Nami has put her heart and soul into the tech company she created, Toggle. But when selling Toggle seems to be the only viable option Nami does not expect her old high school nemesis to be at the bargaining table. Jae prides himself on being able to close a deal. No matter what happens to a company or its employees, Jae gets the job done. When he and Nami go head to head again they can’t help but ignite each other’s fire once again. Nami is determined not to sell to Jae’s company but can’t ignore the passion between them. Will she let her employees down or be able to save her company and keep her relationship with Jae?

This is one of the best office romances I have read! There is a lot of depth to these characters and it was so enjoyable to see them both be free and also vulnerable in each other’s company. Jae and Nami not only discuss business but familial expectations and slowly discover what they really want out of life. This was such a fun and enjoyable read, I highly recommend it!

This was a really enjoyable contemporary romance! I loved the witty dialogue, the even pacing, and the rivals to lovers romance. Nami is a great protagonist!

Such a great enemies to lovers romance!
I was instantly addicted to this book and could not put it down.
Everything from the delicious tension that they try to ignore, to the way they couldn't escape each other due to familial ties.
I also enjoyed the mother daughter aspect of this. I love those kinds of stories.
I would love to post about this book especially since it is a BIPOC author, but am currently abstaining from posting due to my St. Martins Press boycott.
The three demands are clear and simple.
St. Martins Press, do better.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

The Takeover was well written. The characters were relatable and funny! The first 25% of the book was hard to get through! As the story progressed it was an easy and quick read.

The Takeover was absolutely fantastic. I loved the hate flirting and the banter, and it was all around just a hilarious good time!

As Nami turns 30, she is feeling the pressure of her own expectations. There is aversion of herself she thought she'd be by now. And then to make matters worse, her high school nemesis Jae is back in her life. Jae now works at a company that is poised to buy out the one Nami leads and loves. Very quickly, they fall back into their own ways, but then their relationship goes in a different direction - as you might infer given this is a romance. This one took me a minute to get into, but once it got me, I was hooked! What I liked is the "extras" of humor, of family dynamics/culture, and of two humans just trying to figure out what they wanted to be. This was a delight of a romance read to start off 2024! Thanks to NetGalley for the early look at this January 2024 release!

DNF. I really liked the premise but the writing did not work for me at all. It wouldn't be fair to the book if I finished reading and gave it a low rating.

What a way to start off 2024 in books.

The Takeover by Cara Tanamachi

Gives major childhood rivals to lovers, with two POC MCs, and hilarious banter.

Both characters are lovable with their bag of issues. (As the oldest I feel for them both in different ways)

My favorite part?

Was it the banter? The sexual tension? the funny family and friends?

No! It was the Toggle Internal Chat

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Nami is running Toggle, a tech company she founded a few years ago, but she feels unsuccessful compared to her childhood nemesis, Jae, who she still contends unfairly beat her out for valedictorian. So Nami is devastated when her company seems about to be taken over by industry goliath Rainforest (a none-too-subtle dig at Amazon) – and the Rainforest takeover consultant is none other than Jae himself. Cue the sparks! Although I really enjoyed this fun read, I found Nami a little too childish in how hung up she was on her high school rivalry, and therefore hard to root for.

I honestly really loved this book!

Enemies to lovers is one of my MOST favorite tropes and I feel so many people can easily get it wrong by making one or both parties have no redeeming qualities. The just POOF go from enemies to lovers in a heart beat because of the "passion of hate" and it never feels genuine. This book, THIS BOOK, did it so well. Build so many pieces as a foundation to let us see the natural progression due to misunderstandings in their teenage years.
I enjoyed it SO much and found both of the main characters adorable.

Highly recommend!

This has rivals to lovers, hate-love, great banter, and a diverse cast. The banter and rivalry in this was so good. The romance was sweet, and I liked how it came about. I found that Rainforest (REALLY??? fictional knock off Amazon?) is the company and that was very funny to me. There's good and evil moments in relation to cooperation and employee treatment, it was borderline harassment. I thought the ending was okay, but it did feel a bit unrealistic just on the quickness Jae turned around and the other perfect ending for the company. The good thing is this is a romance, and anything is possible. .

