There was great chemistry and fun banter between these two!!
The tension and enemies to lovers of it all fed my soul.
Romcom fans will greatly enjoy Make Up Break Up!!

I had such high hopes for this will be unfortunately they fell short and this one just wasn’t for me.

I felt the chemistry was there between Annika and Hudson however the way Annika acted was quite rude and just found her very unlikeable.

I did however really love the representation of a woman in the STEM career field.

I want to thank St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for generously providing me with this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have loved Menon's young adult reads, but this one did not work for me. The story was just moving too slow to keep me invested. DNF @ 30%

I've tried to read this one twice and each time I could not get past the second chapter. I just could not get into the story or the characters and after reading a few other reviews I realized that the issues I had with the story would not go away as I kept reading.

Unfortunately, I had to DNF this one.

This was pretty young for me but it was cute! I loved the romance and thought they had a good connection.

App developer Annika Dev cannot believe what is going on. She spent years trying to figure out how to translate her belief in love into a practical application that couples can use to strengthen their relationships. That became her app idea Make Up, a app that can help couples who are struggling find a way to communicate with each other in a way they can understand, instead of arguing or simply ending the relationship.

Annika believes in this so completely that she has invested everything she has in it. She has made pitches, gotten grants, and opened an office in L.A. for herself and her best friend and coder June. The two of them work together day after day to get the app to the point where they can put it on the market, letting users download it and try to fix the bumps in their relationships.

And then another relationship app came along, Break Up, where users can hire someone else to break up with their partner for them. It was developed quickly and is already out on the market, with hundreds of thousands of downloads and hearts being broken all over town from Break Up’s “Terminators.”

Annika finds the whole concept of Break Up corrosive, and the worst part of it is that the CEO of Break Up stole her idea and bastardized it into that horrible idea. Hudson Craft, the man who Annika hates so much, has not only breached her relationship space in the tech world, he’s now invading her space literally by moving into an office just down the hall from Make Up. And he’s going up against her for the big tech competition, EPIC, where app developers compete for an angel investment large enough to change your life.

Annika really needs that investment. The bank is not impressed with her bottom line and is considering eviction. Annika sees that EPIC investment as her only alternative to bankruptcy. All she has to do is wrap up all her passion and all of their tech into a monumental pitch for the competition. She cannot be distracted.

But she is distracted. Because Hudson Craft is everywhere. He’s down the hall at work. He shows up at a pitch that Annika does for local high schoolers looking to get into the tech sector after college. He shows up at her date. He shows up in her office when her father stops by and gets himself an invitation to her weekly Saturday night dinner at her father’s house. And he’s not just everywhere. He’s also charming and flirtatious and attentive. And Annika finds herself falling back into the feelings she first fell into when she met him at a weeklong tech convention in Las Vegas. Back when he stole her idea.

But the question now is—what does she do now, now that she can’t stop thinking about him? Does she break up with him, or does she make up with him?

Make Up Break Up is Lily Menon’s first adult rom com. A bestselling YA author (as Sandhya Menon), she’s been able to take her love of romantic comedies and pivot it into a novel for adults, and it’s a very successful change. Make Up Break Up is a fun rom com with all the charm of a good Sandra Bullock movie, popcorn not included.

I enjoyed reading Make Up Break Up. I thought that the setup was cute, like a good movie, but I did have some issues with the characters. I thought that they were unbalanced, and a premise this good deserved a better distribution of positive and negative characteristics. Or maybe I just needed to find out more of Hudson’s story to feel like the story was complete. But it was still a lot of fun to read, and I think rom com lovers will find something about this story to cheer for.

Egalleys for Make Up Break Up were provided by St. Martin’s Griffin through NetGalley, with many thanks.

I am a fan of Sandhya Menon’s YA boos and was very excited fit her first adult novel. She did not disappoint! The book is a fun romantic comedy from start to finish. It’s enjoyable, lovely, and fun to read.

Stunning! I love Sandhya’s YA books and this was just as good. I actually ended up reading this via audiobook, because COVID did not allow me to read the advanced copy. I really loved the idea of enemies to lovers and chance meeting and it was just so cute and lovely. I will be reading other adult books she puts out!

Ended up dnfing unfortunately. I loved her ya books but couldn’t get into this one. This lacked the depth I was hoping for. Even in a smutty romance I like depth and this was just a regular romance novel so it should have had depth in spades. It should have had heart. But it felt very generic. I adore sass and banter but this felt vindictive

I really wanted to love this book but unfortunately it was just not a good fit for me. I found the plot to be underdeveloped and it had so much potential but just wasnt there. I just was not quite sold on the romance between the two MC.

There was so much potential in this book, and I don’t know if it was the book itself or the fact I read about four books in a row with frighteningly similar storylines, but Make Up Break Up just didn’t live up to my expectations.

What I did love: I loved the representation of East Asian characters and women in STEM. There’s a particular scene where Annika speaks with high school girls about going into STEM fields that I really appreciated, if not enjoyed.

But what I found to be really frustrating was how the enemies to lovers trope was done in this book. I love an enemies-to-lovers book as much as the next girl, but this one was so dramatically intense and spread out that there wasn’t much of an opportunity to actually appreciate each of the individual characters and their budding relationship.

