Publication Date: July 30, 2019
Publisher: Graydon House
Genre(s): Women’s Fiction, Contemporary, Romance, Chick Lit
Format: Paperback, 352 pages
AMAZON – BARNES AND NOBLE – GOOGLE PLAY – BOOK DEPOSITORY
Swipe right for love. Swipe left for disaster.
By day, Mel Strickland is an underemployed helpdesk tech at a startup incubator, Hatch, where she helps entitled brogrammers—”Hatchlings”—who can’t even fix their own laptops, but are apparently the next wave of startup geniuses. And by night, she goes on bad dates with misbehaving dudes she’s matched with on the ubiquitous dating app, Fluttr.
But after one dick pic too many, Mel has had it. Using her brilliant coding skills, she designs an app of her own, one that allows users to log harrassers and abusers in online dating space. It’s called JerkAlert, and it goes viral overnight.
Mel is suddenly in way over her head. Worse still, her almost-boyfriend, the dreamy Alex Hernandez—the only non-douchey guy at Hatch—has no idea she’s the brains behind the app. Soon, Mel is faced with a terrible choice: one that could destroy her career, love life, and friendships, or change her life forever.
Entertaining, Hilarious, and Wonderfully Empowering
How to Hack a Heartbreak by Kristin Rockaway is an entertaining, hilarious, and charming rom-com that had me relentlessly flipping through the pages. It’s not only delightful and fun, but also wonderfully empowering. Such an amazing book and I honestly can’t rave about it enough.
With Rockaway’s meaningful and addictive writing style, I found myself utterly captivated with this story. I love that I could feel what the characters feel and sympathize with them. Whether it’s from their awkward dates, misunderstandings, heartbreaks, work troubles, or personal shortcomings, I could relate and feel their emotions. I really love that about this book. The plot is fast-paced and engrossing with the perfect blend of drama, angst, wit, conflict, and the amazing ups and painful downs of finding love in a digitally driven world. I adore the characters and wanted to be best friends with them. The romance is not really the main focus, but I still enjoyed it. The last few chapters are definitely my favorite and had me tearing up a few times. There’s also a few scenes that had me cheering, smiling, and just overwhelmed with positivity. I really enjoyed this novel and the ending is fantastic – it’s hopeful, profound, and touching.
I love Melanie and her girlfriends. They’re quirky, determined, talented, witty, loving, and incredibly supportive. They’re such strong and independent women and I think they’re all just so inspiring and admirable. Their friendship is endearing and one of the things I adore about this book. I really enjoyed seeing them have fun, take chances, find love, and most importantly empower each other.
I like the romance aspect of the story. It doesn’t sizzle off the page, but the chemistry between Mel and Alex feels realistic and relatable. I definitely rooted for them early on and even if there aren’t too many swoony moments between them, I think they’re just so cute and great together.
Riveting and heartfelt, How to Hack a Heartbreak is fun and addictive and one of my favorite reads this summer. The writing is superb, the characters are lovable and fierce, and the plot is humorous, bold, and inspiring. Kristin Rockaway absolutely captured my heart with this amazing story about strong female friendship, empowerment, love, and the importance of in person connections and relationships. This truly has been a joy to read and I think you should definitely add this gem on your TBR.
I received an advance reader copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
(Mini bio and photo taken from author’s website)
Kristin Rockaway is a native New Yorker and recovering corporate software engineer. After working in the IT industry for far too many years, she finally traded the city for the surf and chased her dreams out to Southern California, where she spends her days happily writing stories instead of code. When she’s not working, she enjoys spending time with her husband and son, browsing the aisles of her neighborhood bookstores, and planning her next big vacation.
Her second novel, How to Hack a Heartbreak, will be released from Graydon House/HarperCollins on July 30, 2019. Her debut, The Wild Woman’s Guide to Traveling the World, is in stores now.
WEBSITE – GOODREADS – TWITTER – INSTAGRAM – AMAZON – BOOKBUB
Hope you enjoyed reading my review and get to meet Melanie and her sassy girlfriends. I really enjoyed this story and cannot wait to read more from Kristin Rockaway.
Have you read this book? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below. I’d love to hear from you.
Sincerely Karen Jo 