Heartbreak Incorporated follows Evie Cross as she is struggling to find a job so she can stay in New York City and fulfill her dream of becoming a journalist. She then ends up working at a consulting agency that specializes in breaking up relationships run by the handsome and secretive Misha Meserov. Evie thinks she has a scoop on several high stakes scandals, but the truth is wilder than she could ever have imagined.

My thoughts:

This was an enjoyable story from start to end. I enjoyed the wide cast of characters, although the romance was not my favorite part of the story. I loved the <spoiler> supernatural twist </spoiler>and the cult-y vibes.

"I break up marriages for money ... but I ruin abusers for free." [loc. 852]
Evie Cross, who dreams of becoming a prize-winning investigative journalist, gets a temp job at a small consultancy which specialises in ending relationships. Her boss, Misha Meserov, is immensely charismatic and alluring, but Evie suspects he's hiding a dark and dangerous secret -- one that might make Evie's career if she can get the story into print. Ethics, what ethics? So it's probably not the best time to develop a crush on her boss.

Evie was likeable and credible, struggling to survive in New York City, trying to keep hold of her dream and insisting to her friend Claudia that Meserov and Co is just the day job. Misha would have been too good to be true, but he's appallingly untidy and disorganised: enforced organisation leads to much enjoyable bonding (and stationery buying) between Evie and Gemma, the blonde receptionist with perfect make-up who's not as superficial as she first appears. The supporting cast -- Misha's clients, his sister Masha, the staff of the law firm that has Meserov and Co on retainer, the wealthy tech billionaire with his nasty habits and immaculate wife -- were diverse and characterful, and the plot kept me guessing -- especially as I was unaware of one particular aspect of the novel.

This was very enjoyable, suspenseful and romantic and steamy, with some intriguing gender twists and plenty of gritty realism to counter the more fantastical elements.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an Advance Review Copy in exchange for this honest review.

This was provided to me for free by Netgalley in exchange for a fair review.

I don't know why, but I thought "side hustle in the occult" meant they were like, helping faeries break up or something. This was not the case. In fact I was surprised by how mundane the beginning was, and had to go reread the summary to make sure I'd indeed requested something supernatural. I'd have 100% read on even if it weren't the case, though, because as skeptical as I was during the first chapter, Evie quickly grew on me.

The romance itself was a lot of fun to read, in the "cursed monster with self-hatred issues falls in love with someone who believes in him as a good person" genre. Listen, I love a good martyred hero, ok? I also normally have issues with books that deal with office romance, and especially anything with a boss/employee relationship, because it gets creepy real quick. But Misha is a gentleman, and very self-aware and respectful of Evie's boundaries, and she's always the one who initiates things, as much on the romance aspect as on the "let me help you with your crazy dangerous work" aspect.

I knew really quick what kind of supernatural entity we were dealing with (I mean the blurb practically tells you) but the worldbuilding around that was still very interesting and inventive.

Another thing that really stood out for me was the solidarity between the women. Even Gemma, who's supposed to be Evie's competition for the long term job, becomes an ally within 2 chapters. And Masha, Misha's "sister", was a favourite of mine too, I love her so much!

The dynamics there were just really good, and at the same time you have great female villains too. I gotta say, I also love a so-called "straight" erotica/romance book (from the marketing, the way it's presented etc) where both leads turn out to be bi. Misha actually says it within the first 20 pages and I thought that was refreshing! There's also some gender stuff which is kind of a major spoiler, but I thought it was well executed too.

The mystery/"occult" part of the novel, while entirely not what I was expecting, also drew me in, and now I want more of their little adventures.

TWs for the book: domestic violence, kidnapping, murder, ritual sacrifices, mild gore

I picked Hearbreak Incorporated by Alex de Campi based on the cover, partly expecting urban fantasy, partly soft horror maybe. The contents didn’t match my expectations at all, not even with reading the description.

