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3.36 AVERAGE
3.36 AVERAGE
the ending felt a bit rushed but overall a lovely lil story!!
I honestly wasn't expecting to like this especially with how much the MC had gone through to become so broken and always trying to "win" her mother's approval. I felt like her character grew a lot by the end and I loved Marc and Emma. Her best friend is the best thing ever especially when she offered to pay for a hitman. All the scandal that unfolded at the retirement party had me like OMG. Fun book overall loved it.
My biggest issue with this audiobook is that the narrator didn’t know how to do different voices. Her voice for Brinkley was fine but for any other character they basically sounded the same: like very proper robots. It was weird.
Otherwise the pacing was odd—there was lots of small ups and downs and the final betrayals came really late in the book and then the resolution, especially with Marc, was very quick.
Otherwise the pacing was odd—there was lots of small ups and downs and the final betrayals came really late in the book and then the resolution, especially with Marc, was very quick.
I'm going to give this four stars, but it'll be a weak four stars. There was so much in this that should have been epic, but there were too many things that kept knocking it down. Brinkley has been wronged by a past boyfriend, and in the midst of her heartbreak she is hired to be part of a Heartbreak for Hire, a company of women specializing in going in and socially destroying men who have wronged the women in their lives. Things get complicated when one of Brinkley's targets turns out to be what seems like a nice guy who clicks with her. She almost breaks one of the cardinal rules of the company by hooking up with him, but she runs away and abandons him at the last minute. Things get even more complicated when somehow Mark gets hired as one of a new crop of men hired to join the company. To be honest, bringing the guys into the company was a weird plot point here. It didn't really make a lot of sense in the context of the story, seeming to be thrown in just to create some sort of way for Brinkley and Mark to be thrown together again. But I would have been okay with it ... if any real amount of time was spent in the story digging into the dynamics of this women-centric company being thrown into disarray with the addition of men. It could have been fascinating to see how each of the four women in the company had to deal with men partners after spending so much of their time exorcising the demons that have followed them because of awful men in their past. But instead the story skims the surface here, making it seem more like a plot device than anything actually interesting.
It was a bit hard to read some of the jobs that Brinkley takes. I remember being in college and being particularly ticked off about something some guy had done to me, so I invited some friends over to my room to watch "War of the Roses" (I know I'm dating myself) and saying that we would root for the woman in the fight against her husband. But it turned out that the wife was soooo awful in her treatment of her husband, that I just couldn't do it. That's sort of how I felt in this book. There was a certain degree of sliminess to what Brinkley was doing, and it made me uncomfortable. To her credit, Brinkley sort of began to realize this herself in the course of the book ...
But it still felt wrong to me. Maybe part of that is that we never really get to know the full back story to these awful men she targets, so I didn't have quite the emotional investment in seeing their downfall. Having these feelings for so many scenes in this book kept me from really loving the story.
But the real heart of this story involves the relationship between Mark and Brinkley. It is obvious from the very beginning that Mark is a good man. I liked him a lot. It was hard to be in Brinkley's head as she thought bad thoughts about him because I wasn't seeing him the same way she did. That made me irritated with her more often than not. It seemed odd that Mark would be hired for this company because he didn't have the giant chips on his shoulders that the women of the company had. I couldn't see him working to destroy women, no matter how bad they might be. And despite the big setup, we never get to see him work there at all ... another reason this ending up feeling like a plot manipulation by the author. Overall, despite the issues, I did root for Brinkley and Mark as a couple. He was just so good to her and for her. I just wanted her to embrace the relationship much more quickly.
I think I was engaged enough with the story that I was heavily leaning toward a strong four stars until the last few chapters. In those chapters Sonia Hartl threw in about five giant plot twists to throw Brinkley into a tailspin and drive Mark and her apart. She gets a revelation about her life from her mother that rocks her world and discovers something about Mark that changes her opinion of him. Neither one of these plot twists were handled well at all. First of all, the thing Brinkley learns was BIG, but it isn't really resolved. Her relationship with her mother was cartoonishly bad, and this revelation throws that into the dungeon, but it only takes about a chapter to have this huge revelation lead to ... their relationship IMPROVING? What the what? There was no deep exploration of the implications of this revelation or how it changes Brinkley, but there it was, introduced just in time for the book to end. And then the thing with Mark? So incredibly irritating. I don't have a perfect knowledge of academic rivalries. I'm sure they exist. But this seemed so over the top and over-dramatic. Mark's actions were problematic, but they didn't warrant Brinkley's explosion, in my opinion. But these things happen in books, so whatever. But the resolution to this happens in about two pages. Mark's penance seemed rash, and after having the mother of all freak-outs, Brinkley forgives him in half a page. And then the book just ends. That's it. After being fairly engaged in the story it was a giant let-down, and I didn't end up finishing the book with the sort of warm-fuzzies I wish I would be feeling when I finish a book like this. I'll give it four stars because I did like the story for the most part, but it kept missing the mark so often that I probably am being overly generous with this rating.
It was a bit hard to read some of the jobs that Brinkley takes. I remember being in college and being particularly ticked off about something some guy had done to me, so I invited some friends over to my room to watch "War of the Roses" (I know I'm dating myself) and saying that we would root for the woman in the fight against her husband. But it turned out that the wife was soooo awful in her treatment of her husband, that I just couldn't do it. That's sort of how I felt in this book. There was a certain degree of sliminess to what Brinkley was doing, and it made me uncomfortable. To her credit, Brinkley sort of began to realize this herself in the course of the book ...
