Make Up Break Up by Lily Menon

*Spoiler free*

Love, romance, second chances, fairy-tale endings…these are the things Annika Dev believes in. Her app, Make Up, has been called the “Google Translate for failing relationships.” High efficiency break-ups, flashy start-ups, penthouses, fast cars…these are the things Hudson Craft believes in. His app, Break Up, is known as the “Uber for break-ups.” It’s wildly successful—and anathema to Annika’s life philosophy. Which wouldn’t be a problem if they’d gone their separate ways after that summer fling in Las Vegas, never to see each other again. Unfortunately for Annika, Hudson’s moving not just into her office building, but into the office right next to hers. And he’ll be competing at the prestigious EPIC investment pitch contest: A contest Annika needs to win if she wants to keep Make Up afloat. As if it’s not bad enough seeing his irritatingly perfect face on magazine covers when her own business is failing. As if knowing he stole her idea and twisted it into something vile—and monumentally more successful—didn’t already make her stomach churn. As the two rival app developers clash again and again—and again—Annika finds herself drawn into Hudson Craft’s fast-paced, high velocity, utterly shallow world. Only, from up close, he doesn’t seem all that shallow. Could it be that everything she thought about Hudson is completely wrong? Could the creator of Break Up teach her what true love’s really about?

I’ve been looking forward to reading this book since the deal announcement. Two people, with opposing apps about relationships, and they’re competing for in the same investment contest. And it’s by an author whose other books I’ve loved. It seemed like such a fantastic enemies-to-lovers romance and I couldn’t wait to read it!

Dang, seriously dang, can Menon write romance. She’s amazing at YA, but she’s just as amazing at romance. I completely fell in love with this book.

Alright, I’m starting off with the sex scenes, even though that’s incredibly awkward. Yes, they were that good. But, it’s not just the sex. Menon is an absolute master at writer sexual tension and sexual yearning. Seriously, the heat between Annika and Hudson feels like it could sizzle off the page. The wanting they both feel is so potent. Seriously, I could sing praise about this aspect of the book for hours. It was that well done.

This book is also just full of love and passion. Not the sex kind, even though there is plenty of that! Annika is so passionate about her company. She is so passionate about what she does and even why she does it. She wants to help make the world a better place in the ways that she can. She’s good at what she does and she wants the chance to own that.

I also really, really loved June, and all the side characters. It kind of felt like June and Ziggy could have had their own book! Plus, June and Annika’s friendship was so amazing. They were so supportive and they work so well together. I also loved June’s relationship with her dad! It was rocky, but they love each other so much. It was such a great familial relationship.

The writing was also so spectacular. Menon has a way with words. It was light and fluffy and yet it felt had this deepness to it, a way of pulling feeling out of you. Her writing style is just so amazing to read.

While I loved Hudson, he’s cocky and the best kind of irritating and a guy with a hidden soft side, I felt like he could have had so much development. I felt like his story just came to an end. I feel like where it ended could have been a good place, but the book didn’t dive deep enough into his head. I loved Annika’s point of view and I think the book worked really well with just her as the narrator, I felt like a lot of Hudson’s story was shoved to the back burner. I wanted to see more. I wanted to see more of his emotional growth. I wanted to learn more about him. It made it seem like it was just a flipped switch on his decisions, instead of an accumulation of other events that changed him.

I think that also bled into how I felt about the conflict. It kind of felt like the same thing was happening, just in different scenarios. I would have liked more interactions with Hudson and Annika. I would have liked different kinds of conflicts to come up, to see different sides of all the characters.

And this brings me to my final qualm with this book, the ending. It felt so abrupt. I wanted more. It felt like it just ended right when everything wrapped up. There wasn’t enough of a knot at the end to tie everything up for me. I would have liked an epilogue, but this is an ARC, so perhaps there will be one in the final book!

I know there were a lot of things I talked about that I didn’t love about this book, but they were honestly small things. They just took up a lot of words to talk about.

I truly, truly LOVED this book. It’s full of passion and tech and relationships and amazing sexual tension and absolutely amazing characters. It’s incredibly amazing.

Make Up Break Up comes out Feburary 2, 2021! You can add it on Goodreads and pre-order a copy of your own!