New Book Alert: From Code to Home by Tatum Page; A Smart House Filled With Unlikeable Immature Characters

 New Book Alert: From Code to Home by Tatum Page; A Smart House Filled With Unlikeable Immature Characters

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: I'm too poor to afford a Smart House, so I always love to imagine what they are like. Temperature, lighting, water, music, security, technology, all controlled by a small device. It is Science Fiction come to life. It's fun to imagine the things that you can do with a Smart House, make the mood as sexy or as fun as you want.

A Smart House would make a fun setting for a novel, but not when it's filled with the most inept and immature characters. That is the situation that is found in From Home to Code by Tatum Page. It has an interesting concept, but blows it with two characters who are more aggravating than endearing.

CEO Nick Mercer is in Denver to close a deal with a computer programmer/securities expert. Unfortunately, he had to remain to meet the CEO in person. Fortunately, his friend Quentin has a Smart House in which he could stay. Meanwhile Quentin's other friend, Joanne Drake is upset that she had a meeting in which she got all dressed up and the appointment didn't show. So she decides to vent out her frustrations and take a hot bath in Quentin's jacuzzi. Oh he doesn't mind, he insists. 

Of course Joanne and Nick meet and don't get along before they do the customary falling in love. Wouldn't you know it, Joanne is a computer programmer and securities expert of course the very one that Nick was supposed to meet. (I'm not giving anything away. As if the plot twist wasn't obvious enough, it is telegraphed early on by Nick and Joanne's individual chapters.)

I know the Meet Cute and Mistaken Identity plots are standards in romantic comedy. I know we're supposed to get a chuckle out of Nick assuming that Jo Drake, head of JED Securities, is a man. But in this instance, it stretches credibility way too far. 

First off, it assumes that Nick is unaware that software technology is no longer a male dominated profession. While, yes, there are still old school misogynistic male leaders who still doubt women's capabilities in certain fields. In an occupation that requires someone to look at and be aware of obvious trends, it is extremely unlikely that Nick wouldn't even consider the possibility that Jo Drake could be a woman.

Not to mention the most important glaring omission that in this day and age of social media, neither one even bothered to do a background check on who the potential other party that they were supposed to meet. These are supposed to be two tech savvy adults and we are supposed to believe that neither one thought to check the other's Facebook page, LinkedIn resume, or Twitter and Instagram accounts? Heck see if they posted any Tick Tock videos? 

It seems Page wanted to shoehorn in a romantic comedy staple without stopping to see if it made any current sense.

If the Mistaken Identity wasn't  contrived and ridiculous, it doesn't help that Nick and Joanne are incredibly unlikable. It makes sense that Quentin might need a house sitter, though with a high advanced Smart House security system, even that might be unlikely. But that he allows Joanne to come in just to use his jacuzzi is the very height of rudeness on her part and incredulity on his. Seriously, what kind of friend comes over when the other friend isn't home just to use their hot tub? That is the behavior of a leech rather than a friend.

That isn't the only example of immature behavior that these characters exhibit. Of course when they first meet, they argue like children. Nick accuses Joanne of mooching off of Quentin (not exactly an inaccurate comment), most mature adults may strike back with another comment, let it slide,or realize "Hey there might be some truth to what he's saying" and work to change their behavior. Not Joanne, of course not. Instead she hacks into the operating system, called Sally, and reprograms it to malfunction. She causes the heater/AC system to shut down, many of the programs to malfunction and, worst of all, Sally to play "Baby Shark'' on a continuous loop. Aren't we supposed to be rooting for this woman not hoping that she faces stalking charges? How is this endearing?

You would think that Nick would take the hint and call the cops, but no not him, of course not. Before you can say, "Stockholm Syndrome," he brings her a bouquet of blue hyacinth roses to make peace….for some reason. How can a CEO, someone who runs a company of several employees, has multiple degrees, who negotiates business deals, be such an insufferable idiot?

This is one of those types of books where if the writing style was more self-aware, the tone darker, and alleged humor were replaced with real suspense and tension, this could easily be a thriller. I have often seen romance characters act in foolish ways that would have gotten them a restraining order with a prison sentence, or at least a slap in the face or have their heads conked together. But never have I wanted to conk two characters' heads together so much that I wanted to hurl them into unconsciousness.

Let me put this another way, I read this book the same time that I read More Than Words and Mylee in the Mirror, two romances about kids in college and high school respectively. The characters in those two books were more likable and mature than the lovers in From Code to Home. It got to the point that the only characters that I liked in the book were Quentin, because he's gone through most of the book, and Sally, the automated voice. At least Sally is programmed to shut up and turn off upon command.

There are a few good moments that are scattered throughout the book. Joanne and Nick develop a genuine bond with Joanne's niece, Maisie. They have a good time taking her to the aquarium and it is a sweet time that shows they open up around the young girl.

There is also a great chapter towards the end where they combine each other's professional talents to fix a flaw in Nick's operating system. They show that they are actually good at their jobs. If it had been about that and how the two's romance developed while they were working on this project, the book might have been salvageable. But this stuff is pushed so far into the final chapters that their abilities at their jobs seem like filler.

Unfortunately, these good moments are hidden by their earlier unlikable behavior and seem to be thrown in as a desperate attempt for the Reader to like these people.

From Code to Home is poorly developed as a tech novel and a romance. This is one book that is better off deleted.