I really enjoyed reading this book. it has witty dialogue, is easy to read, and is evenly paced with a good rivals-to-lovers romance. Nami the fmc has a great tech company that is in financial trouble, Jae the mmc is part of a huge corporation named Rainforest that buys smaller companies and changes them. The two were high school rivals and still have some grudges against each other, when Jae comes to take over her company, the two connect despite Nami not wanting to have her company taken over by Rainforest.

The banter and rivalry in this was so good. The romance was sweet, and I liked how it came about. I realized near the end of the book that Rainforest is the Amazon equivalent in this fictional world, and that was very funny to me. There's good and evil themes in relation to cooperation and employee treatment. I thought the ending was good, 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. Overall a good, diverse and fun romance with humor, heart, takeovers and family drama.

Read if you like:
- Rivals to lovers
- Tech and workplace shenanigans
- Diverse characters
- High school nemesis
- Grey mmc

Thank you SMP for this arc for an honest review.

Nami has her whole life tied up in her tech company. She had a man she was going to marry cheat on her and has lost the few friends she had. The tech company is suffering and will likely be bought by another company. Jae was Nami’s high school nemesis, is very attractive and rich. He has a company in the bidding to take over her company. Jae and Nami were in competition for everything in high school. Jae usually won. He has not had much fun since their barbs and competitive natures in high school. He believes taking over her company would get him out of his boredom and give him a chance to reconnect with Nami. I loved this book. Nami and Jae had such a different perspective on the other back when they were in high school. Nami sees her company as her family. Jae is still out for himself and to stroke his ego. I liked how Jae’s family called him on his work ethic, hoping he could better himself. Nami’s and Jae’s families liked each other and had high hopes for them as a couple. Both Nami and Jae take time to really look at what is important. Great book, lots of humor, and romance.

I love discovering new-to-me authors, and Cara Tanamachi exceeded my expectations. Nami and Jae are former high school academic rivals who reconnect when Jae’s Amazon-like conglomerate engages in a leveraged buyout of Nami’s airBNB-type startup, which is her loyal employee-driven baby. Nami and Jae’s ultracompetitive natures give way to searing hot mutual attraction, complicating the direction and purpose of the takeover.
Add in co-conspiring Asian families and quirky development teams, and this book is a delightful, fast read that I relished.
Now to tackle Ms Tanamachi’s backlist.
Thank you NetGalley for the Advamce Reader Copy; I’m happy to provide this honest review.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for an advanced reader copy of this book.

This was a cute friends to enemies story. The characters and their family relationships were all very relatable. I especially liked the Star Wars and Star Trek references.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this arc.

If you enjoy enemies to lovers, and office romance- this is a book you will enjoy. I was not a huge fan of the dynamic between the two characters but overall thought it was a cute read.

Office/workplace/corporate enemies-to-lovers is officially my favorite, especially when it’s done well. Add in the fact that the enemies are former high school rivals and this book ticked every box for me.

Nami’s tech company she helped co-found is about to lose all its funding when a corporate powerhouse swoops in with a potential offer. Leading the charge is an unwelcome blast from Nami’s high school past in the form of her nemesis, Jae. Not only does she not trust his company to preserve the community and culture she’s created with her team, she doesn’t want to give Jae the win over her. As he tries to change her mind, they find there might be more than hate and competition fueling the fire between them.

We first met Nami in ‘The Second You’re Single’ (which I admittedly did not love) and I really enjoyed getting to know her better and learn who she was in this book. She has a lot of depth to her character. I admired her genuine care for not only her company but also her employees and the workplace environment.

Jae was his own complex character and a compelling, worthy adversary and eventual partner for Nami. Their chemistry was palpable, and I loved seeing them face off and challenge each other. They both had family dynamics that had their different intricacies as well, and I appreciated that there were instances that showed how they offered support to each other in navigating those.

This book was an absolute win for me with humor, heat, and heart. I enjoyed every minute spent reading it.

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

Unputdownable, addictive romance alert! As an avid enthusiast of the enemies-to-lovers trope, this book checked all the boxes and then some, surpassing my expectations by earning a resounding five stars — a rating filled with the essence of hellishly spicy ramen, mischief, immaturity, and yet, a captivatingly competitive sense of humor that kept me thoroughly entertained!

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
This was a fun and quirky romance novel. A fairly easy read, the characters weren't hard to love I kind of wanted to date Jae Lee myself), and you can't beat a good enemies to lovers trope.
Tloved the diversity of this book, the characters, the smart as hell
FMC, and the MMC willing to let her do her thing.
A little predictable maybe, but still a delicious and fun read!

This was a sweet little love story with a moral compass check sub-narrative. A quick and easy read and fast paced -- which maybe a little too fast overall. It was fun to see the obvious connection the author made to real life and actual business dynamics (Amazon/Bezos VS Musk/Tesla/Space X -- a clever touch. This is for you if you like rivals to lovers, multicultural couples and can relate to parental expectations and pressure to live up to their standards.

okay i think this book was not for me. if you feel sympathy for a) a vp of mergers and acquisitions at an amazon-ish company, b) a founder of an airbnb-style tech startup, and c) high achievers who are still angry about slights like who was salutatorian versus valedictorian in high school, this book might be exactly up your alley. i saw the cover and was like, "wow, this looks like two people who really dislike each other, both pretty corporate, with the dude mansplaining to the woman. but probably that art doesn't really represent the book! i'll request an ARC of it anyway!" spoiler alert: the cover, as professionally selected by the publisher, indeed does depict what happens inside the book. TRULY WHEN WILL I EVER LEARN???

as mentioned, this was a netgalley arc, and you won't be surprised to know that this is an unbiased review (IN SOME WAYS. unbiased in favor of the book bc of getting it for free--biased against the book because i am a feminist anticapitalist).

