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.

This was not for me at all. I love a goofy rom com, but this was cringe city and read like capitalism fanfic. Both Nami and Jae felt incredibly immature, especially since they were THIRTY years old and actively nursing a high school rivalry. The romance between the two wasn’t terrible, Enemies to lovers is my favorite romance trope and some of their sparring was fun, but I was in misery reading ad nauseam about the Amazon stand-in and the AirBNB stand-in and the crypto and the stolen desk chair and on and on and on. Also the unironic and frequent use of “girlboss” - no ❤️.

Thanks to NetGalley and RB Media for the advanced copy.

This is a enemies to lovers romance. It fell a little short for me. I liked they had a history from high school and always had issues. But the why he showed up again and how it just didn't sit well with me. And for that I could never get onboard for the romance and if the why they got around each other again was different like it wasn't him that wanted to go after the work part but someone else and he was just there and was like omg I know her. Maybe but it just wasn't for me

Thanks to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press for this audioARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Overall Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Witty, Nerdy, Sassy, Enemies to Lovers, “He falls first” and banter that will make you chuckle, The Takeover has a little bit of everything. This is the story of Nami and Jae, old high school nemesis reunited once again for an epic throwdown when Nami’s start-up is on verge of collapse and Jae is her only hope to save it. But with a twist it might turn out they save each other.

Just like Nami’s feelings towards Jae, I have a love-hate relationship with this book. While I did genuinely enjoy the banter between Jae and Nami as well as the rest of the hilarious shenanigans the Toggle employee group gets into, the love, romance and passion part of this felt very stale and boring. Especially when you have the tropes “enemies to lovers” and “he falls first” involved, I felt really bored with how they fell for each other. Moreover, I had love-hate feelings about the narration for both parts. Jae's narrator gave me a glimpse of what could have been a passionate narration but Nami’s narrator was a voice I had to grow to like; in conjunction with a romance that was lacking, the overall experience was underwhelming. Hence the reasoning for a 3.5 rating.

This was a story that left me wanting more but not in the way most romances do. However, this was a fun romcom if you don’t go in with high expectations. The banter alone is what kept me going and there were some genuinely hilarious scenes (the ramen and the beer garden scenes especially). So, give this one a try but be warned the narration is lacking.

Finally, I leave you with my favorite quote from this one “is this how I like my men? Maimed and vulnerable?” Like come on this is so funny and real.

Absolutely had me at enemies to lovers.

These cute nerds were academic rivals/ enemies in high school and have found themselves on the opposite ends of a business acquisition as adults.

This was fun quick read full of nerdy pop culture references and high family expectations with both MCs.

The tension was great! The plot was quick and pretty believable. It was a great time.

Thanks to NetGalley and RB Media for an advanced listening copy.

This was a fun quick read. I fully submerged into this story line and didn’t come up for breath until the last page. Actually, I received this in audiobook format and I am grateful because the narration was great and I was able to listen to it in one day. There is enemies to lovers, quick witty banter, and humorous cultural references that I so enjoy about rom coms. I especially loved the ramen scene. This is a definite must read if you like fun and light.

thank you Netgalley for the advanced copies.

Thank you RB Media, Recorded Books and NetGallery for the advanced copy of the audiobook.

This was unfortunately a DNF for me at 38%. I could not get past the narration for the FMC. I found her to be too serious and lacked any emotion or personality - even when delivering what would have been funny lines. The narration for the MMC was fine. I might try to pick up the physical copy of this book when it's released.

I did not like the narration for this audiobook. DNF around 25% just couldn’t get past the narrator. Her voice was just not for me

I very much appreciate the opportunity to listen to this book. Unfortunately it fell flat for me and was rated 1 star. I do love a good enemy to lovers rom com book. The main characters Jae does even seem like he is a good guy. He spends the majority of the book boasting about being a "wolf" and a jerk. He is mean to Nami and is very high schoolish. I have no idea what Nami's job actually does because the book doesn't really explain much about it, just talks about how awesome of a boss she is. I felt like the author was trying to make the characters talk too formally and it didn't fit with the type of book she was writing.

