I liked this book, it had a very interesting premise, but I still feel like I could see all of the main points coming from a mile away. As soon as her mother acted odd when a new man entered the restaurant I knew who he was going to be. While I was surprised by the exact way Markus’s conflict was introduced, it was telegraphed from a mile away how it would end. I still enjoyed it and really enjoyed the different ways H4H took revenge on men.

Heartbreak for Hire by Sonia Hartl is an engaging story of Brinkley, who tries to get over a heartbreaking relationship by working as a hired heartbreaker. The story kept my interest and had a sweet ending. I would have rated it 4 stars if the intimate scenes had not been so unnecessarily graphic.

Sometimes a job is more than just a job. But what happens when said job becomes too personal?

H4H is about empowering women and getting the revenge on the men who have wronged them. The company is owned by a woman and absolutely no men are allowed to be employed. Then that one rule gets broken when the owner decides to pair the women up with a male counterpart to open up another branch.

With lots of back and forth, turmoil, and crying, this story will keep you reading, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I definitely recommend for you romance, romcom lovers.

After reading the description, I was so excited for the chance to read this book. It was so much better than I had hoped! It was funny, emotional, sexy and quirky. I absolutely loved everything about it and I can’t wait to read more by the author!

This was my first Sonia Hartl book. The humor was wonderful, but the love story was extra farfetched which made the main character rather annoying.

After her breakup with a longtime, emotionally abusive boyfriend, Brinkley gets offered a job working for Heartbreak for Hire. H4H takes on female clients looking to exact revenge on men who have done them wrong, men who are categorized as Cheaters, Abusers, Players or Grifters. Brinkley enjoys and finds her work satisfying—until she takes on a job with Mark as a target. Their chemistry gets her thinking about her job, her long term career path and her relationship with her mother. When Mark starts working for H4H, things get even more complicated.
This book checks the boxes for plot, humor, characters and heat. It’s angsty but not overly so. Basically a satisfying story where we see Brinkley coming from emotional rock bottom to a place where she finds the confidence to take a chance on her own dreams and happiness.

Heartbreak For Hire follows the daily work of Brinkley Saunders at H4H, where she's hired to play out revenge fantasies of jilted women for a fee. Coming from the world of academia, Brinkley joined H4H to save up for her dreamed future of operating an art gallery in Chicago. As she's on the cusp of getting there, H4H changes their hiring policy to include men. One of the male H4H'ers just so happens to be Brinkley's former target (and the only one where she broke the company's "no real feelings for the target" policy)!

This book was a quick weekend read, with just the right amount of characters, twists & turns. The pacing of the first half of the book felt different from most Rom-Com reads: the main characters have a quick love scene very early on, only to back up into enemies to lovers territory for the latter half. I quite enjoyed how their relationship did a bit of a love sforzando, and was completely persuaded of Mark's feelings after Brinkley's abrupt departure.

As with some reads, there were a number of details and characters decisions that I didn't quite believe. I know it's not a well-crafted critique, but I think this book didn't hook me enough that I could glance past some of these details (H4H, a company of 5 people having their own workplace app? Mark showing up outside with Brinkley's indoor cat and letting it just hang out?) That all said, I did enjoy the relationships of the women at H4H and would be totally down to read a sequel!

If you enjoyed - Rescue Me by Sarra Manning, This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens, The Cul-de-Sac War by Melissa Ferguson, Why I Held Your Hand by Augusta Reilly, 99 Percent Mine and The Hating Game by Sally Thorne and The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang - you'll like Heartbreak for Hire by Sonia Hartl!

Heartbreak for Hire follows Brinkley, whose specialty is Ego, as she helps other women take revenge against men who have wronged them. This is very rewarding for her. Until, one of her past assignments becomes her co-worker.
I was immediately drawn to this plot. I read this book in less than a day because I could not put it down. Brinkley has a sense of humor that made me laugh aloud so many times. The humor in this book was so on par and helped add to the story. I also felt myself connecting with Brinkley’s character and her struggle with her love life. I found myself cheering her on throughout the plot and was very excited to see her character development.
The chemistry between the main characters in this plot was astounding. I could see the talent the author had in finding that unique connection between two characters. I loved Mark’s character and his banter with Brinkley so much.
Altogether I felt that this book was well written and addictive. I would definitely recommend it to all Romance readers!

