How to Hack a Heartbreak was the perfect mix of a girl boss going for her dreams (after failing) and her dating life in this digital age (which is rocky at best). Melanie and her friends, living in NYC, are not having much luck in the dating world. But now with so much technology dating for them has dwindled down to apps and split second decisions about a person you don’t know. Mel was tried of dealing with all the harassment, unsolicited pictures and being stood up the longer she used Fluttr so she took measures into her own hands.

Mel is not your average techy, once she realized she could fix one of the many problems with online dating site Fluttr she decided to create her own website to help others from going out with the same people that stood her up, ie Jerkalert.biz (not com). Her website gained fast praise and media coverage. But what goes up must come down. How to Hack Heartbreak was a fun read, I enjoyed seeing all the relationships grow throughout the book and not just the romantic ones but also friendship. Mel realized she has a tribe, and even if things don’t go as planned she always has her community, her group of girls. “I looked around the table, at the faces of my very best friends. The women who pushed me to be the very best version of myself I could be.”

How to Hack a Heartbreak releasing the end of July. If you have ever suffered from a terrible online date or working in a male dominant profession you will identify with Mel.

“It looked postcard-perfect from up here. Not like the reality of living in the city, which was messy and flawed, and full of unsolicited pics. My life in New York was far from postcard-perfect. But it was getting better everyday starting now.”

How to Hack a Heartbreak by Kristin Rockaway is a chick lit following Mel who works at a male driven tech start up where she is fed up with her job and terrible dates. After being stood up on a date, it’s the final straw and she decides to create JerkAlert app which warns women of terrible men to avoid dating. It becomes famous, however, in the midst of it all, there’s a romance story. I really wanted to love this book, but I felt like the novel missed its mark. It’s great that it advocates feminism, however, it was way too forceful and Melanie becomes unlikable. I liked the premise and that the author focuses on a woman in the tech industry, however, I didn’t like her stance that basically all men are terrible. I also didn’t like how Melanie goes about her job. If she hates it so much, why doesn’t she actually do something about it like look for a new one or report the issue to HR? Also her relationship with Alex seemed dull and immature. Alex’s character ends up being so one dimensional that I would have liked to have read his perspective as well. Overall, I would recommend skipping this book as there are other better romance reads out there.

I liked this at the beginning, but the further in I got the less I liked it. Melanie (Mel) started out so relatable, but I just didn’t like the direction her and JerkAlert went. One thing I did like that Ms. Rockaway showed a woman trying to make a way/career in a male dominated field. It is refreshing to see a character put in a different field besides secretary, teacher, nurse, etc.

Super cute and funny contemporary romance about an under-appreciated help desk worker and a misunderstood co-worker. Likeable characters, lots of situation comic and a feel-good Happy End.

Thank you to NetGalley and Graydon House for the ARC.

This was a fun read. Timely, interesting, and lots of highly accurate descriptions of life as a female in the tech world. Light read, perfect for travel or when you need to not be bogged down in the latest thriller with too many twists and turns.

I have been on a contemporary romance kick lately and How To Hack a Heartbreak further reinforced my love for the genre! What some romances get wrong, for me, is the weak female/male rescuer trope. Rockaway does the exact opposite here. Mel is a strong, smart woman working in a male dominated profession. She knows how to stand up for herself, take risks and has a fantastic group of female friends who both support and cheer her on. Bravo for a female positive romance! Watching Mel and Alex's relationship take shape was all at once sweet, frustrating and fun. This story is contemporary romance at its best!

Thank you to NetGalley and Graydon House for the opportunity to read an early review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

A very funny rom com that embraces technology among women. I really enjoyed Mel’s character and her honestly strong willpower and go get em personality. It was humorous to read about the ups and downs and ebb and flow of dating life in general but especially in New York. This was such a cute book about finding our own path using technology and our hearts!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Kristin Rockaway for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!
Thank you for this breath of fresh air!! I needed a book to just get lost in and also have some light hearted moments and was just fun! I wish JerkAlert (reminded me of Goonies!) was around when I was dating. It could have saved me from a lot!
Overall fun, light hearted and funny read!

Surprisingly refreshing is what sums this book up perfectly. It revolves around a woman coder sick of dating apps and bad matches who tries to break into the male-dominated world of start-ups. Stories like these often can take a wrong turn in so many places and yet at every opportunity, Rockaway nailed it.

First of all, this author did her research. No "techie mumbojumbo" was thrown out there for the sake of sounding smart - everything the characters did involving coding, its environment, and the use social platforms was more or less correctly expressed and informed.

Second, HTHAHB avoids generalizations and portrays a world and characters that could actually be real. The women weren't right all the time, and either were the men. Sure, sometimes the characters fell prey to stereotypes, but don't we all? The important thing is that in the story, people learned from their mistakes and changed their ways of thinking (and sometimes they didn't, and isn't that just as realistic?).

Also, it was just a fun read. It was witty, well written, and refreshing. Yet, I felt that it had more depth than a lot of other "chick-lit"out there. Really just an overall great, modern romance with a hint of a self acceptance lesson thrown in.

Having recently finished “How to Hack a Heartbreak” by Kristin Rockaway, I am happy to have had the chance for the preview; thank you NetGalley and Graydon House!

A fast paced read and a look into the downfalls of the online dating world where choices to date someone are primarily made using photo apps. I really enjoyed this story and was able to “keep up and follow along” with the techie talk and twenty-something lifestyle moments, even though I am definitely of the generation where face to face “inPerson” connections were our only option.

Lovely story for the tech-friendly dating world we live in! I so enjoyed the story and it flowed so well. It was like reading a friend's blog!

Timely and deeply engrossing story of love, heartbreak and tech bros. I love the feminist rants and revenge on men who take advantage of women in their daily lives.

