How to Hack a Heartbreak

by Kristin Rockaway

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.

Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Chick Lit, Fiction, Adult, Audiobook, Contemporary Romance

352 pages, Paperback

First published July 30, 2019

About the author

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 trying to catch up on sleep.

Be sure to follow Kristin on BookBub for the latest sales! https://www.bookbub.com/profile/krist...

Reviews

[Nilufer Ozmekik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four, finally I found a smart, entertaining, heart melting rom-com match of mine stars!

Amazing mashup of Sex and the City and Silicon Valley! What a genius, funny, enjoyable ride!

Reading book is so much better to scroll down your non-existing options and find mediocre television movie kind of Netflix rom-coms! Because:

IT MAKE YOU FEEL SO GOOD:
This book gives you joy, encouragement, fun that you need!

THERE ARE SO MANY YESSS THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT, THE AUTHOR TOTALLY GOT ME PARTS:

There are too many “aavvv”, “wow”, Heal yeah” and “Atta girl” moments make you clap your hand, jump from your seat and pushes you curse to the ancestors of the opposite sex( okay, this is not positive thing! But this book is surprisingly better than so much women fictions about women power, equal rights and supporting each other to climb to the corporate steps with full of enthusiastic and challenging messages. It tells honestly the hardness and struggles to survive at the tech-world ! It was tougher than another other business environments because as like we saw the book, some empty headed homo sapiens still think a girl cannot code!)

EASILY RELATABLE, GENUINE CHARACTERIZATION:

Melanie is one of the best heroines you may find! At some parts you may be disturbed by her paranoia but as you consider her cheating dad and some blank parts and shady actions of Alex( actually I loved him as hero from the beginning but I must support the heroine, because he seemed like too good to be true in some ways), it was still tolerable. She’s smart, funny, easy going (When she gets jealous we may see her claws, but she’s still adorable)

Her girlfriends are definitely copied from Sex and City characters and guess what I liked Samantha’s version Whitney so much! (She’s also PR woman, sticks to her one night stands, intelligent, competitive, straightforward but she’s still a wonderful, caring good friend) I think she needs her own book! I like to read more about her love interests, she’s so!!!!

BALANCED ROMANCE PARTS:

I loved Alex and Melanie as a couple and I loved their chemistry, attraction. They made too many mistakes and they were buried with their own work problems but they still have each other.

A FAIR AND GOOD ENDING:
I loved to read a brilliant, competitive girl’s determination and hard-work to take her deserved piece from the big pie! So this is a romantically and corporative-ly satisfying ending!

2 weeks remained to release! I’m one of the luckiest ones to get ARC COPY from Harlequin- Graydon House! Special thanks to them and to NetGalley for providing me this such an amazing, lovely romance in exchange for the most honest review!

I absolutely and highly recommend it to the readers who are desperately seeking( not Susan) a good romance escape!

[Chelsea (chelseadolling reads) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't the ~*wOrSt BoOk EvEr*~ but it definitely was Not Very Good. Bleghhhhhhhhhhh

[Susanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars!

Raise Your Hand if You’ve Ever Had a Bad Online Date!! (Yep, Hand Raised right here!). Melanie Strickland has too and boy is her story Fraking Awesome!

Sick and tired of working in a male driven industry with guys who treat her like doo doo and then going on online date after online date, either getting stood up or getting sent wholly inappropriate pics, Melanie (“Mel”) Strickland fights back. She creates an app called “Jerk Alert” which rates the guys she found online and has had some interaction with, warning other girls about them. It, of course goes viral.

Jerk Alert gives Mel and other women everywhere, a voice. In this day and age, we all know how important that is!

If you’ve ever had an experience with online dating, you know how humiliating it can be. Thus, the idea Jerk Alert sort of makes you stand up and take notice.

Now, where’s the romance here you ask? Well, there just might be some! You have to read this novel to find out for yourself. “How to Hack a Heartbreak” by Kristin Rockaway is a book to be devoured and it’s one that will make you break into a smile.

I grabbed this book on NetGalley after seeing my friend Kendall’s review (which is awesome): "https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..." and I am so glad that I did. Thanks Kendall!

This was a buddy read with Kaceey! Lately we have been reading a lot of women’s fiction are so happy that we discovered a new (to us) genre.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin - Graydon House Books and Kristin Rockaway for a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Published on NetGalley and Goodreads on 4.24.19.
Will be published on Amazon on 7.30.19.

[Kaceey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again I find myself smiling wide through another fun rom-com!
This genre is quickly becoming one of my favorites! They rarely disappoint, I’m always entertained, and they leave me feeling satiated at the end. What more could you ask from a book?!

Like many of today’s women, Mel Strickland is fed up with the quagmire of online dating.
Her dates are no shows...she is ghosted, or worse. She continually receives unsolicited pics of certain anatomical regions. Gee, thanks gentlemen – how romantic.🙄

Enough is enough. Time to develop her own online app to weed out those creeps that are not truly looking for love! She’s about to go head to head against the big boys at the start up company Hatch.

