Another fun story! This is my second book by Cara Tanamachi and I am now a fan. The story is a good balance of humor and heart. I really enjoyed the arch-enemies aspect of the story. Both Jae and Nami are such strong characters. I loved their banter and how their romance evolved through the book. And I absolutely loved the ending! I will definitely look for more by this author in the future! I received an advance copy from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

This was such a cute and lovely read! I loved the two main characters and their banters! Jae’s character was so dreamy.
I only wish more character development on each of their family because they clearly had issues. Besides that, the book was pretty much great!
I appreciate the ARC!

This was a fun quick read. I fully submerged into this story line and didn’t come up for breath until the last page. Actually, I received this in audiobook format and I am grateful because the narration was great and I was able to listen to it in one day. There is enemies to lovers, quick witty banter, and humorous cultural references that I so enjoy about rom coms. I especially loved the ramen scene. This is a definite must read if you like fun and light.

thank you Netgalley for the advanced copies.

This was a light, cute, fun, fade-to-black rom-com. At times both Jae and Nami could be a bit too caricature-ish, but overall it was a really sweet story that felt semi-relatable.

This was a super cute and fun romantic read, perfect for fans of The Hating Game! I enjoyed the characters and the banter. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Cara Tanamachi is back with THE TAKEOVER where childhood academic rivals meet once again in an ultimate showdown where it's homegrown tech startup versus a corporate giant.

Nani makes a forlorn wish on her 30th birthday: I want a soulmate. What she gets instead is her high school nemesis, Jae. But this time, he's not after the state tennis title or Valedictorian, he's after Nani's business, and maybe, possibly her heart, too?

Oh my if you like to laugh as well as the hate to love scenario please please pick up this book and give it a read. I laughed so hard at the Ramen #9 challenge between two stubborn and overly competitive people. The Takeover was a fun, enemies-to-lovers romance with relatable, likable characters. It was well written, the storyline was believable (if a bit exaggerated) and there was witty banter that kept me smiling and laughing, Tanamachi crafts awesome characters that are culturally diverse which she artfully blends into a fun and welcoming office setting. A place you wish you could work! Full of pranks, funny, loving characters, and the occasional nerve-wracking moments when corporate take-overs are looming. Just a fun and easy read you will find it hard to put down.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity.

lighthearted medium-paced
Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75

This was fine, but not really great. While the author tried to tackle a lot of topics, the book ended up being more surface level. I wish she'd focused more deeply on a few elements/story points instead of trying to fit in as many things as possible.

I specifically really struggled with these things:

I hated the side plot with the stolen chair. It was so distracting and honestly felt like it took away from the work of the (presumably) very talented staff.
Also did not love the whole "this job is my family" thing. Also reducing her founding parter to a "girl boss" without any further explanation of how she was so good at her job or what she worked on.
The obvious but terrible replacement names for Amazon, Meta, etc.
The dialogue and writing was cringy in a lot of places.

That said, it was somewhat enjoyable. I wish the author had spent more time developing these parts in particular:
The mother-daughter relationship theme throughout the book. We got glimpses of it, but I think it could've been MUCH stronger and more prominent.
The duo-tennis scene was funny — seeing Nami and Jae work together for the first time. But Dell ruined everything. I know every book needs a villain but I don't like when they're obviously terrible and have no redeeming qualities.

I received an e-galley of The Takeover by Cara Tanamachi from St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review.

What I liked:
- high school enemies to adult enemies to lovers
- the banter and chemistry between Nami and Jae
- the hilarious start to each chapter where we read what's happening on the Toggle Internal Chat - the Wegner chair kidnapping

I truly enjoyed this contemporary romance - the first I truly enjoyed in a really long time.

I love a good enemies-to-lovers romance, and I’ve surprisingly been enjoying a lot of workplace romances recently. With The Takeover being an enemies-to-lovers focused on the main character’s company, I thought this was going to be the perfect book for me!

It… was not.

To begin with, even though I enjoyed the parts of this book that were in the love interest, Jae’s, point of view, I didn’t enjoy Nami’s side to the story. Our main character isn’t happy with her life and doesn’t understand why everything is ending up the way it is, but it’s very easy to tell even from the beginning that all of her misfortunes are her fault.

She has no friends? That’s because she cut them out of her life!

Her company is going under? Maybe she should stop focusing on so many free vacation days and breakfasts. I understand that Nami’s goal is to have a “good” company that takes care of its employees, but sometimes reality has to set in. She just simply can’t afford some of the decisions she’s making.

I also found the ending to be incredibly unrealistic, even though I kind of loved the underlying theme. I won’t say what exactly happens so as to not give spoilers, but it was the strangest blend of deus ex machina and found family that I couldn’t help but be appalled that it was happening… and also kind of grateful.

However, I will say that there were aspects of this book I enjoyed. The relationship between Jae and Nami was very good, and I really enjoyed seeing their goofing around. I also really enjoyed the saga of the kidnapped chair as a background event throughout the book.

I just cannot get over how goofy the ending was.

This was a cute rom-com. I especially loved their banter back and forth and also when they went to eat soup. Their first kiss gave me butterflies and it was fun to see them go from enemies to lovers.

There were some elements that drug on and others that seemed to move too quickly and the ending had me a bit frustrated. But overall a cute, quick read.

Thank you to St Martins Press & NetGalley for an ARC of this book, in exchange for my honest opinion.

