The Love Wager
By: Lynn Painter
Published Year: 2023
Publisher: Berkley Books
Pages: 320
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion of this novel.
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Hallie Piper is turning over a new leaf. After belly-crawling out of a hotel room (hello, rock bottom), she decides it's time to become a full-on adult. She gets a new apartment, a new haircut, and a new wardrobe, but when she logs onto the dating app that she has determined will find her new love, she sees none other than Jack, the guy whose room she snuck out of.
After the joint agreement that they are absolutely not interested in each other, Jack and Hallie become partners in their respective searches for The One. They text each other about their dates, often scheduling them at the same restaurant so that if things don't go well, the two of them can get tacos afterward.
Spoiler: they get a lot of tacos together.
Discouraged by the lack of prospects, Jack and Hallie make a wager to see who can find true love first, but when they agree to be fake dates for a weekend wedding, all bets are off. As they pretend to be a couple, lines become blurred and they each struggle to remember why the other was a bad idea to begin with.
First Impressions
The cover isn’t my favorite. I appreciate that it’s different and yellow and might’ve caught my eye based on color alone, but I’ve seen better illustration. The summary on the other hand immediately caught my attention. I loved the idea of a couple that started being friends as a bet but fell for each other over time. This is the second book in the series, but since it’s a romance series you don’t have to read the first one to understand this one.
What I thought
Hallie and Jack met at his sister’s wedding where they had a one night stand. After that night, they are both convinced that it’s time for them to enter the dating app world. When Hallie comes across Jack on the app, she teases him over message and they begin to chat. Over time, they decide to motivate each other to find their soulmates on the app by making a bet. Whoever falls in love first wins.
Jack and Hallie were so good. They had amazing banter which I’m always a sucker for in romance novels. I immediately fell in love with Jack. I loved that even though he had his personal issues, they weren’t massive. Hallie also had some small issues, but everything felt very relatable. Their chemistry was off the charts. I honestly couldn’t understand how it took them so long to get together.
I also felt like Painter did a great job accurately writing about the world of online dating. The few dates that they went on made me laugh and I definitely understood Hallie being heart broken over the possibility of something more than losing the person you were dating.
One other thing I loved about this novel was that the conflict wasn’t ridiculous and was resolved quickly. I hate when the conflict is a huge overreaction that takes forever to get resolved. This didn’t happen in the book and it made me like it so much more.
I flew through this book. I thought it was funny, light, romantic, and a complete joy. Painter writes clever and relatable characters who I was rooting for the entire time. I will definitely check out more of her novels in the future and highly recommend looking into her if you like banter in your romance novels.