By day, Mel Strickland is an underemployed help-desk tech at a start-up incubator, Hatch, where she helps entitled brogrammers—”Hatchlings”—who can’t even fix their own laptops but are apparently the next wave of start-up 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 harassers and abusers in the 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.
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What I thought about How to Hack a Heartbreak
There were lots of things I liked about How to Hack a Heartbreak, starting first and foremost with the strong friendships with other women that are essential to this story. From the help Mel gets in promoting her app, to the way they stepped up at the end when Mel really needed them -- these friendships warmed my heart the most in this story. Mel's group of girlfriends were awesome!
I also appreciated that Mel was an amazing programmer (although I didn't quite believe that she could program the entire site in a weekend!) and that she didn't let the set backs she faced hold her back. Once she gained some confidence it was full speed ahead and I adored her for that. It was a very positive portrayal of a woman in science and we need more of these in contemporary romance.
And my favorite part of How to Hack a Heartbreak was that the romance takes somewhat of a backseat in this story. Alex is slightly strange, hot and cold, and he's really made to look slightly suspicious which ends up making Mel the one apologizing when it was more of a two-way sort of misunderstanding. I didn't like that as much, but I thought Alex and Mel made for a good couple.
What I liked the least about this book was the portrayal of just about all the men in the story as jerks in one way or another. From Mel's coworkers who treat her like she's clueless about tech to the executives Mel deals with, they are all mean and nasty and I don't really think that is a true representation of the workplace. Where were Mel's allies at work? I just couldn't buy that the guys were all as bad as they are portrayed her, but it did make Alex stand apart from them all.
So overall, an enjoyable story. A little slow at first but the last half of this book rocks.
An ARC was provided for review.
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 planning her next big vacation.
Her second novel, How to Hack a Heartbreak, will be released from Graydon House/HarperCollins on July 30, 2019. Her debut, The Wild Woman’s Guide to Traveling the World, is in stores now.
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