Actual rating: 3.5 out of 5


Wow. I DEVOURED this book. This is such a fun, roller-coaster read! Honestly, it’s more like the ride where it’s a boat going back and forth, up and down.

Make Up Break Up is probably the best description of the Enemies to Lovers trope. Continuous bickering? Check. Sabotaging each other’s daily lives? Check. Saying THERE’S NO WAY you could have feelings for the other? Check. And then kissing them the next minute? HUGE CHECK. I honestly almost got tired of the back and forth between Annika and Hudson except I’m such a trash for books that makes you say, “Just say you love each other and kiss already!!!” Slow freaking burn, ILY.

We are given two main characters; one is Hudson, the CEO of Break Up and gorgeous faces (lol just kidding), and the other is Annika, the CEO of Make Up. One of the things that hooked me to the book is reading about Annika and June’s progress on Make Up. A business owned by women??? Sign me up please! I badly wanted to see them succeed. I loved the romance aspect, but I really didn’t want the focus to be on just that. The book did give the right attention to that part of the story, but I still felt like it was lacking.

I really wanted to read from Hudson’s perspective. I usually don’t mind single POVs but for this book, I wanted to know Hudson’s thoughts and the things he did on his side of the story. Especially whenever Annika was being super hard to like. Hudson’s such an interesting character and I feel like I didn’t get to know him as much as I wanted to because the book is only told on Annika’s view.

finding out one of my favorite young adult authors was writing an adult romance under a pseudonym was a great surprise!

the premise for this book reminded me of "the right swipe" by alisha rai and i was intrigued! a book about social media, dating apps specifically, is always interesting. i need more of these stories. the banter, the chemistry, the friendships; everything was perfect. i adored annika's relationship with her dad and her frienship with june; we all need a friend like june.
despite how fast things happened, i liked the way the romance blossomed. the semi fade to black scenes were just... wow lily did really well for this being her first adult romance novel. it took a while, but i'm glad i was eventually able to enjoy the story and all it's characters and their flaws.

i am looking forward to more adult romances from lily!

I really enjoyed this one! Will be a great recommendation for anyone looking for an enemies-to-lovers story. I can't wait to see what else Lily Menon comes out with.

Thank you NetGalley, Macmillian publishing, and Lily Menon for this Advanced reader copy of Make Up Break Up in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 3/5
Genre: Romance

My Thoughts: I loved the enemies to lovers concept of this book. I especially liked that Annika and Hudson had history-making the reasons why there were enemies make sense and fit into the plot well. Thought the chemistry between the two main characters was steamy and the angst was the just right amount. I loved the plotting and scheming was fun in the beginning but got bored with it about midway thru.

But I feel a tad conflicted about the book because I found Annika unlikeable. She took things too far.... especially with the sabotage. I think Hudson was having fun but you could tell deep down he cared about her. whereas Annika just was too self-absorbed, judgemental, and obsessed with beating Hudson she was oblivious to his feelings. I just could not connect with her as a character. I especially did not enjoy the ending as I feel it shows growth in only Hudson characters and none in Annika's

I also was not a big fan of the techy aspect of the book. Felt there was a little much time spent on the app and the whole logistics of the Make Up app was confusing as to how it would help people. Just thought it didn't add much to the book.

But nonetheless, I do think the book was entertaining, great writing and a great venture in adult romance. Think this could be a fun movie.

A fun enemies to lovers book!
I love when a hook up becomes more. There was a lot of hate since they are both trying to get their apps at the top and since both are different it made their banter even better.

The secondary characters helped make this story a little bit better since you can connect with them.

I wish the fall out at the end was better. He deserved a little more than what he got.

I thought this was a fun quick read.

What I liked: strong women in successful STEM careers, Hudson was swoon worthy, Annika's relationship with June and her father

What didn't work for me: Annika was SUPER judgmental of Hudson the entire time and would not relent to consider a viewpoint other than her own. It is actually surprising that he would hold out for her so long with how mean she was. There seemed to be other ways to solve the company's financial issues rather than wagering all on one competition.