I throughly enjoyed this book, and all the banter between Jae And Nami, and all the colleagues. Sometimes books that are so heavily coded with the corporate world can be confusing to read, but this one was executed perfectly. I’m always a fan of enemies to lovers, but with the added layer of enemies since high school it really spiced things up. I also really liked how each chapter started off with notes from the employees internal software chats, they were absolutely hilarious. The way the author submersed Japanese and Korean culture into the story was fun to read and learn about. If you’re looking for an engaging, funny, and sweet romance definitely pick this one up!

On Nami’s 30th birthday she blows out the candles and wishes for her soulmate. But instead the universe delivers her hate mate, Jae. Her archnemesis since high school, they’ve been at odds and competing with each other for years. Although she hasn’t seen him in a decade he shows up at her company Toggle, to announce the purchase of it to his evil company Rainforest. (It took me a while to get the joke behind his companies name, but then I couldn’t stop laughing).

What ensues is a battle between the two as Jae wants to acquire her company, and Nami doesn’t want to see her baby sold to his big bad company. But as they spend more time together they realize the hate they were feeling towards each other is starting to feel like love. Will there be a happily ever after for them? And what will happen to Nami’s company?

This is an excellent enemies to lovers story. I really enjoyed this take on a workplace romance. If you are a fan of The Hating Game, this book will be for you, though I do think I enjoyed this one more!

I really enjoyed the different POV chapters, and love how Jae and Nami had very different tones for their chapters which was great. I also really enjoyed the complexity of their relationships with their families, and how that was used throughout the story.

One flaw that often happens in enemy to lovers stories for me is often we don’t get to see them together until the third act of the book. I was happy to see that this book doesn’t make you wait until the final act for them to get together.

All the little nods to real world companies made me giggle and I really loved the little snippets of the company chat at the start of each chapter.

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and the author Cara Tanamachi for providing me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press, and RB Media for the ARC and audioARC of this!

What a cute enemies-to-lovers rom-com. The characters had great chemistry, lots of history together, and I loved their families being like "yeah that person you liked forever" and them being like "liked? no that was my rival" completely obliviously.

The Takeover by Cara Tanamachi was a fun enemies-to-lovers romance between Nami and Jae. They were high school rivals who met again when Jae's company, Rainforest, wanted to acquire Nami's tech start-up company. Nami's company is like a second family, and she's determined to revive it without Jae's help. The chemistry between Nami and Jae was fun to read.

I received an ARC of this book by the publisher via Netgalley in an exchange for an honest review.

The Takeover is a rivals to lovers romance that was funny and cute! I loved the witty between Nami and Jae! It was definitely my favorite part of the book. The novel kept my interest all of the way through to the end. The story is more romantic than it is sexy. I'd give it a 3 out of 5 on the sexy scale. There are moments where the novel is silly and unrealistic (like eating an entire bowl of Carolina Reaper/scorpion pepper ramen when you never eat spicy food out of sheer willpower and hatred for your rival). But I don't necessarily expect realism when I read a romance novel. The characters were well developed and I enjoyed that neither of them were perfect.

I really enjoyed reading The Takeover and give it a 4.5 out of 5 stars rounded down!

If you are a fan of enemies to lovers tropes, you will probably like this one. Overall, the story and writing are good. I couldn't give it more than 3 stars for some very specific reasons.

For most of the book the male lead is a jerk. He is not likable and not someone I would want to root for. He continues to call the female lead by a nickname she hates even when they are slipping out of the "enemies" stage. I don't fully understand why she falls for him besides the fact he is supposed to be hot and that is a pet peeve of mine. Grown women falling for someone (who she calls Satan) who is awful just because they are physically attracted to them. Yes, I get the whole bad boy thing but this is an intelligent grown woman that owns her own company. She should be out of that stage by now.

In further, I don't get what she sees in Jae. When she talks about not liking him in high school partially due to his privilege, he says he couldn't speak English in 5 and she immediately feels sorry for him and thinks she saw him wrong. The fact that he didn't speak English in kindergarten does not trump the fact that he was financially stable and at an advantage to her. Summer school when she had to work, private tutors for tennis and the SAT, and college paid for are clear examples of privilege regardless if he had one rough year when he was five years old.

As far as Nami goes, she is mostly likable but I still don't know how someone that would be a strict hall monitor and sees things as black and white would be so wishy-washy in her business. She was all about her people which is great but didn't really translate to how the character was written in her formative years. Speaking of, she was way too obsessed with high school. Everyone should move on from high school the day they graduate.

Lastly, in 2023 there is no way a person like Dell gets to continue at that job with his behavior in an environment that does not promote or condone it. He was thrown in for conflict but the reason for his presence probably should have been explained differently.

I enjoyed the ending even though there is no part of me that believes insanely wealthy young people would still continue to work. (Hello, content creators!) As I said at the beginning of the review, if you like this trope, this is a solid enemies to lovers read for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/St. Martin's Griffin for the ARC.

The Takeover is a sweet, well written enemies to lovers romance. Nami and Jae were competitors in high school, and reconnect 12 years later when he is leading a takeover of her tech start up. Jae is shown as the big bad wolf working for :"Rainforest" (ha), and Nami, despite being a hard core lawyer and programmer, seems a little overly invested in her employees and her workplace culture. There are some very fun side stories about office pranks and other fun. I also enjoyed the members of Nami and Jae's family, and learned there is another book already about Nami's sister. I am hoping for a prequel about Jae's brothers!

She uses her one and only birthday wish to wish for a soulmate and immediately regrets it! This was a quick and easy romantic read! I love Cara’s books she never disappoints! Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest feedback!

Fairly predictable rom com but it was still a gooFairly predictable rom com but it was still a good read that I enjoyed it. It was also a quick read.d read that I enjoyed it. It was also a quick read.