I could not get into the story. I had a hard time connecting with the characters. Sadly this is a DNF for me.

Make up Break up a sweet endearing story of enemies to lovers, this one was a cute read. I liked that the main character was a female entrepreneur.

2.5 stars.

Make Up Break Up is an interesting enemies-to-lovers concept. Annika Dev and Hudson Craft spend one week in Vegas at a conference and connect and discuss their app ideas…and more naked things. Fast forward to now and they have competing apps: one for falling in love and making up and another that breaks up your relationship for you.

Annika was a little hard to enjoy. She was so antagonistic towards Hudson, claiming he stole her idea without any proof. And she was so blind. It was so clear that Hudson had fallen for her and was hurt by her ghosting him at after their week together. She just purposefully ignored what was obvious to all. But Hudson is not blameless, acting like a schoolboy pulling his crush’s pigtails for attention.

The technical information about their apps and it was refreshing to have a women led tech company. Her friend June was a breathe of fresh air in this grumpy novel. And Daddy Dev, Annika’s father, was likely my favorite character. He was a man devoted to his soulmate (even after her passing) and his daughter and not afraid to admit he was wrong and adjust his thinking.

There was a lot of potential with Make Up Break Up, but it didn’t hit the mark for me.

Enemies to lovers is a reader favourite in the genre, but where many authors make the "enemies" negligible, Menon doesn't hold back. This couple isn't one quickly shed misunderstanding away from getting together! The hero is arrogant and obsessive while openly relishing his contribution to the dating sphere: hiring proxies to coldly enact your breakup so you don't have to deal with those pesky things called feelings. Meanwhile, the heroine is petty, judgmental, laden with assumptions from first page to (almost) last, and downright vindictive. It's a fascinating choice since much of the conflict revolves her creating the idealistic "kind" app while her rival/LI creates the cynical "unkind" app. Yet she shows little kindness in her actions and thoughts and we never see any actual impact (beneficial or otherwise) from her app. Though her voiced intentions are noble, without seeing the app in action, it comes across much like his does: as a method of replacing meaningful, empathetic conversation with a high-tech shortcut. Why learn how to talk to each other when an app does it for you? I can't help but assume this is an intentional choice and one that's meant to make us think about whether anyone in the story is doing anything to aid society or whether they're all bound up in gimmicks and self-interest. As someone who loves a meaty theme braided with the fun and flirtation, this gave me something to chew on. There's plenty of physical attraction on the page and I appreciated that we see a couple form in which the man displays no intimidation about the woman's ambition. Her career drive is one of the things he admires most about her, and I think we can use more stories where a woman's success isn't in service to a man's success. For this reader, a true genre HEA means they both find success. If you like your enemies-to-lovers stories with grey morality and lots of bite, this one's for you!

Make Up Break Up started off strong. I loved the friendship between Annika and June. Also, as a woman in STEM, I'm always excited to see protagonists in the field, and a creator no less. I ended up not finding Annika very likable. She can be harsh and rash, and it wasn't my cup of tea, but if you enjoy unlikeable protagonists, then you'll like Annika. I was also initially intrigued to see Annika and Hudson finally end up together, but I felt that there was too much back and forth. Annika just seemed unable to overcome her animosity at points and I just wanted to tell her to move on! If you relish in lots of challenges in the enemies to lovers trope then you'll enjoy this one.

Loved everything about this book. The fact that it's about app start up companies. Loved that we get to see females in the tech world. Love it! Annika is amazing. A businesswoman who is trying to make her idea work while fighting conflicting feelings for Hudson. Hudson is a bit of a conundrum at times but under it all he's a simple man in love. Enjoyed this so much!⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I really wanted to love this book. I'd read one of the YA books by this author and had high hopes because of it, but Make Up Break Up was really rough for me.

This is an enemies to lovers story about two competing relationship app CEOs. Or maybe a lovers to enemies to lovers story? Annika and Hudson met at a conference and spend the week together. That's the back story. Fast forward and he's the successful CEO of Break Up, an app that allows users to send others to break up for them. Annika helms, Make Up, an app that will act as a phone relationship counselor if she can get it off the ground before she goes bankrupt (right away I was scratching my head because I can't imagine wanting a phone to act as in intermediary in my relationship, but I'm not an early embracer of tech, so I let that go). She thinks Hudon's app is cruel and also believes he stole his idea from her.