A thoroughly adorable and heartwarming book about searching for love in a digital world. It reminds us that maybe love isn’t just a swipe away, but perhaps standing right in front of you. Or, maybe even in the next cubicle over.

A story with some sage insight. Perhaps it’s time to open our eyes and reconnect with the world! We may be missing “the one” as our noses are face-down in our phones and our fingers are busy swiping left....or even right!

Another endearing rom-com buddy read with Susanne!🌸

Thank you to NetGalley Harlequin Graydon House and Kristin Rockaway for an ARC to read and review.

[Sunflowerbooklover · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kristin Rockaway is a new favorite author of mine!!! <3.

What a breathe of fresh air! I had SO much fun with this book!!

Kristin delivers a sassy, funny, uplifting, and addicting romance novel. I was hooked after the first five pages and devoured this book in less than two days.

Let's meet Melanie. Melanie works for Hatch in a male driven industry and she is FED up. Mind you... she is also even more fed up with the dating scene of getting harassed with nude photos from men, being "ghosted", and being stood up. Mel goes out with her girlfriends one night and she decides to make an app called JerkAlert. This was all supposed to be a joke... where women rate men on this site and can tell other women to watch out for each of these "jerks". But, slowly word gets out and the app starts to spread.

I could not put this book down! I loved Melanie and her girlfriends! Talk about strong, supportive, and loving women to keep you going!!

Loved this!!! This is one not to miss my friends... get this on your summer TBR! ;)

4.5 heartbreak stars

Thank you so much to Harlequin/Graydon and Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Publication date: 7/30/19
Published to Goodreads: 2/12/19

[Shoshanna Ford · Rating 1 out of 5]

I REALLY wanted to love this book. I really did. I am a woman in IT. I like to code. I love the idea of this book. This book missed the mark for me. The whole book comes across as too preachy. I am 100% a feminist and a girl trying to make a start in the tech industry, but this book beats you over the head. All men are bad. The IT industry is full of pervs and men who excuse that behavior. It’s simply not true. There are pervs out there. There are men willing to look the other way out there, absolutely.

First of all, Mel should’ve quit that job. She’s a girl who codes, the industry is booming. She could get a new job in no time. She’s working a bottom tier helpdesk gig when she should be working in application development or even web design. Her job is beneath her, she gets verbally abused every. dang. day. She does nothing to make it stop. It is in no way her fault, but she could take steps to make it stop. Her immediate supervisor is willing to look the other way, but why doesn’t she go to HR? Why doesn’t she go to the owner of the company? Why doesn’t she go above her boss’ head? I would! Nobody deserves to be talked to that way.

Alex is a mostly absent character. We don’t see anything from his point of view, and he features only peripherally. I can’t honestly say anything about his character, because I don’t know anything about his character. He apologizes a lot, and he is sweet, but distracted, when they are together. That’s it. That’s all I’ve got.

Honestly, the only thing I liked about this story was the site Mel designed. JerkAlert was an awesome idea. Everyone that has ever used a dating app would love that idea. For sure.

[Warda]

I didn’t even get a 100 pages in but I just had to DNF it. The tone of this book was completely off and rubbed me the wrong way.
It felt to me that it was trying to force a message across. A message of feminism, adding a voice to the #MeToo movement, which I appreciate, but it was written in such a cliche manner, it didn’t flow nor did it feel natural and so I couldn’t get behind it. Neither could I see it through.

[♛ may · Rating 2 out of 5]

i finished this book early this morning and i can only recall such little about it. just goes to show how my mind is trying to protect me from what i had to endure

okay, maybe im being a little dramatic because this book wasn't the WORST THING I READ

but it was kinda awful.

- it's the story of a woman who is tired of the awful dating scene where she only gets ghosted, treated badly, or sent.....unsolicited pics
- so in attempts to fight back against the terror she has to suffer, she, a professional coder, makes an app where you can rate and leave reviews for terrible dates
- it goes viral as expected and now she's got to deal with the consequences
- THAT WOULD HAVE MADE AN INTERESTING BOOK IF THAT WAS THE CENTRAL STORY
- however, we have to deal with the main character and her painfully obvious insecurities, her lame friend group, and a love interest who is more boring than a soggy washcloth
- the writing is very juvenile/cliche and heavy handed on the message it's trying to give the reader
- like yes, i love feminist, empowering stories as much as the next person but i dont want to read about a main character who only pushes that as her only personality trait
- honestly the ONLY thing she and her friend group talk about is dating, a dating app, and the guys they are seeing
- NOTHING ELSE
- FJLKAFJLAJL BYE
- anyways, nothing really got resolved in the end bc there wasn't really an issue, just a lot of speculation and annoying behaviour
- and that's all i have to say about this book 😗✌️

okay that's all i have to say, good day to everyone except the characters in this book

1.5 stars

dysfunctional buddy read with ameerah, azrah, & warda ❤️

[✨ A ✨]

DNF
Nope. No thanks.

