wanting to see him again or keep up the farce for as long as possible and hope for the best. 

The premise was good, however, the execution was off. 

I had a real problem with Michelle. She was from a small town in Iowa and decided to remove herself to the big city of Chicago for a worldly education in life. Michelle was a complete caricature of the "aw-shucks" country girl. I almost expected her to be described as showing up to work in denim bibs chewing a piece of grass between her teeth. Not only is she not familiar with business terms like ROI, which I could honestly forgive, but apparently the Internet doesn't exist in Hicksville, Iowa, because she also had never heard of RPGs and IP addresses and doesn't have a Facebook page. 

She is completely shy and inhibited in every single situation. Except when Noah finally gets her naked. Then, it's like she's a completely different person. I didn't buy any of it for one second. And, really, her computer "problem" in the beginning? Who wouldn't think about that solution themselves? 

I couldn't connect with Sark/Noah very well either. When he attempts to tell Michelle the truth, he writes her a totally lame note, doesn't really sign it and then assumes everything is okay. Really, dude? Sometimes he seems to like to spend money (like when he bought Michelle a $2,000 mountain bike for a date) and other times he doesn't (like the fact that he rents a studio above a garage). It's a little weird.

Love, Technically is a very short book. It verges on novella territory. I finished it in only three hours. I think if it were another 100 pages long, it would help a lot. Michelle and Noah both need to be developed more, given many more facets. Because it's hard for me to be endeared to this story if I don't care much for the two main characters. And, as I said, the premise was good. It just needed a bit more work.