3.5 stars for me.
I do enjoy this book! Melanie is smart, extremely loyal to her group of friends. It was nice to see women supporting women.
However, I did find her negativity a tad grating.
The whole premise is the world of online dating and the men(often gross and douchey).
~BREAKDOWN OF RATINGS~
Plot~ 3.5/5
Main Characters (hero/heroine)~ 3.5/5
Secondary Characters~ 3.5/5
The Feels~ 3.5/5
Pacing~ 3.5/5
Addictiveness~3.5/5
Angst~ 3.5/5
Steam/Hotness/Chemisty ~ 3.5/5
Theme or Tone~ 3.5/5
Flow (Writing Style)~ 3.5/5
Backdrop (World Building)~ 3.5/5
Originality~ 3.5/5
Ending~ 3.5/5
Book Cover~ cutesy
Series~ stand-alone
Source~ Kindle eBook - ARC provided by NetGalley

This was the first book I’ve read by Ms Rockaway and I received it from Netgalley for an honest opinion of the work.

Mel Strickland is trying to navigate through the 21st century the best way she knows how. Meeting guys through an app is the new way to connect with one another, but she’s sick and tired of getting pic after pic of pornographic “spam” from potential dates. When yet another guy stands her up on a date, she vows to get revenge. She develops an app called JerkAlert to “out” the potential jerks in the NYC dating pool.

What starts as a way to vent her frustration and anger quickly grows, and JerkAlert becomes a way for women who have all been burned by the same dating app and the guys who use it, to vent their feelings.

Add in an almost boyfriend, a cast of truly slimy men, and some girlfriends who are all looking for that one true connection as well, and you’ve got the basis for How to Hack a Heartbreak.

I don’t know how old Ms. Rockaway is, but the voice of this book, the references, and the writing style all tell me she is probably a millennial or a bit older than one, because everything rings true here. This book is a cautionary tale ( even tho it’s a romance/women’s fiction) on what happens when we let technology run our personal and human, connections and life. Should we let an impartial, inhuman, app choose our life partner? Should we allow technology to choose our HEA for us?
Good questions, and they are answered here, well.

4stars from me for this book. I truly enjoyed it.

Well, I’ve done it again. I devoured a book in one sitting! This was adorable! I especially loved the female STEM aspect in this book (speaking as a female scientist by trade myself). We need more good role-model books like this! The only thing I struggled with in this book is understanding Mel as a character. I really thought I had her all figured out, but each chapter surprised me. I felt like I was constantly going, “What are you doing Mel? I didn’t think you would do/say that!” It added for a fun twist into figuring out where the story would go. Super cute and easy read! This one comes out July 30th, 2019

So so many great things about this novel but mostly it’s about empowerment and taking control of the things you can. Melanie works at a company that is all bros and it’s wearing her down. Well that and the fact that the dating app Fluttr keeps disappointing her in the dating department.

So when she gets tired of it and creates #JerkAlert she feels that things are turning around for her and she even has a new love interest.

But just as things are turning around things fall apart just as easy but it is how Melanie responds to it is what makes her resilient and innovative.

I highly recommend this one!

Fun, delightful read about the joys of being single in an age where dating is handled first online. Fed up after being stood up on a blind date through an app, Mel eventually creates a website where people can go online and rate their dates... so that other women know what they are getting into. I like the romance between Mel and Alex and the adventures that they take the reader on are fun! Definitely geared toward tech savvy younger readers, but has enough plot development that even more mature readers will find enjoyment!!

