Annika Dev has one passion in life - her relationship app Make Up which serves as virtual couples counseling. She believes in happily ever afters and second chances. Hudson Craft owns Break Up - the app that breaks couples up. He believes in getting it done quickly and painlessly. How could two people like this ever be together? Especially after Annika thinks Hudson stole the relationship app idea from her after a passionate week-long fling. Make Up and Break Up are going head to head in the tech world and Annika won't let Hudson stay on top for long.

The concept behind this book is fun albeit far-fetched. I don't think either of these apps would be successful in the real world. I also don't think Annika could avoid paying her bills for as long as she did either. But my biggest problem with this book is Annika herself. Sure, she's a badass boss who owns her own company, but other than that she was fairly annoying. Her rationale for almost every action was baffling and her hatred for Hudson could have been resolved with one open conversation.

I also found Hudson to be lacking. If he ever spoke more than a sentence at once, maybe I could have connected with him a little more. In his conversations with Annika, he always felt evasive or condescending. Not someone I would fall in love with. And Annika is a bigger person than me if she can be happy about winning a competition where your biggest competitor drops out. I was surprised this wasn't a point of conflict between them.

At the end of the day, this is not a bad book. I'm excited that Lily/Sandhya Menon has branched out into adult romance. I've enjoyed her YA books and was psyched to get some swearing and sex scenes in this book. But there needs to be more focus on character development and better chemistry between the lead characters. Hopefully as she continues to hone her chops in this genre, these problems will go away.

It wouldn’t be hard to look through our archive here and see that I am a huge fan of Sandhya Menon’s Young Adult romance. Well, this is the same author writing adult romance and it is just as delightful!



Make Up Break Up needs some content warnings for a dead mother (off page in past), hospitalization of father after car accident (accident not shown, but discussed on page), familial arguments, and discussion of a one night stand.

Annika was a delight to read. She was so convinced that everything she did was right that I wanted to shake her on occasion, but it was a lot of fun to see her come around to what the reality of her situation was. I loved the way that this bullheadedness really played into her relationship with Hudson, and how soft he ended up being in the end.

Her relationship with her dad was very realistic, which made things a little difficult to read, but it’s really worth it. I loved the peace they managed to build together by the end of the story.

The side romance between June and Ziggy was absolutely adorable. I would love to see a spin off novella or short story with them as the main characters!

Thank you MetGalley for this book in exchange for honest review! I have been long awaiting this book, and Sandhya Menon is one of my favorite YA authors! I love her Bollywood twist on the classic YA RomCom, and so I couldn’t wait to see what she would do with an adult RomCom and she did not disappoint! The tension between Annika and Hudson was perfect. I really love the idea of rival dating apps - one to find love, and one to more easily end a failing relationship ship - and their witty banter was perfect. I highly suggest this to other people who enjoy witty, hate to love RomComs!

Make Up Break Up is a cute and original read. With strong characters who clash because they have such fiery personalities.
This is a book that would be fantastic as a movie, has everything you want. Humour, angst, will they won't they moments and a great ending.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was very hard for me to get on to.
The main characters Annika and Hudson are rival CEO’s if two different dating apps. Annika app giving people a second chance at love and Hudson’s giving people an easier way to breakup. Who end up having offices right next to each other.

Lots of romantic tension with these to. At the beginning the book Annika spends a lot of time complaining about Hudson and I almost put the book down a couple time.

But I did over all love the slow grow in their relationship. I also really enjoyed the supporting character June!

Annika and Hudson are such fun main characters! Hudson is extremely charismatic and Annika is a girl who you just want to cheer for so she reaches all of her dreams. This is a perfect adult rom-com with a hint of enemies to lovers. I loved the tech aspect and the app ideas that they both have. This was the prefect step up to adult fiction for Menon.

This was a great read to kick off 2021. I know I’m not the only one who has had a rough time reading over the last few months, but Make Up Break Up snapped me right out of my reading funk. This is Lily Menon’s first foray into adult fiction but I’ve long been a fan of her YA books published as @sandhyamenonbooks , so I knew she does a great job of writing strong female leads, male leads with hearts of gold, and wonderful worlds - this did not disappoint! This book comes out February 2, be sure to add it to your TBR list now!

The enemy to lovers trope is one of my favorites. Make Up Break Up didn't disappoint. The tension was strong and the exchanges heated.

