Lily Chu never misses! Her main characters are always so relatable and sympathetic, Dee most of all I think. The toxic positivity lives in many of us, especially professionally, and when family drama (her and others) is mixed in it becomes lifeline. I felt very emotional about Dee and her lists.

The romance was good as always, the miscommunication levels were off the charts but I think it worked for the situation. So many people (sometimes myself included!) talk about 'oh they're adults why can't they just talk to each other'. I could never feel so confident, and I think it works with the characters and their personalities. I loved the family dynamics, the writing is so well done. I'll read anything Lily Chu writes!

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had so much fun reading this book!! The journey the MC took towards validating her feelings and achieving her goals was so cool to read, and I absolutely loved the heist vibes and the found family!

TWs - racism and biphobia by family members, misogyny, harassment/blackmail

-- ty to the author, the publisher and @coloredpagesbt for an advanced copy!

This book was relatable to the point it felt like a personal attack, and I both resent being called out and also applaud Lily Chu for it.

Dee is a Diversity and Inclusion consultant, Teddy is the heir of a huge fashion business, and chaos ensues when Teddy's family business is thrust in the spotlight for terrible D&I practices (in that there wasn't really any D&I). The main plot was hard to get through - the micro-agressions, white privilege, and outright racism - it was a wild storm. However, so many great conversations came out of it and it was a huge undertaking on Chu's part to write about and shine a light on some of these issues.

The personal attack was Dee's family. The way they sweep everything under a facade of toxic positivity and general avoidance. It was a bit too real at times, and I commend Chu for really hitting me where it hurts. So much of my family was reflected in this book and it was an oof. Dee's growth through it was amazing, even though it takes her a while to fully settle into it (relatable, as well).

While I liked Dee, I loved Teddy. He was my favourite part of the story. Lily Chu always makes her men so real and outside of the conventional "manly man" template. Teddy is a fashion designer who loves art and isn't intimidated by a smart woman and he's almost entirely green flags and I love him for it. He and Dee really click and seeing their relationship with each other develop and grow was a lot of fun, despite the growing pains.

My only area of critique that really stopped me from absolutely loving this book is Dee's hot and cold side. She is super smart and loves her job, but doesn't do research on the company's executives, who they're having a meeting with? She's mad about Teddy and his lack of action, when she's letting her own family walk over her in the same way? It felt like that thing where it's like, "Why are you so focused on the speck of dust in your brother's eye when you have a whole plank in yours." There was a hypocrisy there that I didn't love and held me back from fully rooting for her.

The book was a ride and while I definitely didn't like confronting some of my own issues as I read it, a book where you see yourself reflected and your experiences shared is really a testament to Chu's ability to write real and relatable characters. That ending also was so vindicating, my goodness!

TW: toxic positivity, biphobia, racism, micro-aggressions, racial slurs, bullying, sexism; mentions fatphobia, cancer, death of a parent

Plot: 3.5/5
Characters: 3.5/5
World Building: 5/5
Writing: 4/5
Pacing; 4/5
Overall: 3.5/5

eARC gifted via NetGalley by Sourcebooks Casablanca in exchange for an honest review.

The difference between wishing for good things and working toward them is precisely where Lily Chu’s THE TAKEDOWN (Sourcebooks Casablanca, 384 pp., $16.99) finds its footing. The diversity consultant Dee Kwan clings to positive thinking through layoffs, microaggressions and familial health challenges. All the while, her mother insists that a positive attitude is more important than any minor speed bump like your parents and grandmother moving in with you or a house that now smells constantly of medicinal weed. Her one true comfort is the online puzzle game where she’s usually first in the rankings.

Then Dee lands a new job, only to find her nearest gaming rival, Teddy, there. Even worse, he’s the son of the C.E.O. whose toxic corporate culture she’s being paid to improve.

Dee fixes upon improving Teddy’s dad’s company as a stand-in for fixing the world (and her own life). Teddy, on the other hand, has detached himself emotionally from his job, bruised by past disappointments. Chu’s couple find their solution in making small but significant changes to what’s immediate and reachable — relationships both romantic and otherwise. What they learn is that effort and hope have to work together: One without the other is never enough.

Lily Chu tackles a lot with THE TAKEDOWN, including toxic positivity, interfamilial racism, workplace struggles, and corporate diversity (plus resistance to same), all peppered through with fashion, interactive puzzles rooted in Toronto’s streetscape, and the difficulty of making new friends in your 30s.

Sometimes the balancing act plays off big time, each element handled with both the sensitivity it deserves and the panache fiction demands. Sometimes it slows the pacing down as key plot points only click into place farther into the narrative than they should, given their importance.

The result is absolutely worth reading: emotional, topical, considered, and rewarding on multiple levels. I loved it. Just don’t go in expecting a fast-paced, two- or three-track story. Save it when you’re in the mood for something to say and a tendency to spread out while it says it.

