Thank you to Harper Collins CA and Harlequin Books for a free copy for review. Melanie works at a company where people trying to perfect their App and get it launched work for a few months. They are called hatchlings and the company is called Hatch. Mel is the go to person when the hatchlings have problems with their computers. The company is male dominated and many of the men are regularly rude and insulting to Mel. She is also online dating using a site called Fluttr and she is getting more and more disgusted about being sent rude pictures and being stood up on dates. Mel is a highly educated coder but since it’s a man’s world she is having trouble getting a relevant job. One night she has had enough and she develops an App to call out these disgusting men on online dating sites. It was wonderful to see Mel take the reins and become empowered. She also has a strong female friend base that is very encouraging and supportive of Mel and her App development and start up. And maybe Mel will find a nice guy to date through these life changes. This is a fun book that I really enjoyed.

I had a hard time getting into this story. It was good, but it didn't have a wow factor to really pull me in and get me invested.

I had trouble downloading this due to my kindle email address because it changed without my consent and some of the books didn’t make it onto my kindle.

As much as I wanted to enjoy this book, I just couldn't get into it. I tried for MONTHS. The heroine came off as mean-spirited and complacent and the men in the book were so over the top awful they felt like charactertures rather than real people. As soon as the jerk alert website started to blow up, I knew this book wasn't for me. The writing was easy to read, but the plot and characters didn't work for me. Decided to stop at 30% in. Thank you for the review opportunity!

How to Hack a Heartbreak was a fun, mostly light-hearted rom-com. I enjoyed reading about an intelligent and highly-skilled woman but I was a little disappointed that it took her so long to come into herself and trust the good people in her life. The plot was an interesting concept and overall had a pretty good delivery. I enjoyed the book and would be interested in seeing what other works the author has written or writes in the future.

Who says girls can't code? Kristin Rockaway dispels that Stone Age stereotype in her new girl power-fueled novel How to Hack a Heartbreak about a female techie from Brooklyn who, fed-up with the treatment of women on online dating apps, creates her own website to help women take back their power. Mel Strickland, after one-too-many cringe-worthy interactions with men, creates Jerk Alert, a site where women can log their bad dates from the ultra-popular, but miserably shallow, Flutter app, which has taken over the U.S. dating scene. Jerk Alert becomes an overnight sensation with the site going viral, and Mel soon finds her dreams of becoming an influential player in the coding scene a possible reality. But what happens when Mel finds the guy she is currently interested in - a guy she thought had real potential - logged on Jerk Alert? And what about the "bros" who run the tech world that would love nothing more than to crush an up-and-coming female coder's star - will they stand in the way of Mel and her dream?

How to Hack a Heartbreak is a punchy, rollicking feminist novel for the digital age. At a time when STEM careers are in high-demand and women are often overlooked, How to Hack a Heartbreak is a daunting middle finger to everyone who says girls can't code. Rockaway's Mel Strickland is confident and capable in her computer skills, showing the boys up time and time again, and serving as an empowering female figure in a man's world.

How to Hack a Heartbreak, while revolving around love and relationships, is light on the romance, instead choosing to play up on how dating apps have failed men and women alike in their quest to find lasting love. Filled with meet-ups with the girls, hours spent holed up in her apartment coding, and a few bad dates, How to Hack a Heartbreak is a witty and striking foray into the world of online dating in all of its shades and nuances.

This novel will appeal to readers who enjoy comical books about fierce women doing big things. Strong female friendships are featured here, as well as some repulsive and demeaning interactions between men and women on the job scene. It should be noted that for the most part, men are not featured favorably throughout this novel, and that, along with some strong language, may be off-putting to some readers.

(Side note - jerkalert.biz actually exists, & is worth checking out if you want to see Mel's website in action!)

Thank you to NetGalley and Graydon House for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This book was quirky and nerdy and fun. Its not my normal cup of tea but I tried it and liked it. I liked Mel and Alex alot.

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2020 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2020/01/2020-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review How to Hack a Heartbreak by Kristin Rockaway.
How to Hack a Heartbreak is an enjoyable romp from the perspective of a 20 something living in New York and working in tech. Our main character Melanie has a lot of personal and professional growth over the book and although she starts a romantic relationship and a dating website the gushy love stuff isn’t so all consuming that it could be called a “romance novel”. But her career aspirations, friendships and blunders put this squarely in the “chick lit” category (I don’t find this a derogatory or offensive term) and can be enjoyed by all ages.
I enjoyed reading about Mel and all her friends but I thought the love interest was a little too good to be true at times.
I give this a solid 3.75 rating.

How to Hack a Heartbreak by Kristin Rockaway was an all-around fun read. It was a quick read for me, I started and finished it today, it kept my full attention, never getting boring at all. This is a book about coders, dating apps, and a lot of strong female friendships. When I was dating a long time ago, there weren't dating apps, I actually do not even think the internet was much at the time (pretty sure it was pre-AOL even). How is that for putting me in the dinosaur era, haha! Anyway, my point is, I have never used a dating app; however, I do find them fascinating, but I am also so glad I never had to because I would not like the "ghosting" or certain pics that seem to be shared. This story hits all of the high and low points of dating through apps, is super funny here and there, but more than that, it is engaging. I enjoyed reading it.

Things I really liked: women who supported each other, women who were not super perfect, competent women, women who lived with doubt, insecurity but kept going.

