In support of the SMP boycott, I will be withholding my review of this title until SMP speaks out. If the boycott is resolved, I will update with a full review.

Perhaps it's because I'd finished Jayci Lee's Off-Limits Attraction (also not riveting reading, by the way) the day before starting this, but The Takeover felt very generic and unremarkable. Nami is a company owner with a heart of gold whose baby (an app that helps people...swap...things?) is in need of a bailout or a takeover, when in swoops her high school nemesis, Jae, an acquisitions director for Amazon Rainforest, to torment her about it, but also take her out for Hell ramen and steal her heart along with her company.

The high school dynamic, and both main characters' incessant referrals to it got grating really fast, as if neither character developed even an iota as soon as they left high school. Not as fast as the pseudonyms used to stand in for real companies whose names totally could've been used in just about every instance without legal repercussions (not sure about Amazon, since it's literally called the Borg by Nami's employees for most of the book, and not in a flattering way - not that there's a flattering way to be called the Borg), but very quickly.

Honestly, it was difficult for me to like either of the main characters: Jae was cocky and his teasing made it clear he always held all the power in the relationship and liked it that way, Nami was too-good-to-be-true and eternally indignant, holding onto grudges way beyond what had to be good for her mental and emotional wellbeing. Jae's reason for targeting her company, when it comes out, (spoiler: he was bored and missed interacting with her, so he thought he'd try to take over her company), makes him look like a massive douche. On the other hand, Nami's finance lady, Imani, is also a pretty terrible peer/friend/whatever to Nami, going behind her back and refusing to ever discuss her thoughts on the future of their company. The rest of the supporting characters were pretty forgettable, I'm sorry to say, though I remember a lot of effort was put into giving them personalities and page time.

So, to sum up: lackluster plot and characters, so how about the sex, after all, this is a romance novel. Unfortunately, I was so uninterested in Jae and Nami getting together, I have no memories of how it went when they consummated their years-long love-hate-lust thing, though I'm sure it was the best either had ever had because, y'know, romance novel. It felt like the second book in a series about sisters/brothers all finding their perfect people, especially Nami's sister, but I was not curious enough about Sora(?) and her lumberjack (whose name I've forgotten) to see whether there are other books written about this set of characters.

Toss it in your beach bag and be relieved you aren't an app developer, I guess.

3.5 Stars. This was a quick and easy read. That being said, the book was an odd mix of tones. Both Name and Jae had very interesting family dynamics and there was an interesting story hidden in there about the two learning to be more than their careers, but it was overshadowed by childish competitions. I did appreciate that they both admitted they were rivals in high school (at least in their own eyes) because so many of these high school rivals stories are one sided. Overall this book was entertaining enough to keep me occupied for a couple evenings.

A very sweet enemies to lovers romance. There were times that I was laughing out loud at what was happening in the book. The story of high school rivals Nami and Jae and how that competition apparently went into adulthood. Jae works for a company looking to purchase Nami’s and along the way their hate turns into hate love.

Nami's company, Toggle, is struggling so "Rainforest" (aka Amazon) is looking to buy it. Besides her already-terrible feelings about "Rainforest" and having to be bought, she then finds out that Jae, her high school nemesis who beat her to Valedictorian by 0.245 of a GPA point, is the VP of Acquisitions who will be trying to close the deal.

I really wanted to love this book, but it was too repetitive and irked me in a way I didn't expect it to. The top 3 things that bugged me were:
* Nami's insistence that her company was FUN and Not Evil and that they were ALL FAMILY (like gurl bye, not in this economy lmao)
* Jae's weirdo reason for looking to buy Toggle?? like ~ oh i was bored and missed competing with you ~
* the preachiness against Big Tech - I get it, trust me, I get it. I get preachy about it too but liiiike reel it in. it's the tech industry after all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Irk Honorable mention: if you're gonna high key talk that talk about a company (and obv can't use their actual name), can the names please be less obvious? I see what she did there // it being a Bezos vs Musk type of rivalry but seeing "rainforest" made me cringe SO hard.

If you can get past those pain points, I think you could enjoy the story. At a zoomed out view, it is a cute enemies-to-lovers plot with some work drama mixed in there lol

I actually really liked this book, despite being a little hesitant at the beginning, I think it take a bit to pick up and there’s a lot of tech stuff that I- a not techy person- found hard to understand. But the actual relationship is so cute and I love the slow burn of it all.

This was a great adult contemporary romance novel, that I would definitely recommend trying!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

A birthday wish for your soulmate leads you right to the one person you've hated since school, surely it must be a joke- right? Nami just wants to find love. She's been successful in everything she's done, up until now when she's 30 and still single watching her sister get married to the love of her life and jealousy is creeping in.

Honestly, the pure hatred Nami had for Jae felt a little odd. It's like she hung onto this and ran with it for absolutely no reason and none of her friends spoke up and called her out about it? The root of it irritated me but I am a sucker for some enemies/rivals to lovers and the tension between these two was right on par. The fact that we got some deeper back story on the rivalry was refreshing. It was detailed and visited pretty often and I think we often lack that understanding so this was redeeming. The insane chemistry between these two was undeniable.

Overall, a great rom com that embraces the rivals to lovers trope and gives great banter, tension, chemistry, and backstory to our characters.

This is a cute fun story about two high school nemesis that reconnect years later and realize they might just be right for each other after all!

