Online dating has become a minefield. And making it the plot of a romance novel isn’t exactly new but it’s always entertaining.

The trouble with online dating is REAL. Personally I love this kind of trope. The horrible and very real dating mishaps, the time for ghosting and looking nothing like the profile pic – is entertaining as hell. And it’s this universal dilemma that Mel is going through. And while she learned it the hard way, she also figured out that developing her own app might just be the way to go. BTW best app ever!! The author should get it developed ASAP!

The story is adorable, and charming. A light hearted romance, with an overall enjoyable and entertaining plot.

The female friendships in this book were amazing!!! Really, AMAZING! And probably the aspect I enjoyed the most about this book.

About the romance:

I wasn’t 100% convinced about Mel and Alex. They didn’t immediately click for me. It could have been because I didn’t’ feel that Alex was prominent. Like an afterthought he hovered around the edges of the plot but never felt present. He was nice and sweet, but also a bit clueless and displayed some typical male behavior that were just meh. And I honestly didn’t see the attraction between the couple. But for each their own.

Also, I hate to say this, but Mel wasn’t my kind of person. People/characters that only complain but never change a thing about a situation get quickly on my nerves, because I’m the opposite of it. Mel should have quit and moved on. It’s hard to connect with a female character if they display such opposite traits.

But otherwise the book was well written and I enjoyed most of the book.

***I received an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Graydon House and Kristin Rockaway.***

3.5 stars

There are a lot of themes in How to Hack a Heartbreak, by Kristin Rockaway. I appreciated some but not all of them. Mel is a computer programmer who works as an IT tech. She chose stability over finding a dream job, and she’s just beginning to realize that she’s outgrown her current position. Her dating life isn’t any more fulfilling, and Fluttr, the dating app she’s using, clearly isn’t working for her. She decides to code a website in her spare time that logs dates from Fluttr who have misbehaved, like the guy who stood her up or the ones sending inappropriate pictures. What was intended to be an act of catharsis becomes an overnight sensation. Now she’s hiding what she’s doing, even from the only nice guy at the office, Alex. He seems genuinely interested in her sometimes but at other times is sending mixed signals. When his name turns up in the app, she doesn’t know what to believe. Before long, she’s on the verge of the success she’d never dared to dream about, but it’s a house of cards, and it can all come crashing down.

This was an interesting take on females in tech, including a strong female coder as well as some negative treatment a female might receive. I really liked the in-person app idea. I thought Alex and Mel had really great chemistry but it was rather downplayed. Their reunion was a bit anticlimactic. Also, I struggled a bit with Mel’s character. Her paranoia pervaded the story a bit too much. Not that some of it wasn’t founded. While I understood that some of it stemmed from her dad, it threw off the balance of the story for me.

This book reveals the workplace difficulties of working in man's world. It tackles the dating scene and the trials many women deal with day to day in the search for Mr. Right. In the digital age it can be hard to weed out the fakers, the sweet talkers and even worse - the ghosters. After being stood up for a date and dealing with one too many horrible dating experiences on the hottest new dating app Fluttr, never knowing what to expect and being treated horribly at her work The douches abound. Mel decides she's simply had enough. Tired of constantly being second guessed at work with loser startup bros who can barely code at all. She decides to start her own website JerkAlert, a site where women can leave reviews on dates they've had and warn other women away.

It reveals what Fluttr won't, the dark side of dating, married men, liars, ghosters, the superficial. Almost overnight women are banding together to keep each other protected and aware in a crazy dating scene. Mel is surprised to find it gaining traction. The only problem is that Mel's job starts taking the back burner, and the lies start to build. And finding a friend at work in Alex, the only cool guy there, but how can she be sure? Is he just another sweet talker? And when she finds a a JerkAlert post on him and starts stalking his ex-girlfriend - things get a little murky. This is an excellent book on the precarious dating scene and first impressions, and holding back in revealing our true selves.

This is a honest book about the discrimination, and harassment women deal with daily. The comments, the assumptions that women can't do anything correctly much less better than men could do. The discrimination and irritation men direct towards women who are smart and can code better than they can is outrageous and wrong. This book (while being fictional) displays accurately, what women go through every day that men dismiss as just normal behavior that isn't considered wrong or offensive. I highly recommend this book to every feminist. In it, you can recognize the struggles of every woman and how to overcome them.

Melanie Strickland was unhappy. She’s been working at the same unfulfilling, going nowhere job since she graduated from college. As if that weren’t enough, she’s had terrible luck with online dating. Until she gets one too many unsolicited dick pics and decides to use her software developing knowledge to give the douche canoes a taste of their own medicine.

