Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC. I enjoyed the narrators but the story was too immature for my liking. People actually act like that? No thanks.

Read if you like:
🌏 Asian American Characters
📦 not a fan of Amazon Company
🥵 Spicy Food Challenges
😡 Enemies to Lovers
📥 Workplace Romances

Overall, this is a solid romance that features high school enemies that are brought back together through business when one wants to facilitate the purchase of the other’s business in a somewhat hostile takeover, hence the title 😉

Jae is the privileged executive of rainforest (Amazon vibes) who is wanting to buy up Nami’s company to chew it up for pieces and spit it out after the deal is solidified since competing with Nami is something that has always brought him joy and currently he is bored and could use with her challenging him to bring a spark back for him.

Nami is definitely blindsided by this even though she has known their small company has been struggling and needs a solution but never thought it would be Jae or selling out to the corporate evil that doesn’t align with her business ethics and values.

This creates quite the tension for the enemies to lovers combined with their high school rivalry and bad blood.

This book, obviously features some miscommunication that leads to the third act break up which I think was something you’d see coming with this plot.

All in all, this is a solid romance that follows the traditional enemies to lovers with miscommunication tropes formulas and will be enjoyable to many.

Thanks so much to the publisher for my ARac in exchange for my honest review!

I have chosen to withhold my review of The Takeover by Cara Tanamachi in accordance with the marketing boycott of reviewing and platforming titles published under St. Martin’s Press and associated imprints. As a company, St. Martin’s Press has yet to meaningfully acknowledge and address the harm caused by a marketing employee who perpetuated Islamophobic sentiments against those of Palestinian descent specifically, and has a documented history of discriminating against readers of Arab heritage in general. As a reader, I refuse to participate, even passively, in perpetuating harm against my fellow readers in an activity all should be able to enjoy.

Once action is taken by St. Martin’s Press as a company to address the harm caused and how they will be dedicated to a decisive plan of action to address needs for diversity, equity and inclusion, I will upload my review of The Takeover by Cara Tanamachi.

"The Takeover" was not only a fun romance story, the two main characters also worked to find themselves. Nami and Jae Lee had great rivals' chemistry and banter on the page! I also enjoyed reading about both of their separate families throughout the book and in the little moments with them. I found myself rooting for Nami and Jae Lee all the way through. I couldn't put this book down! Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own!

I thoroughly enjoyed The Second You're Single and fully expected to enjoy this one and it did meet my expectations. Weirdly, I LOVED Sora in "Single" and found myself changing my mind in this one. And I DIDN'T love Nami and again, found myself changing my mind in this one. The relationship between Jae and Nami is most definitely more madcap than can be believed but I tend to suspend disbelief when reading any kind of romance since, well, real life rarely meets the high expectations. I, personally, found some of the "challenges" they put themselves through a little crazy but hey, I wasn't there lol. All in all, I had some laughs and I had some swoons and have no issues reading this author again and again.

In solidarity with the SMP Boycott I will be withholding my review for this title (which I was given prior to the boycott) until SMP acts on the following:

1. Address and denounce the Islamophobic and racist remarks from their employee.
2. Offer tangible steps for how they are going to mitigate the harm this employee caused.
3. Address how, moving forward, they will support and protect their Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian influencers, authors and readers, in addition to supporting their BIPOC influencers, authors, and readers.

This is not a reflection of the author personally, nor is it a call to boycott buying this particular book. And this star rating is a reflection of how much I enjoyed the book.

Unfortunately due to the current SMP boycott, I will not post my review until the concerns are addressed..

This was a really fun read— a rom com that is smart, funny and touching. It features Nami and Jae who were rivals in high school who become ensnared in a business takeover years later. I started reading this on a long airplane ride and the hours just flew by. This is a great read and I hope the authors writes a million more books! Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the chance to read and provide feedback.

I'd like to thank Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

All I'm saying is if you want a girl to notice you, I would not recommend attempting to take over her company. Seriously though, this was such a fun rom-com. Jae and Namy had such a great love/hate relationship with a long standing feud that was fun to witness. I love a good enemies to friends trope and this was just light, cute and fun.

This was a fun, enjoyable, and quick listen! If you love a workplace romance, enemies to lovers, and women in STEM/entrepreneur representation you will enjoy this book. As a romance it took almost 35% of the novel to get to any real interaction between our two main characters, so I kept feeling like I was waiting for things to get going. Once they did I really enjoyed the story!