So here's the first problem. I have no idea why she thinks he stole her idea. They seem like completely different concepts to me and she never explains her reasoning well enough for me to follow. Second problem, and this is a big one, Annika is completely unlikeable. She's mean to Hudson at every turn, tries to sabotage things for him in ways that aren't clever enough to even be interesting or fun, and she comes off as a completely self-centered character billed as incredibly smart, when she doesn't really seem all that smart. She's outraged when her landlord threatens to evict her, saying he can't do that even though she hasn't paid rent. Her best friend and developer seems to be the one doing all the work. And ultimately, Annika doesn't really have a character arc. When all is said and done, all the characters she's had conflict with agree that she was right and I don't really see any growth from her, a character that really could have used some.

I also found the writing distracting. Lines like "She smelled the warm fragrance of his skin wrap around her like a cloak" pulled me out of the story. You can't smell the act of wrapping and lines like this or repeated words happened frequently and left me hoping there'd be another editorial pass.

The one thing I did like about this book was Hudson, but I struggled throughout to figure out why he liked Annika. And his secret motivation for starting the app was obvious to me from the beginning of the book.

Even though this book wasn't for me, I think readers who enjoyed The Trouble With Hating You will probably like this story. It has a lot of similar elements and I know that one was very popular last year. And I fully understand how hard it is to write a book and that not every book is for everyone so I won't post this review anywhere but here. Thanks for the opportunity to read this advanced copy.

Overall this book is fun. It's a sort of enemies to lovers / second chance romance. Annika and Hudson met at a conference in Vegas and spent an amazing week together. They went their separate ways until nearly a year later when Hudson's company moves into the same building as Annika's. Both have a relationship app that come from opposite sides. Annika's app is geared towards helping people with communication so they can get through troubles in their relationship and stay together. Hudson's app helps people break it off with one another quickly and easily.

This book had a lot of strengths. There is definite chemistry between the two characters. I liked how both were heads of their business and had real goals. The banter was mostly great. I really liked Hudson. You could read between the lines to see how he really felt about Annika and I found him mostly fun and sweet.

Annika was a bit tougher. I didn't like how she treats anyone. She is fairly self-centered through the entire book. She uses her best friend mostly when she needs something done for the app or to help her carry out her pranks. Annika also comes across as a bit condescending and judgmental...especially with Hudson. He gives up a lot in the end and it just didn't sit quite right with me. I understand that they author was trying to make a point in what he was gaining but it didn't come off all together for me. In addition, when they hooked up there was zero mention of protection. This omission reads as super irresponsible and not what I want to see in a contemporary..

That being said, this book was enjoyable. I did laugh and found myself wanting to keep reading. I think with a bit more polishing this could be a great book and definitely am interested in reading more from this author.

As a software engineer, I love finding books that focus on women in STEM - books about career driven women in male dominated fields who are looking for love. What can I say? I love some engineering chops in a leading lady. When I got the opportunity to read Make Up Break Up by Lily Menon, a book about rival app inventors falling in love (enemies to lovers!!), I was thrilled with the concept. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as thrilled with the book itself.

One of my main sticking points with this book is the overall lack of maturity these characters had. This book honestly read more like a young adult book than an adult romance - the two main characters had the maturity of high schoolers and treated their high stakes businesses as jokes. I could not suspend my disbelief that business owners would behave this way. They both regularly crossed professional boundaries and generally behaved in a very unprofessional way. Also, I couldn’t believe that a person who hates another business owner (to the point of obsession) and accuses them of plagiarism would not know that the rival business they are accusing was actually established before theirs.

There are some genres where I really enjoy unlikable characters (thrillers, mystery, literary fiction), but the romance genre is not one of them. Unfortunately, I found Annika to be unsavory and without redeeming qualities. Annika was pretty self important and rude - she treated everyone around her very poorly. I didn’t like how she treated June - June was her best friend and yet Annika often spoke down to her or disregarded her feelings - their relationship was very lopsided and showed how self centered Annika was.

