I'm a huge Menon fan and absolutely love her YA novels. I was so excited to read an adult novel by her. And I LOVE enemies to romance!

But.

This was not the way.

Usually enemies to lovers has some sort of misunderstanding between our two MCs that eventually the truth of the matter gets out and everyone, including the reader, goes ahhhhhhh. For me, the misunderstanding between the two was very blatantly obvious immediately and the fact that our heroine had it go right over her head for so long had me very agitated. I like my romance heroines to be smarter and less stubborn. Instead of noticing the people around her (HUDSON) she just kind of kept repeating how awful he was and doubling down that he was the villain. It made the story move very sluggishly.

And then there was the cringey pec dance when we meet our hero...

I was disappointed because I had high hopes for an adult Menon novel, but overall, 3 stars, because it did get enjoyable eventually, but it was a very rough start.

Enjoyable book, but unfortunately it did not make my heart go faster. The H/h meet and have a short fling after which the heroine sneaks out. She has her reasons, but I could really understand why the Hero was quite mad about it.

Annika started her own business with an app to 'make up' and told Hudson about it during their fling. When he starts his own app and business for breaking up people and moves his business next to hers, she is fuming mad. Convinced he stole her idea and trying to save her sinking business, Annika is not always the most reasonable person in my opinion.

Written really well I could relate to the characters. Did think Annika got the better deal out of it.

Annika Dev wants to help people make it through their relationship struggles. Her app, Make Up, is designed to help people communicate with their significant others and see what their future could look like together - two things she bets will help them stay together. Unfortunately, Annika's own personal life is also in need of some help. She spent a sexy week with fellow entrepreneur Hudson, but his competing app Break Up is set to push Make Up off the map. Cue the You've Got Mail comparisons as these two fight it out...and fall in love?

I've been reading a lot more romance during COVID, and I've come to enjoy these lighter reads in a dark time! I liked how passionate Annika was about her app and her mission of improving relationship communication. Her fun-loving best friend June was a great counterpoint to her seriousness. I liked Hudson as well, and the banter between Annika and him was entertaining (there's not too much angst here, which is my pet peeve in romance novels). If you're looking to get lost in a romance on a rainy day, this is a fun choice. 3.5 stars.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for providing an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Annika had a fling with Hudson over the summer. After it was over she thought she would never see him again. They were both competing for the epic award which Annika needed to win to keep her business.

Enemies to Lover is my jam! I LOVE that trope so much. Add in an office battle and I was sold on reading this.

It was so good. I was getting major "The Hating Game" by Sally Thorne vibes, which is an absolute favorite of mine. I was quite shocked to learn that this was Lily Menon's debut adult romance. She did a splendid job. She has written a few other YA novels under a different name and I didn't put that together until I received a physical arc of Make Up Break Up.

The characters in this were flawless. I loved the way that Menon created them. I also really enjoyed the pacing of this novel. It wasn't something I realized I liked until I took a moment to enjoy a specific moment in the book. I realized that Menon was not making us wait with monotonous details waiting to get to the next aspect of the book. We didn't have to go through everyday of the book. Instead we could have an adventure on Monday and then suddenly Saturday evening would be there. I really enjoyed that a lot.

I would definitely recommend this if you are looking for a fun book with a big heart.

Thank you St Martins Romance and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book publishes early February.

I've been a fan of Sandhya Menon's young adult fiction for a while so I was thriled to see that she was publishing her first adult romance novel. And it didn't disappoint. Annika and Hudson have great chemistry as they constantly push each other's buttons yet can't help but be drawn to one another. There is plenty of fun banter and humor throughout with the right amount of drama and heart-breaking moments. Annika's best friend June was also a great character and would be perfect in a book of her own! It was great to see Annika's relationship with her father throughout as she struggles to have her father accept her career choices and tries to let go of the past. The ending felt a tad rushed - I was hoping to see a bit more of where the future would take all of the characters. But, overall, this was a fun rivals-to-lovers and second chance romance set within the world of tech start-ups / new app development. Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the chance to read this advance readers edition.

The chemistry in Make Up Break Up is delightful. It's that opposites attract with hints of electric sparks and lingering stares. The quick banter and moments where you begin to antagonize someone just to feel their gaze on yours. While the chemistry kept the pages flipping, there were other elements to Make Up Break Up that I loved like the best friend relationship with June and Annika's struggle with her father to accept her passion.

