Heartbreak for Hire follows Brinkley who works at H4H to get revenge for scorned women. Her particular field is the men with egos but it goes wrong when she falls for a target. Even worse, that target becomes a coworker and she has to navigate a lot of new and confusing feelings. There were pros and cons to this book that I think could really make a reader love or dislike this book. I leaned more towards the later with a final rating of 2.75 stars. I did love the romance dynamic in this book. I enjoyed the back and forth between the two main characters and enjoyed the way they grew together throughout their journey. There were also a lot of fun rom-com chaotic moments that were super fun.

I want to look closer at the things I disliked in this book because I feel like a reader may be able to enjoy this book more if they go in knowing what to expect. Firstly, the first 30% of this book is a struggle! I do recommend continuing to read if you find yourself considering a DNF because a lot of the issues I had at the beginning diminished during the rest of the book. One of two major issues for me were the characters being very one note. The girls (especially at the beginning) generalize A LOT about men. All guys are horrible, backstabbing, and unreliable in there eyes and they have no remorse for their destruction to the point that I didn't support them. Instead they felt like a group of mean girls that each had a single personality role. The mother/daughter relationship felt the same but went more in-depth towards the end. Although the characters didn't get as much depth as I would have liked I will say they became less annoying and outrageous by the end.

Secondly, the boss, work environment, and general concept was manipulative and toxic to the point where it was painful to read.(slight spoilers ahead) It took me some time to accept that this was the point of the book and the main character realizing the wrongness of H4H was part of the plot. Still I struggled with the way the boss kept saying it was empowering for women to get revenge all while manipulating her employees who had been hurt and were still vulnerable. In my mind the resolution to this plot point did not get enough of a turn around and I wanted a stronger statement against the H4H business than I received by the end of the book.

Brinkley Saunders works alongside a handful of other women at Heartbreak for Hire (H4H) -- an undercover agency that specializes in exacting revenge against men, be they cheaters, liars, appropriating coworkers etc. For Brinkley, it is a temporary position to make the money she needs to open her own art gallery. Work at H4H takes a turn when the boss announces male heartbreakers will be joining the team. Brinkley begins to really rethink things when her male counterpart ends up being one of her past targets.

This book has a couple so funny I laughed out loud moments. The story pulled me in and I had to know how everything worked out in the end. And the Brinkley-Mark romance... the escape I need in books like this. But... I found the premise of H4H to be so petty and hate-full, And honestly ridiculous. While it piqued my interest as the premise of a novel, the overall idea really turned me off. I have a hard time picturing something like H4H actually taking place because it is so far from what I view as a healthy way to deal with conflict.

The dynamic between Brinkley and her mother is very obviously loaded with conflict. The reader gains an appreciation for why Brinkley is the way she is because of her mother. I found the twist with mom's past to be a bit abrupt in how it was unveiled / described / presented.

If half stars were a possibility I'd award this 3.5

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my review.

I am frustrated by this book. It started so strong: Brinkley is employed at Heartbreak for Hire, where she makes her living getting revenge on men who have wronged her female clients (an original, clever idea). On a job one night she finds herself attracted to the man she’s supposed to “take down.” An excellent steamy scene follows, but unfortunately the plot quickly begins to unravel from this point forward. What followed was a mishmash of things: Brinkley’s feelings of inadequacy with her mother, her former target Mark inexplicably becoming her co-worker at Heartbreak for Hire, her fears of pursuing her dreams of opening a gallery. There was so much thrown at the reader, but none of it was developed enough for it to ring true. Some conflict between Brinkley and Mark develops at the end, and it was good, heart wrenching stuff, but it was so quickly and simply wrapped up that it lost any impact it might have had. Sonia Hartl definitely has a lot of potential, but sadly this one was a miss for me.