Review Submitted to Shelf Awareness for their reader newsletter

Kristin Rockaway weaves together a story that’s part romance and part coming-of-age story, combining her years of experience as a corporate software engineer with modern dating and social media technology. Rockaway tells How to Hack a Heartbreak entirely from Melanie’s point of view but surrounds her with a diverse group of friends who are working and dating in present-day New York City.
Melanie is stuck in an entry level IT job, enduring verbal abuse from men who work at the start-up incubator where she’s employed. Inspired by harassment at work and in a dating app called Fluttr, she launches JerkAlert, a new site for women to alert other women to men who abuse them on the app. What she doesn’t expect, however, is how the app and her distrust of dating, men, and the concept of faithfulness will impact the fledgling relationship she starts with one of the men at work.
“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.”
As Melanie finds ways to stand up for herself and other women, she learns that nothing is simple and over and over that “the internet is truly a terrible place.” How to Hack a Heartbreak is a story about love in a time of technology--the good, the bad, and the giant gray area in between.--Suzanne Krohn, editor, Love in Panels

Discover: For readers stuck in the world of modern dating and those on the other side, How to Hack a Heartbreak is a story about how a new romance, a few good friends, a whole lot of code can change everything.

How to Hack a Heartbreak delves into the subject of online dating with humor, honesty, and heart. Melanie Strickland has been stood up and seen way too many dick pics when she launches her own app, JerkAlert, a rating and review system for bad online dates. It’s cathartic at first, but when the guy she just started dating gets a scathing review, it leads to distrust and dishonesty. I loved that this book celebrates female empowerment while shedding light on sexual harassment and discrimination. The story also is a great reminder of how important human connections are, looking people in the eye, and having real conversations that don’t involve electronic devices.

I liked it. It wasn’t something that I was completely “WOW-ed” over. I loved how this book had to do with modern day technology and real world problems. It just wasn’t really my style of book. I do give the author props on all the research she had to do, though.



This review will be published on "Stephanie Cassidy's Blog" on Wordpress.
It is up and running right now and can be found at: stephaniecassidyblog.wordpress.com/2019/07/17/arc-review-how-to-hack-a-heartbreak-by-kristin-rockaway/

I really enjoyed the strong female relationships portrayed in this book, they were almost reminiscent of Sex and the City, but less catty and with more girl power. I also appreciated the realism of how terribly she was treated in her work place. I think a lot of women are going to love this book because of how relatable it is.

Kristin Rockaway's 2nd novel is delightful! Watching Mel's journey from insecure and put upon to being a powerful woman was enchanting.

Fun quick read! Main character, Mel, works in a start up hub, predominately male driven. After a couple bad online dating experiences amongst her and her friends, Mel decides to take matters in her own hands and create her own "Start up". The author definetely captures the highs and lows of online dating and what we go through to find love.

Thanks #Netgalley!

<i>How to Hack a Heartbreak</i> wasn't bad, but I wish there had been more originality and memorableness to it. I feel like pretty much all the books I've read about online dating have been exactly like this one, and it's a bit frustrating.

Mel Strickland works the helpdesk at a startup incubator, which basically means that techie assholes yell at her all day about the fact that their laptop has viruses AGAIN because they keep looking at porn when they should be working. <i>How to Hack a Heartbreak</i> tackles sexism in the industry, but it doesn't get any unique messages across.

Between her frustrating day job and her unfortunate experiences on Fluttr (the dating app of choice), Mel spontaneously codes a site for rating the guys on Fluttr to help women avoid ghosters and senders of dic pics. The site takes off, thanks to free PR from her friend who works in PR, but it ends up more complicated than she expected.

Every single plot point of this book was visible a mile off. When she started working on her code at her office, I shouted at her because, come on, even I know how intellectual property works for stuff like that. Aside from that, I'm just tired of all of the books about online dating being about women who run online dating sites who are revolutionizing how it works. I'd like to read about women actually navigating the online dating world as it is.

Also, this book comes off very, very anti-online dating. The heroine actually ends up coming up with a new app that will help people meet in person rather than through technology. Personally, I like online dating, and, while it has problems, it actually can work better for some individuals than meeting out somewhere. The book comes across as looking down on that, with no good relationships found online. End result is making fun of a lot of your readers who probably date online.

Her relationship with Alex is boring, and honestly I feel like he should have moved on because she was absolutely horrid to him. The book tries to make it seem like they both did a bad thing it was balanced, but the scales definitely tipped in her direction.