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

The Takeover features Nami, a driven entrepreneur focused on keeping her company good, not evil, while birthday wishing for a soulmate. Her arch nemesis from high school, Jae, just so happens to scoot his way back into Nami’s life to help facilitate a takeover of her company. Their banter is back and forth with that enemies to friends vibe.

4 stars.

2.75 out of 5. This book was not memorable. You mix in kind of absurd business settings with a romance that I wasn't fully on board with and you loose me halfway through. Some points to the creatively no creative way the company's names were done. Rainforest was quite on the nose, like you know you were dealing with Amazon without saying the name outright, props. I also feels this falls into the enemies to lovers category which is not really enemies, but you were teenager and didn't know how to act so you bully those you love to lovers. It looses some of its impact.

The Take Over, by Cara Tanamachi, is a quick, fun read. This enemies-to-lovers novel is peppered with wit and banter that will have you laughing out loud.
Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for allowing me to read and review this ARC ebook.

Nami is straight up not having a good time. Her fiancé cheated on her RIGHT before their wedding, her tech company (her baby) is going under, and she feels like her employees are her only friends anymore. What will she do without them?
At a “surprise” birthday party (thrown by her overbearing mother of course) she wishes for a soulmate.

Enter Jae, Nami’s childhood nemesis. Except now he’s head of the company coming after Nami’s baby. Also, he’s tall and hot and something about him drives her crazy in all the best, and worst, ways.

Cara Tanamachi plays out this rivalry (that’s as spicy as hell ramen) perfectly. I laughed, a lot. I loved Nami, and was rooting for Toggle the whole way through. The chair plot was HILARIOUS. I wish there were real pictures of that whole email exchange!!

This is the first Cara Tanamachi book I’ve read but it won’t be the last!!

it was an okay book, i didnt hate it or love it i would definitly read another book by the author hopefully the next one i will love. Thanks netgalley for letting me read this book.

Thank you, Netgalley for this ARC. First off I want to say that the diversity in this book is spectacular. The whole Rivals to Lovers is also something I absolutely love. This was a great read.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Super quick and easy to read. I haven’t read anything from this author before, so I was very intrigued. The chemistry between the MMC and FMC was there, along with the witty banter and the loveable (except when not) secondary characters. The only things I didn’t love were that the book's first part felt very “box check-y for diversity characters” and the 3rd act, as I feel it’s constantly being overplayed.

The real purpose of “The Takeover” is to show that “Bezoff vs. Musk” is an incorrect poll. They're both evil, they both only care about themselves and their money, and they both will rote in hell one day - although, my response about who's the most evil would be Musk, and not only for what he did to Twitter.

Nami and Jae are a perfect fit, the side characters are immaculate in their roles, the story evolves without drawbacks and it's full of interesting tech stuff - even if I still don't know what an NFT is.

But, in the small picture, it misses the spark.
At first, she's too repetitive: how much Toggle means to her, how much her employees are family to her, how hot is Chicago in the summer, how she had to always be the villain in her family because her sister wouldn't stand up for herself.
And then, fifty pages at the end, everything works out: he broke her heart but they talk about it and “fix” it, her sister makes up with her mom and the latter apologises to her daughters, and the company is saved by a miracle. They all get to have their happily ever after, forgetting the ugly truths about Nami’s past with her parents and every time her sister let her down, or about Jae’s father and the disapproval about being the eldest son but not getting married first, or also about what he’s gonna do now.

Looking back, the pace is what to fix, in my opinion.
But even like this, it's a cute and fun story about two former high school nemesis who realize they might be perfect for each other, after reconnecting for the wrong reasons.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley, who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

First, I would like to thank Netgalley for providing the opportunity for me to read this book before it was published.
In the romance genre, hate to love is a troupe that I generally love. I am not surprised that I liked The Takeover at all. It has all the hallmarks of a quick romance novel. Both of the main characters are loveable. Nami, the female protagonist, has a lot of relatable qualities. She's feeling a little self conscious and is focused on work right now. Her recent breakup with her fiance cuts her really deep, though she never truly loved the guy. The main male lead, Jae, is charming and has some nuance. The entire story I was really rooting for them. After reading so many historical fiction pieces, fantasy novels, and Mangas, The Takeover was a great cleanser. Once I started reading it, I flew through it in a few hours. I recommend it to anyone who likes a fluffy, hate to love romance novel.

My Thoughts

My opinion of enemies to lovers romance plotting is a favorable one.

The love/hate relationship of Nami (Namby) and Jae with all encounters between characters felt natural and even at times was fun.

Nami and Jae share so many personality traits that they are not only a good match but as adversaries they also love to engage in what amounts to mental gymnastics that were thought out well by the author.

The technical aspects of this story were interesting but the characters,primary, secondary or even minor ones, had the biggest impact on its overall likability for me as I read it.

The plot progression was easily followed, the characters are all necessary for each new level of development, the premise is one which had me wondering how things would work out and I was satisfied at the end.

This was one of those books you cannot say too much about because it is very easy to over-share and ruin the experience for everyone else.

For myself it all worked well and I think that for those readers who it didn’t work for maybe the next book author release’s might.

[EArc from Netgalley]

On every book read as soon as it is done and written up for review it is posted on Goodreads and Netgalley, once released then posted on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles as well.