[h o l l i s · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I loved most about HOW TO HACK A HEARTBREAK was Melanie. Our lead character is doggedly using the author’s version of Tinder, Fluttr, to try and find a connection. An enduring one. Not just for the night, though she’s willing to compromise, at least, on The One. She’d be fine with The One For Now. Unfortunately she’s constantly stood up or fielding dick picks. And by day, she’s working in a toxic start-up culture populated by frat bros who treat her, and her role as technical support, with sneers and abuse. Worse, she’s forever undermined as a coder just for being a woman.

This was far from the lighthearted rom-com I thought it would be. It actually read’s a bit less like a romance and more women’s fiction. Melanie has to face up to her own issues of paranoid and insecurity surrounding potential love interests, issues that harken back to her past, all while not letting the world around her drag her down. Even when it does.. repeatedly.

Rounding out the mix, though, is a great group of girlfriends who I would totally read more of. I don’t always just assume we’ll get follow up stories for members of the girlgang but in this case.. I’d love to read more about Whit! And get Lia a happy ending, too.

This story was smart, filled with clever and ingenious ladies, and yet didn’t shy away from the toxic internet and dating culture, whether it be through trending hashtags, reddit threads, or otherwise. I felt this perfectly reflected everything about my world but was still made interesting, too.

While the romance wasn’t my favourite thing, and I don’t know if that’s maybe because some of Melanie’s paranoia about Alex rubbed off on me as a reader, I did enjoy everything else in the story. And the writing. Like I said, I would totally read more of this group, and this world. Or whatever else Rockaway has to offer.


** I received an ARC from the publisher (thank you!) in exchange for an honest review. **

---

This review can also be found at A Take From Two Cities.

[Yna from Books and Boybands · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Never trust anything you read on the internet. And never trust the internet with your heart. If you’re looking for love, stop swiping. Instead, look up. Look around. The love of your life could be working in your office, or sitting next to you in a bar, or standing right beside you on a crowded city street. Get off the internet for a little while. Otherwise, you might let the one get away."

Much thanks to Edelweiss, Harper Collins and Graydon House for sending me an ARC. 💕
This review is voluntary and opinions are fully my own.

📖 Buy This Book: Amazon 📖
📚 Series: No.
📚 Genre: Romance / Women's Fiction
📚 POV: First person.
📚 Cliffhanger: No.

⚠ Content Warnings: Sexism and Workplace Harassment. Lying/Miscommunication.
⚠ Read if: you are looking for a light but fun techie-love read.

How to Hack a Heartbreak is an enjoyable read from new-to-me author, Kristin Rockaway. It is about Mel, a helpdesk tech who is underemployed and should be a developer instead of assisting the all-male programmers who only belittle her and harass her.



One wrong date through Fluttr (dating app a la Tinder) sent Mel to a coding spree, then developing the website JerkAlert, where females can dish about the bad dates and unsolicited dick picks they encounter in the online world.

As her career might go to a crossroads, so does her lovelife, when workmate Alex asked her out and actually seem like a potential The One.

I surely enjoyed the rollercoaster of fun and emotions this was. Generally light and easy to read, this book highlights how unfair the tech world views women and belittle their skills and potential to revolutionize technology as we know it. It shows how there still is a blind eye to female inventors and start ups, and how unfair and unbalanced career opportunities are.

I admire how the author chose to give Mel an amazing group of girl friends who lift each other up and help boost each others careers.

I love how honest the romance development was. It's definitely a slow burn as there were issues our MC is going through. It seems like this book treats romance as one of the plot points but not the most important thing in the story.

Love the author's style and am looking forward for her future works.

☁ THE CRITERIA ☁

🌻 Blurb:⭐⭐⭐⭐✩
🌻 Hero:⭐⭐⭐⭐✩
🌻 Heroine:⭐⭐⭐⭐✩
🌻 Support Characters:⭐⭐⭐⭐✩
🌻 Writing Style:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌻 Character Development:⭐⭐⭐⭐✩
🌻 Romance:⭐⭐⭐⭐✩
🌻 Pacing:⭐⭐⭐⭐✩
🌻 Ending:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌻 Unputdownability:⭐⭐⭐⭐✩
🌻 Book Cover:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

☁FINAL VERDICT: 4.27/5 ☁

Review also appears on my blog.

[Meredith B. (readingwithmere)]

5 Stars!

Never trust anything you read on the internet.

I loved this book SO MUCH! Maybe it's because I am a female in tech and this book highlights all the struggles that we consistently go through in a male dominated field. If you read this book and cringed at how Mel was treated, know that this is how we are constantly treated by some (not all!) men in our field.