The Takeover is a fun and enjoyable enemies' to lovers romance. It did take me a couple of chapters to get into it but once I was into it I couldn't put it down! Nami and Jae have great chemistry as high school rivals turned workplace rivals. I loved the glimpses into the past. I loved their silly competitions. I loved the full cast of characters to save the day. I didn't love the "world" so much. Toggle, Rainforest, and Joust were all poor masks for existing companies in the real world. I would have liked a little more distance from reality there.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/St. Martin’s Griffin for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a good read - I really enjoyed this book. I'm so glad that I got the chance to read it early and will definitely be recommending it to multiple people who enjoy these types of novels. I enjoyed the characters and especially enjoyed the writing by this author. I'm excited to see what the author comes out with next as I'll definitely be reading it! Thank you to the publisher for my early copy of this book!

Important things you need to know about the book:

Pace: The pace of The Takeover is fast.

POV: The Takeover is told from Nami and Jae’s 1st person POV.

Trigger/Content Warning: The Takeover has trigger and content warnings. If any of these triggers you, I suggest not reading the book. They are:

Death of a parent (mentioned)
Bullying (adult and workplace)
Grief
Sexual Content: There is moderate sexual content in The Takeover.

Language: There is moderate swearing in The Takeover. There is also language used that could be offensive to some people.

Setting: The Takeover is set in Chicago.

Plot Synopsis (as spoiler-free as I can get):

Nami is dreading her 30th birthday. Her life hasn’t gone the way that she planned. Her company, a tech company that she poured her blood, sweat, and tears into, is about to lose funding. Her ex-fiance has moved on quickly, getting engaged almost immediately after the breakup. And her sister, well, her sister, is planning her wedding to the man of her dreams. Nami wonders where she went wrong. So, on the night of her 30th birthday party, Nami makes a birthday wish for a soulmate.

Instead of the soulmate she wants, Nami renews a rivalry with her childhood nemesis, Jae Lee. She hadn’t seen Jae since high school, but he was the same annoying jerk who had one-upped her at everything. Now, he is part of the acquisitions company looking to buy her company. Desperate to save her company, Nami finds herself going head-to-head with Jae. No one is more surprised than Nami when their hatred turns to passion. And just when she dares to let herself believe that she could have love, it is smashed, leaving her heartbroken. It is up to Jae to show Nami that she is his forever. Can Jae do that? Can he win Nami over and have their happily ever after? Or will Jae’s actions (or inactions) hinder that?

Characters:

The main characters in The Takeover are Nami and Jae. I found them to be well-written, well-fleshed-out characters. Their interactions had me laughing out loud while reading. Their enemies-to-lovers trope was interesting, and I liked how much history Nami and Jae had together. The sparks were apparent from the beginning, and as I read the book, I couldn’t wait to see those sparks ignite.

I did go into The Takeover with a preconceived notion about Nami. In The Second Your Single, she is portrayed as a Bridezilla with control issues. It wasn’t until the end of the book, when Sora needed her, that I saw who she was. So, I was a little shocked by how much I initially liked her.

I wasn’t a massive fan of Jae. Honestly, he came across as super arrogant. I wouldn’t say I liked how he got enjoyment over taking over Nami’s company. But then he started hanging out with Nami and became more human (if that makes sense).

I loved the secondary characters in this book. They were excellent, and they had Nami’s back. There was an amusing secondary storyline involving Del (who was a dink), his costly office chair, and a chair napping by someone on staff. It was hilarious, and I loved how it ended (and everyone in the company got involved). The lesson learned from this: don’t piss off your employees because they will get you back.

My review:

As I stated above, I went into reading The Takeover gingerly. I remembered Nami from the previous book and was very interested in how the author would portray her. It took me about a chapter before it registered that this wasn’t the Bridezilla from The Second Your Single. I decided to drop anything I felt about Nami then and went into this book, determined not to hold her to the first impression I had of her. I am glad I did because Nami in this book was excellent.

The main storyline follows Nami and Jae as they battle it out over the acquisition of her company. I enjoyed the witty and often snappy dialogue between Nami and Jae. But I also liked the personal relationships that Nami had. She cared for her employees, and if that meant dipping into her savings to pay for Breakfast Monday to make them happy, she did it. Her reaction to Jae was what I thought it would be (big rival from high school). I was surprised, though, when she started having feelings for him. I shouldn’t have been because this is a romance, but I was.

The romance angle of the story was interesting. Like I said above, I was surprised at and by it. Mainly because Nami was so nasty to Jae and vice versa. But hate is often a cover for love, and that was the case here. I liked the gradual build-up in their relationship (it wasn’t sudden or a surprise). The same goes for when they started their sexual relationship. It wasn’t a surprise (I knew it was coming). I wasn’t a massive fan of the sex scenes. It didn’t do it for me, which is the only complaint I had for this book.

The end of The Takeover was interesting. I loved how the author resolved Nami’s company issues. It was something I should have seen coming (the reason was mentioned a few times), and it delighted me! I also liked the resolution to Nami and Jae’s relationship. I can’t say anything except they did get their HEA.

