Make Up Break Up is a different kind of look at the tech industry and love in a tech-driven world today.

At first, Annika's reactions to Hudson (the two main characters) and his business grew quickly annoying. I know you're thinking Enemies to Lover trope, but it looked more like it would be Lovers to Enemies to Lovers, which I found curious. There didn't seem to be any reason, other than a weak belief that one stole the other's idea, for having gone from lovers to enemies. They both thought of the time they spent together in Vegas as idyllic, which I found even more perplexing. But, the picture is made much clearer by the end, and I could have smacked myself in the head for not seeing it. I was so busy expecting the story to follow a genre formula that I missed out on many clues and a-ha moments explaining how things got to where they are once the novel begins. Then, it all made sense. I still felt like Annika's reactions were over the top and increasingly annoying, but there is a reason for it – no matter how misguided and ironic.

The story carries in it profound messages about relationships and what makes them last. Communication and commitment to a relationship's potential are two of the most referred to, as well as the importance of break-ups needing to be difficult and handled face-to-face. If it's too easy to leave a relationship without talking things out, you might miss out on something that would have changed your life forever. Never lose sight of the fairy tale because, in this crazy world where so much goes wrong, you need the fairy tale to make it all worth it.

My favorite character is June. She is Annika's best friend, supportive to a fault, and the most intriguing computer geek you will ever meet. She is a beautiful fashionista and Hollywood socialite at home at a social event as she is at a comic-con-like event dressed as Princess Leia. She debunks the stereotype of the quintessential basement dweller. I loved that about her!

If you are a romantic soul who believes in fairy tale endings, you are going to love this tech-inspired version for the 21st century.

Annika Dev is creating a life changing app called Make Up. It helps people resolve differences in relationships with very advanced technology. On the other hand, after a week long fling in Vegas, Hudson Craft seems to have stolen her idea and created an app called Break Up, which allows people to hire someone, kind of like an Uber, to break up on their behalf. The two end up working in the same building and can't stop butting heads.

I loved the relationship that Annika had with her dad. Although he wasn't always supportive, he tried his best, raising her as a single father. Annika was otherwise hard to like or relate to, she was really hard on Hudson all the time. It's an enemies to lovers story but it's still hard to digest when the character is so awful to another person! I also feel like Hudson had to make way greater sacrifices overall. I did like that she was an ambitious, young woman, and it's nice to read about a South Asian protagonist. It would have been nice to explain the cultural nuances a bit more as well. Like how her dad wanted her to become a doctor, EVERY Indian parent wants that but it wasn't really explained that way in the book.

I recommend this to anyone who enjoys romance, and the enemies to lovers storyline.

Thank you to St Martin's Griffin and NetGalley for the eGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I’ll be swooning for a while over this book! A combination of enemies to lovers and second-chance romance, Annika and Hudson’s story is entertaining and sizzling! Their stories are complicated, with lots of back story, making their vulnerability and breaking down walls that much sweeter!

Whity, funny and fully entertaining. We all have people we continually go back to and realize that we left that situation for a reason. Its a constant back and fourth. This book puts the laughter and fun in the whole situation.

Sandhya Menon has a way of wiring charming books that will intrigue and interest you, and while that was certainly true for this book of hers as well, it was not everything I'd wanted.
The storyline and characters were great but they sounded young and childish to me which didn't allow me to appreciate this book being adult as I expected to see a more mature characters and style of writing. This was quite disappointing to be honest.
However, the book was cute and quite wholesome but it was missing the spark that would complete it and make it a great read. It was enjoyable but not fully developed so I think that with some more work an thought put into it to make it shine as an adult book, it could be made great but right now, it isn't enough.

This was a fun, easy read to get through in a weekend. The chemistry between the two main characters was fun but not incredibly realistic.

As cute as this sounded, it just wasn’t for me. I struggle with miscommunication and when I feel like characters are being too mean. Thanks for letting me try!

I didn’t feel that there was anything very special about this book. It was a good adult romance debut however.

This was a fun book. I enjoyed the core story about two people who created conflicting app's. Annika is trying to start a relationship app that helps people understand each other better in order to fix relationship problems. Her competitor has already created an app to help people break up. And wouldn't you know it, he moves into the office next door. I like a good frenemies, hate-to-love trope. I loved the competition. The sabotage attempts. The spirit. It was lighthearted and fun.

I did not care as much for the father/daughter conflict as it felt forced in the story. At times the story was a bit slow and felt repetitive.