She never expected her online website – where women could warn other woman about douche canoes trying to find matches on another similar to Tinder – to go viral, but when it does she’s faced with a one of the most difficult choices of her life.

The book’s blurb definitely caught my attention. As a software engineer myself, a strong woman in the tech industry was right up my alley. I had read a book with a similar plot last year and loved it. But I found myself unable to connect with the heroine because of her negativity and one too many man issues. Her farfetched work situation didn’t ring true and even if it had been she went about it in a very immature way. After a while I was just peeved. As for the romance, both Alex – Mel’s love interest – and their relationship felt underdeveloped.

How to Hack a Heartbreak is a standalone contemporary romance by Kristin Rockaway.

Swipe Right for this Rom-Com if you are a twenty something reader who has used a dating APP to try and find “love”! You are bound to relate to this book!

Swipe Right for this Rom-Com if you are of an “earlier generation” who has never used a dating APP but would like insight on how the younger generation date in today’s world. (You will probably be relieved that you found your significant other in a more “traditional” way....)

Swipe Right if you love this colorful, comical book cover!! (Gorgeous!)

And Swipe Right, if you love books with Smart, Strong Women who support one another through the ups and downs of being a young, single woman in NY, finding dates with a dating APP called Fluttr!

Mel Strickland is a help desk tech by day, and a person trying to find “the one” by night and after being stood up, again, and receiving yet ANOTHER unsolicited picture of what should be a man’s “private part”..she designs an APP of her own....JerkAlert.

It goes viral overnight, with women logging the names of the men on Fluttr who behave in all sorts of unacceptable ways...

From the time Mel swipes “left” on a shirtless man (I ignore those friend requests on Goodreads too! 🤣) till the last page, I was engaged and rooting for Mel to find love! ❤️

One of my favorite lines: “It was funny: modern technology could forge a connection between two people on opposite ends of the earth, but it could just as easily drive a wedge between two people standing side by side in the same room”. So very true.

I would like to thank Netgalley, Grayson House and Kristin Rockaway for the digital ARC I received in exchange for a candid review! This title will be released on July 30th, 2019! A perfect summer read! Pre-order now!!

How to Hack a Heartbreak by Kristin Rockaway has been on my radar from the moment I saw the cover and the blurb! As a single woman living in the days of online, app dating this book really resonated with me!

Sadly for most of the book though it wasn't clicking for me. I had issues with Mel, our heroine up until the end of the story. She was working in a toxic work environment and I understandably she was frustrated with the situation, but in my opinion she spent too much time lamenting that fact instead of searching for another job.

I'm sure this makes me sound self righteous and indignant, but come on! If you're unhappy with the way things are at your office and you are treated poorly and constantly disrespected why would you continue down that path?

Granted if it wasn't for her overall mistrust and bitterness towards men she wouldn't have built the application nor would she have discovered herself and learned that not all men are cheating liars.

Ultimately it was her growth as a character and woman that really sucked me into this story, oh yes and the drama. The last 30% of How to Hack a Heartbreak was great! Just when things seemed to be settling down something else was thrown at Melanie and I loved it!

I stinking love drama!! I mean, who doesn't sit there and get sucked into the rabbit hole of drama online?

How to Hack a Heartbreak once again leaned toward women's fiction over romance, which put the love story on the back burner. If you are expecting a romance this will be good for you to know because the romance is not a big part of the story, in fact you really don't get to know Alex much at all throughout the story.

There are some really strong friendship bonds in this story and these friends made the book! I'm hopeful to spend more with the rest of these women!

How to Hack a Heartbreak is a women's fiction novel with a dose of romance that will satisfy not only women's fiction readers, but romance readers alike.

I loved the themes of female empowerment and friendship among women in this novel, but I found the "man hating" to be a little overdone. 98% of the men in this book were portrayed as cheaters, liars, assholes, or all of the above, which detracted from the story. While this was overall an entertaining read with badass female characters and an enjoyable ending, I probably wouldn't recommend this book due to the unnecessary anti-male themes.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I started this book many many moons ago and then - well nothing. For some reason, even though the idea of a coder heroine definitely made me interested in this book, I just wasn’t hooked on the story and read one after another story leaving this one there.. finally I decided I needed to just finish it already.

It was okay. But that’s about all. Okay. Had some cute, had some irritating, but overall was a decent book but left me somewhat ho-hum about it all.

Three stars.

In How To Hack A Heartbreak by Kristin Rockaway, Melanie Strickland works at the IT help desk at a startup incubator called Hatch, where she has to deal with entitled men assuming she doesn't know anything about tech, even though they can't seem to fix their own computers. Frustrated at work and by the seemingly never ending dick picks and bad dates that result from her matches on an online dating app, Mel decides to take matters into her own hands. She creates Jerk Alert, a database for female users to log the harassers and abusers they encounter on the dating app. When her website goes viral, Mel is left with many difficult decisions to make -- both personally and professionally.