In The Takeover by Cara Tanamachi, the narrative unfolds around Nami's 30th birthday, marking a series of unexpected turns in her life. Facing a broken engagement, impending financial troubles for her tech company, and grappling with jealousy over her sister's wedding, Nami's birthday wish for a soulmate results in the arrival of her high school nemesis, Jae Lee. Tanamachi skillfully crafts a vibrant office setting filled with diverse and relatable characters, bringing humor, camaraderie, and a palpable enemies-to-lovers romance. The story navigates the cutthroat corporate world, incorporating witty commentary on real-life giants like Amazon. The chemistry between Nami and Jae, coupled with themes of competition and personal growth, propels the narrative beyond a typical romance, providing depth and substance. Despite some readers finding aspects of the ending slightly unrealistic, The Takeover remains a compelling read, blending workplace dynamics, diverse characters, and a heartfelt love story that captivates and leaves a lasting impression.

I was really looking forward to this book because I loved the authors' first book about the FMC's older sister. But this one unfortunately hit me with two of my least favourtie tropes, enemies to loves and workplace romances.

While Nami and Jae's banter was good sometimes I found it a little to aggressive, which is the reason that enemies to lovers isn't a favourite trope of mine. It was a dual first-person perspective so that did help.

3 stars
3 spice

I thoroughly enjoyed Tanamachi’s 2023 book, The Second You’re Single, so I was excited for her latest, 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫. I think I enjoyed it more than The Second You’re Single! It was a fun enemies to lovers story. I found Nami and Jae’s competitiveness super entertaining and Tanamachi’s writing kept me engaged throughout. I definitely recommend you check it out if you enjoy romcoms!

This was a quick read enemies to lovers romance. I liked the idea of a female tech industry owner taking on two rich business owners giants. Jae and Nami were adversaries, competing against each other for everything in high school. When an opportunity presents itself to re-kindle that competition as adults, Jae can’t resist. Nami is desperately trying to hold onto her company Toggle, and Jae is trying to take it over. As they battle in business, things start heating up outside the board room, but when Nami finds out what Jae is hiding, all might be lost. I took a star off because the chemistry between the two was not super believable for me, I wanted more push pull from them. I received an ARC, and this is my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me this arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was another book that I just did not mesh with. I do love a good contemporary enemies-to-lovers romance. But these characters are very immature. Our FMC is probably the most redeemable, I love her passion in her work. I cannot fathom actually hating someone so much from high school. That may just be my experience and people really do have these grudges, but it seems so petty and useless. Speaking of grudges, I absolutely hated the MMC. I literally do not know why we have someone so truly unlikable as a love interest. He's reads so narcissistic and his pov genuinely made me need to skip so many pages just to get through.

I think they may have just not been for me, and I'm sure there is an audience out there.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin for the ARC this was such a cute fun. It was very predictable but i always love a good rival to lover story.

First of all, thank you to the author and the publisher for giving me this ARC! I was interested in this premise because I love a good workplace/rivals romance, but unfortunately I had some issues with the execution.
To start, there were some things that I enjoyed! The representation was great, and I really enjoyed meeting the side characters and seeing how important they were to the main character.
Overall, I think that this book has a lot of promise, but I struggled quite a bit with the main tenets of the story. I had a hard time understanding or feeling invested in the reason for their rivalry. Because they were two grown adults, the fact that everything tied back to their high school relationship made it feel unrealistic. Personally, I think it would make a lot more sense for the story to be set in college and involve the characters creating two different start ups (or something like that). The banter, and dialogue in general, also felt very lackluster and forced and made them both seem petty and childish.
Unfortunately, I struggled with finishing this book, but I think the premise has promise and I will be interested to see what the author does in the future.

The book was predictable. 2 people stuck in high school mentality and can't seem to get over it. She has a fabulous fun workplace with financial problems. He works for a corporate raider. So they are on opposite sides of the table yet attracted to each other. The storyline was predictable but a fun read.

This book was so fun! A "rivals to friends to lovers", which for me can be a hit or miss, this was definitely a fun story. I appreciated the spice, and would absolutely recommend this to those who also enjoy enemies to lovers workplace romcoms!