A fun rivals-to-lovers story set in the world of cut throat competition of dating apps. I really enjoyed the story and it brought a huge smile to my face by the time I reached the ending.

What Make Up Break Up gets right is its portrayal of women in STEM, diversity, the immense pressure of being a female CEO and some really great chemistry between the leads.

What Make Up Break Up gets wrong is the ending. Annika's annoying moral superiority won. There was no compromise. She just won. That's not how adult relationships work in the real world and I found it extremely annoying.

4.5 stars - What a great read! The hero in this one is especially heartwarming! This is wonderful as is, but would easily be a 5 star read if it included a dual POV. I think the reader and the heroine never quite understand where the H stood for much of the read. We think we know, but a dual POV would've provided clarity and even greater enjoyment.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book was super good. It was super original and I flew through it. It didn't feel like anything I've read in the past. Can't wait to read more from the author!!

This just didn't work for me. The whole thing about worrying about getting evicted from the office space frustrated me, especially because she had both her dad and her coworker offering to pay for it. I also found Make Up slightly creepy and didn't love the way Break Up was just condemned in its entirety and ultimately shut down. I do look forward to Lily Menon's next book though, and I hope it works better for me.

The enemies to lovers trope is a classic and Lily Menon’s Make Up Break Up adds a fresh, techy twist to a flirty, timeless plot. Enjoyable, albeit semi-predictable read!

Annika Dev is the 24-year-old CEO of Make Up, an app that helps people find their second chance at love. Her goal is to help failing relationships and give people a chance at their own fairy tale ending. Enter Hudson Craft, 25-year-old CEO of Break Up, the very antithesis of Make Up. His app allows people to employ “terminators” to end their relationships for them. It’s basically Uber, but for breakups and the exact opposite of what Annika stands for.

Not only are both CEOs and their respective apps competing at a tech convention for investors/funding, but Annika and Hudson have a bit of history. They had a brief, sexy fling in Vegas and then lost touch. Hudson returns to Annika's life after renting office space in the same building and she can't seem to shake him. As the book progresses, Annika realizes there might be more to Hudson and his app than meets the eye.

While I found the story fun and sweet, I also found some parts predictable. There was no real “romance” until halfway through the book and, even then, it was just surface level. It left me wanting more and the scenes that were meant to be steamy and filled with passion were missing a certain something. There was a hesitancy in a lot of the romance scenes. Once I found out that Menon was mainly a YA writer and this was her first adult romance novel, it made more sense to me.

Annika’s assumptions about Hudson cause her to constantly get in her own way. Perhaps that may be a testament to the age of both characters. I enjoyed Annika’s drive and passion for her business as well as her relationships with June and her father. The book would have resonated better with me if Hudson had more depth as a character (we only get to rely on Annika’s assumptions since she spends most of the time not reading between the obvious lines Hudson’s giving her). The ending felt a bit rushed, but also in line with Annika’s character so I can’t fault it!

Overall a fun, light-hearted debut into the adult romance world.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy of this e-book in exchange for my honest review.

I've been a big fan of Menon for several years now and I was super excited to hear that she had written an adult romance. Make Up Break Up did not disappoint! It was a fun, engaging read and I found the characters super relatable! I adore a good enemies to lovers story and this one was a delight from beginning to end! I highly recommend!

I've really enjoyed Menon's YA books, so I was excited to try out her adult debut. Make Up Break Up was fun, but in some ways I think it lacked the spark of her YA books (maybe because her YA books focus on aspects of Indian culture that were not necessarily needed here, but something I enjoy from her books?)
With strains of The Hating Game, I didn't quite believe the attraction of the two main characters, and felt their animosity dissipated too quickly. This just didn't grab me the way her other books have.

So I am going to start with the two things that I liked in this book. Hudson Craft, the male counterpart, and the love scene were enjoyable.

Unfortunately, I found the rest of the book, annoying and predictable. Here's what needed to change for the book to be enjoyable (and thus contains spoilers):

1. The main character negatively misinterprets a lot of things. For someone who is trying to create an app that helps people interpret their love interest, this is unrealistic (I didn't understand why she was so bad at interpreting her father and Hudson's comments.)

2. A majority of this book is predictable; actually I predicted a better ending to the book. There is no reason that the two CEOs and companies didn't decide to combine and work together.

3. I liked the love story between the supporting characters, but there wasn't even a conclusion to it. Why did Ziggy ask June out to dinner at the end? Was that supposed to be left vague?

I really loved this one. Perfect hate to love, which I'm a sucker for. I didn't care for some of the side characters but that's just me.