...if I became just as terrible as them, all I’d managed to accomplish was doubling the awfulness in the world....
But it still felt wrong to me. Maybe part of that is that we never really get to know the full back story to these awful men she targets, so I didn't have quite the emotional investment in seeing their downfall. Having these feelings for so many scenes in this book kept me from really loving the story.
But the real heart of this story involves the relationship between Mark and Brinkley. It is obvious from the very beginning that Mark is a good man. I liked him a lot. It was hard to be in Brinkley's head as she thought bad thoughts about him because I wasn't seeing him the same way she did. That made me irritated with her more often than not. It seemed odd that Mark would be hired for this company because he didn't have the giant chips on his shoulders that the women of the company had. I couldn't see him working to destroy women, no matter how bad they might be. And despite the big setup, we never get to see him work there at all ... another reason this ending up feeling like a plot manipulation by the author. Overall, despite the issues, I did root for Brinkley and Mark as a couple. He was just so good to her and for her. I just wanted her to embrace the relationship much more quickly.
I think I was engaged enough with the story that I was heavily leaning toward a strong four stars until the last few chapters. In those chapters Sonia Hartl threw in about five giant plot twists to throw Brinkley into a tailspin and drive Mark and her apart. She gets a revelation about her life from her mother that rocks her world and discovers something about Mark that changes her opinion of him. Neither one of these plot twists were handled well at all. First of all, the thing Brinkley learns was BIG, but it isn't really resolved. Her relationship with her mother was cartoonishly bad, and this revelation throws that into the dungeon, but it only takes about a chapter to have this huge revelation lead to ... their relationship IMPROVING? What the what? There was no deep exploration of the implications of this revelation or how it changes Brinkley, but there it was, introduced just in time for the book to end. And then the thing with Mark? So incredibly irritating. I don't have a perfect knowledge of academic rivalries. I'm sure they exist. But this seemed so over the top and over-dramatic. Mark's actions were problematic, but they didn't warrant Brinkley's explosion, in my opinion. But these things happen in books, so whatever. But the resolution to this happens in about two pages. Mark's penance seemed rash, and after having the mother of all freak-outs, Brinkley forgives him in half a page. And then the book just ends. That's it. After being fairly engaged in the story it was a giant let-down, and I didn't end up finishing the book with the sort of warm-fuzzies I wish I would be feeling when I finish a book like this. I'll give it four stars because I did like the story for the most part, but it kept missing the mark so often that I probably am being overly generous with this rating.
There's a lot to like about this one - it's funny, it's honest about human nature, the romance takes some unexpected twists - but I have a hard time not fixating on how unrealistic the sex scenes were (for anatomy and health reasons). There's one involving paint where the paint went where now??? Yikes. Took me right out of the sexy. Other than that I enjoyed the read!
I received an ARC of this book.
I will be honest and say the first few pages of this book seemed predictable and almost turned me off from the story. The stereotyping was blatant and not holding back. While I agreed with the stereotype being focused on, I wasn't in the mood for an us vs. them type story. Thankfully I decided to press on because I quickly devoured this rom-com.
I will be honest and say the first few pages of this book seemed predictable and almost turned me off from the story. The stereotyping was blatant and not holding back. While I agreed with the stereotype being focused on, I wasn't in the mood for an us vs. them type story. Thankfully I decided to press on because I quickly devoured this rom-com.
Thank you Gallery books for my earc copy of Heartbreak for Hire. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Female empowerment, rise up! Brinkley and crew are done with men messing with their lives and doing circumstances. When super chic boss talks about Heartbreak for Hire, a business meant to put men in their place, everything seems picture perfect. That is until men start being Heartbreakers. One man specifically, Markus, may even be aligned to give Brinkley a run for her money. But will she give up on female empowerment and her art dreams in exchange for a male? Or will she step up and show men who is boss?
Heartbreak for Hire is a new adventure that is perfect for fans of romantic comedies. Sonia nails the characters with detail and provides just enough about supporting characters. The setting and plot are believable and left me wanting more about the other girls involved.
Female empowerment, rise up! Brinkley and crew are done with men messing with their lives and doing circumstances. When super chic boss talks about Heartbreak for Hire, a business meant to put men in their place, everything seems picture perfect. That is until men start being Heartbreakers. One man specifically, Markus, may even be aligned to give Brinkley a run for her money. But will she give up on female empowerment and her art dreams in exchange for a male? Or will she step up and show men who is boss?
Heartbreak for Hire is a new adventure that is perfect for fans of romantic comedies. Sonia nails the characters with detail and provides just enough about supporting characters. The setting and plot are believable and left me wanting more about the other girls involved.
This was fun, if you forget everything you know about running a business (and possibly academia). I liked Brinkley, she was flawed but still somehow charming. Mark was fine, kind of an asshole and I didn't feel like he really grew or redeemed himself in the end. The supporting characters lacked depth. Overall I wouldn't say this was particularly well-written, but it did have me smiling a few times and I laughed out loud at one point, so it gets an extra half a star for that.
The audiobook narrator is not good. Brinkley sounds like a used car salesman and Mark, her love interest, sounds stilted and false rather than sexy. I thought I could get past it, but it's just awful.