Mel works for the start up incubator - Hatch. She works with "Hatchlings" who are mostly men that are trying to get their start ups going. Mel works at the help desk. She helps fix computers when they have malware, the laptop/hardware breaks/won't turn on, etc. This has been her only job since she got out of school. She's one of very few women at the company and the men treat her poorly. They harass her constantly and put her down, however she's the one that saves them when they go on shady sites (on company property btw) and they get malware.

In her free time Mel is in the online dating game. She uses an app (kind of like tinder) and tries to find a partner. However, just like men at work, men on the app also harass her, as well as the other women on the app, with sexual pictures, pickup lines, etc. Not only that, but she has an physical incident with a man on the NY Subway where she finally stands up and says "this is not OK." Mel is fedup with this and wants to make a safe space for women. She codes and creates #JerkAlert and it goes viral. All the while, Mel falls for someone who has no idea she's behind the app creation. Mel goes through a wild ride both in her dating life and tech life. While she does encounter a few bumps a long the way, she ends up exactly where she is supposed to be.

This book is exactly what I needed at the time I read it. It's more than just a chic lit novel. I loved how it showed the real struggles that women in online dating experience. It seems really tough and I'm very grateful I never had to go through that. I also love that way that it normalizes women who are in tech. We can like both computers and getting our nails done. We can like to code and like getting our hair done.

One other theme I really liked about this book was the theme that ended it. I won't say too much without giving it away but there's a #getofftheinternet campaign that Mel starts and it's empowering for humans as a whole. I recently have tried to back off low quality digital time lately and there's really nothing that can be better than a face to face human interaction. Such a great way to end a book that revolves around tech!

I felt such a strong connection to this book. Maybe it's because I am a women in tech (cyber security currently) and always have been. I remember the first class I took in college (Computer Science major at the time) and some guy came up to me and asked if I was sure I was in the right class? I didn't know how to react at the time but I wish I could go back and ask him why he'd ask me that. I may not look like a "typical" women in tech (whatever that is??) but guess what, I am and I love it!

I highly recommend this book. It's a great story and a fast read. Thank you to Harlequin/Graydon house for my copy of this book!

[Jayme C (Brunetteslikebookstoo) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Swipe Right for this Rom-Com if you are a twenty something reader who has used a dating APP to try and find “love”! You are bound to relate to this book!

Swipe Right for this Rom-Com if you are of an “earlier generation” who has never used a dating APP but would like insight on how the younger generation date in today’s world. (You will probably be relieved that you found your significant other in a more “traditional” way....)

Swipe Right if you love this colorful, comical book cover!! (Gorgeous!)

And Swipe Right, if you love books with Smart, Strong Women who support one another through the ups and downs of being a young, single woman in NY, finding dates with a dating APP called Fluttr!

Mel Strickland is a help desk tech by day, and a person trying to find “the one” by night and after being stood up, again, and receiving yet ANOTHER unsolicited picture of what should be a man’s “private part”..she designs an APP of her own....JerkAlert.

It goes viral overnight, with women logging the names of the men on Fluttr who behave in all sorts of unacceptable ways...

From the time Mel swipes “left” on a shirtless man (I ignore those friend requests on Goodreads too! 🤣) till the last page, I was engaged and rooting for Mel to find love! ❤️

Refreshing and Relevant, it was just what I needed to get summer started!

One of my favorite lines: “It was funny: modern technology could forge a connection between two people on opposite ends of the earth, but it could just as easily drive a wedge between two people standing side by side in the same room”. So very true.

I would like to thank Netgalley, Grayson House and Kristin Rockaway for the digital ARC I received in exchange for a candid review! This title will be released on July 30th, 2019! A perfect beach read! Pre-order now!!

[Zoe Stewart (Zoe's All Booked) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went into this expecting more focus on the romance, but it definitely took a backseat. Personally, I'd call this a contemporary over a romance, and while it was good, it wasn't what I wanted or needed at the time.

[Nina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was expecting to read a fun and cute contemporary romance when I started How to Hack a Heartbreak but instead I got a book about a main character that just seems to be angry at all men and kept sabotaging her own love life.

I fully support calling men out on their sexist behaviour and I liked how this was thematised in this book. However, this book talked about being groped on public transport, being sent dick pics, being stood up on a date, being bashed and laughed at for working in the IT sector as a woman and a few other things. It just got a bit too much after some time and it began feeling more like I was reading someone's account of how they've been harassed by men in their life instead of reading a romance novel with an actual plot I could've been interested in. Furthermore, I also absolutely couldn't stand the main character Melanie. Everything that happened just kept pissing her of more and more and so most of the time she was just either hating on every man on planet earth because they're all the same or being absolutely paranoid and continuously assuming the worst about the guy she was dating.

instagram || my blog || twitter

[Zoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Light, cute, and timely!