This was a light, cute read with a quirky heroine and her delightful friends. The plot was somewhat unique, but the Heartbreak for Hire concept seemed a bit mean-spirited to me. I didn't care for Margo,, the owner, as she didn't seem to care about anyone, but the heroine was entertaining and had a good character arc. I enjoyed the witty dialogue and how the relationships between the characters were developed..

This is a well-written, fun book. I enjoyed it from cover-to-cover. I liked seeing women being strong and taking issues into their own hands. I recommend it. And the cover is fantastic! Thanks to Netgalley and Gallery Books for the arc. The opinions are my own.

I’m always jazzed when I spot a romcom with a new twist on the enemies to lovers trope. I snagged the #arc and dove right in.

I appreciated Brinkley’s point of view and loved her untraditional job, but things started to go pear-shaped for me about halfway through. The drama shot up so fast that it felt like we were racing toward to wrap everything up.

This was a fun rom-com that has a very interesting plot. I really wanted to love this one but had a hard time connecting with the characters. Many of the things that fell flat for me, were redeemed by the end of the book. I felt that the love story had progressed fairly quickly and did not feel that there was much development. I did not like Margo (Brinkley’s boss), she felt borderline abusive and manipulative.

I love enemies-to-lovers and Sonia Hartl does an excellent job with the banter. Brinkley and Mark were very cute together but their romance fell flat for me. Overall, this was a cute read.

A decent rom com that ended satisfactorily, but hit some bumps along the way.

I like some angst, I don't always mind when one half of the couple acts unreasonably, because that usually means we get a good grovel lately. I know the beat structure of the genre and I'm willing to go with it, but lately I've been feeling frustrated over the usual conceit of the man entering the woman's life and just like...taking over. It hit me harder here and I don't know why. Marc joins Brinkley's job, her livelihood, and she has to figure out if she is able to work with him, but he acts like she is evil for having lied to him? The only lie she did was the aspect of her job? Like, should she have quit her job out of some moral high ground as soon as she met a guy she was attracted to? I feel like if the premise of the book is a honey pot situation then she shouldn't have to defend it constantly. Marc shows up to jobs in a very fake wig and she never tells him "hey thats dumb you really are going to blow my cover" although from the one Ruth Reichl book I've read, food critics might actually go out to eat in disguise semi-regularly. I just don't like when a man barges into a woman's job or area of expertise and doesn't do a great job but it's never addressed. He immediately psychoanalyzes Brinkley and talks down to her about her fear and how he feels she isn't moving fast enough at her dream for the future. He barely knows her. [ So for him to come in and make it likely that she will flat out quit because she can't work with her one night stand who is constantly needling her over a paper he wants to write, that angers me. It's not even his job vs her job, he is writing the paper in the hopes of improving his other job, his actual career. But like, she needs to make rent. Don't ruin her life. And when that paper is published, I don't care if it is dry writing in an academic journal, it absolutely will destroy the company and her job. That sort of thing gets picked up as clickbait for newspapers all the time, and the rumors will swirl and the targets will have some idea that a thing like this exists. Did Margo give informed consent? That's not clear. Brinkley sure as hell did not. So it was really important to me that Marc withdrew the paper and I'm glad we got there, but the road to it was rough for me. I also wish he withdrew it for some of the academic ethics reasons as well, but it was more like he was able to do this thing she wanted because he didn't want that career anymore, not because she asked him to or because he realized he was wrong. (hide spoiler)]

I know there's more to why he got hired, Margo has some plan, even if it is as simple as "I bet they would make a cute couple", but I would have loved some show of how Marc is pretty clearly not going to be successful as a solo agent at H4H. It would have been nice to see a little more of him realizing Brinkley is good at her job, and his smarts and natural good looks don't automatically make him good at it.

Otherwise, by the end I liked them together, and while Brinkley forgave her mother for years of emotional abuse pretty quickly, it seemed like that was because of her growth, not because of bad writing, and it was tentative enough to be believable.

Interesting concept , ideal for people who are looking for a new quick contemporary romance about a group of strong woman

I absolutely cannot say enough about this book, and I’m already shouting out to the rooftops that everyone should buy this. I loved the premise — so unique!!! — and the relationship was fire! I can’t wait to see what comes next!

