Thank you so much to Netgalley and RB Media for allowing me to listen to The Takeover audiobook!

Oh wow… this book. The Takeover is about a young business owner who finds out that her business is being bought. Turns out that the top spot for buying is her high school arch-nemesis. Funny enough, books like this are actually really fun to listen to, and even though this book was not my favorite, I listened to it in 2 days. The narrator was fantastic but the story had so many issue from a listener’s standpoint… the main guy, Jay, is awful and so selfish. I hated how Nami stopped hating him, because he was finally being nice. I guess there’s a fine line between hate and love????? Anyways, I did not root for this relationship at all, and I truly feel like these two will fail at marriage. They literally just like each other for their looks and their challenge. Not my favorite trope. I give this 2.5 stars. The dad and grandma were by far my favorite characters, so they brought laughter and cuteness to the story.

I got this audiobook as an ARC, and I can honestly say that I loved it. Just the right amount of humor and sassy romance. The characters are believable and just meant to be. Great enemies to lovers book that reads so quickly. Also, I loved the mix of cultures in this book that are often underrepresented. Interested in reading more from this author!

Oh and I really need to try that chair.

THE TAKEOVER
By: Cara Tanamachi
Narrated by: Donald Chang and Chieke Hidaka
Pages: 304
St Martin Publishing Group
Publication date January 30, 2024
#romcom, #humor, #contemparyromance

This book is the ULTIMATE hate crush story. Fall in love with Nami and Jae Lee through the lively narration by Donald Chang and Chieke Hidaka in this story of corporate takeovers, meddling parents and spicy Ramen.

Nami has always excelled in everything she has done but she was never a cool and popular kid like Jae. All bets are off when these two rivals must negotiate the business deal of their lifetime.

4.25 out of 5 stars

I absolutely adored this audiobook! I had such a good time reading this book and enjoyed hearing the characters on the audiobook. I enjoyed the fact that the author took the time to explain the rivalry from their high school days. I thought that was a great extra layer of tension and contempt between the two MC's. The way the relationship unfolded felt a little fast but natural nonetheless. It would have felt off if they had not known each other previously. I also really enjoyed the way the author fleshed out the side characters. All of the characters felt 3 dimensional and that they had a purpose. The office chair shenanigans definitely stole the show for me. Overall, I consumed this book over the course of two days and it was fabulous. The audio narrators were great and everything felt immersive.

Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for this book in exchange for an honest review.

I made it 25% through this one. While I loved the story a lot, the male narrator sounded too much like Gronk from The Emporer's New Groove for me to continue. The performance felt so dramatically evil and condescending, and I just don't feel that's what the author meant the voice to feel like. I appreciate so much the representation and attempt to match voices with lived experience with the characters they are portraying. The male narration is over-acted and truly distracted me away from the importance of the character.

Aside from the performance, I was really into this story and fully plan to finish this with my eyeballs instead of my ears one day in the near future. But the audio was not for me and is getting a DNF @ 25%.

I honestly did not know what to expect with this book. I did enjoy the banter and cute situations. The repetitiveness of the company's name started to drive me a little crazy. The male narrator was fantastic, the woman was just okay for me. The concept of the book was cute and entertaining enough but I am not sure it is a book that will stay with me forever. I did love learning about the culture and how things and expectations are a little different. Also, I love ramen so points for that scene!

This had some good banter but it did feel a little childish at times. I also felt like the shift from being "enemies" to a straight up couple happened too fast. Also, the solution to the main problem in this book felt very anticlimactic. All in all it was a quick, fast paced read.

*Thank you netgalley for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review*

Thank you NetGalley for an ALC of The Takeover in exchange of my honest opinion.

The takeover follows two high executives that are dealing with an acquisition but were also childhood nemesis.
Nami is one of the founders of this tech company that is not turning profits. She strives to have a good work ethic and being a good boss to her employees, but that came with a cost of not having enough time to dedicate to personal matters. Everything changes when her company receives an offer to a merger from an Amazon-like company and the one that is dealing with the merger is her (very hot) childhood nemesis.

I liked seeing Nami and Jae’s relationship with their own family. Here it shows that their migrant Asian families have a complicate dynamics with unspoken expectations that sometimes is impossible to achieve. Both Nami and Jae, feels that they can’t make their parents proud and struggles with proper communications. This was a very interesting topic approached and I liked how the conflict was solved in Jae’s family but I thought it was left open ended to Nami’s family

The whole environment of the tech company and side characters that are Nami’s co-workers were very funny and the whole chair incident was hilarious in my opinion.


The relationship between the main couple though started as enemies to lovers but the transition to lovers part was too abruptly in my opinion and the third act breakup was like “can’t you read my mind?” Type of issue that I’m growing tired of it.

Although I liked the narration, I thought sometimes it felt a bit clunky.

Overall it was a light and easy read with the main characters having their own issues that they worked it out. The pacing of the book was great and it was hard to put it down.

This was a fun, enjoyable, and quick listen! If you love a workplace romance, enemies to lovers, and women in STEM/entrepreneur representation you will enjoy this book. As a romance it took almost 35% of the novel to get to any real interaction between our two main characters, so I kept feeling like I was waiting for things to get going. Once they did I really enjoyed the story!

A super quick listen and it was a cute story. You have a women in the IT business with a second chance romance. For me, the narrator fell a bit flat but I did enjoy the characters. I was able to listen to this one in one day and for that reason I enjoyed it. Im just not sure this was a book for me. The spice was minimal which is fine but I do enjoy more buildup. The romance felt a bit rushed.

Rivals to lovers done right. I was a little apprehensive in the beginning of the book because work place romance can get so wrong so fast but The Takeover was a breath of fresh air. This book has its finger on the pulse and delivers a realistic look into romance in your 30s. Kudos!

I will be filming a TikTok and posting my review on Goodreads!

A quick, easy enemies-to-lovers read. Nami and Jae were high school rivals that are still obsessed with one-upping each other as 30 year olds.

I found Jae to be unlikeable. He picks at Nami, intentionally calling her a nickname she resents, because he’s bored and wants some excitement in his life. When his family learned of why he was in contact with Nami every single one of them told him how poorly he was behaving.

Nami expected everyone else to make wonderful decisions all the time and got upset with them if they didn’t make the same choice she would’ve made.

The story was well paced and lighthearted. I appreciated that the characters had realistic flaws and had logical consequences for their actions. I do think that the evolution from enemies to lovers felt rushed.

I had a difficult time with the lack of emotion in the narrator for Nami. I thought Jae’s narrator did a better job of this.

Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for allowing me to review this audiobook.

I had the pleasure of listening to the audiobook of The Takeover and although I do prefer to read along/read the book I really enjoyed this story. Loved that this was dual POV and both narraters were engaged in the story. This was the first time I've ever just listened to an audiobook just itself and I was able to easily follow along with the story.

The story follows 30 y/o Nami who at this point in her life is not satisfied where she is. She had expected to be married and have a successful career instead- she ended her engagement with has no current prospects of love and her tech company which she helped start is losing it's funding. Her wish for her 30th bday is to find her soulmate. Then comes along her high school rival, Jae who comes back into her life working for a company who wants to buy her tech company. Nami was not expecting that her wish to find a soulmate would lead her to her rival.

I love being able to read a book and feel a connection with a character(s)- and this was how it made me feel when I read/listened to this book. As an Asian American I felt that I could relate to both of the main characters. I recommend this book if you are looking for contemporary romance, rivals to lovers, force proximity, and open to/want to read elements of Asian family cultural values (which both characters do experience- which I loved to see).

I look forward to seeing other books that Cara plan to write in the future.

Audio Arc Review: The Takeover by Cara Tanamachi

I devoured this book and I absolutely loved it. The audiobook was well done and I'm already thinking about rereading it👏🏻 The bantering and tention between Nami and Jan Lee was entertaining and hot. Jan Lee is officially on my book boyfriend list💖 Also I loved the sub plot of the workplace pranks they played on Dale with his office chair😂

Thank you @netgalley for providing the arc, I loved it💕

Cute romcom with some fab tropes. Gave me ‘The Hating Game’ feels. Really enjoyed it, and enjoyed exploring these characters!

I was excited to listen/read this book as it seemed really fun story. But I cannot get past the female narrator voice. It’s not her voice but possibly the way it was recorded. It’s very choppy and sounds like a robot. Even when changing the speed it only made it slightly better.

The male narrator is considerably better but not enough to carry the entire book. The male narrator speed also seemed a lot slower than the female. I kept having to adjust the playing speed because it felt different when shifting pov.

I made it to the 10% mark but sadly the audio is distracting it’s driving me nuts and I’m unable to finish listening to it.

Rating: 3.5/5 (rounded down)
Format: ALC - audiobook
Narrators: Donald Chang & Chieko Hidaka (They two were perfect for these characters!)

Random Thoughts While Listening to The Takeover:
-FMC is relatable (love a tech/STEM girlie)
-wait...old school hip hop/rap is early 2000s?! 😩
-her birthday cake sounds delicious!
-ESL (English as a second language) rep!
-ooo yummy ramen 🤤🍜
-uh oh, and THIS is why I don’t like work place romances 😬

I recommend The Takeover if you like the following:
-Childhood enemies to lovers
-Workplace romance
-Asian FMC and MMC
-Witty banter

Please take note of the following TW:
-mention of parent’s death (heart attack)

Thank you Cara Tanamachi, NetGalley, RB Media and Recorded Books for allowing me to listen to this title!

🅑🅞🅞🅚 🅡🅔🅥🅘🅔🅦


the takeover by cara tanamachi

i love a workplace/enemies to lovers romance! so i was very interested in this book. the narrators were great, and I love when a dual pov book has multiple narrators. the banter was top tier and the slow(ish) burn of them realizing they were in love and had been for so long was so so fun. But the third act break up really hit deep. genuinely so hard to put down, i truly loved every moment of this read. nami and jae are such a great duo.

i lived in chicago for 5 years so it was fun to see this was set there, all the little details about the city were so fun for me and reminded me of my time there.


I received an advanced copy of the audiobook through Netgalley in return for an honest review.

This was a cute story. This was a witty rivals-to-lovers to romance book where he (Jae) falls first and she (Nami) just can’t help but be pulled in. The dual perpective story telling gives us good insight into each of the characters and what drives them. The banter between Jae and Nami was fun - and that Ramen scene was laugh out loud. The chemistry between the two was palpable and you couldn’t help but root for them. The sex scenes were tastefully executed. I logged the tech world in the story and that there was a decent representation of women in the field.
I was glad for the dual POV in the read so as not to be in the dark when it came to the driving factor of the third-act break up. When that did come, I was disappointed with Nami’s reaction at the end and how quickly she wrote him off and then the resolution felt too quick. Maybe it’s just me, but if something occurs that is such a major betrayal as to cause a break-up in the first place, then I usually like it to take more that a couple of pages to resolve. I hoped she would be more understanding and they could have worked together to fix things.
I listened to the audiobook for this one and was split on it. While I really enjoyed Jae’s narrator, I struggled with my engagement during the narration of Nami’s part. The narration there fell flat for me.
Many thanks to NeGalley and Recorded Books for a review copy of the audiobook. The opinions expressed are honest and my own.

While I was initially drawn in by the promising premise and the diverse cast, this book ultimately didn't resonate with me. I’m not particularly into overly competitive characters, and this is a central theme in the story. Nami's incessant jealousy and single-minded pursuit of being the best grated on my nerves to the point where I almost considered abandoning the book.

Jae, the other protagonist, was passable but failed to leave a lasting impression.

The entire rivalry between the two main characters felt contrived and silly at times. Almost childish.

The narration, particularly the female voice, was somewhat robotic. And I know this might be a minor detail for most, but the mispronunciation of Danish designer Hans J. Wagner's name, where the W should be pronounced like a V, pulled me out of the book every time. As a designer myself, this made me cringe, HARD.

This book aspired to capture the essence of "The Hating Game," but fell short. Here's the thing, if you are a reader who appreciates intense rivalries in a romantic setting, then this might be right for you, but it wasn't the right fit for me.

.Enemies to lovers
.Highschool nemesis
.Workplace
.Diverse characters
.Caretaking