How to Hack a Heartbreak is a sassy, witty rom-com about the determined, underestimated Melanie Strickland who after struggling through numerous bad dates, unsolicited dirty pics, and no shows decides to take online dating to another level by creating a website, JerkAlert, where women can identify those men who are not only sexist, obnoxious, and rude, but should definitely be avoided.

The writing style is sharp and clever. The characters are quirky, brazen, and amusing. And the plot is a funny blend of life, love, introspection, friendship, awkward moments, embarrassing situations, misunderstandings, taking chances, and the ups-and-downs of finding love in a high-tech world.

Overall, How to Hack a Heartbreak is a humorous, entertaining, easy read by Rockaway that's bursting with female friendships, empowerment, and a nice dab of romance.

Thank you to Harlequin Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Jaye Berry · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thanks, I hate it.

How to Hack a Heartbreak is about a woman named Melanie who works as a helpdesk tech at a startup incubator. Mel fixes their laptops while dealing with their verbal abuse and goes on crappy online dates via an app called Fluttr. Tired of getting ghosted or unsolicited dick pics, Mel decides to create her own site called JerkAlert where women can review dates from Fluttr. When it goes viral, Mel is in over her head and her almost boyfriend Alex- the only non-asshole guy from work- doesn't even know she created it.

I was really rooting for this one to be good but it was just so obnoxious that I wanted to yeet my phone to get the book away from me. It really just keeps going on about the same thing, having the same conversations and Mel kept getting screwed over at every turn while also being flat out crazy and accusing her boyfriend every five minutes?? I know it was important to show how gross, sexist, and gatekeeping the men are in the tech world for women but honestly I understand completely already. I didn't need or want to be hit over the head every other page with every male character (minus literally two who were barely there) being a total shitbag. It felt so preachy and like the author was trying to sell me something weird. There is a point where it was annoying me SO much that any enjoyment I could have had disappeared. JUST TOO MUCH, UGH. I'm still annoyed just thinking about it, bYE.

Jokes on me this isn't really a romance. Mel and Alex get together SUPER quick (like after a week) and when they do, it's literally just "we had sex and I orgasmed three times!!!" and that was it. There was no build up, no chemistry, no tension. I don't need smut but I need something and not just what this did. It was just, that happened we are moving on into now jealously crazy land. Mel spends almost the rest of the book being super creepy and paranoid thinking that Alex is a liar and just miss me with this entire romance.

Hilariously enough because I complain every time a man gets a POV in romance novels but uh... yeah he should have had one here. Alex is barely even in the story and the little he is in, dude had no personality at all besides to apologize to Mel for whatever reason it was that time. But he is a sweet and pure guy so it just further shows Mel as extreme when she goes off, reads his texts, and stalks his ex online while also screeching about one tiny "clue" being that he has a girlfriend already. Then they break up over miscommunication before getting back together and still having no chemistry.

This book is so social media and I just was not interested when it kept using that as a main plot (and literally every time "Fluttr", "Hatch" even the name "JerkAlert" was said, cringe.) Also I thought this would maybe be about meeting her co-worker through online dating but nah this book is just all about how bad the internet is and how we all have to unplug and live life!!!

Mel and everyone else in this book are in their mid twenties but Mel is super naive and all the romance was still so immature, especially when she literally was rooting in his bathroom for clues. All the talk of her shoving junk food in her mouth and watching Netflix all day like... me as hell but whose weird diary is this book?

I did like Mel and her group of supportive ladies who came through for her every time she got screwed over and that's probably the only thing I liked in this. I would say go into this just to read about a woman trying to make an app in the male dominated tech world and not necessarily for a strong romance because romance felt like a subplot. Just not the book for me unfortunately. Plus I feel bad for writing such a long ass review to rant on what is supposed to be a light and fun book but god it really annoyed me.

[Jamie Rosenblit · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know it's only January, but without a doubt, How to Hack a Heartbreak WILL be making my top books of 2019 list! I absolutely loved this story from start to finish. Mel Strickland is fed up with being a tech professional in a male driven industry, but even more than that, she's sick of the current dating environment - being sent inappropriate pictures before even exchanging a word, being "ghosted, being stood up with no apology - so when Mel goes out drinking with girlfriends, she stumbles home and decides to create a little website called JerkAlert as a goof, where women can rate the jerk's they've gone out with to warn other women of what's out there.

There was so much about Mel I found myself relating to (and ugh, in the whole online dating/swipe culture situation), I quite possibly thought Rockaway was observing me and my friends while writing this (hello SoulCycle references!!!)... I was finding every moment possible to read this today, including finishing up on my lunch break, it was just that good! I think anyone who is a fan of Christina Lauren's work would love this one or maybe just someone else who has swiped on one too many wastes of time!

Thank you to Graydon House for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

[Avani ✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Outright Boring.