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin’s Griffin, NetGalley, and Cara Tanamachi for allowing me to read and review this ARC of The Takeover. All opinions stated in this review are mine.

Very cute, but too predictable even for a genre that is destined to be predictable.
The writing style is tight and the characters are interesting. But, yes... just a bit too cutesy for me. This review says more about me than the book so your milage will probably differ!

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. I predict many will enjoy it.

3.5 stars - A charming enemies to lovers story! The level of genuine hatred that Nami has for Jae almost turned me off the story and made it hard to like him through the first half of the book, but I'm glad I pressed on.

The rivalry started in school, but now their job paths have crossed and they are forced by family to get to know one another again without any prejudices.

Nami's co-workers and the entire work environment made my nerd-heart so happy, and I especially loved all of the Star Trek references throughout the story as well.

Nami just turn 30 and instead of celebrating she’s reminded her life isn’t what she planned. Her pride and joy, the tech company she’s helped fund, is about to lose funding.

Rather than get her birthday wish, the universe delivers her Jae, her high school nemesis. Jae and her competed for everything, and he won. Now, Jae works for a big tech company known for gutting businesses, and they’ve offered to buy Nami’s company.

When their rivalry picks right back up from where it was left a decade ago, it seems that it might have ignited a different kind of passion.

This was the rom-com I needed in my life! As a tech worker, I love reading about books set in tech, and this one was so much fun!

The rivals to lover’s trope is one of my favorites when done well, and in this case it was done fantastically! What made it work for me was all the back story, so we really had an idea how deep the rivalry between these two characters went. I find that often the back story is skipped over, and the reader is just expected to understand that the characters are rivals. In this case we knew that they were rivals going all the way back to high school and they had competed for valedictorian.

Reading rom-coms in dual point of view is my favorite way to experience them, so I was excited for this. Getting the story from both Jae and Nami’s point of view was wonderful and made for such a well-rounded book! I find that when we only get the women’s point of view it feels like something is missing for me. I don’t need a ton of male input in my books, but a little, just so I know what they’re experiencing as well, really helps balance a story out for me.

The banter between Nami and Jae was everything, and their chemistry just flew off the page, it was amazing and so well done. I loved the antics and all the shenanigans that they got up to. I could totally see myself getting into a spicy ramen eating contest and then paying for it days after, ha!

The supporting characters were also well done and added immensely to the story. Working in an office environment can be draining, so it was nice to see the culture that existed in Nami’s company, it helped make me understand why she was fighting so hard to save it. I can only wish that someday I own an expensive desk chair!

This book was everything I look for in a rom-com and fully of nerdy vibes, I hope you check it out.

This review will be featured on my blog, speedreadstagram.com on publication day.

Thank you so much to St. Martins Press, @stmartinspress and Netgalley @netgalley for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Tried to give this a really fair shake, but the ebook version has no quotation marks, making it incredible difficult to read, and the audiobook was also difficult to follow. I'll try this one again when it's out in print! I really do love the premise!

This book was definitely cute and I enjoyed the banter between the two characters so much!! Nami definitely got under my skin here and there, but I know that her intentions were genuine and she truly wanted the best. She’s a rule follower, but she loves fiercely and she’s bold and blunt and I love that.

Jae grew a lot over the course of this book, and I loved seeing that growth.

It definitely kept me reading, wanting to know what happened to the characters, I finished it in two sittings.

Fun book. Dragged a little here and there, but fit the genre. Liked the chemistry between our two main characters, but wish there was a little more fleshing out of the side characters. Wish there was a little more depth to the takeover plot, but overall, was an enjoyable, light-hearted read.

I absolutely loved this book!!! It took me 6 days to read, and I couldn't put it down. I loved the banter between Jae and Nami. They're enemy's turned lovers. Nami is co-owner of Toggle, a little tech company, and they're about to go public, or so she thinks. Nami is the "perfect" girl. She did well in school, had lots of extra curriculars, went to college, got engaged... and then her fiancé cheated on her, so Toggle is her life! On her 30th birthday, her mom throws her a "surprise" party, when Nami looks around all she sees is family, and she starts doubting if the girl who never got asked to prom really has any friends.

Jae works for Rainforest, and he's always liked Nami, but she's always treated him poorly... every day in high school, she gave him a tardy slip, as she was a hall monitor. They are both uber competitive... and Jae beats Nami for valedictorian by 0.25 points. Now he's trying to acquire Toggle for Rainforst.

This story is hilarious, with witty banter, a little bit of sex (not graphic at all, maybe one scene is described). Now I want to go see what else she's written and dive in!