Everyone in Brinkley Saunders's life thinks she's a graduate school dropout who works in admin at an insurance agency. Really she works for a company that hired women to commits act of revenge on men who have scorned women. However, when Brinkley is hired to hurt the ego of a local adjunct professor/super hottie Mark, everything goes sideways.

Heartbreak For Hire is a perfect enemies-to-lovers contemporary romance.

Brinkley works for a company that specializes in revenge for men who need to be taken down a notch or two. Her world is flipped upside down when her company brings in men to help with the revenge and one of them is her former target she had been paid to take down. Liked the strong friendship between Brinkley and her best friend and that it was based in Chicago, didn’t like how unlikeable Brinkley was at times due to being insecure and that it seemed to lag at time - 2.5 ⭐️s.

*Thank you to Netgalley, Sonia Hartl and Gallery Books for sharing this ARC with me in exchange for my honest review*.

Imagine if there is an agency you could hire to exact revenge for those who have wronged you? Welcome to Heartbreak for Hire. An agency that will take your nemesis down for a nominal fee. It is Charlies Angels meets the Mafia (in a kinder, gentler way). I have to admit I was nervous to read this book, thinking it would be full of angst but it was laugh out loud funny and oh so satisfying.

Heartbreak for Hire has four divisions: Cheaters, Grifting, Egos and Coworkers. Brinkley, the main character, is at work taking down Egos all over Chicago. That is until she meets her match in Markus, a man they have assigned her with, who embarrassed a coworker. Their undeniable chemistry brings her to her knees, but little does she know Markus is carrying his own secrets. Unfortunately, amid a steamy hook-up, she drops her "calling card", letting Mark know exactly who she is! Hilarity ensues when Mark calls Heartbreak for Hire and speaks with Margot, Brinkley's cut-throat boss, and is hired on the spot.

Brinkley is a complex character, which makes Heartbreak for Hire more than your typical Rom-Com. She has been raised by a selfish Mother, who is a professor at Northwestern. She has been told her Father is unknown, a sperm donor from a local sperm bank. She consistently puts Brinkley down for pursuing Art instead of a doctorate.

One of the many things I loved about this book was the depth of characters. Each person that the Author introduced was worthy of their own story. This book is hard to put down!

Brinkley works for Heartbreak for Hire, a company that women can hire to enact revenge against men who have wronged them. (Very dramatic)

Unfortunately for Brinkley, her boss decides to start hiring men to work at HfH and one of her former targets (that didn’t go exactly as planned) shows up at the office.

I loved this book.... It was definitely a more silly read read, but it was seriously so funny. I found myself laughing throughout the story and finished it in one afternoon. The only downfall was that I thought the pacing was a little wonky. The start of the book felt a little slow through to the middle with the build up and then the end of the book felt like it wrapped up too quickly and didn’t feel quite complete to me.

Adorable romantic comedy about two people who are anti romance. I loved it. Great characters and plot. I highly recommend.

An entertaining, heartwarming, and uplifting read! It's also quite hilarious at parts so there is that, too.

I liked it at the beginning, but the further in I got...the better it got! There is so much depth added by Brinkley's tense relationship with her mother, ex-academic friends, and then the PLOT TWIST involving Brinkley's mother and.........well, I can't say more without spoiling it! Needless to say, her mother is NOT quite what she portrays herself to be. And that's an understatement.

Brinkley's self-growth, how Mark pushed her to own up to her crap and quit staying stuck in the same rut because she was afraid to take risks, put herself out there, and fail. And then Mark. Oh, Mark. He redeems himself so well and it's beautiful! I love the "grand gesture" in romance novels.

Both MCs have emotional baggage in the form of expectations placed upon them by others, and they both have to embrace their TRUE selves and goals before they can be all happily-ever-after and whatnot.

And there is one part in this book where I quite literally laughed out loud, which does NOT happen often at all to me. It was splendid. All I'm gonna say is...Dolly Parton. When you read it, you'll know what I mean!