Initially, I three-starred, because <i>How to Hack a Heartbreak</i> was a quick, relatively fun read, but I've knocked it down for lack of originality, flatness, and the narrow-minded portrayal of online dating.

Four, finally I found a smart, entertaining, heart melting rom-com match of mine stars!

Amazing mashup of Sex and the City and Silicon Valley! What a genius, funny, enjoyable ride!

Reading book is so much better to scroll down your non-existing options and find mediocre television movie kind of Netflix rom-coms! Because:

IT MAKE YOU FEEL SO GOOD:
This book gives you joy, encouragement, fun that you need!

THERE ARE SO MANY GOOD PARTS:
There are too many “aavvv”, “wow”, Heal yeah” and “Atta girl” moments make you clap your hand, jump from your seat and pushes you curse to the ancestors of the opposite sex( okay, this is not positive thing! But this book is surprisingly better than so much women fictions about women power, equal rights and supporting each other to climb to the corporate steps with full of enthusiastic and challenging messages. It tells honestly the hardness and struggles to survive at the tech-world ! It was tougher than another other business environments because as like we saw the book, some empty headed homo sapiens still think a girl cannot code!)

EASILY RELATABLE, GENUINE CHARACTERIZATION:
Melanie is one of the best heroines you may find! At some parts you may be disturbed by her paranoia but as you consider her cheating dad and some blank parts and shady actions of Alex( actually I loved him as hero from the beginning but I must support the heroine, because he seemed like too good to be true in some ways), it was still tolerable. She’s smart, funny, easy going (When she gets jealous we may see her claws, but she’s still adorable)

Her girlfriends are definitely copied from Sex and City characters and guess what I liked Samantha’s version Whitney so much! (She’s also PR woman, sticks to her one night stands, intelligent, competitive, straightforward but she’s still a wonderful, caring good friend) I think she needs her own book! I like to read more about her love interests, she’s so!!!!

BALANCED ROMANCE PARTS:
I loved Alex and Melanie as a couple and I loved their chemistry, attraction. They made too many mistakes and they were buried with their own work problems but they still have each other.

A FAIR AND GOOD ENDING:
I loved to read a brilliant, competitive girl’s determination and hard-work to take her deserved piece from the big pie! So this is a romantically and corporative-ly satisfying ending!

2 weeks remained to release! I’m one of the luckiest ones to get ARC COPY from Harlequin- Graydon House! Special thanks to them and to NetGalley for providing me this such an amazing, lovely romance in exchange for the most honest review!

I absolutely and highly recommend it to the readers who are desperately seeking( not Susan) a good romance escape!

When this book was pitched to me, I jumped on the opportunity to read it. I already had it on my TBR and was eager to check it out. I’m always intrigued about books where women are working in male-dominated fields, because I experience it as a recruiter who works with primarily manufacturing companies. I knew it would make me rage at times and hopefully cheer for the main character by the end. The premise of the story is that Mel, a help desk technician at a tech incubator, gets tired of bad dates from online dating apps. She invents JerkAlert, where women can share their bad experiences and sort of “review” guys that stand them up, are secretly married, lie a lot, etc. in order to warn others when online dating. She starts dating someone from her office and ends up keeping the website (and what she finds on it!) a secret from him.

I’ll be honest: this book was a bit of a rollercoaster for me! I was incredibly intrigued at the beginning and engaged in the story, then lost a bit of steam toward the middle (when I got frustrated with Mel), and then picked up again at the end. Mel was an interesting main character. She was kind of a wet blanket, in my opinion, and some of her actions were SO frustrating. I could see why she wanted to keep some things a secret from Alex but she made very immature decisions for someone in her situation/five years post-college.