Stories with women friendships, the ones who have your backs no matter what? I'm here for that. Not to mention, I want a whole book about June because not only is her fashion style stunning, but she is a power house. Another piece of Make Up Break Up is Annika and her father's relationship, not only dealing with the grief of her mother's death, but also his disapproval of her career choice. Annika's passion speaks for itself, but it's a point of contention between her father and her. She struggles to stand up for herself, to believe in herself (despite the challenges), and fight for her vision.

A young tech entrepreneur has a great idea for an app to help couples communicate, called “Make up”. Her nemesis, to whom she explained her idea during the week they spent together in a hotel last summer, turned her idea into the worst thing imaginable- “Break up”, an app to help people break up without having to do it in person. The horrible part is that his business has become wildly successful while hers is still in progress. If he can do something so horrible, how is it that she still can’t get him out of her mind? While her obsession with him is,realistic, it is also over the top because she mentions him constantly. Recommended to fans of “How to lose a guy in 10 days”.

Big thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I didn't love it, I didn't hate it. There was a lot of tropey goodness here: enemies-to-lovers (rivals-to-lovers??), kind of second-chance, work pranks / neighbor pranks, but it never took off. The characters stayed firmly in 2D land, with very little growth throughout the story. I really wanted to care about these two, but I couldn't. The good news is that unlike many of the "romcoms" these days, this one does not veer into super-angst territory. It's mostly a feel good book, about a woman who will do whatever it takes to make her app successful, and the man she thinks is standing in her way. I'd recommend it for those looking for something light and breezy. I also liked the STEM rep!

**Thank you to the publisher and to Netgallery for providing an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.**

Make Up Break Up was full of all of my favorite tropes- enemies to lovers, workplace romance, successful businessman- and then we topped it off with women in tech and I AM SO HERE FOR THAT!

The story of Annika and Hudson has a lot of great things going for it. A fling turned rivalry in the competitive app industry, sexual tension, banter for days, and pretty great secondary relationships. I laughed out loud at times, and my heartstrings were pulled. I found Hudson to be quite charming at times, even with the competitive nature between businesses.

I recommend Make Up Break Up for a fairly quick and low angst read.

Second chances in love are hard to come by, but Annika Dev plans to rewrite relationship wrongs with her innovative app, Make Up, designed to help couples connect better. However, The app’s one-of-a-kind technology is taking longer than expected, and the bank is breathing down her neck. At the same time, Make Up’s rival, a popular new app called Break Up (the antithesis of everything Make Up stands for), is gaining steam in the tech world. To make matters worse, Break Up’s CEO, Hudson Craft, is the dreamy, yet arrogant man who Annika fell for during a tech conference in Las Vegas. When Break Up’s office moves in next door to Make Up, Annika and Hudson go head-to-head in a flurry of sabotage, witty banter, and undeniable chemistry that take them all the way to the prestigious EPIC investment pitch contest. Annika needs the competition prize to keep Make Up afloat, but when Hudson’s shallow exterior starts to crumble, Annika finds that her adversary may be the one to teach her about relationships and communication.

Make Up Break Up by Lily Menon is an endearing enemies to lovers workplace romcom that will entice fans of The Hating Game. I loved reading about a female-owned tech start-up, helmed by Make Up CEO, Annika, and her business partner and best friend June - the app’s developer. Their supportive relationship is filled with relatable quips and heartfelt moments that I recognize in my own friendships. As for Hudson and Annika, their banter builds up with a slow burn of tension and chemistry that had me yearning for the moment these two would come together. While the ending was a tad rushed, and other aspects of the story could have been expanded on further, this was a light read that kept a smile on my face.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

A decent romance with a more modern plot even if the whole app idea from Annika didn’t make sense. She didn’t seem to be ready to be a CEO by any means either.

I was provided with an ARC of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

This was a pretty standard romance. I am not an avid romance reader, but I do enjoy them every once in a while, and this one wasn't a stand-out, but wasn't so annoying I couldn't read it either.

There were a few grammatical errors that I hope an editor would catch. A more glaring problem that I hope they fix in editing is that there are no page breaks, special punctuation, or any other indication when the narrative is changing from one time/location to another, and reading one paragraph into another with this kind of unindicated change was really jarring. It happened enough times to be really annoying.

