I’m a sucker for a good enemies-to-lovers story as well as a second chance romance, so I was eager to read Lily Menon’s new novel Make Up Break Up as soon as I heard it featured both. It also features an inside look at dating apps and start up companies, and I’m drawn to books that feel timely when it comes to technology so in many ways, this book was a great fit for me.

I found myself very invested in the main character, Annika, primarily because she’s a female business owner in the tech industry. I found myself rooting for her company’s success, especially when it became clear that not only were they the underdogs of the story, but it appears that Annika’s chief rival, Hudson Craft, is rising to fame on what appears to be an idea about a dating app that he stole from her when they met over the summer at a conference in Las Vegas. The fact that Annika’s company is struggling while Hudson’s is clearly taking off makes matters all the worse.

I really wanted to hate Hudson on Annika’s behalf but I have to admit that he won me over pretty quickly because even though he could be totally obnoxious around Annika, he seemed like a nice guy otherwise. The story takes an awkward but entertaining turn when Hudson moves into Annika’s office building so that now she has to see him every day. In spite of her seeming animosity toward Hudson, it becomes clear pretty quickly that the two of them have major chemistry. It’s hard to tell from one moment to the next if they’re going to kill each other or end up making out.

Even though I enjoyed their interactions overall and most of their scenes were a lot of fun, there were a few times where it just felt like they were acting pretty juvenile and I wanted to yell at them to grow up and behave like adults. I also found myself a little torn when it came to the actual app development and business side of Annika’s life though. While it was really interesting at times, there were other moments when I wanted less tech talk and more relationship talk.

In spite of those issues, however, I still really enjoyed Make Up Break Up overall and look forward to reading more from Lily Menon in the future. 3.5 STARS

I loved this book!

Annika and Hudson are both tech entrepreneurs, but their software does completely different things. Annika wants to help people get back together, Hudson wants to help people break up. Annika loathes Hudson at the beginning of the book; you'll have to read the book to find out exactly where that animosity comes from.

Hudson might seem like the ultimate villain--after all, he wants to help happy couples break up--but even the "villain" is the hero of their own story. And since this is a romance, there's a happily ever after in there somewhere. Everything will make sense in the end.

There are some steamy scenes in here, so this book is not for Sandhya Menon's (Lily Menon is her pen name for adult books) younger viewers, but if you enjoyed her YA books and you're an adult, you'll probably also like Make Up Break Up.

4.5 stars

Wow. This book was more than I was expecting.

I know that this is Lily's first Adult book (Lily being a pen name for YA phenom Sandhya Menon) but this book escapes all of the typical pitfalls of debut novels.

The character work was great. I loved our leading couple, Annika and Hudson, but I also adored June and Ziggy. And Annika's father. Such great characters. They felt realistic, flawed, and fully fleshed out in a way that I love.

The pacing of this was fantastic. I love the mental acrobatics you have to do to go from crying about these overly emotional things that are happening, to laughing so hard you're still crying. There were so many amazingly heartfelt moments in this book, I just want more of them.

If you are a lover of a good hate to love romance, especially when it's a miscommunication, this book is for you!

I will say I did struggle a bit with some of the scene changes. As I read an eARC of this book, I don't know if it's just a formatting issue or if it's the way the book is actually printed, but there's no real division between scenes and its a little jolting to just hop around from one to the next.

Speaking of the eARC, I did receive the ARC of this book via NetGalley and the publisher in an exchange for an honest review.

This book was just amazing and I can't wait to own my own copy. And I will definitely be picking up more from Lily in the future!

First of all, thank you so much to the publisher and Net Galley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Make Up Break Up follows Annika, the CEO of Make Up, an app to help relationships heal, to give love a second chance. She believes that Hudson Craft, the CEO of the successful app Break Up (which give couples a clean break) stole the root of her idea. Make Up is broke, and when Annika is preparing for a huge pitch that could keep Make Up going, Hudson moves into the office next door.

On the surface, they're enemies, but that week together in Vegas is a constant reminder of the people they'd been then. Annika can't stop thinking baout the soft, sweet man he'd been, and try as she might, the attraction to him is slowly coming back, and she can't quite stop it.

Make Up Break Up was fast-paced, witty, sexy, and heart-warming. I read this in one sitting. It made me cry, laugh, giggle, and gasp. This book was everything and more, and I absolutely cannot recommend it enough!