[Brooke — brooklynnnnereads · Rating 3 out of 5]

First off, I have to say that overall I did like this novel but I'm having difficulty putting my thoughts into words when it comes to this story. It was an enjoyable read, it had laughable moments, and it had moments that made me cringe. However, for the most part, the majority of this novel read similar to any romantic comedy that is on the market in abundance. Due to this, I'm having difficulty distinguishing what could be considered unique in this particular novel.

One of the elements of this story that did stick out to me was the theme surrounding the importance of friendships. Yes, there was romance within this story, but I felt this novel seemed to revolve around the message of an individual's independence, self-worth, and friendship. It showed that even with the character at her lowest point, she was able to make it through to the other side with her friendships.

As well, towards the end of the novel, there's a different message being promoted surrounding getting off the internet and social media in order to become more present in relationships (whether it be platonic or romantic). I appreciated this message as it's an important one to be reinforced in this day and age.

This was a read that combined an aspect of fun and humour with the important message behind the impact of the internet on relationships. Although the main character of Mel had me shocked at times through her actions, I think many could relate to her paranoia based on her assumptions. It was a quick read that along with being enjoyable gave me more of an insight towards online dating.

***Thank you to the publisher for supplying me with a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

[greta · Rating 4 out of 5]

omg guys this was such a fun read !! i’ve been feeling such a whirlwind of emotions whilst reading this, that honestly doesn’t happen often to me with romcoms 😂

i really really enjoyed that, while ofc there was romance in this book, the majority of it was literally about how the MC Mel was being f’ed by life 😂 and also i loved the fact that this book was hugely involving computer science career !
i loved that Mel was so relatable and so real. the story wasn’t convenient, as majority of romance books usually are. throughout the book she had such a hard time career-wise AND relationship-wise, but it was all the more inspiring 💕
also can i have friends irl like Lia, Dani, Whit and Vanessa ??? they were so fun and supportive and generous 😩
my favourite romance in this book surprisingly wasn’t MCs Mel & Alex. it was Vanessa & Ray, i wish i got to see more of their relationship 🥺 he was such a sweet guy ugh.
i looooved the whole online dating aspect in this book and also the idea of creating your own app to help other people find true love. i could relate to so much in there (given that i met my currect boyfriend online and have gone through shitty men as well 😂) and i can’t recommend this enough, especially if you’re into computer science and online dating 💕

however, there were a few little things that i didn’t like.
first one being that Mel referred to some guy as “sad little acne-ridden man”. i had no idea why the author used this, but maybe Mel was just being spiteful about the incident on the train lol. acne is beautiful, it’s not something disgusting or unattractive !! the next thing was how Mel acted really naive sometimes, about her decisions that involved hers and Alex’s relationship. personally, i would’ve dumped the guy lmaoo i was not into him
and i don’t think i got enough info about Jenny, she was quite important to the story imo 🤔

in any case, i really cannot recommend this book enough for all the drama within ! it was so much fun ! i sure as hell will be reading the author’s other books 👀

[Obsidian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please note that I received this via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.

Well this was downright delightful. I really got a kick out of Rockway's book and the characters she introduced in this one. Besides the main character of Mel, she has some really awesome best friends (Whitney, Lia, and Dani) and a great roommate (Vanessa). I loved the book taking a look at women who are very good at coding (like Mel) and how hard it was to break into the tech world due to the douchebros that seem to inhabit it. The writing was very crisp and the flow was great. I loved the romance and the ending!

"How to Hack a Heartbreak" has 20 something year old Mel ready to hang up dating. She has used all of the dating apps, and the latest craze, Fluttr, is still not providing her with a guy that actually wants to date her. After being stood up and receiving one more "[redacted] pic" she has enough. After being egged on by her friends, she sets up a site called JerkAlert which women can anonymously post to about guys they have met or messaged on Fluttr. After JerkAlert goes viral, Mel also finds herself trying to start a relationship with her coworker Alex and wonders if she can trust him, or is he a jerk in sheep's clothing.

God, I felt Mel. I still am on some dating apps, but don't even check in anymore. Once you have someone send you a picture of them in full black leather (with a mask on) with a message asking can they call you a slave, I pretty much decided that books and my cat were sufficient. I regret nothing.

Mel keeps getting her hopes up, but she either meets guys that are just looking for a one night stand, ghosted her after a while, and or she gets the before mentioned "[redacted] pics." She wishes she was more like her friend Whitney who is not looking for anything serious and relishes her one night stands. But after her friend Lia has seemingly met the one on Fluttr, Mel is wondering as all women do, what's wrong with her. Mel is also a pretty great coder. She is stuck working at the help desk at a company called Hatch and sits around and watches a lot of men trying to get their start-ups off the ground. She's verbally abused and if she tries to stand up for herself, her jerk of a boss acts like she's being a bit too "female".