I loved Annika and Hudson together. However, I had a few issues with this story. I thought that Annika was judgmental and her growth, while present, came at the end. Hudson didn't have as much depth as I would have liked, I wish his back story would have been expanded more. I also didn't like all of the sacrifices Hudson had to make. I found myself rooting for the secondary characters and would love to see a story about June and Ziggy.

Despite this, I found Make Up Break Up to be a cute love story in one of my favorite tropes. I think many of us will enjoy it.

I love that this takes the rival romance storyline and adds in the timely careers of being app developers. This was such a great read, sprinkled with light and heavy topics, lots of laughs but still real life situations.

What could be more modern day romantic than two developers whose apps are complete opposite. Hudson’s delivers a quick break up while Annika’s offers a second chance at love and hope. The two end up sparring for most of the story with a few brief truces that are truly steamy. Annika is blind to Hudson being besotted with her.. I did like some of the snarky comments Annika made to Hudson. I did think Hudson’s app was just bad and it’s execution equally harsh. The ending was nothing less than I expected. I’d like to see the story of Ziggy and June explored next by the author. I loved that they were Star Wars enthusiasts.

This was so cute! Sandhya Menon writes the cutest contemporaries and this new one under a different pen name was no different. I really liked the incorporation of one of my favorite tropes: rivals to lovers. I also liked the inclusion of tech & app details. It was just really fun and so wholesome. I'm eager to read more of Menon's works, especially her upcoming books!

This was both cute and sexy. I was always excited when I found time to pick it up and read; it was all the things I love in a rom-com read. There were funny moments that brought a smile to my face. There were characters that were enjoyable. They were not perfect, but I enjoyed them all the same. There was romance that was steamy with moments of sweet. I just had a blast getting lost in this book.

One of my favorite aspects of this one was the competing app storyline. It was fun to read about these innovative apps the characters were creating. The fact that this plotline included one of my favorite tropes, the hate-to-love trope, did not hurt either. The only thing that held me back from giving this all the stars was the fact that I did not feel like certain aspects of the story were fully fleshed out. Sometimes a character's words and subsequent actions felt a little too rushed. I needed just a slight more transition and explanation.

I had so much fun reading this though that I can overlook some of this awkward transition. None of that hindered what truly made this read enjoyable, which was a fun and romantic read. If you have been following my reviews for any length of time, you know I LOVE a good romance read. When I find one, I am thrilled. This is up there with the good ones. There is a lot of joy to be had reading this one.

Sadly this was my least favourite of Sandhya's books. The writing was just as easy to get into and addicting, but there was just something about this books that didn't live up to my expectations. I really like the main character and her best friend and was very invested into their business, but ... that was about it. The romance simply didn't feel palpable to me as a reader (to such an extent that the when the main character had one date with another guy for a whole total of 3 pages I then spent the whole book mourning the loss of what the two of them could've had). As one might image, that wasn't exactly ideal when it comes to a romance novel. I then turned to the business aspect of the novel looking for the excitement that the romance itself wasn't giving. Alas, I couldn't really get hooked on the business idea regardless of the protagonist's excitement for it.
Overall, I didn't hate this book by any means, but did ultimately find it to be painfully underwhelming.

A fun concept and full of tropes I usually love, but something about the writing never quite got off the ground for me. This will likely appeal to fans of Alisha Rai and Christina Lauren, as well as fans of Menon's YA, but it could have used a little extra spark.

I loved this book! It was a quick read and the chemistry between Annika and Hudson was just off the charts. I just love the enemies to lovers trope and this one was no exception. I wish it had taken Annika less time to be trusting, but I understand where she was coming from. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

Make Up Break Up is an enemy-to-lovers trop romance novel, which is one of my favorites. The sexual tension was hot hot hot! I loved it! There were a few flaws I found in this novel, but that is true of any book. Overall, a cute love story and great quarantine read.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

This book is a winner! The premise is interesting and fun, and the characters made sense together. I loved the “competing apps” idea! This was a fun romance and I highly recommend it. 5 stars.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was just what I needed. Cute, heartwarming, relatable and so fun!

I adored the back and fourth between Annika and Hudson, and their chemistry was alluring and made you want to rush through the pages and see them together and happy. The start-up backdrop provided the perfect setting for this hate-to-love romance, the rooftop networking parties and the lead up to the big pitch had me constantly nervous and excited to see what would happen next. However, I actually wish we'd seen a bit more of the techy side of the start-up process, its so interesting to see how an app is actually made.