Make Up Break Up brings girl power to the table with an optimistic Indian main character in the tech industry who is passionate about her business. I liked Annika's idealistic view on love and relationships; it's one I cannot help but support. As much as I liked her, she complained a lot about Hudson and Break Up...a lot. I wanted her to get to work and show him that her app was better. What speaks better than blowing people away with your work? I admired that she sticks to her morals throughout the novel, but she can also be judgmental. Also, Hudson Craft is undeniably sexy as both rival and love interest.

The book is predictable, but I don't mind predictability as long as it's done well. The ride needs to be interesting, and for the most part, it is, especially with the chemistry-filled run-ins and showdowns between Annika and Hudson. I would have liked more petty antics, allowing it more of the rom-com vibe Menon was potentially going for. Overall, Make Up Break Up is a good choice to start the most romantic month with.

Make Up Break Up follows Annika and Hudson as their apps compete for a top tech prize (and new round of funding). Which means our heroine, Annika, and her best friend June are both women in STEM! More of this in romance novels, please! I love swoony love scenes with a side of fancy tech jargon. And let’s talk about the tech! This novel features some pretty wild apps. Annika’s app, Make Up, is poised to help couples communicate better through some futuristic AI that June is building from scratch. Husdon’s app, Break Up, is like the Postmates of breakups. I for one wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of that, but these competing ideas make for some really interesting discussion.

Enemies to lovers can be a really challenging trope, and Annika and Hudson’s relationship missed the mark. Annika hates him with a passion, but the reason is a bit unclear, and Hudson just seems like an all-around nice guy. I wish that their history was clearer, and that Annika was a little less mean to Hudson – it made her conflicting feelings harder to understand. The story does get steamy, but without any spoilers, I’ll just say the steam wasn’t for me.

Overall, I loved the concept, but the execution of this novel made it hard for me to enjoy. Folks who are big fans of the enemies to lovers trope may have a better time with this than I did! ⭐️⭐️

Make Up Break Up is available on February 2nd. Thank you to @netgalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for sharing an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review. You can purchase your own copy of Make Up Break Up on Bookshop.org through the link in my bio!

⚠️ CW: Death of a parent

Make Up, Break Up positioned itself to be a fun enemies-to-lovers romance that, unfortunately, never paid off.

Annika was the founder of her app, Make Up. The app was designed to bring couples together and learn communication strategies. While the app showed promise, she hadn’t made it big yet and money was quickly dwindling. Unbeknownst to her, her professional rival, Hudson, had just rented the office space across from her own office.

In all transparency, I was never in love with Menon’s YA titles but couldn’t pass up an opportunity to experience her adult romance titles. Make Up, Break Up fell flat for me because the characters weren’t believable. Annika was a young woman you could root for, but her hatred for Hudson didn’t make any sense. The enemies-to-lovers trope felt incredibly one-sided and it was hard to believe that the two of them had chemistry. I never fully understood their professional and personal motives either.

Make Up, Break Up may work for fans of Menon’s YA contemporary novels, but something was missing in Make Up, Break Up.

Annika has created the app that she believes will take the dating world by storm as rather than giving up when a relationship becomes hard it helps you find solutions to keep the relationship flourishing. The only problem is that she needs the cash to launch it and her biggest competitor is not only her neighbor but is also the man she was romantically involved with for a week in Vegas and she believes betrayed her professionally.

Hudson has created his own app which outlines that when a relationship hits a rough spot the best course of action is end things before they escalate. His creation has achieved success beyond what he expected however winning the contest will allow it to take off. The only thing standing in his way is Annika and their past.

The animosity between Annika and Hudson was a cover for their true feelings and I can only admire his patience at times when it comes to Annika. The interactions between them were entertaining whether they were flirting or fighting and there is a great cast of secondary characters which enhance the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's for the chance to read an advance copy of this book!

This book was just not a good fit for me. I enjoy opposites attract and enemies to lovers tropes, but I've discovered that I really can't stand the subset of these where there's pettiness and pranks and a complete lack of professionalism. Additionally, even though this is marketed as an adult romance novel (in contrast to the author's writing YA romances under a different name) I would definitely call it New Adult. The protagonists are 24 and 25 and there's a lot of immaturity in both of them. Seriously, they made me feel like a crabby old woman and I'm literally not even 30 yet.