I was so excited when I got to know that Sandhya Menon was diving into the world of Adult Romance. Make Up break Up started out strong. The leads, Hudson and Annika, had the chemistry and I was eager to see how it would flourish and the relationship that would build. I loved how competitive they were when it came to their business and want to succeed.
However, while it did start out strong, the momentum didn't remain steady or went up.


First off, I love all levels of enemies-to-lovers but my favourite is when the hate is so palpable and the characters would rather kill themselves before they could even think about falling in love with the other, but the pull is strong they have no choice but to give in.

Annika and Hudson were a notch or two below this hate scale but I loved that aspect but while Ms Menon had the enemies part down, the lovers' end of this trope didn't live up to the mark. I wanted much more of Annika and Hudson than we got. I just didn't get to swoon over them as a couple.


Second, taking from the first point, there is way way too much Annika and June, her best friend when it should have been Annika and Hudson. Due to this, I didn't get to see a lot of development of them as individual characters and as a couple. They didn't get the time to grow or understand each other when that was what I hoping for.


Annika repeatedly going back three steps for every progress she made, while in the beginning I understood and sympathized, but later on, I just couldn't. She was so stuck in her way of thinking she refused to believe and understand Hudson.

I get not being able to separate Hudson and Break Up because that man built this company with a certain mindset and if I'm being honest, he wasn't really helping his cause, but what I don't get is Annika's inability to give Hudson the benefit of the doubt. It was so frustrating to see her go through that same process again and again but not make any change or progress.


Overall, Make Up Break Up has some parts that I enjoyed and some points that just didn't work for me. Unfortunately, the parts that didn't work for me were a lot more than the parts that I actually did enjoy.


2.5 - 3 Stars!

I was really excited about this one since it was my first (!!!) ARC received through NetGalley, and I have really enjoyed Menon's young adult books.

Unfortunately, I didn't always feel like the delight that I felt with Dimple and Rishi transferred over into the adult genre where I kept expecting the main characters to behave with more nuance but they ended up falling flat.

I LOVE a good enemies-to-lovers trope, but were these two really enemies? They were in the same office, sure, and there were times where they actived spiteful towards each other, but those were intermixed with moments of sweet tenderness and flip-flopping feelings that left me probably more confused than our main character.

Also, while June helped make Annika more interesting, I felt like she was more of a compilation of hobbies and interests rather than a specific person. Why was she hanging out in this app again?

There were some great moments of tension, but as a whole, I didn't find myself excitedly flipping through the pages.

Omg this book is so funny I literally laughed out loud multiple times. Netflix please, please, please make this a movie!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book! It’s one of the funniest rom-coms I’ve read. It had the same type of energy as The Hating Game. Only in this book we get great interactions with side characters too! I love it when romance books include interactions with people outside of the main couple. In here we get interaction with friends and family!

Usually I don’t like romance novels when they are told in third person, but this is one of the few exceptions. I enjoyed the narration style a lot.

When Lily/Sandhya said this would be steamy.....it definitely has steam 😏😏😏

I love rom-coms, but when those rom-coms are steamy then I love them even more!!!

I do wish we had another chapter or some epilogue set a few months down the road. I’ve come to realize that an ending like this I would 100% love in a movie, but for some reason I need a tad more with books?!?! No idea why. Also I'm wishing a couple of the sideplots introduced were further explored.

All in all this book is hilarious, steamy, has great enemies-to-lovers vibes mixed in with a smidge of second chance romance (does it count as second chance if it was only a fling? idk), boss bitches, unapologetically super nerdy side character, hilarious inner monologue (did I mention this book is funny? because it’s funny), A+ banter, and that Sexual Tension™.

You’re going to want to preorder this one!

Content Warnings: alcohol consumption, mentions of marijuana use, death of a parent (prior to novel’s start, cancer), car crash,

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

I thought the idea of this book is super cute! Annika Dev is a romantic and CEO of her new app Make Up. Hudson is the CEO and creator of his app called break up which basically the opposite of what Annika wants to accomplish. The two go head to head in a war of apps. If you like some sexual tension and chemistry this book is for you!

Wow I have been loving all of the rom-coms this year. This book definitely delivered. I ate up this hate to love relationship between these two professionals. I loved the strong female character and her STEM background. I will definitely be reading more books by this author. I plan on buying this book for my book club when it gets released. It is the perfect rom com! I give this book five out of five stars. Thank you Net galley and publisher for this advanced copy.

*I received an e-arc from Netgalley, the author and publisher in exchange for an honest review*

Sandhya Menon is now writing adult romance under Lily Menon. Her debut adult contemporary romance was so hard to put down, and I just wanted to keep on reading. Can we say hot, but I’m not talking about the weather?! There’s such a romantic spark between the two main characters, there’s witty banter, and there’s overall fun! Just like all of Menon’s books, I got that warm, fuzzy feeling I needed.