I wanted to like this one more than I did. While I appreciated how the book showcased a woman in coding and the struggles she faced every day in that field, most of the time I found myself rolling my eyes at the latest ridiculous thing that popped up in the story and found myself a bit annoyed with the main character. Part of this may be due to the outstanding rom-coms I've read lately, but this one just fell a little short for me. Overall, this was still enjoyable and one I think many fans of the contemporary romance will enjoy.

3/5 stars

Cute laugh out loud romance. Mel, our main character, has had one dick pic too many and tired of being stood up, retaliates with a great idea. Thru the ups and downs of her new app, she comes to learn what is really important in meeting the person of your dreams.

Melanie is a coder in an all male environment. She is seeking male companionship through and internet dating service. While waiting for a "date" she meets up with Alex who works in her office building. The "date" never shows, but she does begin to see Alex and falls for him. She is still miffed about the "no-show date and after discussing it with her friends, she creates a data base where others who are dissatisfied with the contacts they have made on the dating site can comment. This data base takes off and becomes wildly popular, but... A great story with twists and turns that totally entertain. Not to be missed.

While I really enjoyed this book, I think this should be geared more towards women's fiction than romance. To me, the romance was SCARCE. There wasn't a ton of tension or steam between the two main characters, Mel and Alex. It’s kind of… odd. A story about a woman creating a dating app and there weren’t many dates or interaction at all. Alex was a C character at best. Mel and her besties took the forefront and it was more about a group of women and how they are trying to survive in a male driven/dating world.

However, Kristin Rockaway was highly knowledgeable about the tech world and jargon used for coding and everything up that alley. Well, I’m guessing. A lot of the coding went over my head and I don’t work in IT. But it sounded complex, almost to the point that the tech verbiage overpowered the romantic comedy side. No, it’s not labeled romantic comedy, but that’s what I was expected with a title like it had and the cover it was given.

I didn’t care for her friend Whitney. At times I wondered why Mel and her friends even associated themselves with someone who slept around and regularly got thrown out of bars for causing fights. Maybe I’m being a bit judgmental, but it’s my first reaction with the way she was portrayed. I also didn’t love some of the choices Mel made. Yes it’s a book, but certain things were super frustrating. (I won’t say because they are spoilers)

The story itself took longer than expected (not sure why it dragged) and I’ll say it again… the technological aspect seemed to drive the story. I was never around for the dating apps (thank god) and found my spouse well before Hinge/Bumble/Tinder became popular. But I’ve heard stories from my sister and friends and it sounds like it’s a real problem that the author addressed. Meeting someone is hard, but Mel literally meets Alex on day one, chapter one. I don’t know, this wasn’t exactly my favorite but it wasn’t horrible either.

How to Hack a Heartbreak is a quick and fun rom-com that unfortunately was easily forgettable. It kept my interest enough to finish the book but not much that I could recall afterwards.

How to Hack a Heartbreak is a witty, sometimes raw look at modern dating life. It gave me serious vibes of Sex and the City, moved into our current digital world.

Now, I’m in my forties and married young, which means I never did online dating... and I think I’m glad for that! Mel and her friends should get hazard pay based on some of those stories, which I have no doubt represent the things that really happen on Tinder and whatever other apps are used these days.

This was somewhat a romance, and I really wanted to root for Mel and Alex. But I also enjoyed the focus on women’s friendship, the eye opening look at what women often have to deal with in dating life and in the workplace. Mel was smart... flawed but capable and likable.

Swipe right on this title if you’re looking for a fast, light, intelligent read this summer! Thanks to Net Galley and to Harlequin/Graydon House for an advance digital review copy of this title.

Book Review: How to Hack a Heartbreak by Kristin Rockaway

These days, I'm all about the romance. How to Hack a Heartbreak is smart, sexy, original & the perfect summer read! 

So Original

How to Hack a Heartbreak is so smart. I'm an old married hag & even I know the online dating world is so rough. Mel is over it. One night, she starts a site to make all the dick pic sending douchebags accountable. Jerk Alert is a hit. As fast as Jerk Alert takes off, so does Mel's dating life. Overnight, she's balancing a new business model, her full-time job, a guy that seems too good to be true & a pack of true girlfriends. 

Kristin Rockaway

How to Hack a Heartbreak is my first book by Kristin Rockaway, but I want to read all her books now. Her writing is so fluid, realistic & fun. I breezed through this book. Yes, this is a romantic read, but it's also a book about a woman finding her way in NYC. Mel is so memorable, likable & I loved getting to know her. I can only hope Kristin Rockaway continues some of the storylines with Mel's friends. Honestly, I love when I read about young women with fruitful, stable & loving female friends. It warms my heart. 

