Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I'm currently moving, which means I'm stressed. And when I'm stressed, I crave the literary equivalent of comfort food. This perfectly satisfied that need. Was it implausible and silly and a bit on the nose? Absolutely! Was it fun? Also yes!! It felt like a nice break from being me, with characters who had distinctive bundles of neuroses that I deeply resonated with. It was enjoyable and charming, and generally exactly what I wanted from one of these kind of books, and I'm glad I got to sit down with it as a simple fun read.

The Takeover
Written by Cara Tanamachi
Publisher St. Martins Press
Release Date January 30, 2024


Characters: 5/5
Plot: 4/5
Pace: 4/5
Overall Enjoyment 4/5

This is a very cute rom com enemies to lovers romance that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. Not usually my genre but reading the blurb I found myself interested in the book. The author has an uncanny ability to bring two characters that at first seem completely opposite of each other, together in such a way that the reader finds it not only amusing at times but romantic in a clean way. The characters were well developed, flawed, and not exactly likable but that helped the book become what it is. I certainly would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys books that bring unexpected romances from two people that do not like each other to start with.

4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley as well as the author and publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my unbiased and honest review

All through high school Nami competed with Jae Lee, who was popular and just narrowly beat her out for valedictorian. She also resents that he seemed to come from a wealthy family and was given every advantage, while she had to work to be able to afford things.

Now she is loving Toggle, the company she founded, and the employees who are more like family than employees; but they are having financial problems and it looks like they may be bought out. Finding out Jae Lee is working for the soulless megacompany that seems to swallow smaller companies whole and is now focused on Toggle, she is ready to go to war.

I really enjoyed how they slowly began to realize their memories of their school years were faulty. And Jae Lee had always been attracted to Nami but she had barriers to keep others away. But Jae always felt Nami challenged him to be better, and he really admires and likes her.

Dell and his chair were hilarious. The camaraderie of everyone at Toggle was fun, I enjoyed all the banter. And the best was the personal growth of the main characters,

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the eARC of The Takeover. This is my honest review.

I love a good romance, and this one was wonderful! It had witty banter, and lovable characters. I was rooting for them the whole way through!

This was pretty short and enjoyable but there was just.. something that was missing.
It started off good- hate to love, rivals from their school days and I really enjoyed their banter.
I think it was in part the pacing and the way some problems were just washed over. My whole thing is, if you’re gonna include familial issues, I want to see it being resolved or even just <I>spoken</I> about a little more. Like in Nami’s case with her sister and her feeling like she doesn’t really have her back when it comes to saying no to her mom, I would have liked to have seen even <u>ONE</u> conversation between the two.
One thing that actually was so annoying was just the sheer amount of talk about crypto and bitcoin.. idk if maybe the author thought that the tech world discusses this and is so positive about it, I am very much NOT in that work industry so I truly don’t know, but it was just brought up way too much for me and I am not for it.

<I>Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.</I>

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was a sweet enemies-to-lovers story. One of my favorite parts was the "love-hate" banter between Nami and Jae. This helped feed into the activities that brought them closer together (ramen, tennis, dancing) I loved the dynamics of the two families and their relationships with Nami and Jae. Once I got beyond the first couple chapters, I was hooked and finished it in one day. I cannot wait for this to come out in paperback, so I can add it to my bookshelves.

This was a quick and easy romantic read! The characters were believable and likeable. Overall a nice, quick, lighthearted read!
There is also a good dose of relatability: BIPOC characters, family and interpersonal issues, self esteem issues, diverse representation, and reflection acknowledgement, etc. I think it’s be easy for just about any reader to find something relatable to them in this book.

Nami and Jae were rivals in high school, each one pushing the other to succeed. Now Nami is working to prevent her tech company from being taken over by corporate raider Jae. As Nami and Jae work together in exploring what Jae can offer her company versus a rival, will their new connection survive?
Delightful enemies to lovers story.
#TheTakeover #NetGalley

I was so excited to read this book because I read the first book in the series, and I really wanted to read Nami's story. Nami was featured in 'The Second You're Single', and I would recommend reading that book. You can read this book as a standalone, but I think that you can get more of Nami's backstory and see how her sister, Sora, fell in love.

