THE CUFFING GAME

Pride and Prejudice meets reality television—but make it college and sprinkle it with the sweetness and fluff of quirky K-dramas.

Mia Yoon, a Korean American girl from Texas, arrives at film school in Los Angeles with an ambitious four-year plan—one that doesn’t include meeting her longtime crush, Noah Jang, a Korean boy she follows on social media. He’s the campus’s most eligible (and emotionally unavailable) heartthrob, and he loves challenging her in class. Rather than engaging with her feelings, Mia channels them into planning Campus Crush, a documentary that will follow students who are grappling with unrequited love. When the project faces cancellation due to lack of interest, however, she desperately pivots, changing the concept to one that Noah proposes. The Cuffing Game will be a reality dating show starring Noah himself; he’s hoping for a real connection beyond his curated online persona. Paired with Mia’s roommate, Celine Huang, he navigates the show’s scripted chaos while wrestling with his attraction for the one person who’s off-limits: the host herself. Set in a snowy lodge and told in the leads’ alternating points of view interspersed with behind-the-scenes interviews, this rom-com explores how vulnerability and the pressure to perform shape modern relationships. Mia’s perfectionism and Noah’s emotional guardedness create compelling romantic tension, while their intellectual sparring adds depth to their chemistry. Mia’s queerness adds to the book’s thoughtful diverse representation.

A clever, contemporary romance that explores authenticity in an age of endless scrutiny.