I’ll also note that Lily Chu is a present tense writer who leans HARD into the past perfect, which is one of my least favourite things in all of literature. (Dear present tense writers: just use regular past tense for flashbacks & suchlike! It flows so much better!) When I’m willing to overlook that (or, okay, mention it as an addendum instead of a huge red flag), you know I enjoyed the book.

I really loved the author's debut, The Stand In, so I was really excited to read this one. This book tackles workplace racism and microaggressions amid white feminism and Boys Club™ culture. I loved all the discussions of sustainability in fashion, as well as Dee's desire to make change for the better. Her internal monologue of toxic positivity was difficult to read at times, but I was glad to see her growth through the end of the story. As for the love interest, I wasn't a huge fan, especially during the third act break. I really loved Alejandra's story and wish that she had a bigger role instead.

This book is a hot mess.

A relationship online with a lover

They meet at work and somehow wind up at the same company.

The main character's life is a quarter-life crisis with a job layoff and many negatives.

Work is the main setting here which is what most adults do every day we don't need to read about company life.

There's no conflict.

DNF at 20%. Thanks to colored pages tours, source books, and net galley.

This book is so bad it never should've been written.

I write long reviews and this one is just awful.

The prose is fine, and the voice is strong. I stopped after chapter 2 (4%) but it seems like 3 to 4 stars for the target audience.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the ARC.

The Takedown is a cute love story. Dee is an interesting character and i did enjoy the relationship between her and Teddy! It was fun seeing them work together and seeing Dee accept her feelings for him. I have read books by Lily Chu before and I really enjoyed them! The Takedown isn't one of my favorites but it was still a cute story! Thank you Colored Pages Book Tours, Lily Chu and Sourcebooks Casablanca for sharing this book with me!

What happens when you start your new job you find out that the guy you're crushing on is actually the CEO's son and the company you are working at has a huge diversity and misogyny issue? Drama. Dee Kwan loves her life, she's got her dream job, she's got a house she adores, and a very hot "nemesis" on her favorite online puzzle game. Yet that all takes a turn when her job is shut down, her parents and grandma move into her house, and now at her new job she is forced to clean up a scandal for an intimidating chic luxury fashion firm... and to top it off, when she finally meets her hot nemesis and starts falling for him... she discovers he is the heir to the CEO of the problematic company she is working at. Dee wants so badly to make a change at the fashion firm Celeste, but with so many superiors who are standing in her way and the constant battle to even get change for the bare minimum... Dee is fighting a battle she never thought she'd face. From dealing with terrible superiors, secretly dating the one guy who is off limits, and trying to find a way to fix the diversity and terrible practices of the company, Dee has her plate full. Her positive optimism can only take her so far before the cracks begin to show and when things get worse... Dee will have to see if she's willing to risk her job and the guy she's falling for, to do the right thing. I loved the author's previous two books and this one felt like a departure from the other two as this one was less romantic and much more job drama. It started off really cute and I did love Dee and Teddy together, yet the romance kind of fell off into the background and took a step back to the job drama that Dee was going through. This didn't feel like a romance book, it felt much more like women's fiction and I feel like if I had known that going in I would have held my expectations more. The story itself was okay, I just felt like I was expecting a romance and I barely got one. I did like that the book addresses diversity issues in companies and the practices that some companies have, and I also had fun with the fashion industry element, I just kind of wish there was a bit more. It's a good contemporary book for sure, I just think you should know what to expect before going in so you don't get the wrong hopes up.

*Thanks Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS Casablanca | Sourcebooks Casablanca for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

I loved the last book I read by this author so I was excited to read this one. It was a good read - a lot of issues were tackled. I just wish there was more romance. All in all a great read.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

When it comes to titles, Lily Chu keeps it simple and I respect that. For The Takedown, it feels even more complex. This time, we’re following Dee Kwan who is a diversity consultant and a chronically positive person. Things are looking up for her as she’s recently gotten promoted but it all comes crumbling down.

After her boss announces he’s shutting down his company, Dee is forced to reevaluate her life and career. Coupled with the fact that her family is moving into her house, a dark cloud starts to descend over her. The one bright spot is Questie, a puzzle game she plays with Teddy, her online friend.

Of course, the two eventually decide to meet up and things are looking up for her. Dee’s able to find a job, become friends, and maybe more with Teddy, and is doing her best. From there, it’s a full takedown on every level as everything Dee holds dear is slowly taken away and things only get worse as the book goes along.

While the title focuses on the takedown of a company and a horrible designer, this book takes everything down about Dee, strips it away, and makes her start anew. Lily Chu truly doesn’t give our girl a break until the very end. All in all, this book feels like a departure for Lily Chu yet she keeps the same glittering writing style and trademarks we’ve come to love about her stories.

My only complaint is that I wish there was more romance. While this story was mostly about Dee, I’d love to have seen more scenes between her and Teddy. The two were such nerds and I adored their chemistry. Hopefully, we’ll see more when Lily Chu releases her next book, though.