Enemies to lovers is not one of my favorite tropes, but I didn't mind it Make Up Break Up. Hudson as a character is what kept me reading this book; I enjoyed learning more about his character and motivations as the book went on. Overall I think if Annika had been a more fully developed/ not black and white character this book would have come together much better.

If you enjoy

Enemies to lovers
Second chance romance
Reading about women in STEM
Books about entrepreneurship

this book may be for you!

Unfortunately, and I feel truly sad saying this, MAKE UP BREAK UP by Lily Menon fell flat for me.

Here’s what didn’t work for me:

> I feel the protagonists’ animosity towards each other was rooted in a failure to communicate;

> I felt Annika and Hudson’s behaviour was immature and I thought the pranks they pulled on each other to sabotage each other’s businesses bordered on being juvenile. Not the behaviour I expect from two highly educated smart adults;

> I was really skeptical about their business models. An app that allows you to hire someone to break up a relationship for you? An app that tells you how to fix communication issues with your loved one? I didn’t buy it;

> Most of the story did not add up. Supposedly, Annika’s business was financially struggling, yet she’s spending a fortune on lavish office parties throughout the book?

Overall, the book just wasn't for me.

Thank you so much @smpromance for an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

I really wanted to like this book! The premise seemed a lot of fun, unfortunately, there was an overwhelming amount of immaturity, mostly from the protagonist. DNF.

NetGalley provided a free copy to read and review.

Make Up Break Up by Lily Menon follows Annika Dev, a CEO of a dating app, who's app is described as “Google Translate for failing relationships". Meanwhile the CEO of a rival app, Hudson Craft, stands against everything Annika believes in. When Hudson moves into the office space next door from Annika, the two rival app developers clash again and again. Soon, 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.

This book was a really fun, fast read. I didn't really enjoy the main character, Annika. Throughout the book, she became a little more bearable but I found it hard to relate to her. I did however love Annika's relationship with her father and her best friend/developer. Overall, I would recommend this to readers who enjoy the enemies-to-lovers trope.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The blurb caught my attention, but sadly this book didn't work for me. I couldn't connect with the characters and their relationship, Annika annoyed me for most of the book and their conflict was a bit childish.

for a first adult romance I am throughly impressed! i understand that the author has wrote many YA books (which are on my TBR) but this book just told me how amazing they are at storytelling.

I definitely had some issues with the main couple with their attitude & some of the stuff they say which again leads to the main conflict being lack of communication/miscommunication. I still enjoyed their dynamics and this does have my favorite trope in it which is rivals to lovers so i truly loved it.

overall it was such a great first read of the year!! full review will be linked soon!!

I could not get into the story. I had a hard time connecting with the characters. Sadly this is a DNF for me.

Make up Break up a sweet endearing story of enemies to lovers, this one was a cute read. I liked that the main character was a female entrepreneur.

2.5 stars.

Make Up Break Up is an interesting enemies-to-lovers concept. Annika Dev and Hudson Craft spend one week in Vegas at a conference and connect and discuss their app ideas…and more naked things. Fast forward to now and they have competing apps: one for falling in love and making up and another that breaks up your relationship for you.

Annika was a little hard to enjoy. She was so antagonistic towards Hudson, claiming he stole her idea without any proof. And she was so blind. It was so clear that Hudson had fallen for her and was hurt by her ghosting him at after their week together. She just purposefully ignored what was obvious to all. But Hudson is not blameless, acting like a schoolboy pulling his crush’s pigtails for attention.

The technical information about their apps and it was refreshing to have a women led tech company. Her friend June was a breathe of fresh air in this grumpy novel. And Daddy Dev, Annika’s father, was likely my favorite character. He was a man devoted to his soulmate (even after her passing) and his daughter and not afraid to admit he was wrong and adjust his thinking.

There was a lot of potential with Make Up Break Up, but it didn’t hit the mark for me.