This was an odd book, in good and bad. It was genre fiction, but the genre kept changing. It started as chick-lit that morphed into a mystery, then paranormal, erotica, and eventually into horror of sorts. But at no point it was typical of any of it.

That’s because of its chosen style. The book is written in third person present tense, which created a vast distance between the main character Evie and the reader. The narrative seemed to slog on instead of drawing the reader in. It’s not a long book, but I found the style so exhausting I had to pause several times and it took me days to finish.

It was a well-written third person present though, with good eye for detail that made the main character’s life believable. But it didn’t manage to convey the sense of urgency that especially the ending required, or let the reader in on the jokes of the first half. It made the reader feel as dreary as Evie’s life was.

The story follows Evie who’s working on a series of temp jobs while fooling herself she’s going to break into journalism in a world where paid journalism is dying. New York is expensive and she’s down her last dollar when she snags a job with a private investigator. They investigate by going undercover on behalf of the client, usually to prove first-hand that a spouse is having an affair. The owner is a charming man who sweeps Evie off her feet without trying. Pity she’s set things in motion that’ll make him hate her. She’s decided to use him as her a ticket to journalism. That’s the chick-lit part.

Misha isn’t a typical alpha mail of UF and paranormal romances. He’s bisexual for one, and dresses to emphasise his attractiveness to both genders. And his behaviour is intriguing enough to make Evie to suspect that he kills some of his clients. She needs to prove it though. That’s the mystery section. But when she learns the truth, she no longer wants to write the story about him. That’s when the book evolves into paranormal territory. The rest of it flows in similar vein.

That’s also when the book started to lose my interest, mostly because Misha opening up to a person he’s known for a few days isn’t believable. But Evie plunges into his world, only to end up betraying him.

The ending definitely isn’t what I expected. It might set a series, though it concludes the book well. But if the reader is expecting a happily ever after, or even for now, they’re up for a disappointment.

All in all, this was a good book that I didn’t like as much as I hoped I would. But if you’re bored with first person narratives, and want to read something atypical while similar, this is for you. The cover should be changed though. But to what, I have no idea. I can't imagine what would describe all aspects of the book in a satisfying manner.

This book ended up being so much more than what the blurb suggested! Part murder mystery, part supernatural, part romance, it had a bit of everything (including a few instances of quite graphic violence and *ahem* sexy times, so beware if that's not your cup of tea) but I rather enjoyed it.

Evie has flitted between boring temp jobs for so long, she's feeling jaded and disillusioned with her investigative journalism degree. She accepts a job at Heartbreak Incorporated, an investigative consultancy whose owner Misha Meserov essentially seduces people and breaks up their marriages. Evie soon begins to suspect that Misha might be some sort of supernatural serial killer, however as she digs deeper, she realises his secret is even more dangerous. She must decide whether to continue writing the story that could finally launch her journalist career, or back off and protect the person she is starting to really care about. It was so much fun uncovering the truth, the characters are all great, even the secondary ones, and the pacing felt just right. I do still have some questions and feel like I want to know more, so I'm hoping for a sequel!

A little bit mystery, a little bit paranormal fantasy, a little bit romance, Heartbreak Incorporated was great in theory, but I found it difficult to connect to the story. I found finishing a struggle, but I'm not sure why! It may have just not been for me.

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Now, this book was fun! A little humour, some mystery and certainly drama.

I love the "private-eye" genre and was drawn to this book by the idea of a business of breaking up relationships, purposely!

I thought the story was well written and the characters had enough description that I could visualize them easily. Misha, in particular, was larger than life.

Even the secondary characters were well shaped. I'm hoping that we'll see subsequent books with those characters, especially Pavel, but still having MIsha as a player.

What was the best part was thinking I knew exactly what Misha was up to, and what his sister's secret was, then getting totally gobsmacked because I was wrong.