Besides Mel, I loved her friends. Whitney was fearless and also scared me a bit. She's protective of her friends and tells it like she sees it. Lia is a romantic at heart and no spoilers, but I was shrieking while reading about her and Mr. Right. Dani was good, but we really don't get in depth with her that much in this book. Not a criticism, but definitely she didn't feel as present in the book as Whitney and Lia did. I will also say that the girls remind me of my friends and I at that age. Getting together at night, wondering why all the guys we went out with were such a PITA and holding out hope for a nice guy.

The other characters we get, Vanessa (Mel's roommate) and Alex (her love interest) were written very well too. I get why Mel was apprehensive about Alex.

The writing was very good. I loved Mel's voice throughout. When her site goes viral you get her emotions about it (yeah she's great at coding and yikes what if someone finds out) and her realizing that parts of JerkAlert aren't that great. The flow was really good from beginning to end. I honestly couldn't put this book down once I started.

The setting of New York was pretty great. I loved how realistic it felt with Mel being stuck at her job at the help desk and she had to room with someone to afford to live in New York. I am always baffled at the romance reads I get into when some 20 year old is living in some sun lit two bedroom apartment somewhere. And there's no mention of the tininess of their apartment, commuting on the subway, and the insane rent.

Really loved the ending and the message it was pushing!

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel requires a longer than usual review-copy disclaimer.

Back when I used to work in book publishing, the bane of my life was being asked to read the work of friends or worse, friends and relatives of friends. Some of them had an absurdly inflated sense of my influence; others just wanted me to read their work and provide detailed feedback on it, similar to how it is completely normal to ask a dentist to give you a teeth cleaning during a birthday party. I dreaded this not just because of the boundary-less-ness of the people asking but because the work was usually bad. It is terribly difficult to write fiction and most people fail in areas that are obvious but hard to fix, like writing dialogue, or engineering the flow between narration and dialogue, or pacing revelations in a story. Usually I'm a believer in hard work--but when it comes to fiction, I feel like you've either got it or you don't, and most people don't.

My real-life friend Kristin Rockaway is the only person who ever told me she was writing something and asked me to read it, and I thought "I'd love to!" I could tell from the first ten pages of her first book, The Wild Woman's Guide to Traveling the World, that she's got it.

This is her second book and it's even more effortless, which is what you want in a fast, funny read like this. She's got bad romance, female friendships, a dreadful boss, a dreamy love interest, butterflies of doubt and nervousness. I am now older than her protagonist but I still loved the way Mel and her friends support each other as they try to make it in the big city. 

To me, the strongest thing about the book is that it doesn't sugarcoat this young woman's life. The harassment Mel and her friends experience has a note of genuine menace. Mel's job isn't bad in some vague sense of having annoying coworkers (sometimes the case in novels about young women at work); her job has substance and she's good at it, but not being recognized. She has the chops to do more than what she's assigned at work, and has to discover that on her own time. The frothy and funny parts of the book score because the negative space around them is real.

As for those funny parts, she has some great dialogue and funny set-ups. She likes to twist situations around in ways you don't expect (I liked the building super), so that even the minor storylines hold your interest.

Review copy received direct from the source. My only regret is that I read it in 2018 and should have saved it for the beach in 2019. (Bumping on its pub date...)

[Jayme C (Brunetteslikebookstoo) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Swipe Right for this Rom-Com if you are a twenty something reader who has used a dating APP to try and find “love”! You are bound to relate to this book!

Swipe Right for this Rom-Com if you are of an “earlier generation” who has never used a dating APP but would like insight on how the younger generation date in today’s world. (You will probably be relieved that you found your significant other in a more “traditional” way....)

Swipe Right if you love this colorful, comical book cover!! (Gorgeous!)

And Swipe Right, if you love books with Smart, Strong Women who support one another through the ups and downs of being a young, single woman in NY, finding dates with a dating APP called Fluttr!

Mel Strickland is a help desk tech by day, and a person trying to find “the one” by night and after being stood up, again, and receiving yet ANOTHER unsolicited picture of what should be a man’s “private part”..she designs an APP of her own....JerkAlert.

It goes viral overnight, with women logging the names of the men on Fluttr who behave in all sorts of unacceptable ways...

From the time Mel swipes “left” on a shirtless man (I ignore those friend requests on Goodreads too! 🤣) till the last page, I was engaged and rooting for Mel to find love! ❤️

One of my favorite lines: “It was funny: modern technology could forge a connection between two people on opposite ends of the earth, but it could just as easily drive a wedge between two people standing side by side in the same room”. So very true.

I would like to thank Netgalley, Grayson House and Kristin Rockaway for the digital ARC I received in exchange for a candid review! This title will be released on July 30th, 2019! A perfect summer read! Pre-order now!!

[Stacee · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I hadn’t heard about this book until it was pitched to me and I was intrigued at the synopsis.

