
Member Reviews

I took a chance with this book since I had never read this author before, but I fell in love with the story, plot, and characters. Tanamachi crafts awesome characters that are culturally diverse which she artfully blends into a fun and welcoming office setting. A place you wish you could work! Full of pranks, funny, loving characters, and the occasional nerve-wracking moments when corporate take-overs are looming.
She also has characters you want to hate, but just can’t as they continue to grow on you as the two main characters find their hate relationships might not be hate after all. Their chemistry was steamy and oh, so swoony!
The Takeover is everything and more! I fell in love with the writing and the wicked ways of the corporate world as told by this talented author. The nods to some real-life corporate giants is thinly veiled and well-spoken!
For a fun and contagious read you have to check out this book! I’m gushing!

Such a sweet rom com. Loved the banter and the high school rivals to lovers trope. I loved that both main characters were highly competitive it made it such a fun read. Highly recommend

There is a lot to like about this book, The love interests, Nami and Jae are fun and interesting and I liked their enemies to lover story as well as getting the narrative from each side of their perspective. Even though she's a bit of a rule follower and he's a bit too cool for school they're liable characters that I enjoyed spending time with.
The family members and secondary characters are also nice. I especially liked a running gag about a stolen and ransomed office chair.
What I didn't like was how under developed the background and information about Toggle, the company Nami works at was. Normally I might not be hung up on something like that, but when your book is about a business deal I want to have a better understanding on some basics -- not just what their business model is but what is Sami's actual job at the company? Did she invent this app? Is she president of the company? What does she actually do and how did she and her partner get together? Maybe I'm being nitpick but having a greater understanding of Toggle would have helped since especially in the beginning for the book much of the business stuff seemed wildly farfetched.

I liked this! This book was engaging, funny, emotional, and overall, a good time. The story had well done high school rivals to lovers with two highly competitive characters I found myself rooting for. The romance part was solid, but this book also had interesting family dynamics, a cool work-place environment, and well-developed side characters. The only issue I had was with how the company buy out in the end worked out. It seemed a little too easy/far reaching but didn’t take away from the rest of the book for me.
I would easily recommend this book to anyone who enjoys:
• Rivals-to-lovers
• Witty banter
• Dual POV
• Family dynamics
• Workplace setting (tech industry)
Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a digital review copy of The Takeover in exchange for my honest review!

For all the enemies to lovers fans out there. This book is a whirlwind. So happy I was able to read it. As someone who is in their 30s I related the the fears of ending one decade and starting another. I loved the office setting and I felt like I haven’t read as much with that setting before.

quick and cute romance with the enemies to lovers trope. i liked the characters and the pacing was great and flowed well.

It’s first person POV but feels very distant and narrative, which I don’t enjoy. I stopped after chapter 1 (5%). I can see this going over decently with the target audience, and four stars for the right readers.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.

Was an easy read and had enjoyable moments. Felt like a continuation of The Second You’re Single which was nice for me but also can be read as a stand-alone. Full review on instagram

Nami and Jae Lee old high school rivals, cross paths again 10 years later… in the worst way possible!!
Like most us of Nami 30th birthday cake and her life was a disaster! Her fiancé dumped her,her tech startup is losing funding, her sister is getting married and that’s really making her a little jealous… So on her birthday she wishes for the universe to bring her, her soulmate…things just couldn’t get any worse…or so she thought.
Tech giant Rainforest is planning a hostile takeover to acquire her company, which causes two really big problems 1. They represent everything she hates and 2. Her old high school arch nemesis Jae Lee is their representative. rivalry reignited!!!! We get some really good banter from these two, their chemistry is off the charts, and I even enjoyed I enjoyed learning about both their families, and it had the perfect amount of spice for me!
Tropes
Enemies to lovers,
He falls first
Fade to black

The Takeover checked all the boxes on my romantic comedy must-haves!
Witty banter
Frenemies-to-lovers
MCs in their 30s
Scene stealing side characters
Literal girl bosses
I loved everything about Jae and Nami! Their history, his nickname for her, their competitiveness, their banter…they kept me laughing and rooting for them from start to finish. The Toggle Internal Chat was an added comedic bonus. If you’re looking for your next romance read, I highly recommend picking up The Takeover!
Thank you to NetGalley, St Martin’s Griffin, and St. Martin’s Press for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publishing company and or the author for giving me a chance to read and review The Takeover.
Love how the main characters interacted with each other.

Thank you to netgalley for giving this ARC, and this doesn't influence my review. This was a great book, I enjoyed the tropes and watching them come to life in my mind! I just want the author to mention in the synopsis that this book is dual-POV, cause it doesn't seem like it according to the synopsis.

I tried to give this book a fair chance but couldn’t get through it.
It seemed like every other paragraph needed to make reference to the fact that Nami and her coworkers were nerds. Nerd nerd nerd nerd nerd. And then for Nami to go from hating Jae and everything about him to instantly thinking “maybe I like him?” After kissing him. It’s just…ugh. I couldn’t get through it. The book felt SO childish, especially with the stupid texts Nami and Jae sent back and forth and the Disney movie villains the author tries to make characters be.
Also, it felt like in the beginning the author was trying to tick off every box to have every kind of person in the story, just for the sake of having them. Someone nonbinary, disabled, every race you can think of, different sexualities, you name it. Obviously having representation in your book is great but including these characters (that for the most part aren’t even characters, they’re just named dropped to make sure the reader knows the author is SUPER inclusive) for the sake of having them isn’t how you do it.
Sorry, I just couldn’t do it.

