Hi Everyone,

Happy Tuesday! Again, I have massively dropped the ball and this is the first review I’m writing in a while. I’m not beating myself up about it though, I’ve had a super busy month and unfortunately that has meant that all things books have taken a bit of a back seat. That said, up until Sunday, I had three books in progress, so I’ve managed to find time from somewhere to read, just not actually finish.

Book 📖

Thank you to @tandemcollectiveuk and @michaeljbooks for a copy of The Love Wager by @lynnpainterbooks. I received this copy in order to take part in the first leg of their Romance Readathon and I was so excited to be able to join everyone on this campaign. This first month of the readathon is titled One Night Stand and is dedicated to binge worthy books that can be read in one sitting. I can confirm that The Love Wager is definitely one such book. The Love Wager was published on 14th March 2023 and you can get a copy here. Bonus; if you use code ROMANCEREADATHON you can get 20% off!

Description 🔖

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.

General Thoughts 🤔

One look at the cover of this book and I immediately thought fun and my oh my did the story and characters deliver. I’m usually really strict with myself on readalongs and follow the schedule (outside influences aside) but I just couldn’t put this one down and ended up binging the last few days worth of chapters in one sitting.

It was so easy to get lost in the story and to fall in love with the characters, it was an all round feel good rom com. I loved the angst and the miscommunication (however much it frustrated me) and its all of that wrapped together that kept me turning the pages and following the stereotypical “just one more chapter” reading pattern.

Characters 👫👭👬

When I read romantic comedy stories like this one, I always tend to end up favouring one character in the couple, but I can honestly say I loved Jack and Hallie equally. Their relationship was so much fun to follow and I think it was because they started off as such fantastic friends.

Hallie was someone I think I could quite easily be friends with. I loved how strong minded she was and how unafraid she was of being goofy and making herself look silly in front of Jack. I think she was a little blind to what was in front of her, but I knew that the penny would drop for her at some point.

Jack was the biggest cinnamon roll and I fell in love with him almost instantly. I really liked how aware of his feelings he was, I just wish that he’d had the courage to share that with Hallie sooner. Romance aside, I would love me a friend like Jack as I think he was loyal and had Hallie’s back, regardless of whether something more was to become of their relationship.

Writing Style ✍️

As I’ve already mentioned, I loved the easy style of this author’s writing and it made for really entertaining reading. Even when the feelings got a little deep, it was still fun and flirty and this was what kept me racing through the book. I loved the text message conversations between Hallie and Jack, even when they were together. It helped to portray the dynamic of their relationship and I had all the little butterflies just like I imagine they did.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

Everything about this book was fun, flirty, sexy and heart warming. The friends to lovers story had me hooked; I was following those text conversations like it was me engaged in the back and forth flirty banter between Hallie and Jack. Miscommunication in romance normally makes me want to throw my book against the wall I get so frustrated but there was just the right amount in The Love Wager to not make me angry. This was a fantastic romantic comedy that had me laughing and also warmed my heart. If you’re looking for a beach read you can binge, or a book to sit in the garden with and whizz through, definitely pick this up.

😍😍😍😍😐