It had a lot of potential, but it just wasn't there for me.

The Takeover 📚🎧 Review 3.5⭐️. Thank you @netgallery for the ARC audio of this book. Enemies to Lovers and when he falls first are the two main tropes of this rom com. I did find the plot to be predictable and there’s no doubt what company “Rainforest” is mimicking. The banter and family connections rang true. I especially enjoyed the stolen chair. The quality of the audiobook was lacking a bit with an echo in the background, but the narrators were excellent. This book is indeed for anyone who liked The Hating Game.

Thank you, Netgalley, for this advanced copy of The Takeover Audio.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book. I got almost halfway and skimmed through the audio and listened to the last few chapters.

This audio was not great. The narrators were bland and didn't really bring the story to life. That being said, maybe I would have liked the book if I read it. With the lack of connection to the characters from the narrators, it was hard to connect. I also felt like the MFC complained about everything and blamed every downfall on turning 30 and it made me sad to see everyone putting in the effort for her and she was oblivious because it wasn't done her way. I had zero connection to the mmc. He was extremely mean and kept referencing to himself as a wolf that eats pigs in the business. It was hard to see why she would even like him. I couldn't really get into the enemies' to lovers part because their problems happened in high school. It seemed unrealistic, and then they went from 0-100, and that seemed off.

Overall, I'm extremely sad not to have liked this because the idea was cute. I thought we were going to get an amazing success story about people of color owning businessss with a competitive romance story. My advice would be to stay clear of the audio.

I absolutely love this! The writing was great, and the characters were fantastic!! I will definitely be picking up more from this author!

Right off the bat, I really loved the energy between the two protagonists and I really appreciated the energy put behind creating their backstory. Most authors will world build very quickly, causing an overload of information, but Tanamachi eased into the backstory so lovely. I also would love to highlight the way the story steered heavily away from the workplace being the focus when Nami and Jae Lee fall into their relationship fully. It truly highlighted the feeling of falling in love, where everything else falls away. I truly did enjoy the story and the characters.

Thank you RB Media, Recorded Books and NetGallery for the advanced copy of the audiobook.

This book: It took me about 4 chapters to get into the book but in the end I really enjoyed it! This book is an enemies to lovers trope. Great banter between the main characters, laughed out loud with a few scenes!

Narrators: Enjoyed the dual narration between Donald Chang and Chieko Hidaka.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3 Stars

Would give a 3.5 if I could give .5 on netgalley! Cute enemies to lovers story, and a quick listen! I think I would have preferred to read a physical version of this, but I appreciate the audio-arc!

Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media, Recorded Books for the audiobook version of this book. I do not work for or affiliated with NetGalley or RB Media, Recorded Books. I am not compensated for my review. Everything I write is my own personal thoughts, feelings, and opinions.

This was a fun quick enemies to lovers trope! The witty banter between the two main characters is great! Then add in some spicy scenes! Do not listen to parts of this book when young ears are around.

Overall this was an amazing read!!

DNF at 50%…first DNF of 2024, but we’ll start with the bad first.

I really didn’t care the narrators of this book as they were totally not the voices that I was expecting for these characters/they didn’t give “body” to the characters in my opinion and the felt like they were reading a mundane report not a enemies to lover romcom. All that being said that didn’t really even factor into my rating because it was my fault not listening to a sample before requesting on NetGalley. My one big gripe is that I never really felt like they were truly enemies ever…and if they were it’s wild at 30 to be “rivals” with someone from HIGH SCHOOL🙃.

On a more positive note my favorite part, and the only saving grace of this book for me was trying to figure out what IRL companies were being parodied in the books ie “Rainforest” was Amazon.

I think this book had potential but it just really wasn’t for me in the end!

2.0⭐️

Special thanks to NetGalley, RB Media, and Recorded Books for the ALC in exchange for my honest opinion