This was a book of two halves for me I quite enjoyed the first part of the book, but as it progressed i started to get bored with Evie, her personality seemed to disappear. I also thought Misha
was too over the top, and neither of them were that likable, or interesting. It became a bit of a chore for me to read, and I ended up not enjoying the book.

Evie thought her life would be different at twenty-five. She was going to make it big in New York City and work her way up the ladder as an investigative journalist - she knew exactly what her dreams her. But now, she's starting to think dreams are really just for sleeping until she starts a temp job at a small consultancy firm run by the enigmatic and dynamic Misha Meserov. But this isn't any ordinary firm - their speciality is ending and breaking relationships and Evie falls straight into investigation mode trying to figure out what secrets are hiding behind Mishas good looks and charisma.

When a rich CEO with a failing marriage turns up dead after delving into the strange world of the occult Evie realises she's in too deep to ever turn back.

Heartbreak Incorporated was a strange blend of the weird and wonderful occult world, steamy romance and a classic mystery with tonnes of charm. Forgive the cliche but it was a true rollercoaster book - as soon as it started we set off at 100 miles per hour and I was constantly trying to find the ground. I couldn't decide if I hated or loved Evie and Misha - both so unique and different but now stuck together in circumstances beyond their control.

I felt so much sympathy for Evie when we first met - a struggling twenty-something woman who has no idea what she's doing with her life and struggling to keep going and from the start I definitely felt a connection with her but sometimes I really didn't like being in her head. I hated the way she spoke about every other woman in the story, and how after a while her own identity was consumed by Misha.

DNF @ 43%. I had intended to finish this; its prose is highly readable and there's enough action that it clips right along. There are also some worldbuilding elements that intrigued me. But after I opened the book for the third consecutive time and immediately felt bewildered by the character interactions, I decided reading much further wasn’t going to serve anyone. I was not the target audience for this book, which didn’t seem to know what it wanted to be. It’s described variously as mystery, romance, erotica, and fantasy. It’s not that these genres are incompatible, but the fantasy plot doesn’t show up until the 40% mark, prioritizing the "contemporary" and "mystery" elements with a dash of romance mixed in. It felt unfocused, and that was just one problem.

Evie as a protagonist herself felt unfocused. Maybe she was only so inconsistent owing to the magic being done to her by Misha the sex vampire(?), but her professional dithering didn’t make sense to me. [Once she lands a job with Misha, she can once again pay her rent. So why is she constantly plotting to sell a story on him for peanuts, once again putting herself in the position of not being able to pay her rent? Maybe she wanted to be a journalist that badly, but in that case, there are many other stories to write while simultaneously paying rent at your full-time corporate job buying coffee for your sex vampire. You do not need to write this one. It seemed like a false choice. (hide spoiler)]

Evie’s messaging is also confused about men. Something that happened three times (chapters 3, 4, and 5) is that Evie makes an offhand, snippish comment about “boys” being disorganized or slovenly. Chapter 4’s example: “Ugh, why are boys.” Chapter 5’s: “Why are boys allowed to be in charge of anything?” Naturally, each of these “ugh” remarks about men’s general existence is followed up, sometimes on the same page, with remarks about how hot Misha is. Evie is, it should be noted, in her mid-twenties. Again, maybe there’s sex magic at work to create this inconsistency, but if so, introducing the magical aspect of the world earlier to establish this possibility and not make it seem inconsistent seems important.

It’s not just men she doesn’t seem to like. Evie also doesn’t like women. She mentally or verbally disparages other women (especially when they’re beautiful) in order to segue into thoughts about how she herself doesn’t even have beauty on her side. At one point in Chapter 6 she tells another woman aloud, “Ugh. You make that look good. I hate you.” Again, what year is it? Also, is this feminism? Maybe the internalized misogyny was an intentional theme, and I don't expect every book to be a feminist screed, but it’s also an odd approach for a book with a female protagonist to take when that same protagonist is also allegedly super ambitious as both a reporter and an investigator for a paranormal affair specialist. I accept that this may be just business as usual in the half of The Romance Genre I don't have much to do with, and I’m unfairly objecting to a common convention. Regardless, it didn’t work for me.

