How to Hack a Heartbreak by Kristin Rockaway

ABOUT THE BOOK

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.

MY REVIEW

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.

I chose this book because it was the July 2019 LibraryReads selection, and I have tried online dating and wanted to see how the author used it as a rom-com. It didn’t disappoint.

The story is a laugh out loud trip into the world of a woman working in a testosterone-filled IT business in New York where men harass her and don’t take her seriously. And if that isn’t enough, her dating life is the same.

After being ghosted on a date and receiving another dick pic from the online dating site Fluttr she exacts revenge by creating an app of her own called JerkAlert. It’s a big hit, but not for her love life when the man she’s dating shows up on the app.

I love the dynamics between Mel and her friends (think Sex and the City) with their different personalities and outlooks on love and careers. However, I believe Alex’s character needed more depth. I would have liked to have heard his perspective as Mel’s boyfriend. He seemed sweet but misunderstood.

If you have ever tried online dating and want to hear it from a woman’s perspective, give this one a try.

Thank you to Ms. Rockaway, Harlequin, Graydon House Books, and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to review this book without expectation of a positive review.

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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.