Sadly, this book was a DNF for me. I usually love the Enemies-to-Loves trope, but here it came off as petty and incredibly immature. Yes, early 20's is still "young", but these two main characters acted more like 15 year olds and it made for very frustrating characters to root for. In the end I couldn't engage with either of them and mostly found the female lead grating. Yes, they had good sexual chemistry, but not much else.

Thank you for an arc in exchange for an honest review!

Okay, as Bay Area girl living amongst the techies, the premise of this book was right up my alley. I loved Annika Dev and the portray of diverse women in STEM! I like the rivals to lovers trope, and I enjoyed the tension and chemistry between Annika and Hudson! While the characters were fun, I felt like they were, somewhat, kept at arm’s length. I liked the minor characters more then the main ones! I think seeing the main characters’ relationship’s beginning would have helped me feel more invested throughout. Overall, This was a quick, enjoyable read, and it felt like the perfect bow on top of summer.

I decided to DNF this book at about 20%. I was having a hard time connecting to the characters and was getting frustrated with Annika, Hudson and June. The enemies storyline was a bit too much for me and seemed unrealistic. This may be a book I pick up at another time and finish it - I love the concept/storyline.

Thank you to Lily Menon, Netgalley and St.. Martin's Griffin for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Make Up Break Up is a contemporary romance novel that tells the story of enemies turning lovers. Given the timelessness of this plotline, I was eager to read the book as a comfort read. Initial the story did well to draw me in, the characters seemed reliable and the story believable. However, by the middle of the book, I begun to lose patience over the repetitive turn the story was taking. The point that Anika did in fact hate Hudson Craft was emphasized over and over again. I wish the story would have moved along more swiftly. The book has good potential but I personally feel that it could be edited to be more to the point.

Make Up Break Up is an adorable story about two 20-something entrepreneurs. Annika despises Hudson, who she believes stole her business idea Make Up to create his Break Up. Make Up is on the verge of falling apart, while Break Up is highly successful. As their paths continuously cross, it becomes clear that there is much more going on between them. Will a competition between the two rivals bring them closer or create a divide that they can’t overcome?

Lily Menon wrote a cute rom-com between two individuals who run businesses that stand for very different things. I found much of the book to be predictable and repetitive and it difficult to connect with the characters. I wanted to know more about them and what went on in their heads. I never once wanted to stop reading the book, in fact read it very quickly, however I wanted more.

If you are looking for a cute, quick love story, definitely give this a chance!

I’m a huge fan of Sandhya Menon and was thrilled to see she ventured into adult contemporary romance under the pseudonym Lily Menon. She has a gift for crafting cute, fun, and relatable stories that perfectly hit the desire for happy endings we all secretly crave and desperately need. I always know what I’m getting into when I pick up one of her books, a fact I greatly appreciate.

Make Up Break Up is no exception. Annika Dev’s company, Make Up, is her baby; it’s an in-development app designed to give struggling relationships a second chance by attempting to fix behavioral patterns in favor of a happy ending. Across the hall, Hudson Craft’s company, Break Up, has just moved in. The polar opposite of Make Up, his app is designed to allow unhappy halves of couples to dump their significant others by means of a proxy, no face-to-face contact required. Annika thinks it’s despicable, but it’s already incredibly successful. And she just might have a history with the man who behind it all. . .

Annika and Hudson’s story kept me engaged and entertained throughout, a unique twist on the classic enemies-to-lovers plot that has always been my personal favorite romantic trope. I would’ve loved to see it written in 1st-person POV; the 3rd-person voice kept the two characters at arm's length from the audience while also keeping their distance from each other. It felt as if we were being told they were falling in love as opposed to seeing it play out with all its ooey-gooey parts. And trust me, there were some awesomesauce romantic moments here.

Despite this book being marketed as more “adult” I’m going to go out on a limb and say I’d consider it inappropriate for older teenagers. The main characters are in their early/mid-twenties but going through experiences that resemble the “coming-of-age” stories that define YA storylines.

And this story feels even younger somehow. Perhaps because Annika’s choices seemed like that of a teenager at times, even though we know her to be an adult. The back and forth of the romance was well-written yet overdone, no logical reasons keeping the two apart, simply personal prejudices and miscommunication. On top of that, every problem or obstacle Annika encountered was consistently presented as a do-or-die situation -- only to be solved by an easy fix, usually a single conversation. This was repeated multiple times throughout, whether it be with Hudson or her father.