THE VERDICT

I am Really Into This book! Even if you're not a romance fan, you'll love this story. How to Hack a Heartbreak is a perfect read for a hot summer day. It's light enough to have you smiling, but has enough heart that you'll remember it for a long time to come. I already pre-ordered it because I will be recommending it for a long time. Also, I'll undoubtedly re-read it! 

Special thanks to Kristin Rockaway, Graydon House, Jessica Watterson & NetGalley for providing my copy in exchange for an honest & fair review.

my blurb!
A techy woman who has burned too many times in the dating scene, creates an app meant to burn the men who actually deserve it.

2 out of 5 stars

Oh man, I really wanted to love this book. Before my life as a mom/book blogger extraordinaire, I worked in IT. This book was right up my alley but fell short.

what I didn't like:
Let’s start with the simple fact that Mel needed to quit her job. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over this part of the plot. Why did she work there, being constantly harassed and belittled? I don’t get it, I don’t support the storyline. But maybe my real problem was with Mel. It was Mel that wouldn’t quit. It was Mel that was always negative and then got a little bit of gumption but then felt bad about it. I just really didn’t like her. She was kind of a downer. And her character flaw of being so wishy-washy didn’t add to the drama, it simply added to my annoyance.
Alex is our love interest. I use the term interest quite loosely. I really didn’t have much interest in him. I didn’t see the appeal. He was nice enough but kind of like a beige wall in an office building… it’s nice that they tried to paint but it doesn’t necessarily help the look of the room.

what I liked:
So in the book, Mel designs an app called JerkAlert that basically flags people who are on multiple dating sites that are married, or send nudies. This was a phenomenal dating app idea. I loved it. I *thankfully* will never date again (high five for true love!) but if I was dating, I would download this app.

Thank you Netgalley for this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

What a super fun rom-com! It's so hard for me to find decent ones these days that I tend to stick to a handful of trusted authors. And I may add Kristin to this list, because she knocked this out of the park!

Sassy and fun, I couldn't help but laugh at some of the predicaments Mel found herself in. She's completely relatable as a single woman in this day and age. And the prospect of online dating---again, nailed it.

Lots of love for this considering I flew through it.

Meeting that "special someone" in the digital world is difficult. Swipe left or right, but there are no guarantees that you're ever going to find a guy who is sweet, kind and respectful, let alone a good match!
Melanie works in a techie world and has experienced the lows of Internet dating. When she and her pals commiserate over their lack of success in this area and compare notes on the many jerks they have met through the Internet, Mel decides to make JerkAlert, a website where women can vent and warn others about the worst of the jerks that are out there.
Kristen Rockaway has not only written a fun story with some intriguing characters, she may also have started a #GetOffTheInternet movement!

Mel is a tech guru who is stuck in a low rate career fixing the coding and tech issues. As many of us also she is navigating the online dating land trying to avoid the jerks that seem to rule the dating sites. She decides to put her coding skills to work and create her own app to search out the jerks on these dating sites to help other women avoid dating disasters.

She now is faced with an issue. Does she tell everyone she is behind the Jerk app and risk losing her new soon to be boyfriend or risk losing her career by not taking credit for the app.

Which choice will she make?

To be completely honest with you, How to Hack a Heartbreak kinda stressed me out. In fairness, I’ve been with the same man for almost thirteen years and married for nine years at the end of this month. Over and over again while reading this book I would think is this REALLY what dating is like in 2019?! and then I would grab my walker and hobble off to the kitchen to sort my coupons.

I liked the premise of this book. Girl coder, Mel, (yay!) gets sick of douchey guys screwing women over in the dating scene and creates an app to document and share bad dates and the misdeeds of A-holes. And it goes viral. Mel also works in a male dominated field and is constantly demeaned by her male coworkers. I don’t know how accurate this portrayal of the ‘women in tech world’ truly is, but in this book it’s brutal and infuriating. For me though, the female friendships are the most enjoyable part of this book.

Here’s the thing though…I don’t think this book should be categorized as a romance. For one thing, the romance was not the driving force of the plot. Which is fine…if you’re not expecting a romance. The sex scenes aren’t exactly “closed doors” but they are perfunctory (just a few sentences) and described after the fact. So do with that info what you will. Something else that bugged me about this book was some of the behaviors of the characters. I guess, at 33, I can only describe them as…immature? I enjoyed this book. I just think it might have been written for a different audience than someone like me. (#old)

Goodreads reviews of How to Hack a Heartbreak are mostly GLOWING. So please, read this book and form your own opinions. This book is set to release in July. Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy.