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

Thank you to NetGalley, Cara Tanamachi, and RB Media for sharing this audiobook with me in exchange for my honest review. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

Friends, I'm sad to say this enemies to lovers book was just not for me. I'm usually a big fan of these books, but this one felt too familiar, and a bit forced.

2.5 STARS

I loved the book.
I'm super happy I picked it up.

The characters have had a rivalry since they were teenagers, and although they remain competitive, they see it as a good thing, and their relationship begins from then on.
I loved the way we were introduced into the lives of the characters and it was fantastic how they were reconnecting, still having the rivalry from the past, but the feelings of teenage years, which had not been identified, starting to emerge.
I really liked the adult way in which they deal with and talk about things, and they see the past as the past, and even with sweetness, and that's why they let the youthfulness of the past enter and do things like bets on eating spicy food.
Was so fun.
I really loved the development of the book and the characters. It was something superb.
The Asian culture and the representation of different characters were felt, and it was really a great touch.

The narrators did an excellent job, I loved the voices and felt the characters through them. They involved me in the story and made me experience what the characters were going through.

I really loved the book.
Highly recommended for those who love rivalry between characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Griffin for an arc!
⭐⭐⭐/5

On Nami's 30th birthday, she’s reminded at every turn that her life isn’t what she planned. Her sister, Sora, is getting married to the man of her dreams, Jack, and instead of being happy for her, as she knows she ought to be, she’s fighting off jealousy. Frustrated with her life, she makes a wish on a birthday candle to find her soulmate. Instead, the universe delivers her hate mate, Nami’s old high school nemesis, Jae Lee, the most popular kid from high school, who also narrowly beat her out for valedictorian. More than a decade later, Jae is still as effortlessly cool, charming, and stylish as ever, and, to make matters worse, is planning a hostile take-over of her start-up. sharp elbows and even sharper banter as the two go head-to-head to see who’ll win this time. But when their rivalry ignites a different kind of passion, Nami starts to realize that it's not just her company that's in danger of being taken over, but her heart as well.

This was a quick and easy romantic read! The characters were likable. This book is a nice, quick, lighthearted read!

Publication date: January 30, 2024

This was such a great romance. I really enjoyed the narrator and I finished this book in one day. Five stars!

The Takeover by Cara Tanamachi was a cute enemies-to-lovers rom-com. The protagonist was Nami whose archnemesis in school was Jae. Jae came back into her life after her 30th birthday, as the company that he worked for was in negotiations to buy out the company that she owned with two other stakeholders. She despised that company, a thinly veiled indictment of corporate practices of the synonym for “Rainforest” that we all know and love. Nami’s true aim was to better the lives of all around her, and “Rainforest” was known for hostile takeovers that ended in complete dismantling of that acquisition. Nami did not want this to happen to her coworkers, whom she saw as her chosen family.

Through twists and turns, featuring Carolina Reapers, 13% ABV cask ale, tennis serves, and amazing boy band moves, Nami and Jae begin to see the Pride and Prejudice-ness of their former assumptions about the other. Slowly, the ice wall begins to melt.

This book was so cute and suuuuper funny, especially the bits about the Wegner Swivel!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and RB Media for the audio ARC!

The Takeover was sadly a disappointment for me. I love any kind of romantic comedy so I was excited for this but I failed to like or connect with either of the two main characters, Nami and Jae.

Nami is the CEO of a start-up that is unfortunately failing and is not able to get funding. They are looking to be acquired by a big company that Jae works for. Nami and Jae were old school rivals and now they are on opposite sides of a business deal. Nami doesn’t want to sell and Jae wants nothing more than to buy out companies like Nami’s.

They both are just too much of a business stereotype that I couldn’t get attached to either one of them. Nami treats her employees like they are family and Jae calls himself a wolf and wants to eat small businesses. It was just too annoying for me.

Jae and Nami hate each other and are horrible to each other until they are not. There was no transition from enemies to lovers it just happened and was not all that believable.

The book did have a lot of redeeming qualities to make it worth finishing but not connecting with either of the main characters made it a little rough for me.

3.5 stars - A charming enemies to lovers story! The level of genuine hatred that Nami has for Jae almost turned me off the story and made it hard to like him through the first half of the book, but I'm glad I pressed on.

The rivalry started in school, but now their job paths have crossed and they are forced by family to get to know one another again without any prejudices.

Nami's co-workers and the entire work environment made my nerd-heart so happy, and I especially loved all of the Star Trek references throughout the story as well.

This was a very quick and cute romance read. It had cute banter, quirky elements, and secondary storylines that added human qualities. I wasn't in love with either main character, but I also couldn't tell you what I didn't like about them. Beyond their current jobs and a small history of their high school interactions, there was little detail about who these people were. Other characters in the book had small things that made me love them (think the chair war, lotr and startrek, prom wedding), but the main characters were just lovers/enemies without substance. I appreciated how quickly the story started and it didn't have a huge twist or falling out in the third act. My biggest complaint about the book was the repetition (hall monitor, we hate/welove, evil jobs, lake michigan). As a Chicago native I was disappointed the only two landmarks mentioned on repeat were the Lake and the Loop. It was very enjoyable overall and I would recommend it to others.


I read the audiobook and I would not recommend that route. Both narrators used pacing and intonation that aged the characters and made them unlikable. Some of the generational phrasing and pronunciation was off. I think a digital or physical copy might have been a better route for me.

Big thanks to the author and NetGalley for this ARC! I look forward to more from this author in the future.

#NetGalley #TheTakeover

This book was so embarrassingly cringe. If you are an older millennial, maybe you’ll like this more than I did. However, I am only 3 years younger than the FMC, and I found her cheugy-ness to be off the charts insufferable. There was no point where I found myself wondering what would happen next. This book was so predictable it was boring. The fake companies meant to mirror real life companies were painful (Rainforest = Amazon, etc).

I honestly considered DNFing when I was less than 2% in, but since it was short, I gave it a chance. Maybe I shouldn’t have.

This book earns 2 stars rather than one because the writing was still well done, despite hating almost everything that was written. If you enjoyed The Hating Game by Sally Thorne, you might like this book as well.

As far as the audiobook goes, the female narrator was echoey. The male narrator made some interesting choices when it came to the ~hot and heavy~ scene (was the “sexy” whispering necessary??).

I am so thankful to be given advanced copies in exchange for honest reviews; I am sorry that sometimes I have to actually be very honest. Thank you to RB Media and Netgalley for this advanced copy.

Never wish for what you want for you just might get it should be the tagline for this book. This was mostly a fun enemies to lovers listen that is filled with humor and wit as well as the anticipated happily ever after. I loved that Nami (female main character) was portrayed as a strong smart woman in a leadership position in positive manner. The writing was riotous and often had me cracking up. Enter or rather, reenter Jae her high school nemesis. The snark flies and the chemistry sizzles. Along with a great supporting cast and wonderful narration it was an enjoyable listen. The reason I rated didn’t rate higher was that I was somewhat bothered how quickly the book wrapped up. It went from total devastating betrayal to forgiveness and HEA in a few scant minutes (audiobook so probably a few paragraphs in the physical book). Would have liked more about that part of Nami and Jae’s story.

Tried to give this a really fair shake, but the ebook version has no quotation marks, making it incredible difficult to read, and the audiobook was also difficult to follow. I'll try this one again when it's out in print! I really do love the premise!

This was just arlight to me. Very average, but nothing I absolutely HATED, and nothing I absolutely loved. In a romance read, I need to fall in love with the characters, and unfortunately, here I just didn't do that.

What I will say worked well was the banter between the two main characters, but I still didn't see them as a romantic couple. I did appreciate that the female main character is the boss of a tech company. I love when authors give women powerful positions.

Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to listen to this arc in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I tried to give this book a chance. To understand and relate to the characters. It’s a mix of the writing and the story I found the characters to be absolutely unbearable.

Alas, not quite a new favourite, but a very solid romcom nevertheless (with outstanding audio narration!). I think people that liked the dynamic of You've Got Mail (alas, indeed, without eponymous mail element), or have a keenness for rivals to lovers as a trope, you're very likely going to enjoy this book. Banter and tension? The Takeover is your book, as the way the two protagonists hold their own against one another and push each other's buttons in a way that only true equals can is exemplary.
A very solid, fun read to pass the time!

I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook of the Takeover by Cara Tanamachi, advanced copy courtesy of RB Media via NetGalley. It's a heartwarming and funny tale featuring Nami and Jae Lee, skillfully brought to life by the talented voice actors. The characters, once high school rivals, get thrust back together through work, and the banter ensues. These two have a competitive nature that drives the plot. The well-rounded story evokes such a wide range of emotions, and the side story involving Del's chair was everything I didn’t know I needed. Overall, a delightful and easy-to-love listening experience.

This is an enemies-to-lovers romance where the woman is the boss of a tech company, who is loved by her employees, while he's a ruthless business man in charge of acquisitions. He's coming to buy her company and she does not want to let that happen, especially not to him.

The overall story: The premise was quite fun, but the arc of the story was so clear that it was too predictable. In romance stories, we already know they end up together, so why make the rest of the plot predictable, too?

The characters: They both felt quite immature. I think making Nami and Jae's rivalry high-school based and having them still hung up on that was unfortunate. They both went to law school and the situation of the takeover was a good enough reason for them to be enemies. The valedictorian conflict just felt silly. For me to be rooting for a relationship, I need to find the characters compelling and believable; I felt neither thing reading this.

The writing style: This book was packed full of cliche phrases. Everything was written in the most basic way, reminding me a bit of how middle grade book characters talk. And if it was just the character dialogue, I could attribute this to their bland personalities, but the narration also had tons of them.

The audiobook narration: I think the narration had a big impact on my enjoyment of this book. This is going to sound harsh, but if I had bought this audiobook, I would've returned it and either DNFd the book or gotten the ebook. The female narrator, Chieko Hidaka, never let me forget she was reading a book. I did not feel the character was embodied by the narrator. The voice acting felt stiff and disingenuous. The male narrator, Donald Chang, was better at embodying his character and I could picture him more clearly.

Overall: I would've preferred to read this story as an ebook or physical book because something about hearing the dozens of cliche phrases per chapter made me cringe quite hard. The story had its enjoyable moments, but I did not have a good time listening to this.

This was a lot of fun, I enjoyed the rivalry and banter between Nami & Jae. I really liked the pacing of this novel as well. I loved the ramen challenge, and the missing chair.

Nami was a frustrating character, and her fixation on "good vs evil" got old quickly. I don't know if any business is ever truly "good" and her workplace sounded unrealistic. She also refused to take any action or acknowledge any hard truths, due to not wanting to lose her work family. I found this intense attachment to her workplace to be really unhealthy, and I wish the story addressed some of this, rather than having the perfect solution seemingly come from nowhere.

AUDIO NOTES:
Chapter 4, ~2:34, mispronunciation of 'intimidating"
Chapter 12, ~5:05 mispronunciation of 'frappe"

This was a solid read. I’d say it’s a 4 because of how invested I was in the story. I read this in one sitting. The banter was entertaining. But I did have some minor issues with the characters. They were a bit unlikeable. Jae was annoying.

I don’t typically expect too much from romance books in the way of the plot. They all pretty much follow the same format. Don’t get me wrong, it’s one of my favorite genres. However I do appreciate when the author can take the story and make it their own or add memorable points into it. Sadly I felt The Takeover fell a little flat. Although it was entertaining enough to finish it, I don’t feel like it had anything that really stood out to me. None of the characters grabbed me and made me want to love them.