The Love Wager
Two people make a wager on who can find love first, not realizing what they should be betting on is each other, in this new romantic comedy by Lynn Painter, New York Times bestselling author of Mr. Wrong Number. 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 agreeing they are absolutely not interested in each other, Jack and Hallie realize they're each other's perfect wing-person in their 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 both struggle to remember why the other was a bad idea to begin with.
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Community Reviews
2.5 stars, rounded up
I adore Lynn Painterâs writing and will probably read anything she writes. (If you havenât read Better Than the Movies, go read it, seriously). Her quick-paced writing is the saving grace for this novel because I found both Hallie and Jack to be fairly insufferable, selfish, and kind of mean. I did enjoy the fake dating element and the banter in the beginning of the book, but absolutely hated the ânot like other girlsâ troupe Hallie had going on (which felt forced as could be) and how both Jack and Hallie treated and thought of their friends, family, and dates. They both were really one dimensional, surface level characters and they never got past that. It felt like their connection was built solely on physical attraction and high school humor about âgetting railedâ (if you donât like the term âgetting railedâ buckle up because itâs in this book at least 100 times). With all that being said, I flew through this book. It was a quick and easy read.
I adore Lynn Painterâs writing and will probably read anything she writes. (If you havenât read Better Than the Movies, go read it, seriously). Her quick-paced writing is the saving grace for this novel because I found both Hallie and Jack to be fairly insufferable, selfish, and kind of mean. I did enjoy the fake dating element and the banter in the beginning of the book, but absolutely hated the ânot like other girlsâ troupe Hallie had going on (which felt forced as could be) and how both Jack and Hallie treated and thought of their friends, family, and dates. They both were really one dimensional, surface level characters and they never got past that. It felt like their connection was built solely on physical attraction and high school humor about âgetting railedâ (if you donât like the term âgetting railedâ buckle up because itâs in this book at least 100 times). With all that being said, I flew through this book. It was a quick and easy read.
I like Lynn Painter’s adult romance so much more than her YA romance. The banter was bantering, the flirt was flirting, the romance was romancing. I think her books are fun and fluffy. The lack of communication went on for longer than necessary and the third act break was a stretch to be justified but overall I enjoyed myself.
I wish we had more of the quirky roommate, Ruthie. She had the potential to be a great side character or annoying but there wasn’t enough scenes with her for me to make a decision.
I wish we had more of the quirky roommate, Ruthie. She had the potential to be a great side character or annoying but there wasn’t enough scenes with her for me to make a decision.
“If you’re there,” he said, sweetly brushing a tendril of hair behind her ear, “I’m there.”I'm not sure what was it about this book that made me swoon so hard. Maybe it's my singleness rubbing me in my own face, maybe it was me reading it when I was at peak stress period but there was something in this book that made me feel good.
NOT SPOILER FREE
I thought it was going to be another mediocre contemp where guy meets girl, girl falls first etc but this started off with a drunken ONS that led onto them meeting each other again on a dating app (is there hope for ONS where I live to become a love story too?). They then form a friendship based on bets and running away from blind dates to get tacos together. Guy, Jack falls first and sabotaged a guy off the app that Hallie was serious with so that he'd have the opportunity to pretend to be her fake boyfriend at a family event. And then they have hot sex against the freezer with Hallie's mum locked out of the kitchen door and the happily ever after comes, making me feel lonely as heck.
What I liked about their dynamics was that Jack and Hallie bickered all the time like Tom and Jerry but there was this unspoken line of respect for one another. It never reached a point where they were crying because of one another, sometimes when you're too alike or too close boundaries tend to be blurred but it was not for them. They made a connection seem like it was easy to maintain and that's what every relationship needs to be like. Hallie was not the typical, blushes at everything girl and I liked that she gave the badass energy to Jack.
I did not like Jack sabotaging the other connection Hallie had because that was the time for him to had come right out with his feelings. But him doing that is what led him to be her fake boyfriend so it worked out for him in the end.
Overall this was a fun and fast read, better than the first book!
Mr Wrong Number series reviews
Mr Wrong Number
The Love Wager - 4 ⭐
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