Heartbreak Incorporated

I was initially drawn to this book but the concept of the private investigation agency +young girl temp + guy with shady past as I quite enjoy those combinations. A supernatural-thriller-romance with a few twists you don't see coming, and some you do, with relatable characters and some comedy thrown in for good measure,

The characters are all very well written and with much more depth than you initially think, a lot of the secondary characters are well fleshed out but not to the point they distract from the story. I read the book in a couple of hours because the story was gripping enough that I wanted to find out what happened next, fast-paced but not rushed.

When you start reading this book and get to know Misha you will definitely be lulled into a false sense of security by what you think his shady past is. I think the author did this on purpose and I loved the trickery of it. I guessed his sister's secret early on, though, but maybe that was the point.

This book definitely sets up for a potential sequel, though can easily stand alone. There are a few unanswered questions that left me wanting more (but in a good way), specifically regarding Pavel and HIS past. And what the future holds for Misha now. My only gripe with this book (and trust me it is very slight) is there was not as much focus on the "heartbreak inc" cases as I would have liked. I would have liked to have seen more clients and more investigating of cases that were nothing to do with Misha's past and just "a job", but hey- that could be material for book 2, no?

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an e-arc of this novel.

I had never read this author's work before, simply because comics aren't my jam. But after reading this book (and wanting more from this world & characters - so I'm going to be disappointed if this doesn't turn into a series) I'm adding her (Alex's pronouns on Twitter) to my stan list!

Something else I need to admit (which is hard because it shows some of my own prejudices and mistakes) is that before checking Twitter, I thought Alex was a guy and I was in AWE, because of the way the heroine is written and her struggles with what society expects from her and what's considered "normal" - well, when you read you'll see what I mean. Just WOW! I actually realized why I much prefer books to TV/film nowadays - because of the strong female characters/leads that also have a bunch of flaws. They are not there to be young and pretty and show their boobs or be one-dimensional or to help the hero with their journey and prose. So yes, my shelves are mainly fantasy & romance but always female heroines. So I just went from "how is this guy writing this female character so freaking well? She has traces of me and my friends and everyone else that identifies as female that I know" to "ahhh I knew Alex had to be female, because seriously, even a really empathetic dude doesn't quite get what we go through". So after sharing with you my own flaw, let's get back to this kick-ass book!

I already mentioned the heroine (Evie), who is amazing, but have I told you about Misha and Masha and Gemma and Claudia? They are all yummy, 3d, flawed, realistic (even the paranormal folks) characters that you want to be friends with. There are other secondary characters as well but everyone is well developed and not just a prop to move the story along. They are representational of society (don't worry anti-woke brigade, this book won't trigger you) - not everyone is stunning or skinny, they have all kinds of accents, fashion sense, flaws, body types, skin color, sexual orientation, and gender identities. It's beautiful without being in your face and making an issue out of it (either way - hence letting the anti-woke folks know it won't trigger them). Misha and Masha' story in particular I found fascinating and I hope you do too. And even the villain isn't simply evil. Obviously, you don't like this character, but you understand what happened that caused this person to became a villain - yeah, a bit of the psychology of the villain for you.

I already gave Evie tons of praise, but now I must gush about Misha, because... Ahhh what a tormented dude. At first, I was a bit upset with the author for not hurrying along to tell us what he was. But when I finally discovered it, I realized that the author was absolutely right in taking her time. This was my first ever book about this type of paranormal creature and I freaking loved it! Obviously, I had seen this kind of creature in other books, but always as a minor secondary character and 95% of the time as villains getting their butts kicked. I loved how the author developed the mythos of this creature and Misha' story and flaws because it makes you like him EVEN MORE. He has a lot of angst but this is not an angsty book - if you know what I mean?

So we may have seen the paranormal agency/investigation team before, but that's about the only thing of the trope you'll have seen before. Misha and Masha are refreshingly new and the lines between good and evil are pretty blurred too (which is great because no one, in real life too, is all good or all evil).

Now I must be honest about something that upsets me a little bit - the end! How to share it with you without spoilers.... Ok, let's try. There's a resolution at the end, so it's not a cliff-hanger like I thought it would be while reading it. And it is sort of happy (even though it's more of a Happy Right Now than Happily Ever After). But it leaves you wanting more... Of Evie and Misha and all the girls at Heartbreak Inc. The author doesn't rush to sort out everything perfectly in the last 5% of the book (which is a positive) and she did make it so it isn't a cliff-hanger (which is great) but she left me wanting more and wanting more *right*now* (which is bad because I'm guessing the author may or may not continue writing this world and we the readers have no clue at this time).

I recommend this book to everyone that likes kick-ass heroine, who has flaws and makes reasonable mistakes*, non-arsehole supernatural alpha that is incredibly sensitive with a dash of angst, sex appeal, and sexy voice & accent combo, amazing Latina best-friend, awesome co-workers, and even some priests!

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did! :)

* as opposed to the whiny heroine who spends the entire book making mistakes that she knows are mistakes and she tells us as much, makes them anyway and then are surprised they were mistakes and how to handle them. We see this quite often in the paranormal world, don't we?. Here Evie also knows shes in the wrong, but it's for a good reason and she's prepared for the fallout even though she feels guilty as all hell.

{Thank you to NetGalley and Publisher for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest review!}

*Content Warning and Spoilers up ahead for Heartbreak Incorporated by Alex de Campi* Adult themes are going to be discussed, so feel free to skip over those sections if you need to! For a TLDR, skip all the way to the last paragraph!