We are only in the heroine Annika's point of view for this book, and I really didn't like her. I know Hudson is supposed to be the villain, but I sympathized with him at almost every turn (though the actual Break Up app event we see is pretty darn cold). Annika was extremely petty and let resentment build up in her to the point where she completely overreacts in ways that could have serious consequences if we weren't in a "rom com." For example, from her POV we've seen all her resentment build up around the attention that her rival Hudson gets, and how she thinks he stole her idea because the name and taglines are similar (which is ridiculous when you see the two business models in action, concierge in-person service vs AI interaction, but that's my opinion). OK, fine, she's mad. But then her next action is shooting Hudson in the face with a Nerf gun and smashing some of his company property. That's a ridiculous escalation that went way too far and definitely crossed the "suspension of disbelief:" line.

There's a couple other pet peeves of mine, like lots of pop culture/celebrity references, and some incredibly obvious "twists" about the real origins of Hudson's app. But I think it all really boils down to audience and these characters and their antics were way too young for me to have any interest.

I wanted to love this. I love the cover, I love the premise, I love the app ideas. I couldn't get into the book sadly. It felt like too much dancing around and not enough meat.

Well. This is a massive disappointment. Having loved all of Sandhya Menon's YA romances, I was so pumped to read her adult debut. I thought for sure she'd nail it, but here I am even months after I've read this book, completely baffled at how this is a book that came from one of my favorite authors of all-time. I have only myself to blame for having so much hope. There's nothing obviously wrong with Make Up Break Up - it's simply a boring book with irritating characters and a bland romance that didn't work for me. I think the big issue here for me is the storyline with Annika's app. She is clearly a driven woman and I always enjoy reading about characters who are driven and I love even more to actually see what they are passionate about. I feel like in this book, the focus on the app development was too much and it was at the expense of the romantic development. Annika also drove me batty because I didn't completely understand her annoyance towards Hudson, especially after he clarifies her misunderstanding. It made no sense and I felt like she was just looking for an excuse to hate him. I can't believe I'm even saying this because this is a privileged white man but I felt like she was unnecessarily rude to Hudson in her attempt to one-up him (they are both competing for the same investment pitch). Frankly, she was way too stubborn. Her issues with and her handling of money was also a big source of frustration for me, but I don't want to get too much into that. With all the focus on the tech aspects of their careers, I also didn't feel like we got to know Hudson all that much. He was just ... there and I had no real feelings towards him. Menon could not have written a more basic white boy. Ultimately, this romance just felt very awkward to me and there was no real chemistry between the couple. I'm not convinced these two lasted past the HEA. I should have DNFed, but since this is an author I've enjoyed immensely in the past, I pushed through hoping it would get better. Anyways, if you are new to Menon, skip this one and read her YA books instead - they are superior.

A week long conference in Vegas leads to a perfect fling, until someone steals your big idea. Annika’s big idea was to create an app for couples to get back together, missed opportunities. Hudson, created an app where a third party will come in and break up for you. Somehow, the two end up sharing an office building together and the hatred /jealousy continues to grow, as does their friendship.

This story took be a while to get into it. There was a lot of background information provided and I found it quite slow initially. Overall though an easy read and you wait for all the pieces to fall into place happily in the end💜.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the ARC. This is set to publish Feb 2nd.

4/5 stars

Lily Menon may be new to the field of adult romance, but she absolutely shines in this novel.

Menon, also the author of rom-coms for young adults, creates a romance worth rooting for in that of Annika Dev and Hudson Craft, two app developers who constantly are at each other's throats but can't deny the spark of attraction they feel toward each other.

I loved the journey Annika and Hudson went on, together and apart. I loved the time spent focusing on things other than their relationship, like Annika's friendship with June (a delight) and her time with her father (also a delight); or the time we spent focusing on their respective apps, and what they meant to each other.

Hudson is brash and confident in appearance (we don't get his perspective, so don't know as well what he's dealing with on the inside) and Annika struggles with self-doubt on a lot of fronts which I, for one, found eminently relatable.

There was one snag in the plot that would be a massive spoiler that I wasn't a huge fan of; I felt like the book's resolution was a little *too* easy, and maybe out of character for Hudson.

That said, I truly enjoyed this book, a lot. It's funny, sexy, and heartfelt in all the right places.

After reading several suspense novels, I decided to take a break and read something light and fluffy. Make Up Break Up was just the book to read. It is filled with miscommunication, sexual tension, women in STEM, and a happily ever after ending.

Annika has a brilliant idea for an app and is working hard to develop it, along with her best friend June. These two women embody women in STEM and there is even a part of the story where they speak to some high school students and encourage the girls to pursue their dreams in coding. It is really a great message that nothing has to hold you back other than yourself.

