Book Review: Make Up Break Up
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Make Up Break Up
By: Lily Menon
Contemporary Romance
321 Pages
2021
Opening Line: ““Detest” was a very strong word. So were “abhor” and “despise” and “loathe”. “
Overall: Annika Dev had a fun, week-long fling in Las Vegas at a tech conference with Hudson Craft. She told him about her dream to launch her tech company called, Make Up. An app that keeps couples together by working with them to learn to communicate with eachother better, and show them how their lives could be wonderful by staying together. Later, out of the blue, she sees Hudson on the cover of a trendy Tech Magazine, calling him the hottest new tech entrepreneur for his sky rocketing new company called, Break Up. His app will break up with people for you, so you don’ t have to. Annika is so angry that Hudson has not only apparently stolen her app idea, but twisted it to break people’s hearts instead of helping couples be more in love. His company is successful, making money, and only getting bigger. Meanwhile, her company is in dire straights financially, and is getting eviction notices from her landlord. To make matters worse for Annika, his company moves into the same floor in the same fancy office building that hers is in (for now). When she runs into him again in the building, she can’t control how hurt and angry she is towards him. She can’t believe she is forced everyday now to have to see his successful company flourishing from an idea he stole from her, while her own company is on-the-rocks. But, she also discovers that when they are around eachother, sparks still fly and they are drawn to eachother like magnets. They still do have chemistry and feelings for eachother. However, the two companies are set to compete against eachother soon at an EPIC tech conference for investor money to expand their businesses. Annika really needs to win this contest or her company won’t survive. But, the attraction between Annika and Hudson is still very strong, and could affect how their presentations at the conference turn out. Annika wants her company to be successful and believes that she is determined to win at all costs.
Ovations: I love that Make Up is a new tech app start up being run and developed by two strong, smart, spunky, independent women. I like that being an entrepreneur and making her business a success is the most important thing to Annika. I appreciate how she won’t take money from her friend, and that she wants to prove herself and her passion project successful to her father. I loved the romance between Annika and Hudson. Annika would probably call it an enemies-to-lovers romance, and Hudson would call it a second-chances romance. They keep eachother on their toes, and keep us entertained. You really feel their chemistry and heat every time the interact. All the sexy scenes between the two of them sizzle. They have great, lively banter between them no matter if they are angry or being flirty. The romance between the secondary characters was a nice addition too. I also liked the relationship and interactions between Annika and her father. They were loving, but also realistic and complicated, as parent and adult child relationships sometimes are.
Oh Well: I do totally understand why Annika was angry, hurt, distrustful and disappointed with Hudson. She believed that he had stolen her idea after she trusted him. Plus, he made his company wildly successful while she is struggling to just keep her business alive. So, of course she would be bitter and resentful about that too. But, I feel like he was always very nice to her, despite his being hurt too. Near the end of the book, when she understood him more, I feel she was still just way too stubborn. Her drawing a line in the sand like that, saying that as long as he owned his company, they could not be friends or anything else. That seemed very harsh to me, knowing how they felt about each other. I think he deserved to be treated much better by her.
Opinion: I really enjoyed the innovative plot of tech company rivals making opposing dating apps. I loved the strong, smart, female characters of Annika and June. It was also refreshing that the main character was an Indian-American female. You don’t see that enough. The sexy, intense chemistry between Hudson and Annika was the best part of the book. It was their relationship that kept me reading to find out what happened between them next. Rating 7 out of 10