The final straw for me was the unearned emotional exposition of both Evie and Misha. [In one scene, Evie (aggressively) confronts Misha with evidence that he used to be a sex worker in a scene that makes me dislike Evie intensely. Misha admits to it calmly—why the fuck is it her business, why is she entitled to this information, why is this framed as something she needs to confront him over at all, they have known each other for a week, he is her boss—and then for some reason, Misha shows Evie his heart surgery scar. “I have a rare condition,” he says. He then starts crying... because he is imperfect. Okay. They hug. Evie is having feelings. Remember that she came in here with an accusation.

Later that day, Misha discourages her from getting too close to a paranormal element of work and tells her to go home and watch some Netflix. She, too, bursts into tears. She doesn’t WANT to watch Netflix! She doesn’t know what she wants at all! Her existential crisis unfurls. Sometimes it's one little thing that trips you, but listen: your boss told you to go home early. That’s all. Why did this become "I just want to be an intrepid reporter"? Is the sex magic also confusion magic? So soon after Misha’s tearful “I am imperfect” speech, the melodrama got to me and I opted to put the book down. (hide spoiler)]

It’s not right to be critical of this book for lacking in subtlety, because it’s not trying to be, not even a little bit. That’s not the genre we’re dealing with. However… one time Misha takes off his shirt—not even in a sexy way, just to turn it inside right—and immediately apologizes profusely to Evie for his indecency and “forgetting his body is not an object.” Yeah, I mean, damn. I forget that shit all the time. Thank God somebody finally said it. Once it's revealed shortly after this that he used to be a sex worker (arguably still is given the nature of his job), I just—man, I dunno. Misha is a walking set of iddy tropes—and, hell, it’s romance. But between his character's problems and Evie’s, it did mean that I connected to neither major character and found neither of their interactions believable.

This story is probably ideal for anyone who wants a deeply iddy supernatural romance about a corporate sex vampire(?) and the self-loathing everygirl who falls for him. It does read quickly, it's not boring, and there is some good sexual tension. Don't tell me if Misha's not a sex vampire, though. I will live in happiness assuming he is.

First off, if you don't like reading explicit sex scenes, this book isn't for you. If you don't mind, it might be!

On the surface, this book seemed like a standard office romance. Evangeline Cross (amazing name, btw), aka Evie is struggling to pay her bills in New York while pursuing her passion for journalism. She finds a temp job working with a Family Law firm, but the job is far from ordinary, and not simply because her boss is totally hot.

I'd read [book:Twisted Romance, Vol. 1|36875431], so I had an inkling what the twist would be, and was not disappointed. Evie's office-job-turned-romance suddenly involves an incubus, an evil spell hidden inside a medieval book of hours, and a secret branch of the Vatican! Not exactly what she signed up for.

I really enjoyed this book. It hit all the beats it should, as a romance book, but also held the intrigue of a suspense novel. The one issue I had, which will not matter to 99.5% of people, is that the book of hours was said to have chapters. I'm a medievalist -- they don't have chapters. No one else will care. It has nuanced discussions of gender and sexuality woven in that don't feel heavy-handed or out of place.

Heartbreak Incorporated would make a great summer read, either on the beach or for steamy summer nights.

This fantasy/mystery/paranormal romance follows down on her luck journalist Evie as she tries to get enough temp jobs to make ends meet while posting articles to the internet in hopes of getting an actual journalism job one day. Her most recent temp position is at Heartbreak Incorporated - a private investigator office where the mysterious and magnetic Misha specializes in breaking up relationships. Need your spouse to have an affair so you can get out of your prenup? Misha is your guy. He always follows the letter of the law, but as Evie finds out, there's more going on beneath the surface. When their most recent client is found to be delving into the occult, Evie and Misha travel from NYC to San Francisco to try and stop a disaster. Evie then needs to decide what path she wants to take - follow her journalism path and leave all this PI stuff behind or fully accept that not everything is at it seems and follow Misha as he searches for monsters in the shadows.