Hudson has created an app that is the opposite of what Annika is creating. His app will send someone (a terminator) to end a relationship that you don't want to be involved with anymore. I wondered how and why he came up with this app and the answer to that is near the end of the book so you will have to read it to find out.

Annika and Hudson had met in Vegas at a conference and sparks flew during that week. But then they went their separate ways until Hudson ends up as Annika's neighbor in an office building in Los Angeles. Hilarity ensues between these two with the pranks to knock each other off their game. But what they didn't expect was to feel those sparks again.

I am not sure how much I liked Annika. She is a tough woman with a passion for her app, but some of her actions are childish. Granted she is in her early 20s, but it still seemed a bit immature. Not that Hudson was much better. It is also a little vague as to how she can afford this nice office in Los Angeles. There are conversations with a banker so it is assumed she has a loan from that bank. but it isn't ever really confirmed outright. June is her partner in crime, a master coder, and apparently very wealthy. I was surprised that Annika refused her help monetarily to get them out of the hole they currently are in, but if she did accept the financial help it would have taken the story in a different direction. I did feel like Annika did start to mature towards the end of the book when certain events occurred.

Annika has a great relationship with her father other than he wants her to attend medical school and become a doctor. That is not her passion and I wondered if her father would ever realize that becoming a doctor is not her dream. Small spoiler, he does but it takes a long time. But the journey to get to that point is two-fold for him and an intriguing subplot.

Hudson has his own issues too. He has become very successful with his app, but he isn't happy. There are underlying issues that Annika helps him uncover at various points during the story. Hudson does seem too perfect, but in reality, he is just as flawed as Annika, and perhaps that is what makes these two a perfect couple. Once they can get past their hangups.

The book made me chuckle and there are a few "oh no" moments, but we get our HEA and all is right with the world.

We give this book 3 1/2 paws up.

Having met at a conference, Annika and Hudson find themselves competing for funding with their apps that couldn’t be more different. Annika’s app, Make Up, tries to help people in struggling relationships regain what they’ve lost and stay together. Hudson’s app, Break Up, offers the services of an impartial third party to break up with your significant other. Both have strong feelings for each other but Hudson’s app makes Annika sick and she can’t be with someone who does that for a living.
Opinion
Told in multiple points of view, Ms. Menon hits the mark with her writing style. Feelings are quite palpable, almost like you are there with them. The story line over all has a very sweet and endearing nature. This book was quite a pleasure to read and will help restore faith in humanity for you if read on a bad day.
Many thanks to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

This is the debut adult romance book with her pen name of Lily Menon, but I've read several of Sandhya Menon's other books (I love her Dimpleverse series). While I enjoyed the overall plot of this book, the characters fell a little flat for me. Her protagonist Annika Dev showed promise, but I just thought she came off as super immature with some of the things she said or did even though she's supposed to be 24 years old and the founder of a promising tech company. And while I enjoyed Hudson, the male love-interest in the book, I wasn't a fan of where his story arc ended up going. The side character of June was enjoyable and I loved the friendship interactions between her and Annika. I'll definitely give Lily Menon another chance with romance books in the future, but hopefully the next book will feature a more "adult" main character and not come off as a YA-type character with their maturity levels.

I loved the fact that this celebrated ladies in stem!! I loved that there was dating app drama. I loved the enemies to lovers! But I wished for more tension and chemistry between Hudson and Annika. The steam felt like an after thought but the actual scene was a+!! I loved annikas relationship with her father and the inspiration behind her app. I thought she was the strong inspirational character we could use more of. But what I didn’t like was the Hudson closed down his app for her. I wish they could have found a way to coexist in the dating app world. 3.5*

Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy this one. I was looking forward to it as I love the authors YA books but this one didn’t work for me and I’m sad about it. Review to come

of course I loved this, I always love books by Sandhya Menon and I can't wait for her Adult Romance debut with Make Up Break Up. I can't wait for everyone to read this and love it!

I liked this book. It has a clever premise and I will always be drawn to a enemies/rivals to lovers story. I also always appreciate positive women in stem representation.

I just felt like the plot rode on the back of the rival apps/businesses thing a little more than it did the relationship between Annika and Hudson. Which is not at all to say that it wasn’t entertaining to read, it was. It’s just that it wasn’t what I was wanting from the story. This is almost certainly a me thing and no fault of the book as I am in a big ‘GIVE ME DEEP, DARK COMPLEX EMOTIONS’ mood.

Again, I did like this book and I think lots of people following here would like it too.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s for the opportunity to read an advanced copy. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.