As for the plot, I was worried for a while that a book about an app that is supposed to be used to bring people who 'missed their chance' back together wasn't actually going to use the app when the main characters miss their chance, but luckily they did sneak it in right at the end. I wish actually using the app featured a bit more though.
It also really bothered me that Annika kept saying the inspiration for the app was the idea of bringing her parents back together, even though her mom has been dead since she was a baby. It just didn't really make logical sense.
Another thing that didn't make sense was the entire idea of Annika thinking that Hudson stole the idea for his Break Up app from her. Even she talks about how his app is the opposite of hers, so how could any intelligent person view someone creating an app that does the opposite thing as stealing?
And finally, while I enjoy reading about young women succeeding in business, it was hard to believe Annika as a struggling CEO. Basically her company had NO income and would until the app was ready to launch. Yes, they won a grant that funded a lot of their work, but it was clear that the grant money was spent, hence the impending eviction from their office building. June was independently wealthy, but how was Annika supposed to be living with no income? How did she pay rent? Buy food? Pay for gas and bills???
These things bothered me enough to distract from enjoying getting lost in the story, which is why this was a 2 star and not 3 for me.

I received an early e-arc of Make Up Break Up by Lily Menon in exchange for an honest review.
I was interested in reading Make Up Break Up as Lily Menon is a pen name of the author who wrote the When Dimple Met Rishi companion series and this is her first adult romance book. I am new to adult romance myself, and I think that if you're also a beginner adult romance reader, this could be a good starting point.
Make Up Break Up follows Annika Dev, an app developer who is the CEO of an app called Make Up which is basically a 'Google Translate' for couples, I thought that this app concept was really cool and the AI technology that the app uses would be interesting to see in an actual app.
Annika hooks up with Hudson Craft at a conference in Vegas sometime before the start of the book, and Hudson ends up being a rival app developer with his app Break Up. Hudson's app seems so similar to Make Up, which leads Annika to think he stole her idea.
So this was a slowish burn romance, and I think it had the issue of telling versus showing, there were a lot of scenes where I felt there could be more detail but weren't explored further. Annika was also repeating herself A LOT about Make Up and how she felt about Hudson.
I really liked the scene at the yoga studio, I thought it was really funny and there was just enough tension between the characters.
Also maybe this is just my pet peeve in romance but the characters never talked about contraception and I think it's kinda important before you have sex. Like number one is consent and number two is contraception, this book had the consent though.
Overall, I think Make Up Break Up was a good debut romance, and I understand it's really hard to break into writing a different genre and age group so I would give this book a 3 out of 5 stars.

This story had all the perfect pieces of a love/hate rom com! I loved the writing and the character building! Would recommend to friends!

This was Menons first book in the adult romance world and she did not disappoint!
The girl power and motivation we see through Annika was wonderful! Sometimes I wanted to strangle her or cover my eyes for her because I was feeling the embarrassment for her! Hudson was such a great counter balance and the banter he brought to the story was superb.
I tell you this book made me cringe for them, laugh, sob and more! I can't wait to see what she comes up with this

A fun and timely look at the world of online dating and breaking up apps with two very likable characters. I thought this was a fun quick read, although I would have liked a bit more background information for both of the main characters and their two best friends!

Loved this book, it will make the perfect Valentine's Day read! The dating app story line is very relevant and relatable!

Adult rating warning! Lots of sex here.

There were too many tiny holes I poked in this. I thought Menon's writing was engaging and fun, but multiple times I was completely drawn out because there was something I didn't believe or that didn't make sense. And there was a plot twist at the end that felt really unnecessary and kind of cheapened the book a bit.

Overall, though I feel like Menon's writing had potential, I didn't buy the romance or the plot enough to really love it.

I’ll start by saying the writing is excellent and the premise was an interesting idea but I could not get on board with the main character, Annika. She was annoying and kind of naive but supposed to be CEO of a business. It didn’t translate well. Also some details seemed implausible from as little as how she buys a coffee everyday when they’re in dire money problems to as big as.....the ending. I loved the side characters in the story, especially June and Ziggy so there were definitely redeeming moments. I wish they showed more of their story. It was still good enough to pass the time.