I really liked the balance of genres in this book. It is primarily a fantasy mystery with the romance secondary. It was pretty light on the fantasy/paranormal elements which was a plus for me since I'm not a very big fantasy reader. I really liked how the book starts by being grounded in a reality where Misha is just a little weird and there's something off about him but then more and more details get revealed about the supernatural elements that exist in our world. I really liked the non-traditional choice of supernatural creature in the book that gave the book something a little extra special. I also found the way the explanation and history of the creature and conflict in the book was really well done. It was woven into the romance sub-plot very well and with enough other plot happening in between information sessions that it never really felt 'info-dumpy'. The magic (or powers, or whatever) system in this book is pretty soft with not too much known about exactly what the limit to the creature's power is but this didn't bother me at all. I was glad this story focused on just one creature type and we didn't get the sort of 'underground society of creatures' that I think we get in a lot of urban fantasies. For a relatively short book (300 pages), I think that adding any more creatures would have made the narrative really rushed and overly complicated. For me, this book felt split 60/40 between fantasy and paranormal romance. Again, neither of those genres I really gravitate toward so my meter may be off on those percentages.

The romantic elements in this were a little underdeveloped for me. I think there was a good amount of development of Evie and Misha's relationship as coworkers and as friends but I wanted just a little bit more. I didn't quite understand why Misha was so trusting of Evie just because she asked if he was okay a few times. We only get Evie's POV in the story so maybe those little caring questions really meant that much to Misha but it seems like for someone so used to being a loner that he would have needed a bit more time to warm up so much toward her. I would have liked them to work another case together before the big supernatural case in order to build the rapport and their trust. Evie admits to having a crush on Misha but doesn't want to go any further at first because he's her boss and she thinks it is just because he's so handsome. Again, apart from a few friendly remarks, I didn't really understand the jump from her crush to being full on in love with him. Just a couple extra chapters with Misha and Evie working together and getting closer would have really made this for me. I also didn't love how open ended the ending was in regards to their relationship but I'm hoping maybe this was a choice because they wanted to have sequel potential. It wasn't a cliff hanger ending or anything, it just was a little open to interpretation so even if there isn't a sequel, there is enough in the ending for me to feel comfortable imagining them having a happy ending.

I really liked the characters in the story - I thought they all were really well developed and worked well together. Each character we're introduced to immediately had a strong personality that I could grab onto and know exactly who this person is. I think De Campi's strength is her character work and as a character-focused reader, I greatly appreciate the craft. I also loved how casually the queer representation was worked into the story through the various characters. Misha is bi, Evie's best friend is a lesbian, and there's some interesting gender-queer/non-conforming/non-binary aspect in the story as well (can't elaborate because of spoilers). I can't speak to the accuracy of that representation personally but I noticed it and I really appreciated aspects like that being worked into the story so easily. I think every character were used to their fullest extent and none of them felt cookie cutter or like they were just taking up space in the narrative. Even the group of priests, who are sort of the antagonists who join the story in the 3rd act, are really well developed and actually brought a good amount of humor to the book with their banter back and forth within their group as well as Evie.

I think the pacing in this story was spot on which is really impressive considering how many moving parts we had in such a low page count. I would have expected a story like this to be more around 400 pages but instead it sits at 300 so every line is really used to the max. I think the real testament to the pacing is the fact that the first like 30% is mostly Evie doing office work and thinking about how weird Misha is acting. But I was pretty much instantly drawn into the story and kept flipping pages. I read this in an afternoon and wasn't bored at any point. There's a pretty constant rotation between plot lines that kept me hooked as we would get little clues or reveals in one plot line only to then switch to another and get some reveals in that one and then switch to another etc. For example, we would get a little bit more information on the mysterious Misha then cut to Evie trying to make her big break in journalism, then to the agency's newest case, then Evie's crush on Misha - rinse and repeat. All of these plot lines are also so intertwined that it never feels like we're leaving the 'main' plot for some random side plot. Everything feels like it is building to a greater whole and that's what really keeps the pacing up.