This was a quick, fun, surface level read! I liked the side characters, all the tech stuff, and I thought the MCs were great together! I even laughed out loud more than once.. that ramen scene was a riot.

In the end though this story was just too surface level for me! It missed the big emotional punches, especially at the end when everything wrapped up easily in a neat little bow!

I really enjoyed this book, aside from a few political mentions that seem as though they’re required virtue signaling by publishers nowadays. Once I got past that irritation, I found the book to be engaging, funny, and sweetly wholesome. My favorite tropes are found family and enemies to lovers, which this book had in spades. I laughed out loud and rooted for the underdog (another favorite pastime and trope of mine). I appreciated the focus on family and culture and the plot line relevance to contemporary world businesses. I would definitely recommend to romance readers. All opinions are my own. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced reader copy.

“The Takeover” by Cara Tanamichi is a delightful, two POV, friends-to-enemies romance. Nami and Jae haven’t seen each other since their competitive high school days, but on the day of Nami’s 30th birthday, the same day that the company she helped established, is in danger of being taken over by a giant, evil corporation, Jae messages her. It turns out he works for that company, in charge of acquisitions. Some hilarious moments follow—particularly the aftermath after eating some really, really spicy ramen. Will they continue to fight against each other as they always have done, or will they discover that fighting together, they are a force to reckon with.

This is really a cute story, and I’m grateful to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC. My opinion is my own.

I really enjoyed The Takeover. The story line was well written and flowed nicely. I liked Nami and Jae Lee together. This is a well executed high school revivals to lovers.

As Nami’s milestone birthday approaches she finds herself facing how her personal and professional are not where she wants them to be. The ending of her engagement was difficult enough, but the public embarrassment only made it worse. Her company isn’t thriving and now she is facing a buyout by the man who was the bane of her existence when she was a teenager.

Jae is successful, charming, and representing the company that wants to absorb Nami’s company into his fold. He knew that convincing her would be difficult not only because of her resistance to maintain her independence but the past they shared has been more antagonistic than friendly. Let the battle begin!

Both Nami and Jae are determined to pursue their own agendas however they weren’t prepared for their true feelings to emerge as they take us on journey complete with humor, emotions and realizing what truly matters. I did enjoy the performance of the narrators as it allowed you to understand the characters and what they were going through.

Imagine The Hating Game but set in a tech startup. If you thought that the animosity between the main characters was childish, this book is not for you. If you thought THG was fun, this might be for you.

The first job a book has is to convince the reader that this book is for them. The way The Takeover goes about this is to introduce you to the main character Nami’s startup, Toggle. Toggle is THE BEST place to work and is a genuinely good company, according to Nami. They even made t-shirts “TOGGLE: FUN. NOT EVIL. REALLY. WE MEAN IT.” And I think that sums up the vibe of Chapter 1. If that sort of thing reads as cutesy to you, you are the reader for The Takeover. For me, everything went far past cutesy and into an immature territory that make me really not want to continue on with the story.

I read a little farther and was introduced to the MMC, who was equally as insufferable as the FMC. That’s when I realized the writing style just wasn’t for me. I wish it was, I thought it sounded like a really fun enemies to lovers book.

For me, the characters read as very young and immature, even though they were supposed to be in their 30s. And there is a lot of info-dumping about the business instead of really living in the character’s motivations or moving the plot along.

I’m looking forward to seeing how Tanamachi’s writing develops with her future books.

This fun rom-com was the perfect palate cleanser after several heavier reads. I loved the relationship between Nami and her colleagues. It made me wish that all work environments can be like that so everyone can experience it. Jae Lee was a great character. He clearly was an arrogant business man with the heart of gold underneath. It was fun to see their relationship develop and grow from enemies to more.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC!

This book was fun, I couldn't put it down! I had a great time reading it, and would gladly read another book from this author in the future!

There were a lot of side characters, but it was easy to tell everyone apart. I like how there were a bunch of side plots in addition to the main romance and the main plot, it really made the story less one dimensional. However, it felt like some of them were just added so there was more plot and didn’t really do much

Overall it was a good book, a lighthearted childhood rivals to lovers romance that I enjoyed reading!

Captivating from start to finish! This book exceeded all my expectations. The characters were deeply engaging and the writing was simply superb. 5 stars without a doubt!

This was just okay for me. I enjoyed the tech aspect, but I didn’t feel invested in the main characters or their chemistry. There were a few funny scenes, but overall I was hoping for more banter and tension.
Thank you St Martin’s Press for the copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Takeover was a fun, cute workplace romance that was at times both funny and cringe (lots of millenialisms and internet-y type things) but not in a bad way.

Toggle Internal Chat: Fun Book!

The interplay between the FMC & MMC was excellent, though the whole book felt like it was set in high school with the amount of banter and insults that were thrown around. It became repetitive when discussing the hall monitor and valedictorian aspects of the 2 MC’s. Neither MC seemed to have grown or changed much since high school, resulting in a book that felt more YA/NA than Adult. A lot of interesting family dynamics were at play in the book. Sibling relationships received much attention, but the desires of the parents were often a key focus for the MC.

I enjoyed the multicultural and disability representation, which makes sense in a city like Chicago. The side characters made the whole book, and I too left the book feeling like Toggle was part of my family.

Much appreciation to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC. All opinions are my own.