First, thank you to SMP and NetGalley for the ARC! As someone all too familiar with tech takeovers, I was so excited to dive into Tanamachi's new novel. And there was so much that I loved about the first half of the novel (the banter!! immediate sexual tension!! Jae as an ultimate book bf!). However, the second half fell a bit flat for me. I'm avoiding spoilers, but once the romance part seemed clearer, I lost interest in the business storyline.
No doubt other readers will feel differently and love the Toggle community. May just be my own exposure as a techie. Excited to see what Tanamachi writes next! And yes, I now want a new office chair...

High school rivals, Nami and Jae, find each other in their paths again, a decade later as Nani’s startup is failing and Jae is responsible for the acquisition as the representative for the giant company, Rainforest. The problem is, Rainforest embodies everything that Nami despises about these industry monoliths - money hungry and treats its employees as a number. Their rivalry is sparked and what ensues is weeks of competition and banter that ultimately leads to questioning their true feelings for each other.
This book was a riot. The banter was top tier and I was literally laughing out loud at the shenanigans these two got themselves into. There were so many scenes that felt so original and played out like a movie. I also really loved Nami as a character, heard-headed, quirky, and loyal to a fault, she was SO relatable! The storylines with both Nami and Jae’s families was a really great touch. But the greatest thing about this book was the chemistry, so well done and believable (I generally don’t love enemies to lovers, but this one makes me a believer). Although, I really would have loved more spice, this one was very tame 😂 Easily one of my top romance reads this year!
Read if you love:
enemies to lovers
banter
office setting
he falls first
very low spice level
Asian-American MCs

I was so excited for this one, and I just couldn't get into it. There were so many positives, but the collective just did not hold my attention like I'd wanted.

This book was such a breeze to read! 📚💨 I appreciated how it broke down all the Silicon Valley jargon and vibes – super helpful for someone like me who's only seen it on TV! But let's move on... the main characters' high school rivalry-turned-lovers chemistry is off the charts! 🔥 This rom-com had me practically screaming at them to just make out already, LOL! I also loved how the book delved into topics like cultural backgrounds, family foundations, and support, not to mention those trust issues the main characters have and the classic 'who could you' element.
I'd give it a solid 4 stars, and the only reason it's not 5 is because I wouldn't have minded a bit more steam and a little less fading to black, but hey, that's on me, not the author! 😉
Big thanks to Netgalley for the eArc of "The Takeover" by Cara Tanamachi! 😊

Reviewed for NetGalley:
This had all the ingredients for a fun read, including my favorite, former childhood enemies, but just ended up falling flat for me.
I could not connect with the main characters and honestly did not care if they got together or not.

this book was good until it wasn’t. the first half had me chuckling and excited to keep reading. the banter was top notch, the representation was amazing, and i love a good dual pov romance. but of course, all good things must come to an end.
i had a bunch of questions throughout the book about the characters, specifically nami and her job title. what exactly did she do for the company? it was mentioned that she went to law school and did some coding which led to toggle, but what does she do now?
time moved quickly and we went from july to september in a matter of chapters with only the mention of some basic stuff that happened during that time with the fmc and the mmc.
i also feel as though once the main characters got together, the banter and the bits of the book that made it enjoyable were gone. after that, the book became quite lackluster. the ending was different than i had expected with the employees saving the day and not the mmc like most similar stories.
all in all, it was a decent read. the first half went by way too fast and after the 50% mark it seemed to drag on, but this cute.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and the author for the eARC of The Takeover in exchange for my honest review!
This book being my first ARC ever received, I was very excited to read it! However, I found it a bit hard to follow along at times due to the confusing jargon and terminology on business takeovers and cryptocurrency that I had not really anticipated there to be so much of.
Both Jae and Nami were likable characters and I enjoyed the witty banter, but I feel that there was no buildup to the actual falling-in-love aspect. From the very beginning, it is evident that Jae and Nami both feel some sort of attraction to each other, which they constantly try to deny and ultimately fail to sound convincing, but I’m afraid that doesn’t justify the unforeseen 180 degree turn their relationship took, from being one of hate to suddenly becoming one of love. The complete switch-up just felt out of place and poorly executed. I did enjoy the cute moments between the two, even when they were still enemies, and the hint of spice was just the perfect amount for me, nothing too graphic but still enough to feed my imagination.
Some characters, mainly the work colleagues, I did not care for and seemed to lack personality, unless you consider Dell’s misogynistic views and douchebag attitude a personality trait. I understand he was probably meant to provide comedic relief, but I just found him insufferable. As a Filipino American, I did appreciate the Asian representation and was genuinely invested in the family dynamics portrayed in the book.
The outdated pop culture references were a bit too excessive and had me cringing more times than I would’ve liked. I had to take a few moments to recover from that. Overall, The Takeover was a cute, lighthearted romance novel and enjoyable read! Those epilogues really wrapped up the story nicely! They most definitely were my favorite part of the book! I loved the way they revealed the progression of the couple’s relationship. Great concluding element!