What a plot! What a book! I loved Heartbreak for Hire. It was such a funny, well-written romantic comedy. Brinkley Saunders is a professional heartbreaker. That should be enough to draw you in. The banter between her and the new male heartbreaker, Mark, AKA one of her previous targets (!), is so much fun.

I loved Heartbreak for Hire! This one included unique jobs, I felt like Brinkley was such a bad ass for getting to crush men’s egos. I loved the witty banter between her and Mark. Their relationship wasn’t perfect but they were definitely supportive of each other. The author definitely created lovable characters with a plot that was not always predictable. This one is definitely a fun romcom, I read it over two days! Check it out!

Nice book, I liked the. relationship between Mark and Brinkely they had a lot of chemistry but the side characters were underdeveloped and the books was too long. overall an entertaining book.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Unfortunately, despite having a promising premise and beginning, this book disappointed me. The beginning of the book had many aspects of a romance I love: good steamy scenes, banter, and a witty female main character. Despite having such a great start, the rest of the book fell relatively flat for me. The previously mentioned aspects I enjoyed were done pretty well and made me like this book a bit more, but the writing and plot were very off for me, so off it made this book a lot more difficult to enjoy. It felt like the plot was rushed along for no reason, which made all of the characters and their relationships poorly fleshed out and not believable. It felt like major issues (which weren't even that major because we weren't given enough time to stew in them) were resolved far too quickly and easily, so everything that happened felt inconsequential. Relationships changed incredibly quickly and without any buildup, which is a major part of romance novels. I've never read a romance and felt this way before because even if I don't like the characters or their relationship the book usually fleshes them out at least a little bit and the buildup of their romance (the main plot of the book) is somewhat slow and believable. This book failed to deliver in that respect, I just checked and it's 320 pages, so I really don't understand why it felt so rushed. It genuinely felt like something major would happen and then 5 (or less) pages later it was resolved, like a short story, not a full romance novel. It made me care less and less about the main relationship and any of the characters in the book because they weren't fleshed out enough and any issues they ran into were immediately resolved, AND all of the plot twists were super predictable. I think I only guessed one wrong and I was still very close.
It sounds like I disliked this book, but I really wanted to like it and ended up feeling slightly indifferent. I enjoyed the steamy scenes and there were some very funny moments I laughed at, which is always a great sign in romance, but it was impossible for me to attach to the characters and story when it moved so quickly and predictably. I feel like this book would've been so much better if it was longer and the characters had more time to become more fleshed out. It ended up being a bit boring and predictable which was a real shame considering how much I enjoyed the beginning. Overall I think there are many books like this that are better done, give this one a go if the premise calls to you but otherwise, I'd recommend other romance books with amazing characters, steam, AND plot.

This was a fun read. At first, I wasn’t sure if I could get into the revenge for hire plot line, but it turned out to be more than I expected.
Pros: Brinkley’s growth, her relationship with Mark, his growth, the change in dynamics in the relationship between Brinkley and her mother. There were definitely a few humorous situations for our heroine and I enjoyed each one.
Cons: Brinkley’s unfortunate boss, her relationship with her mother for the majority of the book, the initial take on uplifting women, and the vast amount of plot lines. Some I didn’t feel were truly resolved and could have been scrapped entirely.
Overall, this was a fun read and I did enjoy it.

Light, frothy...nothing substantive, but fun to read?

The problem I have with the current fiction trope of "business plan where women humiliate men who deserve it" is that a) that kind of business would quickly be sued into oblivion and b) I have issues with the whole concept. Two wrongs do not make a right. That said, Hartl actually deals, a bit, with those things and, despite myself, I actually liked the main characters. It will be interesting to see if she continues the series with the other three heartbreakers or leave this book as a stand-alone.