2.5/5

Heartbreak for Hire is an undercover company that specializes in one thing: revenge. A secret service for the broken hearted or long suffering coworker. Brinkley Saunders is one of three agents tasked with carrying out the clientele’s revenge plans, but from an outsider perspective she’s just an administrative assistant working for an insurance agency. While the job might not be exactly what she envisioned for herself, she knows it's a safe way to save for a down payment on an art gallery. That is, until her boss announces that the company will be hiring male heartbreakers. Worse, that one of the new hires is a target she was tasked with taking down, but instead ended up going home with. Brinkley would rather do anything other than take Mark under her wing for training, but as the two begin to spend more time together it becomes apparent their growing connection; and the fact that people don't always turn out how they initially seem.

This is a romantic comedy that had so much potential from the get go, one that ultimately fell a little flat in the execution. A company specializing in heartbreak/revenge and two agents that fall in love seemed like such an interesting concept, it just got lost in the scuffle of everything else that was happening in the novel. Unfortunate given how much I was looking forward to reading this. What I did like though was the commentary on workplace and romantic relationships that was interspersed in the beginning of the book. This focused specifically on Brinkley’s clientele, but it really should have carried through to the rest of the book when that part of the plot was abandoned. I would say that that was what my main issue with this boiled down too. There were far too many different side plots undertaken that didn't end up being wrapped up in the way they all deserved. Particularly the conflict with Brinkley and her mother, which didn't feel concluded in any way. Add to the fact that the pacing was all over the place and you get to the reason why I struggled to enjoy this one more. I did like the main couple and the romantic development between the two characters, but there was definitely a feeling of insta-love from how fast the relationship actually developed. The two of them certainly had chemistry, it just felt a little rushed from my perspective which did impact how much I connected to the characters. Between the commentary on misogyny in the workplace that was only briefly touched on, to the overwhelming amount of different side plots, it's clear why the premise ended up being kind of a let down. Maybe if the author had condensed the elements focused on here and instead used the plot to make a larger commentary I would have liked it more. An entertaining enough read that is not without its problems.

Trigger warnings: misogyny, sexism, emotional/verbal abuse, toxic parental relationship

4.5 rounded up to 5 stars

I thought this was a very fun, different romcom. I thought the idea of Heartbreak For Hire was well developed and had gold character development and background. It was the perfect amount of enemies to lovers.

**beware this has a lot more steam than your average romcom!!**

As with all romcoms there is usually an issue that arises halfway through the book and the couple needs to work through it. In this book it happened at the very end, so the resolution of the conflict ended really quickly. Everything was wrapped up a little too fast for my liking. I wish we had another chapter or two or and epilogue.

Overall I really enjoyed the banter and the amount of steam in this book! I can't wait for everyone to read this!

Thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for my early copy on exchange for a honest review!

This was such a fun, easy to read rom com that had many great laugh out loud moments. I love the flirty banter between the characters and their chemistry. It's a light, easy going read that makes you smile and laugh out loud.

For the most part, I loved this book. The sexual tension leaps off the page, the writing is stellar, and Brinkley is so very real and relatable. I felt her pain, I understood her so well, I should maybe address it in therapy. Overall, it was a great read. There were a couple of little things that bugged me, though - namely that I couldn't suspend my disbelief over Margot hiring a former target to work for her company. I kept waiting for her to reveal that she secretly did it to help Brinkley and Mark fall in love or something. Otherwise, a terrific book and I'm so glad I got to read it.

Review based on ARC.

Heartbreak for Hire drew me in with the concept. How could I not be intrigued by a secret service that offers revenge for ex lovers, frenemies, and co-workers?

Heartbreak for Hire was a cute rom-com, with relatable characters. The premise that drew me in was fresh and original.

The chemistry between Mark and Brinkley was undeniable and instantaneous. I wasn’t prepared for it to get steamy so quick. I thought that the enemies to lovers trope worked well and wasn’t forced.

Watching Brinkley heal from her past was touching. I loved how real her emotions were and I just wanted to give her a big old bear hug.

I wish that Brinkley’s bestie, Emma, had been a little more developed because she seemed like someone that I would want as my bestie.

This was a new perspective on one of my favorite tropes!