What I liked: This book features strong women in the workplace and specifically women in tech. Which is something I love seeing in all spaces, especially romance.

What I didn't like: Mel simply had too many daddy issues. All of her conflicts could have been solved with the ability to have an honest conversation.

I am giving this book higher stars than I normally would because i feel like this book has been marketed wrong. This is not a true romance. This book is a nerdy sex and the city for a new generation. This book follows Mel and her friends in New York City as they try to find love. But the sex and the city girls never had to deal with tinder. This book is hilarious and a timely. It has a wonderful introspective look at dating in the real world today, discussion of gender stereotypes, and friendship. This is more a women's lit book with some romance thrown in.
Side characters are fully realized and the dialogue is witty. But really the main reason this book is so amazing is the friendships that are heartfelt through the entire novel. You won't find a new book boyfriend here but you will be texting your best gal pals after letting them know how much they mean to you.

The ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks, NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this story. From the blurb I was guessing this was a rom-com, while some parts were funny, overall it was just ok. It’s geared more toward young adult maybe even tweens with some tweaking with the casual sex. Overall it was entertaining to see a group of very young women support each other not only in business but their personal lives. Three stars

Tired of swiping right on losers, programmer extraordinaire Melanie codes a site where scorned women can warn other women off potential date mistakes. But when the seemingly nice guy from work Alex whom Melanie is dating ends up with a profile on her site she begins to doubt her instincts and her relationship. Meanwhile her app has gone viral and the future of her career is up in the air.

My main issue with this book was that I didn't like the way that Melanie acted in her relationship with Alex. She overreacted to every single thing Alex did or didn't do, which made me find her irritating.

Thank you Netgalley and Harlequin/Graydon House Books for the advance digital copy of this book.

This book takes a sexy swipe at online dating and swipe culture. Mel Strickland is fed up with being stood up, being sent unsolicited dick pics and generally meeting jerk guys who are interested in only one thing. Are there any men left in New York worth actually dating? By day she runs the helpdesk at a company, Hatch, that funds start ups, and while she's got a degree in computer science and is awesome at running code, she's stuck to scrubbing viruses and malware off of the computers used by Hatch's "Hatchlings". She's feeling under recognized, underpaid and sick of men. So she decides to do something about it and the website, JerkAlert, is born - it's a place where women can vet their potential swipe dates by checking reviews of their profiles. It's the perfect way to see if he's serious or not, has a wife or is just trying to send gross pictures to your inbox. But as with most things on the web, as JerkAlert becomes more popular, Mel's website starts to impact her own life.

At first I wasn't sure about this book. Kristin Rockaway writes well, her characters are engaging and funny. It was the subject matter that had me kind of wondering if this book would be for me. Mel experiences all manner of sexual harassment from dealing with misogynistic men at work, the subway, and in her dating life. In fact, the only people she has to count on are her group of girlfriends. She's a fantastic coder, but seems to be stuck in a rut both personally and professionally. I've been out of the dating scene for over a decade meaning that I can not relate to Mel's dating troubles in any way. That said, it doesn't mean that I don't think the things that happened to Mel don't actually happen in real life - I'm sure that this book is going to be very relatable to a bunch of young women out there. So while I personally couldn't relate to the whole swipe right, swipe left thing, I know that there are women who will - and that got me thinking a little more critically about this book. What seems to be at first glance a rom-com about a woman who's fed up with men and all the creeps that seem to overpopulate the online dating field, it's actually a pretty smart look at swipe culture and an online culture that spans social media, google, and dating that acts as an intermediary to actually getting to know someone. And when you look at it like that, this book is really valuable.

An ode to the woes of internet life, it's a fresh look at what it means to actually get to know someone and form a relationship. And that most often the best relationships are the ones that are taking place offline. A smart contemporary novel that should appeal to fans of Lauren Weisberger and Candace Bushnell.

"How to Hack a Heartbreak" display's the persistent problem within the tech industry in a pithy and engaging way. It's no secret that women in the tech world are undervalued and have to work twice as hard for their success. Rockaway demonstrates this in a way that alternately gives you warm fuzzies and irate anger all while keeping you glued to the pages. This book is well timed and will have every woman saying connecting to the plight of the single woman in a digital age.

How To Hack A Heartbreak is the perfect novel for traveling with or taking on the beach. It reads light enough to enjoy on a lovely vacation or when you need a break from the daily grind.
Kristin Rockaway writes in an easy going tone while planting an underlying message by telling readers to take charge of their own life.
Although this is a quick read, it is not one that truly sets it self apart from other novels out there in the same genre.
If you are looking for something to break apart the mundane day to day routine, this book will certainly help!

Kristin Rockaway is a new favorite author of mine!!

What a breathe of fresh air! I had SO much fun with this book!!

Kristin delivers a sassy, funny, uplifting, and addicting romance novel. I was hooked after the first five pages and devoured this book in less than two days.

Let's meet Melanie. Melanie works for Hatch in a male driven industry and she is FED up. Mind you... she is also even more fed up with the dating scene of getting harassed with nude photos from men, being "ghosted", and being stood up. Mel goes out with her girlfriends one night and she decides to make an app called JerkAlert. This was all supposed to be a joke... where women rate men on this site and can tell other women to watch out for each of these "jerks". But, slowly word gets out and the app starts to spread.

I could not put this book down! I loved Melanie and her girlfriends! Talk about strong, supportive, and loving women to keep you going!!

Loved this!!! This is one not to miss my friends... get this on your summer TBR! ;)

4.5 heartbreak stars

Thank you so much to Harlequin/Graydon and Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Publication date: 7/30/19
Published to Goodreads: 2/12/19