Lately, I find myself picking books with unsurprisingly annoying protagonists (if you read the blurb), then getting frustrated with how annoying they are. Whose fault is this? (I know, it's mine, obviously. I wish I had someone else to blame though) Dee generated some pretty mixed emotions in me. Her toxic positivity (inspired by mom) grated. Her professions of competence ("I got this") felt baseless. When she did do something well (besides her online puzzle game), I was surprised. I simultaneously thought her character grows out of its toxic positivity mold unbelievably quickly but also that the book pacing is too slow. I'm impossible to please, apparently? I did like that Dee does outgrow it though (with veerry gentle nudges from Teddy - a total cinnamon roll hero), but overall I found the pace of the book quite slow. The romance proceeds quickly (felt mostly solidified before 50%), and then the corporate espionage part of it dragged on for the rest of the book.

So why does this book still get four stars? I love that 1) the female MCs in all of this author's books are mostly relatable and have a cool hobby that I want to do (create a calendaring/organizational app?? play IRL puzzle games and know too much trivia??) 2) the male MCs in all of this author's books embrace fashion and beauty and things that you might not typically see in a traditional rom-com (alpha male, roar). 3) Dee is a DEI consultant (sounds like the WORST job), which the author uses for effective commentary on society. 4) there is strong Asian representation in terms of MCs and associated storylines of dealing with racism with family members, workplace, etc. I will continue to read anything by this author!

My thanks to the publisher for providing an ARC via netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I wish I would have liked this more. Lots of business scenes. In my perception, a significant portion exceeding 70% of the content in this book is dedicated to depicting the various incidents that take place at Dee Kwan's highly unpleasant place of employment. Her gradual and passionate romance with Teddy, the son of the CEO, is given somewhat less attention in terms of page space.

Thank you so much to #netgalley and #lilychu for this ARC for an honest review.

This is the first work I've read by Lily Chu but I've heard about her other works like The Stand-In. After reading this, I would give this a 2.75/5, but because Goodreads has only whole numbers, I'll chalk it up to a 3/5. The two main characters are Dee(Daiyu) and Ted(dy), who meet on the online puzzle platform, Questie. After meeting for the first time, they begin to form a friendship without even realizing they would end up working together.

A notable thing about Dee is that she is essentially written as a pushover. With the way she's been raised by her white mom and Chinese dad, she's been almost brainwashed to always be positive even when she's upset. This is one of the frustrating things I found while reading. I understand that we learn of her mother's trauma later and that's the reason why she's always positive, but her mother is so incredibly insufferable that I wanted to pull my eyes out. Her mom is the epitome of invalidating negative feelings and that made it really hard for me to like that she tries to change at the end. A lot of this falls onto Dee too, with being a pushover and all. She's 30 something years old and cannot stand up for herself against her mother.

I really liked the main premise of the story of exposing the designer who had stolen from younger designers to pass off as his own. I feel like the romance in the story really distracted from the main plot, like the whole timeline of Ted and Dee being in Paris. Originally FOR the main plot, it deviated after it was over and went into romance land. These characters in this plot honestly read as 2 freshly hired people out of college working in corporate land for the first time, rather than 2 people with years of experience. I'm not too sure if I liked the idea of Ted and Dee doing the whole sacrificing and Ted leaving Celeste just for the epilogue just to have him as the CEO of Celeste was kind of disappointing, I'm not going to lie.

The romantic relationship between Dee and Ted was something that I wasn't really sure of while reading. It moved fast for the first four chapters because they had only met that day and she was already fawning over him. I get that he was written as a good-looking guy but it just felt a little rushed to me. Their relationship feels like it lacked foundation. They randomly happened to meet while playing the game and brought their friendship from online to offline. Though their established online friendship is part of their foundation to their attraction to each other, I cannot see how they broke the awkward barrier so quickly and how they conjured feelings up so quickly. It could be that it happened online and was easy to transfer to real life, but nothing like that was really implied. Her romantic thoughts come a little randomly to me because I don't see their relationship being particularly developed as romance. I feel like the time frame of them knowing each other in real life makes it seem so odd about how much they like each other. Noting that this story was in a span of what? 3-4 months? I think it was incredibly rushed because not much of their online relationship was shown before they met. The whole romantic plot felt like a sub-plot that tried overtaking the main plot of the story. I wished there was a better balance between them!

Despite all this criticism, I enjoyed the relationship between Vivian and Dee, as it really showed the importance of the mentor-mentee relationship. I think Dee did have her moments where she was all, "I can fix this!" and couldn't, but I'm glad they went from being cold and professional to one another to being almost like friends! Even though I didn't see Ted and Dee as a romantic couple, moments like her trying on his designs and him telling her that he'd make a whole wardrobe for her were really cute. I think if there were more parts where they were bonding outside of work and Questie, I could see their relationship blossom more (and more time!!).

I would pass on reading this a second time but I would give her other works a chance.

This book wasn’t what I was expecting.

It was better.

The Takedown tackles DEI (and the lack thereof) in the fashion industry, racism in interracial relationships, toxic positivity, and so much more in this wide spanning romance.

An easy five stars for Lily Chu.