Unfortunately, Annika really didn’t grow as a character throughout the book - despite her constantly messing with Hudson’s business and generally treating him poorly, she really never faced any meaningful consequences for her actions. She basically ended the book the same as she started it: immature, entitled, and overall not likable. The story never made her work for her happily ever after - she just stayed the course and it was dropped in her lap. She never had to redeem herself in the eyes of Hudson, who she had treated poorly from the start.

I couldn’t buy into the romance between Hudson and Annika - it felt forced and they really lacked chemistry. They also had very poor communication - they both refused to speak to each other about their grievances. I never felt the heat growing between the two of them - it felt more like a light switch - suddenly, they were all over each other with no lead up or previous romantic vibes. This lack of organic growth in their relationship made it impossible to buy into the fact these two were supposed to be in love. It also really didn’t help that I found Hudson to be a very one dimensional character.

The side characters were pretty poorly written - they were severely underutilized and really didn’t have a lot of character definition. Take June for example: the only thing the reader is ever really told about her is that she’s rich, cycles through men quickly, and is unwaveringly loyal to Annika. I would have liked to see more of her romance with Ziggy or hear more about what was going on in her life too. She could have been swapped out with another generic character and the story would not have changed.

Make Up Break Up was a huge disappointment to me - I had high hopes and really liked the premise of the book, but I found it didn’t deliver. Between the unlikable heroine, the forced romance, and the overall immaturity of the book, I could not get into the story. If you’re looking for other romance novels, be sure to check out Ten Rules for Faking It by Sophie Sullivan and Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. 1/5

They say, "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas," but Annika found out sometimes it doesn't. They met at a week-long convention last year, and Annika thought she would never see Hudson again until he became her new neighbor. Now, Annika, who was in the business of helping couples make up, must fight her attraction to this man, who helps couples break up.

Though I found the ending quite abrupt and wish I had been able to spend more time with these two as a couple, I did enjoy this book. I will admit, I did not feel that the romance took center stage most of the time, but there were many rom-com moments, which were lots of fun, as well as some steamy and intense moments.

I think some people may find Annika a bit intense, but I sort of admired her drive and ambition. She had worked so hard to create Make Up and was so close to having it ready. Due to delays, cashflow was becoming an issue, and she was on the verge of losing it all. I totally understood the importance of her winning the investment contest as it was a make it or break it moment for her.

This was a hate-to-love romance, which are hit or miss for me, but I was happy with the execution in this book. Sometimes the pranks are too mean or the hate goes on for too long. Here, the pranks were fun and the pace of Annika's feelings towards Hudson morphing was just right. Hudson's layers were revealed bit by bit, and you could see Annika slowly collecting these pieces and reconstructing her idea of him until she saw the man underneath the slick Break Up veneer.

I love Menon's work, and this book had a lot of the charm, warmth, and wit I adore in her YA books. I did want more from the ending, but I still enjoyed getting to see these two get their HEA.

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

Make Up Break Up is a (SPOILERS)

-m/f second chance romance
-enemies to lovers
-close proximity
-woman in STEM

This book had a lot of potential but I struggled with it. The plot did not align. Annika saw life very black and white. I struggled with her friendship with June. June was clearly there for her, and another strong woman in STEM. But Annika didn't treat her as a full partner in the business and insisted that Make Up was her baby despite June's involvement and how much she needed her.

I enjoyed how feisty and driven Annika was, her rivalry with Hudson ended up very juvenile. They sabotaged each other professionally. her issues with money were not there in reality, she continued to spend it despite her fears with losing her office space. The emotional investment in their relationship didn't pan out, the change from enemies to lovers was all physical. While well written, the plot holes made it difficult to enjoy this one.

Rating: 2
Steam: 3

Thank you for the advance reader copy of this novel. This was an adult Rom .com. I've read a lot of the YA titles by this author but this is my first adult reas by this author. I wasn't drawn to main character Annika. I didn't like the steam in this book at all and stopped reading at about the 60-70 mark because of it and the lack of draw to Annika.

I am SO disappointed in this one. I was super excited for it--I love a romcom led by a woman in STEM, since they are so few and far between, and I love Menon's YA books (When Dimple Met Rishi, etc.), so I could not wait to read this one when I heard about it! But it just didn't live up to expectations. And in all honesty, just didn't graduate from YA. It felt like the author took a YA plot, aged them up 5-8 years, threw in sex, and called it a day. The "enemies-to-lovers" portion--normally my favorite trope--felt extremely juvenile. We kept HEARING about how good a person Annika was, but we never really seemed to SEE it. She seemed incredibly self-centered, immature, and a little mean. It was hard to root for her; didn't seem like she deserved Hudson, who other than one time unplugging her charging laptop (after Annika had pulled a number of pranks on him), seemed like a genuinely good guy.