Going into this novel, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew that it about this office that broke up relationships, but I never expected for there to be a fantasy element to the story. I briefly had read over the synopsis- I had clicked on the book because of the cover, I’m a sucker for beautiful ones- and saw a few words that stuck out to me like “struggling to make it in New York City” and a man who specializes in breaking up relationships. I hadn’t gotten to the occult part, and when hints began to be dropped in the novel, I had almost an “AHA!” moment, looking up the tags for what genre this book was. Expecting “New Adult, Rom/Com” and various other similar tags, I was not expecting to pull up this novel and see “SF/Fantasy, Fantasy, Dark Fantasy”, etc. in the Bookmaster at my job.

**SPOILER** When Misha arrived at the floor’s lunchroom in front of Evie, after… ahem… assisting Greg Pickford for extra cash in his own office, Evie notes how he looks “refreshed”, and better than he had all day. Previously, before the meeting with the abusive, shitty excuse for a man millionaire Greg Pickford he had been described as falling over himself, about two seconds from collapsing to the ground. It was only after his sexual interaction with Mr. Pickford that he seemed to be a brand new Misha. This was my first “aha!” moment, as mentioned previously, where I said in the back of my head that it sounded like Misha was an Incubus or the male form of a succubus. This is a mythological creature who “lies upon sleeping women to engage in sexual activity with them”, aka they get their energy and lifeform from having sex. Misha Meserov is a cannon bi-sexual, which means instead of being the traditional incubi who only has sex with women, he has a much… rounder appetite.

I love how De Campi has successfully created a parallel between our love/hate for the main character Evie Cross, and her own push/pull inner struggle on whether or not to pursue the story she wants to create by backstabbing Misha Meserov. Reading this book, I found myself getting to points where I really resonated with Evie and found myself liking her. These moments were when she was in the office, working with Gemma, and acting like a normal person, hired to work in this strange law firm. Then, right as I was beginning to like her again, and picture her dropping the story and (potential) friend, Misha, she talks about the story again. This obsession with her journalism, while admirable, infuriates me to the core.

That’s most likely the point that de Campi was trying to get us, readers, too. To feel this back and forth tension that’s similar to what Evie herself is feeling throughout this novel* ourselves, and sink a bit further into this story as it unfolds.

After reading the end of Chapter Five, it seems almost inevitable that Misha knew about Evie’s plans to double-cross him. I was NOT expecting that twist of events where Nicole Hamilton, the woman Evie was working with to expose Greg Pickford/bring down Misha Meserov’s company and expose everything he worked to keep private, was quote-unquote “not… coming back”. My jaw immediately DROPPED to the floor, in a similar way Evie reacted in the book.

Every single chapter seemed to have this new twist, and it kept me on the edge of my seat, desperate to continue reading. I couldn’t put this book down the past three days and loved reading it all the way to the end. There were moments when I was screaming into my pillow “WHAT THE FUCK“, or “I FUCKING CALLED IT” over and over again when certain things happened, and those types of reactions made me realize that this truly was an amazing book. Dare I say it, these characters quickly became comfortable characters for me, especially Misha, since he reminds me of a close friend. I rate this book honestly 4.5/5 stars, and I will be purchasing a physical copy of this book to read and reread it again and again.

Wow. This is one of those fun reads that gives you just enough breadcrumbs to keep make you eager for the next hint along the path of the storyline, the whole way thinking "Oh, I got this all figured out" - WRONG!! There's some twists that you may not see coming.

Though I may not have loved Evie's character in the beginning, with her seemingly willingness to throwaway a chance at a possible dream opportunity for a couple hundred dollars, she does grow and learn what really matters. Now Mischa is another matter. He is a character I couldn't help but love from the beginning. With his arrogant swaggering, graceful exterior that belied a vulnerable and lonely inside, it was easy to want burrow beneath the layers of this character to get to the core of his story, to see what caused the hurt in his soul. The author does a great job building complex emotions and feelings for this character. I wished we could have gotten the history from him and not through an intermediary. It felt impersonal.

This story with it's hints of the supernatural and the occult really set the stage for possibly more in this world (which is what I am personally hoping for as I'm a big fan of more, baby more!) or leaving it with the wide open ending for the reader to fill in the blank. At this point, we don't know but the possiblity is . . . Not painful as it could be. The author left me feeling in a good place with possible and I like that. So thank you.

** Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to review this book and leave my honest opinions on it. **

I was not expecting much from this book, but I was pleasantly surprised!  I thought it was well written & very easy to read.  I loved Evie & Misha, and really enjoyed seeing that they had more depth than the tropey expectation I had.  The secondary characters were also well done & added then right amount of drama to the story.  I hope there is another book with these characters, because I really want to see what they do next!

I adored this book! I had just about taken romance novels off the list of books I'll attempt to read, but Alex De Campi has given me hope again. This book was so much fun, and I can't wait to read the next one!

Hot gender-fluid, bisexual incubus? Yes please. More please. As soon as possible, please.

The story concept had great potential and the author delivered. The sex was hot, the infatuation fun and not dragged out too long before honesty came to the fore, and the plot was tantalizingly delicious.

One thing I regret is not being able to get inside Misha's head. We experience everything through Evie's eyes and filter. Perhaps in the future, he'll get to share his own voice.