The Book:
Heartbreak For Hire by Sonia Hartl
Published October 4th 2021 by Gallery Books
Date read: August 27, 2021
The Characters:
Brinkley
Marc
Buy it on Bookshop.org | Amazon
The Plot (from Goodreads):
Brinkley Saunders has a secret.
To everyone in the academic world she left behind, she lost it all when she dropped out of grad school. Once a rising star following in her mother’s footsteps, she’s now an administrative assistant at an insurance agency—or so they think.
In reality, Brinkley works at Heartbreak for Hire, a secret service that specializes in revenge for jilted lovers, frenemies, and long-suffering coworkers with a little cash to spare and a man who needs to be taken down a notch. It might not be as prestigious as academia, but it helps Brinkley save for her dream of opening an art gallery and lets her exorcise a few demons, all while helping to empower women.
But when her boss announces she’s hiring male heartbreakers for the first time, Brinkley’s no longer so sure she’s doing the right thing—especially when her new coworker turns out to be a target she was paid to take down. Though Mark spends his days struggling up the academic ladder, he seems to be the opposite of a backstabbing adjunct: a nerd at heart in criminally sexy sweater vests who’s attentive both in and out of the bedroom. But as Brinkley finds it increasingly more difficult to focus on anything but Mark, she soon realizes that like herself, people aren’t always who they appear to be.
The Review:
I didn’t love the narrator for this one. Her male voices were extremely forced and annoyingly nasally. It kind of turned me off to the book and as a result, it took me a long time to finish this one. It was almost a DNF, I disliked the narrator that much–but that wouldn’t have been fair to the author so I powered through eventually.
The story itself was good. Heartbreak for Hire was such an interesting concept! I’m sure every reader has some kind of revenge fantasy, and it was fun to be able to watch the employees of H4H play theirs out. Margo was definitely toxic and the company was obviously problematic, but in terms of the storyline it worked perfectly.
I liked Brinkley, but I never really found myself able to root for Marc. I’m not sure if the bad narration just turned me off to him or if I wouldn’t have liked him anyways if I read it, but I never thought he was right for her.
Overall, this was a fun enemies-to-lovers story with a very interesting premise, but I can’t recommend the audiobook. Bonus points for the sweater-loving demon cat!
Follow me on Bloglovin’!
