Book of the Week: The Love Wager

Yes, yes, yes, I finished it on Monday. It would have been on the train in to work on Monday, but just as I was reading the last couple of percent as we came in on the final stretch into Euston someone phoned me, and it was the train home instead – in fact I was so near the end, I had finished it before the train had finished pulling out of the station!

This is a friends to lovers, fake dating sort of romance where our hero and heroine, Hallie and Jack, meet at a wedding, have a one night stand and then meet again on a dating app. Hallie is trying to get her life back on track after a messy breakup with her high school boyfriend and she and Jack are definitely not interested in each other so make a bet on who can find true love first. And you know where this is going.

I found this really easy to read and a lot of fun. It reminded me a lot of some of the “chick lit” romances I read back in the day and has a nice sense of humour about it. The hero and heroine are quite young, but it didn’t feel quite as New Adult-y as some of the other romances I have read recently with similarly aged couples. But once I had finished reading it and started thinking about it there were a few things that jumped out at me – Jack does some questionable things during the bit of the bet where he’s catching feelings for Hallie, and actually when it comes down to it neither of them have a lot of character beyond being hot and liking tacos. But it’s one of the books where I didn’t notice that in the moment (well except that thing that Jack did where my first thought was “well there’s the final act breakup moment set up”) and it’s funny so I didn’t care too much. But your mileage may vary, depending on how much late 90s/early 00s romance you have read and your feelings and tolerance of that.

This is my first Lynn Painter – I picked it up because it was on offer (yes the Kindle offers post research costing me money again!) and I keep seeing her books recommended. And it was definitely worth 99p, and I’ll have a look out for more from her in Kindle Unlimited as well (there’s one at the moment). It’s in Kindle and Kobo and claims to have a paperback.

Happy Reading!