Reviews - The Takeover Effect

117 reviews for:

A little old-fashioned with none of the bullshit, I loved this book! My biggest gripe? The hero takes the heroine to a planetarium for a date...but it happens off page!!! What an amazing date, Ms. Sharma giveth and taketh away.

Already waiting for the next installment in the series. Hem and Mina were a true joy to read. Highly recommend.

_youfloweryoufeast_'s review against another edition

5.0

5 salacious ⭐️

Genre: Romance
Age group : Adult
POV : Third person
Characters: 5/5 ⭐️
Plot: 5/5 ⭐️
Setting/Themes: 5/5 ⭐️
Writing: 5/5 ⭐️

• Please check TWs & CWs
• mature language, sexual scenes, death of a parent, drugs, substance abuse, alcoholism

“Main tuhadi sari zindagi nu pyar karan di udika kara riha hum”

OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. OH MH GOD. I LOVED THIS SO MUCH, PLEASE I THINK I MIGHT COMBUST. ISTG. First off, I’ve always loved the corporate world, the wealth, the manipulation, the luxury, the drama. This book, servedddd. It wasn’t a lot mainly because this book involved lots of the introduction to the Singh Brothers’ world and that’s understandable. Throw in a bunch of desi heroes and heroines, with FOOD?! YES PLEASE. I’ve always loved the idea of rich dominant men and badass intelligent women, the fact that they’re Desi just makes it so so so much better. The plot? Super intriguing, super fun to read.

Mina Kohli. Strong, badass, independent and intelligent. It goes without a doubt that I loved Mina. Not only is she independent and intelligent, but she’s a NO BS girl and dosent take orders from men. Did I Also mention that she’s tall and never once has she been ashamed of her heels? Super inspiring, really. The way she handled things at Bharat was so intriguing, watching this wonderful and smart woman at work? I’d marry the hell out of her.

Hemdeep Singh. Rich, powerful, intelligent. Both him and Mina make a great pair really. Hemdeep is quite the man, with his own firm and success. What I loved most about him is that he didn’t even hesitate to come back for his family, I loved this among other things. He wasn’t an Alpha asshole either. Think alpha gentleman. He gave Mina the space, made sure she was comfortable, asked her if she was okay with things, pushed when he knew Mina needed to be pushed. To find that kind of understanding in a man is rare. Hem, is one of a kind.

I loved the Singh brothers’ bond. I loved the way the moved as a unit, the way they joked around with each other. I loved that they had each other’s backs. I also loved the familial values in the book, it genuinely does mean a lot. Among these, I have to speak up about the cultural representation. Nisha Sharma is brilliant and I can’t wait to read more of her books. Enjoyable and intriguing read, PICK IT UP, righHT NOWW !!

bookphenomena_micky's review against another edition

4.0

I had high hopes for THE TAKEOVER EFFECT and my hopes were realised. I have really enjoyed previous desi contemporary romantic reads so I knew this was a book worth taking a chance on. THE TAKEOVER EFFECT was about equality in the workplace, legacy and it had an office setting with a whole spaghetti of problems because the mix of family and work is complicated.

Mina was a feminist to the core and I delighted in her character. This was a woman who knew herself, had drive and was a realistic beacon for readers. Mina's work as a lawyer found her in an unbiased role assessing an attempt to buy out a multi-million dollar company. Here she met Hem, eldest brother and ex-CEO of the organisation. Hem was a strong Sikh man with feminist sensibilities (hooray) and what ensued between these two was a slow-burn of sizzling chemistry set in a great plot. I loved watching the connection between these two grow.

The story was interesting from the start with some fast-paced excitement towards the end. I really enjoyed the other characters, they gave depth to the read and I am envisaging future stories for a number of them; I want books with Raj and the other brothers. I have found a new author to keep watch for and I am delighted. More of these desi diverse reads please, the book world needs them.

I voluntarily read an early copy of this book.

caitlynuniverse's review

3.0

challenging tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

howlinglibraries's review

4.0

Hem wanted to branch out on his own, to leave his father’s tech company behind for good, but when he gets a call that another company is attempting a takeover of everything his father has worked towards, he comes home to help. Meanwhile, Mina must take on the role of his legal counsel in hopes of appeasing her greedy uncle and boss. All she wants is to get the job done and become a partner, no distractions—but what can she do to say no to the beautiful Sikh man wooing her now?

There are a handful of things I look for in romance novels: first and foremost being diversity and focus on consent, but beyond that, I’m such a sucker for a businesswoman as a heroine. There’s something about a strong, bold, sometimes angry woman who isn’t willing to hear the word “no” ¬from anyone that just sucks me in so fast, so I was pretty pumped for The Takeover Effect.

→ L I K E S :

Mina had seen her fair share of beautiful men, but the Singh brothers were in a whole different league.

Luckily, Mina fills that role pretty well. I’ll be honest, I didn’t always understand what she was going on about—there is a lot of business-y and legal jargon in here, if you’re someone like me who has no clue about most of that stuff—but I liked the way she put herself across and I really appreciated how headstrong she could be (except when it came to Hem, most of the time).

Hem, meanwhile, is such a softie I can’t even stand it (in a good way!). He’s this huge, hulking, scary, slightly angry dude, but then he gets all emotional and love-y and cute, and it’s fun to watch the transitions between his alone moments with Mina, and the rest of the time, when he’s yelling at people or fussing with his brothers.

It doesn’t hurt that the plot is super intriguing, too, and I was genuinely in suspense for a while over who the culprits were and how certain things would go down; however, if I had to pick one favorite thing about this novel, it’s easily the representation of Mina’s and Hem’s cultures. There is so much talk of food and tradition, cultural celebrations, and even some commentary on religion. They speak Punjabi to each other and get all gooey and mushy, and it’s just so sweet and lovely.

→ D I S L I K E S :

There were just a few minor issues I had, and these were why I couldn’t quite give The Takeover Effect a full 5 stars: first, the romantic dialogue often didn’t feel natural to me. I think it’s because I didn’t feel like we got to spend much time in the buildup of their relationship, so it felt weird sometimes.

Second, I think the sex scenes needed work. The first sexual encounter in the book is really awkwardly timed during a super serious/stressful discussion, and it kind of comes out of nowhere. There’s also some weird stuff regarding sex without condoms, and Hem not explicitly getting Mina’s permission to stop using them? It didn’t feel non-con necessarily, but I would’ve liked to have seen the author take just a paragraph or two to address the consent issues there beforehand.
Those two issues were pretty small and didn’t affect my enjoyment too much, but the biggest reason I knocked off a star is just that Hem is really pushy and that’s always a little bit of a turn-off for me with romance heroes.

All of that aside, I liked so much more than I disliked about this book, and I can’t justify taking it any lower than 4 stars because, frankly, this is 100% a book worth picking up, and I can’t wait to read the second installment in the series!

All quotes come from an advance copy and may not match the final release. Thank you so much to Avon Impulse for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

pandashiv's review against another edition

3.0

Had to give this 3.5 stars due to some of the consent difficulties in the text. Look at my longform review for more. Loved the Punjabi rep so much though, it filled my heart and put coconut oil in my hair. Just hoping Ajay learned a bit from his mom about listening to women.

https://notjustabuzzword.com/2019/04/07/review-the-takeover-effect-spoilers/