More on Alex: he’s someone that she works with and they get off to a rocky start, when she “learns” he has a girlfriend… right after he asks her on a lunch date. He honestly seemed too good to be true throughout most of the book, which was a little weird, but he did have a few stumbles that made him a bit more real later on. I appreciated that. I hated how quickly Mel jumped to conclusions ALL the time. It honestly made the entire middle section of the book super repetitive. She would find something out or see something somewhat sketchy about Alex, act weird with him until he asked what was wrong, he would either explain himself or she would just push it to the back of her mind for a while, and then they would be fine again… until this cycle would repeat. Over and over and over again. I definitely understood why she didn’t fully trust him after her experience with her father and what she saw on JerkAlert, but she took things to a whole different level.

I LOVED the ending of this book. I pumped my fist in the air for Mel for a million reasons. Her experiences in the tech world, as expected, were hard to read about for a while. Painfully realistic too, I’m sure. All in all though, this was such a girl power-filled story that will make you low key rage at times and cheer a lot more. Sidenote: please give me a companion book about Whitney!!

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Books for an ARC of How To Hack A Heartbreak! I really liked this book! My favorite part was a main character who can code!! This is about Mel who is tired of men “misbehaving” on a dating app! So she creates an app to combat this behavior! 😍 I read it while traveling and it was a great read for planes and trains! 🙂 Comes our July 30! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ because who doesn’t love girls who code!

How to Hack a Heartbreak
By Kristin Rockaway
Truthfully my genre is Christian romance, but this book had a catchy title so I gave it a try. I think that it was an easy, enjoyable read. I didn't think the language and sex were necessary but it was easily read over. There was a feminism empowerment message throughout as the main character is driven to prove herself as a woman in the computer and coding world. It was not a bad book, just not for me.
I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion which I've shared here. For other reviews visit: https://simplyannehere.wordpress.com

Melanie works at a start-up company in NYC-- at their helpdesk. Between the bro-grammers and the dick pics she gets from a Tindr-like dating app ("Fluttr"), she is fed up with douchebag dudes. In a fit of anger, she creates Jerk Alert, an app that allows women to log bad dating behaviors they've experienced on Fluttr. However, it doesn't turn out to be quite what Mel expected. And neither does Alex, a guy from work she bumps into at a local bar. Of course, things blow up --multiple things, and all at once-- and Mel is left to pick up the pieces. Maybe, though, those pieces will create a beautiful vase out of what was, before, a boring bowl.

How to Hack a Heartbreak is a decent rom-com. I can see it being adapted for a movie: quirky girl (possibly played by Zoe Dutch) + cute, sensitive Latinx guy (played by Tyler Posey) + supportive girl friends. I like the theme of the book (SPOILER: to meet an SO, put down the dating apps and meet someone in person), but there wasn't really anything that stuck out to me as /wow!/ or /holy crap I can't put this book down!/.

How to Hack a Heartbreak is tame as romances go: probably a 2 or 3 on the chaste scale (definitely PG-13).

This is a well written book that the younger crowd will love. It was an ok read, but I'm from a much older group and couldn't get into all the apps and stuff. It does have some funny parts in it. Even though it wasn't for me, I know the younger women will love it. Don't let my review stop you from giving this book a try. Thank you HARLEQUIN - Graydon House Books (U.S. & Canada) via NetGalley for the ARC copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

A light rom com with a big dose of female empowerment. It was an easy, quick read. Certain parts were amusing, but overall it was too preachy. For instance, there's a conversation in which female characters are educating a male character on the etiquette of online dating. The way they speak about it makes it sound like an informational pamphlet instead of an actual conversation. I guess I was hoping for a bit more subtlety. Also, there are only two male characters, out of many, who aren't stereotypical sexists. As a fan of well-developed characters, this was especially disappointing to me. I never really connected with Mel or her friends, either. Her friends were one-dimensional and Mel herself was annoying. I hated the way she continually obsessed over Alex and she was a bit too promiscuous for my taste. Also, the app she created at the end was cute but not particularly innovative.

I received an advanced copy through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Your super typical chick-lit summer read; it’s a breezy rom-com that I could easily envision everyone reading by the pool or at the beach. Also, liked that the protagonist was actually a solid, good guy!