Review: Make Up Break Up

Title: Make Up Break Up
Author: Lily Menon
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: February 2, 2021
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Love, romance, second chances, fairy-tale endings…these are the things Annika Dev believes in. Her app, Make Up, has been called the “Google Translate for failing relationships.” 

High efficiency break-ups, flashy start-ups, penthouses, fast cars…these are the things Hudson Craft believes in. His app, Break Up, is known as the “Uber for break-ups.” It’s wildly successful—and anathema to Annika’s life philosophy.

Which wouldn’t be a problem if they’d gone their separate ways after that summer fling in Las Vegas, never to see each other again. Unfortunately for Annika, Hudson’s moving not just into her office building, but into the office right next to hers. And he’ll be competing at the prestigious EPIC investment pitch contest: A contest Annika needs to win if she wants to keep Make Up afloat. As if it’s not bad enough seeing his irritatingly perfect face on magazine covers when her own business is failing. As if knowing he stole her idea and twisted it into something vile—and monumentally more successful—didn’t already make her stomach churn.

As the two rival app developers clash again and again—and again—Annika finds herself drawn into Hudson Craft’s fast-paced, high velocity, utterly shallow world. Only, from up close, he doesn’t seem all that shallow. Could it be that everything she thought about Hudson is completely wrong? Could the creator of Break Up teach her what true love’s really about?

Review:

Annika Dev is developing an app called Make Up, which will study conversations between partners and show them how to fix their relationships. Hudson Craft moves into the office down the hall from her. His app is called Break Up, which is a service that will send someone to your partner to break up with them for you. Hudson and Annika had a spontaneous fling in Vegas in the previous summer. She told him about her idea for an app and then he stole her idea to make an app to break people up. Now, they’re not only neighbors but they’re also competing for an investment that Annika needs to save her company from bankruptcy. They have to figure out how to put their differences behind them to create successful businesses.

‘Hate to love’ is one of my favourite romance tropes. There was a lot of tension between Annika and Hudson right from the beginning. Annika had strong feelings against Hudson immediately. I wasn’t sure why she hated him so much, and the complete details of what happened between them wasn’t revealed until the final pages. Her feelings would have made more sense if their first encounter was described earlier in the story.

The final quarter of the story was very intense and emotional. There were very high, exciting parts and some low, devastating parts as well. The plot became much more solid as it progressed. There were some things that were revealed in the final parts, such as the details of Annika and Hudson’s first encounter, which would have been better if they were revealed at the beginning.

This was a good ‘hate to love’ romance. I’m looking forward to reading Lily Menon’s next romances!

Thank you St. Martin’s Griffin for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Have you read Make Up Break Up? What did you think of it?