In this book, Nami's company, Toggle, is looking for a buyer or an investor. She comes across, Jae, who was her enemy/rival in high school. Jae works for Rainforest (which is an Amazon type company), and he buys up smaller companies and guts them. There was a lot of business talk in the book, but it wasn't overwhelming. It was easy to follow and understand.

As Jae and Nami spend more time together, feelings start to change. Their banter and texting is charged with tension. They battle each other at tennis and in a spicy ramen eating contest. It all leads to an explosive kiss, which changes everything.

I really enjoyed the parts of the book with Jae's family. I could read more about them! I think that it was great to see more of Sora and Jack too,

Overall, this was a fun and quick read about an enemies to lovers, workplace romance.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of this book.

I loved this book. Romantic comedy with nerdom thrown in. I desperately want to work at Toggle! The chair drama was hilarious. The romance was a sweet enemies to lovers with pretty clean sexy scenes for those who prefer no smut. Highly recommended for romance readers.

Cute and predictable story but worth the read. Perfect for a quick read to get away from reality for a bit.

This book is very fast paced and a very quick read. I love books that revolve around a workplace setting, and I also enjoy enemies to lovers plots as well, so this book seemed perfect when I looked at it.
Since it was listed as read now, I decided to give it a chance.
I didn't find myself getting too invested in the actual relationship throughout the book, and instead found myself more interested in Nami's love for her company and her employees and her wonderful drive to protect both of those things. This book can easily be read in 1-2 days, if a reader is more interested in faster paced books. It only took me longer than that to read it because I have been working a lot lately. I hope the author releases more books in the future, and I would love to read them.

The Takeover is your classic Workplace Enemies to Lovers Romance. This was such cute, quick read. I also think this book has such a great diversity and bipoc representation. It would honestly make such a cute movie. Someone needs to make that happen!

The story follows Nami, who makes a wish on her 30th birthday for her soulmate, but instead she gets sent her “Hate Mate”. I mean, you can pretty much figure out the entire plot just by the title. It was very cute, but also very predictable. Which I don’t necessarily hate.

Overall I really enjoyed this, but, I am finding I love little snippets of the story rather than the story as a whole. I absolutely loved Jae Lee’s family, and found them way more interesting than Nami & Jae Lees’ relationship. I could honestly read an entire book just about them. I loved the cute little office hi-jinks (Chair Gate made me laugh out loud more than once) but I didn’t necessarily feel invested in any of the side characters themselves, just their pranks & whiteboard votes. Lol This is also how I felt about Nami & Jae Lee as well, I didn’t really love them… but loved their banter and was super into in their little rom-com scenes. But don’t know how invested I really was in their relationship.

If you are looking for a classic romcom, I definitely recommend The Takeover. It is the perfect palate cleanser in between those literary fiction or high fantasy books.

This story was a breath of fresh air. Enjoyed the hate-love banter of the Jae and Namby and their quick wit. I am going out to look at a “Wegner Swivel” chair. I laughed out loud in several places while reading. An excellent and entertaining read. Definite addition to your TBR list.

Absolute gem!

Words can’t express how much I loved reading this! More than the fact that it’s incredibly well written it was just so fun.

The Takeover is so engaging I was all in from the first chapter.

The banter in this book had me smiling all throughout.

There’s also a good dose of relatability: BIPOC characters, diverse representation, family and interpersonal issues, self esteem and reflection acknowledgement, etc. I think it’s be easy for just about any reader to find something relatable to them in this book.

As I was reading this, I felt like the writing style was super familiar, and then I checked and saw that Tanamachi also wrote as Cara Lockwood on the old Red Dress Ink imprint, which was my favorite back in the day! Based on this book, her new stuff is also great and a lot of fun. This is such a classic enemies-to-lovers, with Naomi and Jae obviously in hate-lust right from the beginning, and a lot of factors against their relationship - not the least of which is that Jae works for a large, evil corporation intent on swallowing up small companies and mining their data, including the beloved but struggling travel startup that Nami and her friend started. You know how it’s’ all going to turn out - it’s a romcom, after all - but it’s sun a fun ride getting there. The little interspersed company Slack messages, the fictitious app names that seem like thinly veiled references to real companies, and the over-the-top geeky developers were cute references to the tech world that the book was set in. The developers were one place I felt like it was a bit much, but only because I work in software and I know a lot of developers, so I get the stereotype but…. They’re still people with nuance, and not every single one of them likes the traditional nerd stuff…. But that didn’t detract from the story and if you’re not in tech you probably will find it cute and funny. All in all, a satisfying, cute romantic comedy and I hope to read more by this author in the future.

