Member Reviews
I ended up with mixed feelings about this. I loved Dee and Teddy, and I loved Dee's journey of learning to stand up for herself and how she doesn't have to be positive and grateful at all times. But, and this is very much a me thing, I wanted less workplace stuff and more romance. Workplace stuff tends to stress me out, and there was such a focus on that here, so this book just wasn't a great fit for me.
This was my first Lily Chu book and it was super cute! I loved the relationship between the MCs, although I tend to prefer when romance is at the forefront of stories and open door. I loved the FMCs mindset change from always having a positive outlook to allowing herself to feel all of her feelings. Also loved that the MMC was a heterosexual fashion designer. The representation was well done. Can't wait to check out more from this author!
I love lily chu and this book was no exception, family pressure, enemies to lovers but also not enemies....enjoyable
So cute! I loved the story, characters and the romance. Dee's family and the changes in their relationship over the course of the story felt very authentic. I can't wait to read more by Lily Chu.
I went into this book expecting a cute realist x sunshine story but it was so much more. It is a quick paced romance story set in Toronto that would make a great movie but also tackles the complexity of so many important topics like:
-Toxic positivism
- Racism within the family unit
- Racism and mysoginy at work
- Racial passing
- Family relationships and dynamics.
Featuring a story that starts as an online trivia rivalry that turns into a workplace secret friendship. Dee, the female MC, was a really interested character to read she's so charismatic and energetic, she genuinely makes you feel the motivation she has to do what she believes is going to change the enterprise. While Teddy, the male MC, was the perfect counterpart. He is someone who had the same passion for change but now faces the demotivation that comes with working on what seems like an industry that will never really change.
The takedown is the perfect weekend read for this spring/summer, its fast pace makes it a quick read and the writing style is so visual you will feel like you're watching a romcom. It will make you swoon and think about life at the same time.
Lily Chu is the master of romance with a substantial plot to go alongside that romance.
Dee is a diversity consultant, Questie (a game of figuring out clues to do a word puzzle), and a sunshine personality. She meets her in game "rival" and is ready to start some cute romance when everything hits the fan.
The closure of her company means no job that she loves. Her grandmother's broken hip means both grandma and her parents move back into her house.
As Dee lacks the ability to set healthy boundaries and is the type to help out others even when they won't do the same for her, she is left with no support structure. A new job introduces a new complication: her budding romance is with one of their execs, the son of the CEO.
Drama ensues but it is worth the read.
Thank you to Net Galley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the eARC!
This book was a good read that was both fun and provided food for thought. I liked the characters and seeing them grow over the course of the book.
I received an ARC and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.
I loved this! Every now and then I like to try a different genre from my usual ones and this was such a great surprise. Teddy made me swoon, and I felt an emotional attachment to Dee very early on. I, too, have been a victim of toxic positivity! And I absolutely loved seeing her grow and understand that happiness isn't about refusing to acknowledge the tough parts of life and letting people walk all over you to avoid making waves. I also loved her conviction and her desire to make the world a better place for everyone.
✨BOOK TOUR ALERT🚨✨
📖:THE TAKEDOWN
📝: Lily Chu (@lilychuauthor )
🛒PUB DATE: May 7th
⭐️Sponsored by: @coloredpagesbt and @sourcebookscasa
✨My Rating: 4.5⭐️
I was lucky enough to get a chance to be a part of a book tour sponsored by @coloredpagesbt and @sourcebookscasa for the book; The Takedown by: Lily Chu. And let me tell you I had the best time!
Some of my favorite parts and big themes of the book included:
🇨🇦The Toronto Setting
📱The Electronic Meet Cute (a scavenger-hunt IRL game…come on how cute)
🏠Relatable and Real Family Conflict
💕Lots of ‘will they, won’t they’ and yearning
📈The 9-5 /work atmosphere
💃🏻The main character finding her true self (from people pleasing pushover to a confident lady who knows what she wants and needs
Thank you again to @lilychuauthor @sourcebookscasa and @coloredpagesbt for allowing me to be a part of of this book tour, and for the #gifted final and eARC copies of The Takedown💕
Lily Chu never misses! Her main characters are always so relatable and sympathetic, Dee most of all I think. The toxic positivity lives in many of us, especially professionally, and when family drama (her and others) is mixed in it becomes lifeline. I felt very emotional about Dee and her lists.