The secondary characters are the bread and butter of Make Up Break Up. Though their presence and purpose is to support the leads, their hijinks and solid bond support the main romance above and beyond what the protagonists do for each other. I would kill to have a story centered around June and Ziggy and their adorably nerdy pairing.

While I really did enjoy this read, I miss the pure charm that I’ve come to associate with Menon’s YA stories. There’s a certain special spark I’ve become used to with her writing that is simply missing in Make Up Break Up. All in all: cute, quick, and most definitely here to scratch your romance itch.

I decided to DNF Make Up Break Up at 30%. The synopsis of Make Up Break Up had me so excited, but sadly I was not connecting with Annika or Hudson. I was not feeling any chemistry, angst or really longing between these two. I decided to put down Make Up Break Up for now.

This was a DNF for me at 20%. It had so much potential but the main characters completely ruined it. I HATED these two. Annika was awful, held such a grudge, and was intolerable most of the time. Hudson was only slightly better. I ultimately decided this wasn't going to work for me and put it down.

3.5 stars rounded to 4. Make up Break up is Lily Me on s first adult romance novel. And it’s a good first adult novel. Annika and Hudson are app developers who had a weeklong hookup in Vegas, he developed Break up and Annika believed he got the idea from her. Annika is struggling to get her app Make up off the ground. When Hudson moves his company into her office, the sparks fly! So much fun if you love the enemies to lover trope-and I do!

What I didn’t like-the chapters were long and, in my opinion, needed some editing and organization. I don’t love long chapters. They can make any good book feel like a slog at times.

Overall, very good first novel and I look forward to watching Ms. Menon grow as a writer.

Thank you to #netgalley and #stmartinsgriffin for the advanced e-copy of #makeupbreakup !

#book #bookreview #romancebooks #romance

Make Up Break Up was a fun romance that didn’t follow the usual pattern of romance stories. This change from the norm was a nice, and I liked the unpredictability of the story. It made the happy ending in this romance less sure which helped build the tension and provide a satisfying ending.

While I enjoyed the romance all around I was disappointed in the way Annika treated those around her.
She did not give anyone any slack, but also felt she could do no wrong.
Ani constantly treated June poorly, both with their friendship and professionally. She continually downplayed June’s ability to be happy in a relationship because she was jealous. Annika did not allow June to invest in the business because she didn’t want her to have any control. And she also would not let June contribute to the business in a meaningful way. You have a business partner to help you through the tough times and Annika wouldn’t even let her do the pitch while her dad was in the hospital. It was selfish, and cruel.

Ani was also unforgiving and cruel to Hudson. He had a successful business which she continually downplayed, mocked, and eventually forced him to give up. He was doing this to help his family, something that Ani could never understand because her family was well off. While the ending seemed like Hudson was happy, he still had to give up something that he had put a ton of work into and enjoyed to some extent by putting in 80+ hours a week. I don’t think he realized what he gave up. Ani only wanted to be with Hudson once he was the version of himself that she preferred. It was incredibly unfair and cruel to force him into that role.

When it comes to the romance between Ani and Hudson I really wish that I had gotten to see their week in Vegas. I didn’t believe in their love story because I didn’t understand what it was they had kindled in Vegas until it was too late.

In the end I really did not like Annika. She blamed her business failures on others, didn’t ask for help when she needed it, and continued to be cruel to her friends and family out of jealousy. I love Lily Menon and will look forward to her next book, but this one just wasn’t for me.

2.5/5 stars. I finished and enjoyed the slow building romance.

I'm between a 3 and a 3.5 on this. I've liked Menon's YA novels (especially When Dimple Met Rishi), so I was excited to see that she had written an adult romance. It was refreshing to read about Annika's experiences as a woman (and a woman of color) in the tech field--I found myself wanting to learn more about how her app, Make Up, worked; that part was fascinating. I also loved her relationship with her dad, and the chemistry between her and Hudson is done well.

Unfortunately, the plot didn't really feel believable to me. Annika's insistence that Hudson stole her business idea and her ignorance of the evidence around her made her feel unnecessarily stubborn and unlikeable. Aside from one childish attempt to sabotage Annika (as she presents to students, so less!), Menon writes Hudson as a pretty positive character; I would have liked to get a dual POV with him. Finally, the ending and resolution to Annika and Hudson's conflict and Annika's financial woes--which I won't get into here--felt incredibly unrealistic.

It's a fun read, and I finished it pretty quickly, but there are quite a few points that didn't resonate with me.