I liked Melanie. She’s smart and loyal and has a great set of friends. I loved seeing a woman coding and the strong female relationships were fantastic. Mel’s friends were supportive and all amazing. I would easily read a story about any of them. I won’t say much about Alex {because spoilers}, but I will say his actions are tempered by Mel’s POV.

Plot wise, it was okay. The tech stuff wasn’t too tech-y and the guys were just as gross as expected. I was cringing and sympathizing with these fictional women on nearly every page. My main complaint is that I got a bit tired of Mel’s negativity and wishy-washy behavior. Yes, conflict and all that, but even though it felt realistic, it was repetitive.

Overall, it was a quick read with characters that had me invested. I look forward to future books from Kristin.

**Huge thanks to Graydon House for providing the arc free of charge**

[Mandy White (mandylovestoread) · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was a fun, light hearted story bit also had some strong themes. Thank goodness I am not single anymore! I actually met my now husband online, before it was all apps. I really enjoyed listening to this book, it was a long week and this made it a bit more bearable

[Lia Strange · Rating 5 out of 5]

lo charlamos en unos meses su puntaje, pero ahora mismo como que me sentí como la principal durante 70% del libro, boludeada y triste por confiar en un hombre. voy a ser honesta si lo hubiera leido antes hubiera pensado que es un libro estupido pero ahora que jugaron conmigo y yo cai como mosca en telaraña, digo ajajjajajaj para no largarme a llorar

[Jacob Proffitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I let this go a week, which makes me sad. I'm trying to figure out how best to characterize this story. Mel is apparently the only woman working at her company and happens to be the IT person tasked with supporting their, um, people. It's a startup incubator and is filled with entrepreneurs trying to get that first app up and running. And they're all raging douchebags of the "bro" variety, and that includes her boss, the owner, and frankly every other male in the story with two exceptions. Let me put it this way: if you had a story where every woman in it were caricatures of everything believed to be wrong with women, with only two exceptions, you'd likely find that problematic enough to label it misogynist. Well, in that way this story is rather deeply misandrist.

During the story, Mel undergoes a change and figures things out and learns to let the only actual nice guy in the bro-verse into her circle of trust. She also builds some great female friendships, works around being thwarted, meets female venture capitalists who (because female, obviously) don't suck, says some things about dating and hook-up culture that were already trite years ago but manages to deliver them earnestly enough that they actually came across as, if not profound, then at least as heartfelt. So yeah, this is feminist lit, maybe? Except I don't want to imply that feminists are necessarily misandrists, so maybe not?

Anyway, the story is interesting and the tech is solid so the author knows her stuff at least well enough to make it feel real to an actual programmer. And that's not nothing. I wish she had done a better job giving a more nuanced depiction of the female experience in IT. But the story was well-paced, I cared that Mel succeed, and I really liked the eventual solution/app she created (even if I suspect it wouldn't actually work in the real world, I'd very much want it to). And the side romance with her roommate and building super was outstanding.

So I'm going to go with a solid three stars with the mono-tone bro-verse dragging an otherwise decent story down significantly and Mel's own romance being pretty lackluster when all's said. Oh. Also, the cover is kind of weird and that title is truly craptastic. There's no hacking or heartbreak so it's pretty much just a random word from romance paired with a random word from tech...

A note about Steamy: There's explicit sex but not much and Rockaway pulls back from details early. So it's on the light side of my steam tolerance, though I think it worked pretty well for the story.

[Kate Vocke (bookapotamus) · Rating 5 out of 5]

How to Hack a Heartbreak is SO FUN.

I really loved reading this one and highly recommend it!

Swipe right for love. Swipe left for disaster.

Mel Strickland runs the helpdesk of a tech startup and has been feeling pretty uninspired that she isn’t coding the next big thing,

Instead she’s helping dummy “Brogrammers” at a tech startup company named “Hatch” wipe porn viruses off their laptops every day. They can program and code insanely technical apps, but they can’t figure out how to fix their own computers. These “Hatchlings” are the WORST.

Her dating life is pretty lame as well. She been finding most of her awful matches from a dating app named Fluttr.

But after one dick pic too many, Mel uses her brilliant coding skills one night to call out these abusers and harassers in the Fluttr app. She codes and designs her own app called JerkAlert. (go check out JerkAlert.biz – so fun!)

She finds herself on the verge of a brilliant new trending site but caught between the next big thing, and possibly losing the things she already has…including one of the hunky hatchlings she actually begins dating!

I loved Mel. I loved her group of awesome and supportive friends, trying to navigate a male-dominated world. The story felt clever and current and was a fast-paced delight!

A really refreshing read of smart women, internet dating, and a fun and sweet romance.

[Liz Fenton · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED it. It’s laugh out loud funny for sure. But underneath its incredible charm is a timely message that will resonate. Will no doubt be the beach read of Summer 2019!