I also want to take a minute to rant about the business aspects of this book:
- June (Annika's business partner and friend) is loaded. She OFFERRED to be an investor in the company--which Annika was on the verge of losing--and Annika said no because she's too prideful. Um, hello??? Your BEST friend, ONLY employee is RICH and offering to invest in your business and you say NO??? WHY???? It's okay to ask for and accept help! Especially when it's in the form of an investment and not an outright gift.
- Eventually Annika's father offers to invest (which she knows would probably turn into a gift) AND SHE TURNS HIM DOWN. Girl, people take money from their parents all the time. It's called privilege, and let's be real, if you have it, use it. INSTEAD OF GOING BANKRUPT AND GETTING EVICTED AT LEAST???
- Also how is Annika paying for things like her rent, food, drinks, a mariachi band, gas, etc. when she's getting evicted? The business is struggling but Annika doesn't seem to be and it makes no sense. The finances in this book are so whack.
- SPOILER. SPOILER. SPOILER. WHY THE HECK WOULD HUDSON "SHUT DOWN" BREAK UP??? You SELL it for millions and walk away rich but without being the face of the company any more! Then you can take care of your family AND find your joy as a sculptor! Like what the heck, this makes no sense. Also, I think we all thought the natural conclusion of this book would be that the two companies would merge. It's unrealistic to think all couples will and should "make up" and how great would it be if there was an app that offered both? This plotline was offered on a silver platter and why the author didn't take it, I do not know.

In sum, the ending was just off-the-chart bizarre, implausible, whatever you want to call it. I still don't understand how these two spent seven days becoming friends and eventually hooking up at a conference and never exchanged cell numbers or became Facebook friends. Makes no logical sense, as was the case with most of this book.

Look, I loved the premise. The beginning of the book was fine. But then it got so much more bizarrer and bizarrer, I couldn't take it. If you are looking for a book along these lines--enemies-to-lovers, women in STEM, second chance, dating app romance--I would recommend The Right Swipe.

Thanks to St. Martin's for my ARC in exchange for an honest review!

3 stars - 5/10

Pride and Prejudice, but make it steamy.

This book while very different from Pride and Prejudice, definitely had Pride and Prejudice influence with a prideful, and independent woman and a secretly sweet guy. The last romance book I read I did not enjoy, so I was a bit hesitant to start reading this. The best part was I wasn't even expecting to like this book so much and then boom, done in a day.

This book has so much besides romance, which by the way was fantastic. The connection between the characters and sexual tension just grew and continued to build throughout the story. I typically have issues with romance books/rom-coms when the girl changes to be with the guy or compromises what she wants, and that was not an issue in this book. Annika was strong-willed, driven, and held to her morals through and through.

Other cool things: an Indian American main character who happens to be a CEO/entrepreneur in the tech industry, with a female coworker/best friend who codes.  I loved it! Their passion for their work and representation in a male-dominated field was admirable and I think the world could use more rom-coms like this.

My issues are quite small, I did feel like Annika was a little too harsh and too blind to Hudson's pain which is pretty clearly caused by Annika. The ending was also a bit to abrupt, but all in all would recommend highly it to romance lovers.

This was definitely a cute book! It’s not my favorite rom-com that I’ve read and the plot fell flat for me, unfortunately. I really, really wanted to like this more than I did but the character arcs felt all over the place and the plot was incredibly predictable. I could see the direction this was going in but fell slightly short. I still enjoyed it and I think many, many people will really enjoy this as well. I still recommend picking it up!

I had high hopes for this book based on the premise of enemies to lovers, a dating app and a strong female lead. Unfortunately it fell completely flat for me and I was not able to finish. I need not find either main character compelling or interesting and in fact found Annika annoying. Her app also is something I would never use or be intereSted in.

I know some people have really enjoyed this and I hope you are able too also.