Overall, this was a really fun fantasy/paranormal romance. Great character work, excellent pacing, fun premise. Romance plot was a little lacking in development for my personal tastes but still very good.



Thanks to NetGalley and Solaris for the ARC in exchange for review

Expected publication date is June 22, 2021

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 was given a free ARC. I am leaving my honest review.

I enjoyed this book, in large part because I found the characters, in particular, main character, Evie, to be very engaging.

The way the author gradually introduced the supernatural into the plot was another plus.

While I loved the concept, I found the execution of the plot to be inconsistent, with elements of different genres randomly thrown into the mix. The pacing was irregular, dragging in spots.

Despite the flaws, I was gradually drawn into the book. When the end came, I found myself wanting more.

I really enjoyed this one. It took me a little bit to get into the flow of things, but once I was there, I was sucked right into this story.
Evie’s head is a strange place to be, not exactly a happy home, but nothing overtly miserable. More open to the world than she realizes, she’s first passed over and then hired for the job after a strange encounter with her new boss.
The paranormal aspect was a good one for me. It was my favorite kind of paranormal, and actually made lots of things snap into place for me.

This was such a good story and really unexpected. You think you know where it's going but there are some unexpected twists. I absolutely loved Misha and how he alternated between sex god and scared little boy. Evie made some really dumb choices but she was loyal and worked hard to fix what she broke. I would definitely read more from this author.

I was really drawn into this book, but it felt incredibly slow. The romance that was developing between the leads wasn't anything I felt particularly over joyous about. As I was getting through the book, I wanted a bit more "meat" to it. The concept was fabulous and I just wish the plot could match the setup.

I found this book engaging, and read it almost entirely in one sitting.

MC, Evie, is a young midwestern NYC transplant struggling to make ends meet when she takes an interview through contacts she'd made through a traditional temping agency, and ends up sucked into a world far from traditional as can be.

The book does a great job with character development, there are a few good surprises I absolutely did not see coming.

The only downside for me was the pacing. The beginning started slow, but the jump from coworkers to relationship felt like it happened too quickly, and the number of action scenes at the end seemed too much. It felt like this book could've easily stretched into at least a duology, giving the relationship and the worldbuilding more time and space to work itself out.

I loved the quality of the writing itself. I need to find more books by this author--I really enjoyed the way the world was described, and the balance struck between contemporary setting and the fantasy/paranormal elements.

In Heartbreak Incorporate we meet Evie Cross, a 25 year-old wannabe journalist who’s temping for different companies to make ends meet until she can make her big break with a newspaper.

She’s starting her new job at a small consultancy, where we meet our second main character, Misha Meserov. He’s tall, handsome, clever and can make anyone fall into bed with him. This is beneficial for his agency, which is specialized in breaking up relationships.

Overall I can say, I enjoyed reading this book, even though I’m normally not huge into paranormal romance.

I felt that the story was a little weak in the area of character development. For me, it felt like Evie didn’t really grow with the things she experienced and though she did feel sorry for some things she did in the past, I feel like there could have been more in that direction.

I especially enjoyed everything that had to do with the company Evie and Misha work for and how they handle it. In my view, this was a very strong part of the story. I was excited when Evie (and we, as the reader) got to learn more about Misha and his circumstances growing up.

This was such an enjoyable read. I liked the characters and the supernatural take on it. Be looking forward to seeing if this is made into a series in the future.
What an atmospheric and clever story! I couldn’t help but keep turning pages until I finished the book!