Things that were hit over the head over and over but needed to be : the bro toxic way of life in tech and society, the way women are harassed every single day, that nothing is free, if the tech is free you are the product.

Things that were okay but too perfect : Alex and Ray the only two guys worth it for the heroines. I didn’t need them to be almost perfect to be worth taking a chance but in the context of the narrative I guess they needed to be.

It’s a happy for now ending and I liked it was about the women than the Mel/Alex relationship.

3.5 ⭐️

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an advance copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

I'm so glad I finally got to read this book, it's been sitting on my TBR for a while now and I hadn't been able to get to it yet. This book is so realistic in it's depiction of modern dating and online dating, I can say that many instances of what the girls in the book discuss have happened to me as well. I loved the main character Mel, she was so relatable and it was refreshing to see a rom-com book with a female character who seemed like someone I knew in that nothing in her life was perfect and she often self-sabotaged. This was a fun and light romance read that might be the first romance book I've read that hit the nail on the head about what online and modern dating are actually like. I will be recommending this to a lot of patrons now!

This was entertaining, and pretty well-written, but there were just some things about it that felt like a miss. As someone who is tech-savvy, I couldn't suspend my disbelief about several things. I also didn't really care for Melanie as a character. She was fairly lazy and self-righteous most of the time.

I liked the supporting chatavters enough. I feel like there was a layer missing here though. Something to make it more emotionally charged. She makes it this big deal that her dad cheated, but it felt superficial.

There was also just so much bitterness and anger, and it got to the point of hyperbole. Melanie chose to stay in a dead-ene job where she was treated poorly. Then, she paints the entire tech industry as being a "frat house" filled to the brim with blatant misogyny. This just isn't true. In fact, there are quite a lot of women in that industry, and the majority of men are very progressive.

There is also the matter of her solution to all of her problems. It isn't groundbreaking. Fluttr (i.e. Tinder) may be "Swipe Left" but it's more of a hookup app than anything. There are quite a lot of optiona for those wanting to make more meaningful connections. Also, the anti-tech message was just another bit of preaching that annoyed me. It's not original, but it's still plain wrong. Meeting someone in a bar... Or Singles Mixer... is no more "real" than meeting on a dating site. Do people think nobody hooked up before smart phones?

I really wanted to like this. I am a tech person. I can "code." I can build websites. I know my way around Adobe's Creative Suite. I met my tech-industry husband 14 years ago on Yahoo Personals. But this just didn't reach the potential it had.

Dating sucks. Work sucks. So what are you supposed to do for the few hours of free time? Make the little snippets of free time suck less is the goal of How to Hack a Heartbreak in the easiest way possible. Hacks are supposed to make short work of life's little tasks and who wouldn't want to reduce the pain of a breakup, but in chick-lit, it is fodder for commiseration and contemplation, i.e. bitching. Of course, this being chick-lit the contemplation doesn't take place until late in the book, and it is a worthwhile wait, provided you enjoy a little sass and snark (which I do).
How to Hack is a likable tale that can produce a snicker or two if you are not too jaded. Mel is insightful and funny without being too preachy (that comes later). Alex, as the male lead, is amusing and witty and always says the right thing at the right moment. He's perfect. Too perfect? The background accurate and realistic without being too boring and the IT/startup is perfect fodder for the coming conflict. How to Hack has a cute, standard, chick-lit premise and the characters are witty and smart. The insight into tech startups was engaging from a woman's perspective as well. Where How to Hack takes a bit of a downturn is the rather predictable misunderstanding as is Mel's mini-meltdown and quick turnaround. In general, men don't come across well in this novel and the bashing is onesided for a time, but this dilemma serves as conflict fodder that gets a quick makeover to clean up all the loose ends. Is How to Hack a Heartbreak real life? No. IRL heartbreak can be messy and malicious and takes longer to get over than a weekend and a girlfriends lunch. There is no easy way to deal with heartbreak, neither is there a foolproof way to find love, nonetheless How to Hack leaves you with the sense that it will all work out in the end, fingers crossed.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin/Graydon House Books for the ARC.

This book was too funny! I have never done the whole online dating app thing but I have lots of friends who have and this was like reading a page out of their diaries. Mel is smart and funny which is everything I live for in a female lead.

Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to read/review this book due to other commitments. I will certainly update this review if/when I have the chance to read the book. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

This was a cute-ish book and I enjoyed the premise a lot. I really liked seeing the heroine work in such a male dominated industry and create her own thing using her skill that no one was able to recognize. However I was not a fan of some of the techniques she used to deceive people. I was conflicted throughout because I both liked her and disliked her. The romance was cute and believable though.

How to Hack a Hearbreak is a smart, entertaining, heart melting rom-com. Nothing super special, but fun to read nonetheless. If familiar with HBO references, it's a bit of Sex in the City and Silicon Valley but without in depth characters or IT discussions! Made for a perfect plane read.

Smart girls are always underestimated and women who stick together can conquer the world as seen in this witty romp about girls who code and care.

I picked this book up hoping for a light romance read and that's exactly what I got. It was entertaining, cute, and kept me reading. The characters were fun but not too complex and I felt like I could cruise through the book in one sitting. There were a lot of relatable moments and I really loved the main characters drive. All in all it was a fun read, but probably not too memorable. It would be to read on a cozy night in! Thank you to netgalley for this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Rating 3/5