The romance was good as always, the miscommunication levels were off the charts but I think it worked for the situation. So many people (sometimes myself included!) talk about 'oh they're adults why can't they just talk to each other'. I could never feel so confident, and I think it works with the characters and their personalities. I loved the family dynamics, the writing is so well done. I'll read anything Lily Chu writes!
Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
I had so much fun reading this book!! The journey the MC took towards validating her feelings and achieving her goals was so cool to read, and I absolutely loved the heist vibes and the found family!
TWs - racism and biphobia by family members, misogyny, harassment/blackmail
-- ty to the author, the publisher and @coloredpagesbt for an advanced copy!
This book was relatable to the point it felt like a personal attack, and I both resent being called out and also applaud Lily Chu for it.
Dee is a Diversity and Inclusion consultant, Teddy is the heir of a huge fashion business, and chaos ensues when Teddy's family business is thrust in the spotlight for terrible D&I practices (in that there wasn't really any D&I). The main plot was hard to get through - the micro-agressions, white privilege, and outright racism - it was a wild storm. However, so many great conversations came out of it and it was a huge undertaking on Chu's part to write about and shine a light on some of these issues.
The personal attack was Dee's family. The way they sweep everything under a facade of toxic positivity and general avoidance. It was a bit too real at times, and I commend Chu for really hitting me where it hurts. So much of my family was reflected in this book and it was an oof. Dee's growth through it was amazing, even though it takes her a while to fully settle into it (relatable, as well).
While I liked Dee, I loved Teddy. He was my favourite part of the story. Lily Chu always makes her men so real and outside of the conventional "manly man" template. Teddy is a fashion designer who loves art and isn't intimidated by a smart woman and he's almost entirely green flags and I love him for it. He and Dee really click and seeing their relationship with each other develop and grow was a lot of fun, despite the growing pains.
My only area of critique that really stopped me from absolutely loving this book is Dee's hot and cold side. She is super smart and loves her job, but doesn't do research on the company's executives, who they're having a meeting with? She's mad about Teddy and his lack of action, when she's letting her own family walk over her in the same way? It felt like that thing where it's like, "Why are you so focused on the speck of dust in your brother's eye when you have a whole plank in yours." There was a hypocrisy there that I didn't love and held me back from fully rooting for her.
The book was a ride and while I definitely didn't like confronting some of my own issues as I read it, a book where you see yourself reflected and your experiences shared is really a testament to Chu's ability to write real and relatable characters. That ending also was so vindicating, my goodness!
TW: toxic positivity, biphobia, racism, micro-aggressions, racial slurs, bullying, sexism; mentions fatphobia, cancer, death of a parent
Plot: 3.5/5
Characters: 3.5/5
World Building: 5/5
Writing: 4/5
Pacing; 4/5
Overall: 3.5/5
eARC gifted via NetGalley by Sourcebooks Casablanca in exchange for an honest review.
The difference between wishing for good things and working toward them is precisely where Lily Chu’s THE TAKEDOWN (Sourcebooks Casablanca, 384 pp., $16.99) finds its footing. The diversity consultant Dee Kwan clings to positive thinking through layoffs, microaggressions and familial health challenges. All the while, her mother insists that a positive attitude is more important than any minor speed bump like your parents and grandmother moving in with you or a house that now smells constantly of medicinal weed. Her one true comfort is the online puzzle game where she’s usually first in the rankings.
Then Dee lands a new job, only to find her nearest gaming rival, Teddy, there. Even worse, he’s the son of the C.E.O. whose toxic corporate culture she’s being paid to improve.
Dee fixes upon improving Teddy’s dad’s company as a stand-in for fixing the world (and her own life). Teddy, on the other hand, has detached himself emotionally from his job, bruised by past disappointments. Chu’s couple find their solution in making small but significant changes to what’s immediate and reachable — relationships both romantic and otherwise. What they learn is that effort and hope have to work together: One without the other is never enough.
Lily Chu tackles a lot with THE TAKEDOWN, including toxic positivity, interfamilial racism, workplace struggles, and corporate diversity (plus resistance to same), all peppered through with fashion, interactive puzzles rooted in Toronto’s streetscape, and the difficulty of making new friends in your 30s.