I really loved June-bug and Ziggy and I hope we get a short story/ spinoff with them as every time they were on the page I was intrigued to know more about their whirlwind romance too, highly adorable! I think the friendship between June and Annika was very real, they were there to uplift each other but also seeing Annika sometimes feel bitter that June was getting everything she had wanted in love was actually something that hit hard. Annika was so happy for June but as the same time wishing she could have that ease in love; it added such a realistic angle to their dynamic. I adored them and I'm all here for this women in tech movement and all the girl power.

Annika and her dad were definitely the source of gut-punches in this book. Familial relationships are complex and messy and beautiful. Seeing Annika's dad accepting his daughter's dreams and also understanding why he was so reluctant to accept it speaks a lot about how immigrant parents just want their children not to face the same struggles they did. Coming from an Indian-British background and understand that side of things made me love the father-daughter scenes a lot.

And finally the man of the hour, Hudson Craft i.e backstabbing evil idea stealing (but not really) hot (annoyingly so) love interest of Miss Annika Dev. I have to say, I really enjoyed seeing the build up to this romance. Seeing Hudson's actual feelings and vulnerable side come through and understanding what happened in Vegas come to light, although I already had an inkling, I still liked seeing it unravel on the page. My favourite scene was definitely the fountain scene and the one at Hudson's party, it was so swoony and Sandhya/Lily wrote the tension perfectly.

(Slight spoilers for this paragraph) Although the ending took a turn I wasn't expecting with Anni's dad (cries), I kind of wished we saw Annika and Hudson face off in that final pitch or even do a joint venture where they could've combined their companies, like a more humane break-up. I wish we could've gotten an epilogue of what Anni and Hudson were up to (I hope on some cool business trip somewhere with Ziggy and June).

Overall, this is worth reading and I cannot wait to see what more Lily does in the adult romance world! She writes like magic and her bringing own voices into this genre so seamlessly and realistically makes me so happy as an Indian reader. I hope we see more of this.

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for making this arc available to read, it was an honour to be able to read this early and I hope everyone adores it as much as I did!

Annika and her friend June have been working on developing the app “Make Up”, which works as a therapist for couples, helps them to better communicate, and reconcile their differences.

Annika’s summer hook up Hudson, has moved next door to her office. He is working on the app “Break Up”, which makes a break up easy.

Annika is an independent, focused, career driven woman working her best to make a place in the male dominated world. Her friendship with June made my heart sing. I jumped in Annika’s team but shifted to Hudson as she seemed childish and intent on misunderstanding him. I struggled to see why she hates him as he is not the one breaking people apart, he is just facilitating to make it easy. The whole idea of the “Break Up” app is lost on me as I thought why do people use this rather than using their phones. I found it hard to believe the popularity of it. On top of it using this idea to drive wedge between them seemed forced.

This started off as enemies to lovers, but veered off the track as the theme is embraced by Annika only. Hudson never considered her as his enemy. The sabotage techniques are lackluster. The romance is hung between YA and adult as the characters lacked depth. I’ve connected with Annika at the beginning for her passion. I wish it would have been better if more focus was on romance rather than app developments.

I enjoyed some parts of it such as friendships, girl power, I loved the story of Annika’s parents, and giving freedom to children to become what they wanted despite it’s different from what parents hoped.

Overall, it was an okay read. I really enjoyed the writing but the plot didn’t work for me.

Thank you, Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for giving me a chance to read this in exchange for an honest review!

Three stars to this book for being a fizzy, easy read. I picked this book because I've enjoyed the YA by the same author, but the more I think about this book, the less I enjoy it. Like many contemporary romances, there is far more focus on the career arc than I care to read in a romance. The couple does not in fact spend much time together.

First of all, the rivals-to-lovers angle didn't work well for me, because I didn't really buy that the businesses were rivals. They were offering very different services. Aside from that, I could not find myself rooting for this couple. Annika seems like a shallow thinker and a bad boss. Honestly, typical tech type from my experience. The idea that she couldn't conceive of why some breakups are good was weird to me, and the machine learning angle to relationship help sounded awful to me (how many stories do we read about how AIs programmed by humans end up with the same problems as humans? Racism, sexism, etc.) And we never read about how it would really work, unlike the time we saw the breakup app at work and could see what it was about. Hudson Craft as another typical tech bro was just not appealing to me. And we just got SO MUCH of the tech stuff and not in a compelling way.

Speaking of unappealing, the sex in this book!!!! For one, I don't think the sex was written with enough consent and attention to safety for my tastes. And for the other, I think this book wins in having the absolute unsexiest sex act I've come across in a romance.