Annika Dev has high hopes for her app, Make Up. Born out of her passion and personal history, Make Up will be a revolutionary tool to mend relationships. But as struggles to raise her app from the ground up, Break Up, helmed by Hudson Craft, is rising in downloads, breaking up relationships faster than ever before. Annika thought she could ignore her summer fling with Hudson, but when his business moves next door, the two find themselves pitted against each other in a meaningful investment contest.

I know this will sound really mean, but I can’t believe I wasted my time reading this. Like, I am trying so hard to think of something to say that isn’t so harsh, but Make Up Break Up was not good. The book lacks tension, the writing dragged, and the characters were truly so miserable to read that I genuinely could not understand what they see in each other.

The story did not work for me at all. It begins with Hudson and Co. moving in next door to Annika’s office. They’re popping champagne while Make Up is struggling to stay afloat. Annika soon realises that Hudson aims to win the same investment competition she needs to keep the place afloat. And then it becomes a cat and mouse chase between Annika and Hudson on who can be the most annoying person ever. They act so pettily and messy between themselves; you would think they were some teenagers and not adults. Like hiring a mariachi band to disrupt the other’s party or taking the charger out of a laptop before a major presentation? The stakes were nothing to feel invested about. The plot pretty much drags itself through Annika and Hudson just being assholes to each other. They’re both very self-centered, but Annika takes the cake because at least Hudson tries to be more sociable. He’s still rude in my view, nothing he does redeems him, but his place as a love interest was so two dimensional. He’s pretty, and he’s got a good body. His personality was to be blatantly in love with Annika while she rants about him for a good chunk of the book.

Much of Annika’s anger comes from believing that Hudson had stolen her idea and was now profiting off the anti-dating app. She spends much of this book with this high and mighty attitude that Hudson is a creep and that his app is terrible. And she’s not wrong. Break Up is essentially pay-to-break up service where people are hired to break up on behalf of a person. There’s an interactive element where random people just dump terrible new on another, and it’s passed off as quirky. That alone just put me off Hudson as a romantic lead because how uncomfortable that app made me. And, strangely, Annika is the only person to mention how terrible the concept is. But then she thinks she had this moral high ground because her app fixes relationships, but there’s a problem with her app: she never considers whether a relationship is worth pursuing. That not every relationship needs fixing. You would think that would be discussed within the development team. Her own reasoning didn’t do much either, and it felt more like pieces of a draft that hadn’t quite finished developing. This is where you could think they could work together to create an app that takes both concepts into account, but the book’s actual ending was just so much more disappointing. There was a demi-decent discussion about women in tech and the boundaries they faced, but it’s all weak. Annika is too inconsistent in what she wants to say, so Menon’s actual message falls through.

To summarise, Make Up Break Up is not the romantic story it thinks it is. The plot was weak, the characters were unmemorable, and its whole execution was quite muddy. There were so many points where the book could’ve turned itself around, but it felt like it was doomed from the start.

The premise of this book is oh-so-appealing. I love enemies-to-lovers and reading about a female in STEM is incredibly cool.
What started out with great potential fell flat for me, unfortunately. I didn't buy into the "enemies" part of the book on behalf of the hero, Hudson. At every point, he seems genuine and misunderstood. Annika's reasons for hating him were easily resolved with a little bit of communication and a lot a bit of practicality.
Frankly, I always struggle with an angry MC. Annika has so much going for her - a great dad, an amazing best friend and business partner, innovative creativity - and yet she's perpetually driven by her anger over a guy she hooked up with for a week. I also didn't understand her prideful refusal of accepting financial backing from her wealthy business partner. It's never made clear why they both are not taking a fiscal risk over Make Up.
The setting is perfect and the supporting cast is top notch, which is what kept my attention to the end. I think with an MC I could connect with, I would love to read more from Lily Menon.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the advanced copy. All thoughts in this review are my own.

3/5 Stars

** I received this as an E-ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review, Thank you!**

I'm putting this on the low side of 3 stars. This book was just okay for me. Nothing really stuck out. I feel like maybe I went in with too high expectations. The romance felt a little flat to me and the writing just wasn't it for me. I will say it was a quick and easy read.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

Unfortunately, this just wasn’t the book for me. I really wanted to love it but I just had a hard time connecting with the characters and the story. This ended up being a DNF for me, but think others could end up enjoying it.