Sometimes the balancing act plays off big time, each element handled with both the sensitivity it deserves and the panache fiction demands. Sometimes it slows the pacing down as key plot points only click into place farther into the narrative than they should, given their importance.
The result is absolutely worth reading: emotional, topical, considered, and rewarding on multiple levels. I loved it. Just don’t go in expecting a fast-paced, two- or three-track story. Save it when you’re in the mood for something to say and a tendency to spread out while it says it.
I’ll also note that Lily Chu is a present tense writer who leans HARD into the past perfect, which is one of my least favourite things in all of literature. (Dear present tense writers: just use regular past tense for flashbacks & suchlike! It flows so much better!) When I’m willing to overlook that (or, okay, mention it as an addendum instead of a huge red flag), you know I enjoyed the book.
I really loved the author's debut, The Stand In, so I was really excited to read this one. This book tackles workplace racism and microaggressions amid white feminism and Boys Club™ culture. I loved all the discussions of sustainability in fashion, as well as Dee's desire to make change for the better. Her internal monologue of toxic positivity was difficult to read at times, but I was glad to see her growth through the end of the story. As for the love interest, I wasn't a huge fan, especially during the third act break. I really loved Alejandra's story and wish that she had a bigger role instead.
This book is a hot mess.
A relationship online with a lover
They meet at work and somehow wind up at the same company.
The main character's life is a quarter-life crisis with a job layoff and many negatives.
Work is the main setting here which is what most adults do every day we don't need to read about company life.
There's no conflict.
DNF at 20%. Thanks to colored pages tours, source books, and net galley.
This book is so bad it never should've been written.
I write long reviews and this one is just awful.
The prose is fine, and the voice is strong. I stopped after chapter 2 (4%) but it seems like 3 to 4 stars for the target audience.
Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the ARC.
The Takedown is a cute love story. Dee is an interesting character and i did enjoy the relationship between her and Teddy! It was fun seeing them work together and seeing Dee accept her feelings for him. I have read books by Lily Chu before and I really enjoyed them! The Takedown isn't one of my favorites but it was still a cute story! Thank you Colored Pages Book Tours, Lily Chu and Sourcebooks Casablanca for sharing this book with me!
What happens when you start your new job you find out that the guy you're crushing on is actually the CEO's son and the company you are working at has a huge diversity and misogyny issue? Drama. Dee Kwan loves her life, she's got her dream job, she's got a house she adores, and a very hot "nemesis" on her favorite online puzzle game. Yet that all takes a turn when her job is shut down, her parents and grandma move into her house, and now at her new job she is forced to clean up a scandal for an intimidating chic luxury fashion firm... and to top it off, when she finally meets her hot nemesis and starts falling for him... she discovers he is the heir to the CEO of the problematic company she is working at. Dee wants so badly to make a change at the fashion firm Celeste, but with so many superiors who are standing in her way and the constant battle to even get change for the bare minimum... Dee is fighting a battle she never thought she'd face. From dealing with terrible superiors, secretly dating the one guy who is off limits, and trying to find a way to fix the diversity and terrible practices of the company, Dee has her plate full. Her positive optimism can only take her so far before the cracks begin to show and when things get worse... Dee will have to see if she's willing to risk her job and the guy she's falling for, to do the right thing. I loved the author's previous two books and this one felt like a departure from the other two as this one was less romantic and much more job drama. It started off really cute and I did love Dee and Teddy together, yet the romance kind of fell off into the background and took a step back to the job drama that Dee was going through. This didn't feel like a romance book, it felt much more like women's fiction and I feel like if I had known that going in I would have held my expectations more. The story itself was okay, I just felt like I was expecting a romance and I barely got one. I did like that the book addresses diversity issues in companies and the practices that some companies have, and I also had fun with the fashion industry element, I just kind of wish there was a bit more. It's a good contemporary book for sure, I just think you should know what to expect before going in so you don't get the wrong hopes up.
*Thanks Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS Casablanca | Sourcebooks Casablanca for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*
I loved the last book I read by this author so I was excited to read this one. It was a good read - a lot of issues were tackled. I just wish there was more romance. All in all a great read.
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!