Hiring a woman to seek revenge against the man who has wronged you , a novel idea and one that is explored in Heartbreak for Hire. Brinkley was wronged by her previous boyfriend, which led her to her current job working for Heartbreak for Hire, where she specializes in taking down men whose big ego’s have hurt women. The job isn’t always pretty and Brinkley is forced to see that not all the men she is hired to take down are the villains they are made out to be… one may even be her knight in shining armor.
The book had some unexpected spice and a likeable love interest that makes the reader root for the couple, as a Brinkley works on her issues with men and tries to open up again. She learns revenge isn’t the only thing that she was looking for .

After a terrible break up Brinkley Saunders is recruited to work for Heartbreak For Hire -- a company where you can pay someone to exact your revenge for you. She works in the Ego department, taking jerks down a peg by orchestrating situations that take advantage of their grossest tendencies and expose them publicly. She breaks a rule (don't get involved with a mark!) when she gets involved with Mark (see what I did there?) and he ends up getting hired at H4H. She has a trash mom, a trash boss, and a friend and fellow heartbreaker we meet infrequently.

It's fine. The book starts really strong. The pacing at the beginning reminded me a lot of some of the best fanfic I read -- no nonsense, quick and dirty character development, horny on main. (That's a compliment, by the way. I love fanfic so! damn! much!). The book definitely moves at a really good clip, but generally to the detriment of character development. There are so many different plot elements (and only one or two feel urgent/necessary), that everything gets short shrift. I think if the author had pared it down a bit, she could have focused more on other elements and it wouldn't have felt so rushed and cluttered. I wanted more time with these people and their feelings! I mean, even the sex scenes were over in a flash! Bing bang boom done. Let things breathe a little!

I also struggled with Brinkley's mother, who was manipulative and emotionally abusive throughout. She did a lot of damage to her kid, but I don't feel like she really experienced any consequences. Also I laughed so hard at the mom when she said "I was only 27" as if she was a teenager making bad decisions. Lady, your brain was fully done cooking by then! Yeah you're younger than you are now, but that's definitely past questionable-bad-decision-age. There were definitely too many threads that had to be wrapped up really quickly, and I don't really like that the mom thread was wrapped up with them sort of having an ok relationship (but the mom not really demonstrating any change).

Heartbreak for Hire by Sonia Hartl was the ultimate twist of the breezy romantic comedy: the revenge plot. Grad school drop out Brinkley Saunders is on an assignment for Heartbreak for Hire, a dating app revenge website, when her life is changed through her meeting of a gorgeous professor Mark. After male heartbreakers join the agency and Mark is among them, Brinkley’s life is thrown for a twist. This book was delightful and a fun deviation from the typical romance meet cute.

This book has all the makings of a perfect romance -- excitement, tension, redemption, sweetness, just enough suspense, and plenty of steam. I couldn't put this book down! Highly recommend to fans of Sally Thorne, Christina Lauren, and Emily Henry.

A smart, sexy, and witty romantic comedy—perfect for fans of Christina Lauren and Sally Thorne—about a twentysomething who lives out every woman’s fantasy: getting paid to give men who do us wrong a taste of their own medicine.

Brinkley Saunders is the female character I want most to be. I loved getting to live in her brain and see her grow as a character over the book. Her life seems pretty idyllic, but it's far from what it appears. We've all had moments where we wanted revenge on someone and Brinkley gets to live that out. Her relationship with her former mark will keep you on your toes.

This is more than the workplace rom-com I was looking for. It has family, and friend drama in addition to the standard work drama. Heartbreak for Hire is a secret service that specializes in revenge for jilted lovers, frenemies, and long-suffering coworkers with a little cash to spare and a man who needs to be taken down a notch.

What's always been a woman-only office is about to change as Brinkley's boss announces she’s hiring male heartbreakers for the first time, and one of the new hires is a former mark it turns everything on it's head.

Heartbreak for Hire was such a good book, as soon as I finished it I went back to some of my favorite parts. This was my first book by Sonia Hartl and I really enjoyed the pacing, plot, and characters,