Enemies to lovers is a reader favourite in the genre, but where many authors make the "enemies" negligible, Menon doesn't hold back. This couple isn't one quickly shed misunderstanding away from getting together! The hero is arrogant and obsessive while openly relishing his contribution to the dating sphere: hiring proxies to coldly enact your breakup so you don't have to deal with those pesky things called feelings. Meanwhile, the heroine is petty, judgmental, laden with assumptions from first page to (almost) last, and downright vindictive. It's a fascinating choice since much of the conflict revolves her creating the idealistic "kind" app while her rival/LI creates the cynical "unkind" app. Yet she shows little kindness in her actions and thoughts and we never see any actual impact (beneficial or otherwise) from her app. Though her voiced intentions are noble, without seeing the app in action, it comes across much like his does: as a method of replacing meaningful, empathetic conversation with a high-tech shortcut. Why learn how to talk to each other when an app does it for you? I can't help but assume this is an intentional choice and one that's meant to make us think about whether anyone in the story is doing anything to aid society or whether they're all bound up in gimmicks and self-interest. As someone who loves a meaty theme braided with the fun and flirtation, this gave me something to chew on. There's plenty of physical attraction on the page and I appreciated that we see a couple form in which the man displays no intimidation about the woman's ambition. Her career drive is one of the things he admires most about her, and I think we can use more stories where a woman's success isn't in service to a man's success. For this reader, a true genre HEA means they both find success. If you like your enemies-to-lovers stories with grey morality and lots of bite, this one's for you!

Make Up Break Up started off strong. I loved the friendship between Annika and June. Also, as a woman in STEM, I'm always excited to see protagonists in the field, and a creator no less. I ended up not finding Annika very likable. She can be harsh and rash, and it wasn't my cup of tea, but if you enjoy unlikeable protagonists, then you'll like Annika. I was also initially intrigued to see Annika and Hudson finally end up together, but I felt that there was too much back and forth. Annika just seemed unable to overcome her animosity at points and I just wanted to tell her to move on! If you relish in lots of challenges in the enemies to lovers trope then you'll enjoy this one.

Loved everything about this book. The fact that it's about app start up companies. Loved that we get to see females in the tech world. Love it! Annika is amazing. A businesswoman who is trying to make her idea work while fighting conflicting feelings for Hudson. Hudson is a bit of a conundrum at times but under it all he's a simple man in love. Enjoyed this so much!⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I really wanted to love this book. I'd read one of the YA books by this author and had high hopes because of it, but Make Up Break Up was really rough for me.

This is an enemies to lovers story about two competing relationship app CEOs. Or maybe a lovers to enemies to lovers story? Annika and Hudson met at a conference and spend the week together. That's the back story. Fast forward and he's the successful CEO of Break Up, an app that allows users to send others to break up for them. Annika helms, Make Up, an app that will act as a phone relationship counselor if she can get it off the ground before she goes bankrupt (right away I was scratching my head because I can't imagine wanting a phone to act as in intermediary in my relationship, but I'm not an early embracer of tech, so I let that go). She thinks Hudon's app is cruel and also believes he stole his idea from her.

So here's the first problem. I have no idea why she thinks he stole her idea. They seem like completely different concepts to me and she never explains her reasoning well enough for me to follow. Second problem, and this is a big one, Annika is completely unlikeable. She's mean to Hudson at every turn, tries to sabotage things for him in ways that aren't clever enough to even be interesting or fun, and she comes off as a completely self-centered character billed as incredibly smart, when she doesn't really seem all that smart. She's outraged when her landlord threatens to evict her, saying he can't do that even though she hasn't paid rent. Her best friend and developer seems to be the one doing all the work. And ultimately, Annika doesn't really have a character arc. When all is said and done, all the characters she's had conflict with agree that she was right and I don't really see any growth from her, a character that really could have used some.

I also found the writing distracting. Lines like "She smelled the warm fragrance of his skin wrap around her like a cloak" pulled me out of the story. You can't smell the act of wrapping and lines like this or repeated words happened frequently and left me hoping there'd be another editorial pass.

The one thing I did like about this book was Hudson, but I struggled throughout to figure out why he liked Annika. And his secret motivation for starting the app was obvious to me from the beginning of the book.

Even though this book wasn't for me, I think readers who enjoyed The Trouble With Hating You will probably like this story. It has a lot of similar elements and I know that one was very popular last year. And I fully understand how hard it is to write a book and that not every book is for everyone so I won't post this review anywhere but here. Thanks for the opportunity to read this advanced copy.