Ultimately, I just needed the story to progress a bit differently for me to really enjoy it.

Oh, the things when tell ourselves, after having been hurt in the past, and assume things would never work out for us.
I love that Anikka wasn’t too much of a wilting flower, that she was strong in her belief that others could be truly happy if she helped them, but she should have tried harder to believe in her Self.
As for Hudson, I was flip-flopping with his character. He changed his attitude back and forth so much my head spun.
All in all, this was an enjoyable, if at times frustrating, story. Ah, the joys and sorrows of Love.
I received an e-copy of this story for my honest review.

I'm a huge fan of Menon's YA novels, but I didn't fall in love with this title. I think I just really disliked the main character in a way that wasn't redeemable. She wasn't realistic or even rational a lot of the time.

Make up break up was a second chance romance about Annika and Hudson, who are CEOs of rival companies, Make up and Break up respectively and who tans for completely different ideologies. They had met during a conference and hooked up and then after that they did not contact each other and while Hudson’s company break up grew successful Annika thinks it’s a rip-off of her up company make up which is still in production stage and whose ideas she had shared with Hudson.

Things I liked: Their relationship was full of banter and sexual tension where they were constantly trying to one-up each other. It was really fun to read about. I also loved the side characters, June, Ziggy, Annika’s dad as they were really fun to read about. I also loved reading about June and Annika’s friendship and support for each other. It was written well so it was super easy to read through, I finished it in a day!

Now onto the things I did not like: the book follows Annika’s POV throughout and while I liked that I would have really wanted to read Hudson’s pov, it felt kind of one dimensional at points to read only about Annika. There was lack of communication and miscommunication in some parts and (most times)I’m personally not a huge fan of the trope so I did not enjoy that part. I was also not a fan of how quickly things were wrapped up in the end it felt abrupt and disappointing.

Though the book was fun and a good light read especially between heavy books, I did not find anything particularly interesting about it which would make me love it. So overall, it was a good one time read and if you’re a fan of banter filled romances or fast and easy romances fo read, you should try make up break up!

CW: parental death(off page), car accident, racism

Thank you the publisher and author for providing me with an eARC via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I was so excited when I found out Sandhya Menon was writing an adult novel under the pen name Lily Menon. If you want a cute and fluffy rom-com definitely check out her YA books. This book was so much fun from start to finish! The idea of two tech rivals butting heads until they fall in love isn’t unique but the Make Up vs. Break Up actually made me wonder what these kind of apps would be like. Questions like “what would motivate someone to become a terminator? Is it a full time gig or something for a college student in need of cash?”. I would love a novella focusing on this! Also, Hudson (the bad boy protagonist) really makes this book for me. I am excited to see what more we get from Lily Menon!

Thank you for the review copy. I really loved the audiobook as it was a fun read. I am mentioning this book in a future podcast episode as an audiobook to pick up.

Title: Make Up Break Up
Author: Lily Menon
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (2021)
𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: 3 Stars ★★★☆☆

𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰:⁣
A huge thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this eARC. Make UpBreak Up has been sitting on my TBR pile for longer than I'd like to admit, I was in a romance reading rut.  This book manages to pull off both an enemies-to-lovers trope as well as second chance love.

Annika and Hudson meet at a tech conference in Vegas, and spend the entire week inseparable and all over each other. Both are tech entrepreneurs and trying to get their apps off the ground. After no communication after their week-long romance, they both go their own ways. Annika, developing an app called Make Up and Hudson, developing an app called Break Up. Annika feels as if Hudson took the premise of her idea and is extremely pissed. He is making a profit on the complete opposite of what Annika believes in. When Hudson moves into the same office building, their lives collide once again.

𝙋𝙚𝙖𝙠𝙨:
• Showcasing two young women entrepreneurs in the tech industry- girls rule! Love that they focus on women rising up in their careers.
• This story seemed very timely, especially when dating apps are all the rage.

𝙋𝙞𝙩𝙛𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙨:
• Was not a huge fan of Annika, she came off extremely bratty and needed to take a chill pill.
• Not a huge fan of this enemies-to-lovers trope
• With the third POV, I did find it hard to connect with the characters and the overall story.


Goodreads Rating: 3.22 Stars

Sandhya Menon always gets the emotions write. Extremely swoon worthy adult romance debut. Likeable characters and fun banter.

Make Up Break Up had been on my TBR for longer than it probably should have been, so I am glad I finally picked it up. I had high hopes for it, and there were parts I really enjoyed. I am such a sucker for enemies-to-lovers romances, and I thought the banter and angst between Annika and Hudson were great. The focus on the main characters' individual companies was fascinating, and I did enjoy seeing both of them follow their passions. There were also some really great themes and conversations throughout the book.

However, Annika really annoyed me at times, and I didn't think Hudson deserved a lot of the anger often directed at him. The miscommunication trope was so present when it didn't need to be, and I also would have loved to see more romance between Annika and Hudson, instead of having to wait until a majority of the book was over to see them get together for the first time.

This was an average read for me, but I would read more from this author!

A huge thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of Make Up Break Up by Lily Menon!

As soon as I heard that Menon would be publishing an adult romance, I knew I had to get my hands on it. While more mature in content, Menon brings the same level of charm and entertainment to this book as she does to her YA novels. A true auto-buy author for me!