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!

DNF 5%

This is one I may come back to at a later date, but I’m not really prepared to read contemporaries that deal with the pandemic because that’s just a reality too close for comfort. I’m also realizing just how much the high school stuff is playing a part, despite Nami having just turned 30, and as someone in their 30s I find it hard to believe high school experiences would still have that much influence if I haven’t stayed in contact over the last ~15 years. Just overall hitting me poorly and making it hard to get invested in the book.

Nami Reid and Jae Lee are enemies from high school who haven’t seen each other in years, but when Jae’s company is trying to buy Nami’s, the old high school rivalry comes back full force.

I was in need of a really good romance and I found it in this book. I have been in a romance slump when it comes to books, but this enemies to lovers romance check all of the boxes for me. The characters were so fun and easy to get to know and I was immediately invested in their story. The romance was perfectly paced, in my opinion, which made this book impossible to put down. I really loved the interactions between the two characters and how their passion, whether hate or love, ignited the constant competition between the two of them. I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait until I can find another romance that pulls me in as much as this did.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book!

Thank you Netgallery for the ARC!! This book was such a short and cute read that had enemies to lovers reunited, workplace romance and a HEA!

The drama in this one was just too much for me. I get why she didn't like him at first, but it quickly moved to more and I just didn't feel the chemistry between them. I did like that the FMC had a company and would do anything for her employees when times got tough. She was very caring.

This book checks so many boxes such as amazing writing, fun plot, women in STEM, nerdy jokes, witty banter, and so much representation! I read this book in less than a day and didn’t want to put it down. The two main characters had so many witty interactions that didn’t come off as cheesy or forced. I loved that throughout the book they learned more about their current and past selves but that didn’t change their wit or chemistry. It built their relationship and they were still able to challenge each other. Their families were great additions along with all the coworkers at Toggle. I loved the memos at the start of each chapter and the chair mystery always made me smile. This book is amazing and I have to read more from this author now! 5⭐️, 1.5🌶 (they have sex but it really isn’t descriptive)

Great for readers who are looking for an enemies-to-lovers romcom. Jae and Nami are perfect together. The tennis match making them play on the same side was such a clever way to make them realize they could work well together. The spicy bowl eating scene was also iconic! I also loved all the family dynamics at play, especially how Nami’s relationship with her mom, grandma and sister were described. That was very realistically and thoughtfully conveyed. The Wagner chair shenanigans were also hilarious. Highly recommend.

Well, I’m a big fan of enemies to lovers rom coms and this book didn’t dissapoint! Great chemistry between the two MC’s . The banter was perfect, a perfect blend of cutting bon mots and humor.

An enjoyable ride from start to finish! I will definitely be reading more titles from the author.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for providing me with an eARC of this book to read and review.

I received an ARC of this book and it was my first read by the author. I thoroughly enjoyed the enemies to lovers banter, the competitiveness, the adorable and nerdy vibe in the workplace (whiteboard polls and chair thiefs!). But most of all, I loved the way that Jae Lee fell for Namby, the family interactions, and the laugh out loud Nami-ness of the whole thing! Plus the end was adorable x3! Loved it!

Contemporary romance is always a hit or miss with me. It’s hard finding one that I really like and that keeps me reading. Sadly this wasn’t one of them.

I liked the FMC a lot, she's like an inspiration for women in tech and in business. The MMC.. kinda pissed me off. His whole reason to acquire the FMC's startup (which is the premise of this story) was exactly like billionaires who don't give a fuck about others. He fixed it in the end, yeah, but his epiphany came almost too late 🤷🏻‍♀️ he reclaimed his moral compass, yeah, but it wasn't exactly a character growth, I feel that he would've gone through with it all if the FMC hadn't figured out his scheme accidentally.

-- got an advanced copy from Netgalley

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc!
I put off ready this for while, for some reason! I wish I wouldn’t have! This book was really good! The enemies to lovers was a slow build and wasn’t some crazy change all the sudden. The storyline was great! Having the business aspect of it had depth instead of this being all romance. It kept a great balance, was fast paced and I was invested to see how it turned out! Highly recommend!

The Takeover was such a fun romance.

It was a rivals to lovers romance in the tech industry.

Nami was a passionate boss, but her company was in trouble and was about to be bought out. And her old high school rival who beat her out of valedictorian by less than .25 on his GPA, Jae Lee, was the evil wolf involved in that buy out.

I loved that Nami and Jae Lee grew up together and made everything into a competition because neither one of them backed down from challenges. It was fun and very intriguing to watch two passionate people hate/love each other.

The Takeover also had a fun cast of side characters, a very hilarious chair stealing saga, and families full of loving parents who just can’t help but interfere.

This romcom was so much fun.

Side note: while both characters ingested some extremely spicy ramen at one point, the rest of book wasn’t what I would consider spicy.

I enjoyed this romcom and definitely recommend it.

I'll admit that I didn't get super swept up in this story. I think they might have hated each other a bit too much at first and that made it harder for me to feel the pull for them to get together. But, they were really sweet once they were together and I enjoyed their character arcs. I also really appreciated the development of their family relationships throughout the story, and the bits of Asian heritage sprinkled throughout, from Jae's dad's Korean upbringing to Nami's grandmother's time in a Japanese internment camp during WWII. In the end, I enjoyed it and had a good time reading it.