Overall this book is fun. It's a sort of enemies to lovers / second chance romance. Annika and Hudson met at a conference in Vegas and spent an amazing week together. They went their separate ways until nearly a year later when Hudson's company moves into the same building as Annika's. Both have a relationship app that come from opposite sides. Annika's app is geared towards helping people with communication so they can get through troubles in their relationship and stay together. Hudson's app helps people break it off with one another quickly and easily.

This book had a lot of strengths. There is definite chemistry between the two characters. I liked how both were heads of their business and had real goals. The banter was mostly great. I really liked Hudson. You could read between the lines to see how he really felt about Annika and I found him mostly fun and sweet.

Annika was a bit tougher. I didn't like how she treats anyone. She is fairly self-centered through the entire book. She uses her best friend mostly when she needs something done for the app or to help her carry out her pranks. Annika also comes across as a bit condescending and judgmental...especially with Hudson. He gives up a lot in the end and it just didn't sit quite right with me. I understand that they author was trying to make a point in what he was gaining but it didn't come off all together for me. In addition, when they hooked up there was zero mention of protection. This omission reads as super irresponsible and not what I want to see in a contemporary..

That being said, this book was enjoyable. I did laugh and found myself wanting to keep reading. I think with a bit more polishing this could be a great book and definitely am interested in reading more from this author.

As a software engineer, I love finding books that focus on women in STEM - books about career driven women in male dominated fields who are looking for love. What can I say? I love some engineering chops in a leading lady. When I got the opportunity to read Make Up Break Up by Lily Menon, a book about rival app inventors falling in love (enemies to lovers!!), I was thrilled with the concept. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as thrilled with the book itself.

One of my main sticking points with this book is the overall lack of maturity these characters had. This book honestly read more like a young adult book than an adult romance - the two main characters had the maturity of high schoolers and treated their high stakes businesses as jokes. I could not suspend my disbelief that business owners would behave this way. They both regularly crossed professional boundaries and generally behaved in a very unprofessional way. Also, I couldn’t believe that a person who hates another business owner (to the point of obsession) and accuses them of plagiarism would not know that the rival business they are accusing was actually established before theirs.

There are some genres where I really enjoy unlikable characters (thrillers, mystery, literary fiction), but the romance genre is not one of them. Unfortunately, I found Annika to be unsavory and without redeeming qualities. Annika was pretty self important and rude - she treated everyone around her very poorly. I didn’t like how she treated June - June was her best friend and yet Annika often spoke down to her or disregarded her feelings - their relationship was very lopsided and showed how self centered Annika was.

Unfortunately, Annika really didn’t grow as a character throughout the book - despite her constantly messing with Hudson’s business and generally treating him poorly, she really never faced any meaningful consequences for her actions. She basically ended the book the same as she started it: immature, entitled, and overall not likable. The story never made her work for her happily ever after - she just stayed the course and it was dropped in her lap. She never had to redeem herself in the eyes of Hudson, who she had treated poorly from the start.

I couldn’t buy into the romance between Hudson and Annika - it felt forced and they really lacked chemistry. They also had very poor communication - they both refused to speak to each other about their grievances. I never felt the heat growing between the two of them - it felt more like a light switch - suddenly, they were all over each other with no lead up or previous romantic vibes. This lack of organic growth in their relationship made it impossible to buy into the fact these two were supposed to be in love. It also really didn’t help that I found Hudson to be a very one dimensional character.

The side characters were pretty poorly written - they were severely underutilized and really didn’t have a lot of character definition. Take June for example: the only thing the reader is ever really told about her is that she’s rich, cycles through men quickly, and is unwaveringly loyal to Annika. I would have liked to see more of her romance with Ziggy or hear more about what was going on in her life too. She could have been swapped out with another generic character and the story would not have changed.

Make Up Break Up was a huge disappointment to me - I had high hopes and really liked the premise of the book, but I found it didn’t deliver. Between the unlikable heroine, the forced romance, and the overall immaturity of the book, I could not get into the story. If you’re looking for other romance novels, be sure to check out Ten Rules for Faking It by Sophie Sullivan and Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. 1/5