Title: How to Hack a Heartbreak
Author: Kristin Rockaway
Publication: July 30, 2019
Publisher: Graydon House
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Pages: 352
SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)
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.
REVIEW:
**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**
I saw this book in the romance section of NetGalley during one of my “scroll through but don’t request anything” outings. That plan ruined, I immediately requested it. The name alone drew me in: How to hack a heartbreak. Computer science and romance? That is something that you don’t see every day. I was overjoyed when my request was approved.
From the very first chapter, I was drawn into this book. The author has an easy smooth writing style. One that isn’t choppy or creates unnecessary explanations with a bunch of wasted words. I loved the main character, Melanie, and all of her friends. They were humorous and I wanted to be their friends as well. Melanie (Mel) was nerdy but not in an annoying fashion. She had life issues that we could see anyone having in this day and age. One of her big problems was dick pics from the popular dating app called Fluttr. She reported them every time she came across them but they were never dealt with. So she created JerkAlert. A website that let people load their offensive dates into a database so people could check before they swiped. I was so proud of her for doing this. Taking a stand against dick pics! She flounders through a serious relationship that goes south quickly when she searches her own database and finds him listed.
The author wrote the romance in such a way that it was relatable. Like blowing things out of proportion without actually waiting for an explanation. She gives Mel all the highs and lows of life. From breakups to being stood up to getting fired from a job. She writes all this exceptionally well. The book is a quick and easy read. I read it in just a few days. The romance is clean. You know they have sex but they leave all the extras out of the storyline. I would say that it could even be a YA book really. I will definitely find more books by this author in the future.
STAR RATING: 5/5
Pick up your copy of How to Hack a Heartbreak by Kristin Rockaway on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and check your local book store. Also make sure to add it to your To Reads list on Goodreads and leave feedback for the author when you are finished. You can also check out more from author Kristin Rockaway on her website HERE!