I love a good workplace enemy to lover book and this one delivered after a few slumps.


Nami is the founder of a tech company which is about to lose its funding, so she makes a birthday wish: she'd like to find her soulmate. The Universe sent her the opposite: her high school rival. She'd like a refund now, please.

Jae was the most popular kid in school and now he thrives on the idea of challenges was a high ranking which is why the company he works for is planning a takeover of Nami's company. Only, Jae didn't plan on his reaction to Nami after all these years apart.

With Nami putting up a fight and Jae trying to make her see that his offer is the best and only option, a workplace war has begun. What will they lose? Their jobs or their hearts?

This book was so fun! Full of nerdy references, crazy but realistic family dynamics, a little spice, and office pranks gone right, THE TAKEOVER deserves a place in your home.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for this eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Takeover by Cara Tanamachi

Nami Reid has spent years pouring her heart and soul into the tech startup she co-founded, Toggle. It means more to her than anything, including the ex fiancé who left her due to always coming in second to Toggle. When Nami’s 30th birthday arrives and her mother throws her a surprise party that is only attended by her family, Nami realizes she’s lonely and uses her birthday wish to ask the universe to send her a soulmate. Instead, the universe sends her high school nemesis back into her life. Jae Lee has built a career on buying struggling startups and stripping them for parts, and Toggle is his latest hostile takeover target unless Nami can stop him.

This was a super fun high school nemesis turned workplace nemesis turned more romantic comedy. The banter between Nami and Jae was absolutely hysterical right from the start, and I absolutely loved their back and forth text exchanges. Nami pulled at my heartstrings as she worked so hard to make the world a better place while protecting and fighting for the employees and company she loved. Her steadfast commitment to doing the right thing was admirable and relatable.

I loved the complicated but loving family dynamics that both Nami and Jae had. It was interesting to explore the different expectations that a Japanese and a Korean family had for their children. Both Jae’s dad and Nami’s mom wanted the best for their children but the ways that they went about it were really interesting to explore.

The epilogue was one of the cutest parts of the whole book and had me grinning from ear to ear. I only wish that I had read The Second You’re Single (Nami’s sister Sora’s book that is chronologically before this) first to truly appreciate all the feels for both couples but I will definitely go back and read it now!

Recommended for all romantic comedy readers and especially those that love: 🤓 high school rivals 📈 hostile workplace takeover 🤭 fast paced banter 🍜spicy ramen competitions 🎾 mixed doubles tennis 🪑extremely expensive and rare office chairs ❤️‍🩹 they make each other better

loved this enemies to lovers and workers that are in the mix. loved the family and friends. loved that they both learned and helped each other and that they fell in love. loved the ending with the sister and her wedding and that he wants to marry her. good romance and loved the messages about the missing chair.

A fun enemies to lovers, high school to adulthood rom com!

Nami Reid has worked hard her whole life….she worked through high school to help pay the bills and succeeded in college and now has her own tech company start-up. But as she’s about to turn 30, it seems like everything is falling apart. Her fiancé cheats on her, her start-up is about to go under, and of all people her old high school nemesis sends her a text out of nowhere.

Enter Jae Lee, Nami’s number one enemy in high school. He narrowly beat her out to be valedictorian and was always trying to upstage her in varsity tennis. He was smart, attractive, and everybody loved him. She hated him then and can’t believe after all these years he’s contacting her now. Apparently, he’s back home in Chicago and wants to catch up. But it’s so much more than that.

Nami’s birthday wish is a soulmate and she gets….Jae Lee?! And so their worlds collide for better or worse and we all are fortunate enough to witness it….enjoy!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for sharing this ARC with me in exchange for my honest review.