How to Hack A Heartbreak Rating: 3.5/5
How to Hack a Heartbreak Synopsis: Melanie Strickland cleans up the tech messes at a start-up incubator left by frat bros that are creating the “next big app,” even if they can’t fix their own laptops. At night she enjoys the dick-pic world of online dating. When Mel finally has enough she creates the app JerkAlert, where women can go and write reviews on the men there are online to save themselves the perils of swiping right on the wrong guy. Just no one knows it’s her doing. When things take off with the only not-a-dick guy at the office, Alex, things start to get messy for Mel. When she gets caught in the middle of everything she just might risk her own love life, her app, and her job.
Review:
I don’t know if I would really consider this to be a romance novel, but it was a good book. Mel is tired of men being assholes and treating women like shit. I like this. I love that Mel is an excellent computer scientist with phenomenal coding skills. The fact that she builds her own website/app on her own with all of the details included in the book, I am super impressed. I found Mel and her friends to be endearing and I wanted to be apart of such a fun group!
The issue I have with the book is that there’s not the typical romance. It’s more of a chick-lit/feminist/contemporary workplace book that happens to have romance as a key undertone. Alex never is given a lot of life beyond that he’s not an asshole. Plus their relationship is put to the back quite a lot when there are other things happening. The creation of JerkAlert and then the repercussions of making a tell all app are really the meat and bones of the book. I did really like the debate of is it right to have this app and what it means in the overall arena of dating. What are the intentions of each side? And what if you were able to read reviews of possible dates? I don’t know how I would feel about that.
Long Story Short
Do I recommend this book? Yeah, as long as you aren’t taking this in as a romance. But as a critique of dating apps and how the populous responds to them, definitely! It’s a quick read that I overall enjoyed and glad that I picked it up from the library!
I borrowed my copy from my local library.
Here is the Amazon Link (I am NOT affiliated with Amazon)
Have you read How to Hack a Heartbreak? Did you feel like it was a romance novel?
All opinions are of my own are not reflective of anyone else. I buy/loan all of the books I review unless specified and I only give my 100% true opinion on them.
If you liked this book, I would also recommend The Roommate by Rosie Danan. Clara moves cross country to live with her childhood crush, the only issue is that he’s not going to be living there this summer. Now she’s stuck with a new, very attractive roommate, that might be the biggest scandal that her family has ever had. Read my full review here!
