Cara Tanamachi

The story is told from different perspectives of Sora Reid and Jack Mann. It’s February with hearts and Valentines everywhere which Sora finds depressing. She is a freelance writer for Slick online women’s magazine working from home.

She is a difficult to like character because she is so self deprecating and self sabotaging. It’s initially amusing as she describes her overachieving sister preparing for her upcoming wedding. She is always trying to avoid doing things with her Japanese American mother who follows diet and exercise fads. A few annoying issues for me dealt with the mention of bacon so many times. With all her “issues” I would add obsession to bacon as one. The other issue is that poor one eyed dog, Larry. Every time she mentions his mishaps bumping into things it made me cringe!

There are some redeeming qualities if you continue reading through the sometimes irritating repetitive parts. I also felt that the main characters although apparently have been in prior relationships react to each other like teens on a first date.

Since Sora breaks up with Dan, her married with kids weeknight boyfriend, she laments over her history of bad relationships. She takes her dislike of Valentine’s Day to an extreme level which seems to help her writing career. Of course when you least expect something that’s when it is likely to appear. It’s an embarrassing run in with her ex-husband Marley Douchet at the grocery store which reminds her why she feels like her love life is doomed.

Fortunately, Jack Mann to the rescue with his store samples of pastry tarts. There’s an interesting cast of characters which means opportunities for misunderstandings and possible reunions. Will Sora be able to keep her pledge to #GoSoloFebruary?

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for the opportunity to review this complimentary ARC. The review is my honest and unbiased opinion.

I would recommend this book anyone who enjoys light romantic comedies. It was just too annoying for my overly critical mind!… (mehr)

3.5

There were many things that Nami expected for her 30th birthday, but being single - having broken up with her cheating fiancee last year - and on the verge of losing her company are not on her list. To top it all off, her high school nemesis Jae Lee works for the big corporation looking to takeover her start-up.

Jae Lee has never met an opponent more cutthroat than Nami. He's looking forward to sparring with her over her company. He never backs down and never loses.

Sparks certainly fly when these two are together but instead of being in animosity, it's from attraction.

I have not read a really good enemies-to-lovers story in ages and The Takeover ticks all the boxes. It's so full of spark between Nami and Jae Lee. I think that Cara Tanamachi did a great job of balancing the history between Jae Lee and Nami with who they are as adults. Their competitiveness stems from high school and Nami being the "hall monitor" to Jae Lee's "valedictorian". He always thought she took rule following to the next level and he constantly beat her at various achievements so she always thought he got everything he wanted. If you look back at their history, you kind of see how they influenced the way they do things in their present jobs.

Clearly, nothing can compare tp these two being playing off of one another so as soon as they are together it's game on.

However, I think the whole idea of focusing on Nami and Jae Lee takes away the focus from Nami's start-up. I almost felt like it was glossed over a bit which is strange because it's the whole reason why these two are brought together in the first place. Clearly, there's a reason why Nami's start-up Toggle needs to be bought, there's a reason why a big company like Rainforest (I do like the cleverly masked references to real big corporations throughout) is circling like sharks but we don't really know the why of it all.

I just wish there was a little more balance between the personal and professional aspects of the story.

This was my first book by Cara Tanamachi, but I'm very interested in her previous book which features Nami's sister, Sora, whom we encounter in this book as well.… (mehr)

*Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publishers for a free e-copy in exchange for an honest review.*

Actual Rating: 2.5

This was a pretty light-hearted and easy read, but even though it has all the right pieces, it doesn’t really fit together that well.

The Takeover is a rivals-to-lovers romance between Sami, a newly single 30-year-old who’s also the CEO of a tech startup, Toggle, that’s about to be bought out, and Jae, her high school nemesis who narrowly beat her out to win valedictorian — still a sore spot. And then it turns out, Jae is representing the company trying to buy her out. Shenanigans ensue.

The character set-up is interesting enough; it shows a nice contrast between Nami and Jae’s lives and their worldviews, and it explains why they clash the way they do. But it never really goes as deep as it could. There’s a little bit about familial pressure, but the arcs feel a little cookie-cutter. It’s hard to get a grasp on what their high school dynamic is really like beyond “academic rivals trope.”

I really wish this book was braver with the backstories and emotional impact of pressure, because without it the tension between Nami and Jae feels kind of low stakes. Their “rivalry,” even as adults, consists of seeing who can eat spicier ramen, who can drink more…and while all this is fun and definitely puts the com in rom-com, it starts feeling repetitively juvenile.

Other than that, I didn’t really click with either of the main characters. I don’t want to be political (and didn’t read this book with the intention of being so, obviously) but throughout the book, the vibe of both workplaces was kind of uncomfortable. Jae’s is sort of a cartoonish evil corporate perspective, while Nami’s is so over-the-top with the “I love Toggle, Toggle is my life, we’re a family, my employees are everything” that is also feels cartoonishly overbearing. Maybe I read this at the wrong part in my life — when I was in the middle of the horrible, mind-numbing process that is job-hunting and hearing that “we’re a family” is a red flag — but whatever the reason, I found myself thinking that I would definitely not want to work for either of these companies or bosses. In terms of political theory (lol), however, I do like the way the story goes, although it’s not all that surprising.

The romantic development, like I said, is decently fun with the banter and the more serious company backdrop situation going on, but I think it’s one of those where I wish we had more communication and slow development, rather than having the leads come together with zany antics and inexplicable attraction. They also fall victim to a few tropes that I don’t really enjoy (I would’ve rated this a 3 star before the break-up), so overall I found the romance also fell flat, except for a few fun scenes.

The side characters also add to the story well; while the cartoon-iness of the workplace settings didn’t really work for me, I think some side characters that were in these places did. It’s a case of showing not telling being successful — showing how someone is frustrating to work with or showing the Toggle group chat about stealing a fancy chair from that person — both of those are relatable and make me feel a lot more engaged rather than simply hearing narration describing what the environment is like.

Overall, I think I really like the premise here but it didn’t really work for me. I think it really just needed a more mature voice to really tug at my heartstrings.… (mehr)

Social researchers have taught us that it takes 5 positive thoughts/interactions to balance every 1 negative interaction. This book, the ratio between pos/neg was more like 3/1!

Positives:
I enjoyed Sora take on #solofebruary and to Go Solo to find the good in yourself and how you can be independent in a world that thinks singles are doomed.
I really liked the POV told from Jack.
If you can stick around long enough it does get better.

Not so much:
Sora’s perspective was nauseating. She was entirely wrapped up in BACON and being fat (which obvi she wasn’t) that it was a mega turnoff and you could tell it wasn’t written by anyone who ever had weight issues.
I found the weight and bacon thing was a failed joke attempt and I found myself uncomfortable reading it.

Thank you @smpromance for my gifted copy.… (mehr)