Annika Dev is a hopeless romantic and the CEO of her own app, Make Up, that she hopes will help people to find their happily ever after. She started the company with her best friend, June. Hudson Craft, has an app called Break Up, and it’s known as the “Uber for breakups” and is the exact opposite of what Annika is trying to achieve with her app. Hudson just so happens to move into the office next door to Annika’s. What also complicates things is that they have a past history, as Annika and Hudson had a summer fling in Vegas. The two begin to prank each other and bring on the competition. Things really heat up as they compete for the EPIC investment pitch contest, which Annika is desperate to win as her business is having some financial difficulties. Despite the two clashing constantly, Annika finds herself drawn to Hudson. As she gets to spend time with him, she finds that there may be more to him than his shallow public personality. She begins to wonder if she could have been completely wrong about him.

If you enjoy a good contemporary romance, then this book will be right up your alley. Lily Menon really knows how to write chemistry, and some of the scenes were absolutely smoking! This book is releasing in February, right before Valentine’s Day, so add it to your TBR now.

I've been loving the rom-com books lately, so this this one is right up my alley.
You have your haters to lovers relationships. You throw in enemies since they have conflicting apps they are working on. I loved that they had a history so it wasn't just inst-love. PLUS it also had female empowerment, being good at STEM, and moving on from grief. I need to read more of her.

Lily Menon’s ‘Make Up Break Up’ is a lighthearted enemies-to-lovers story with both humor and heart.

Annika Dev believes in happily-ever-afters. A romantic at heart, she throws all her energy into developing her app, Make Up, which aims to helps couples communicate and stay together. Hudson Craft believes in the power of the bottom line, and the efficiency of technology to help couples do the exact opposite... to separate. His app, Break Up, may be the more successful of the two, but Annika is determined to have her app succeed. Ironically, their attraction to each other is as strong as their rivalry, and as they both compete for the same funding, they’ll find out that sometimes there’s more to life than winning.

I thought that this story was fun and flirty, and I could totally picture it being made into a movie. The banter and rivalry between Annika and Hudson is entertaining, and they have chemistry in spades. And I loved having a more diverse cast of characters that brought their unique experiences to the fore.

The story is told in first person from Annika’s perspective, and I personally think that it would have been stronger if the story would have been dual perspective. I would have loved to have some more insights into Hudson’s mindset, and I think it would have helped to better flesh him out as a character. That being said, the overarching story is still satisfying to read.

If you’re looking for a novel that is low stakes, entertaining, and even a little (comfortingly so) predictable, ‘Make Up Break Up’ is a great bet.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Annika Dev is the proud founder and CEO of Make Up, an app with the motto of "Happily Ever After, Redux". The goal is simple: help couples communicate and save their relationships. Her mortal enemy? Founder and CEO of Break Up, the self-proclaimed "Uber for breakups", and plagiarizer of ideas. AKA Hudson Craft. So who, of course, moves into the same office building as Make Up and celebrates milestones with gongs, throws lavish parties, and basically serves as a slap in the face that Make Up is still struggling to get off the ground? That's right. Hudson Freaking Craft and Break Up...

Sparks once flew between Annika and Hudson, but now all that flies between them are insults, pranks, and bitterness. And with the opportunity of a lifetime just weeks away, an opportunity both desperately want, who will come out still standing with their prides, dignity, and hearts intact?

A brilliant debut into the world of adult romance from Lily Menon (AKA the fantabulous Sandhya Menon of the YA Dimple-verse fame), "Make Up Break Up" is a enemies-to-lovers romance you don't want to miss! Brilliantly funny, side characters to root for, an amazing father-daughter relationship, high stakes, and--of course--a fantastically written will-they-or-won't-they? relationship between Annika and Hudson. Can they both get a happily ever after? What does a happily ever after mean for each of them? All of that, blended with questions about living a happy, meaningful life and examining the measure of success.

Overall, five brilliant shining stars on top of five delicious cupcakes for the first of (hopefully!) many of Lily Menon's rom-coms!

This is such a sweet romance between two rivals CEOs with serious chemistry. Annika is the founder of Make Up, an app that she believes can save floundering relationships, but everywhere she turns she is confronted with her rival and one time hookup, Hudson the founder of Break Up, Make Up's antithesis. I loved how the relationship built over time and how both characters were able to stay true to themselves.

I really loved how the technology in the book was described. Even if it isn't real, or even particularly realistic, all the characters talk about the technology in a very realistic way which helps draw me into the story.

I received a copy of this ARC from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.