Love Wager by. Lynn Painter | Book Review – Past Midnight Book Reviews & More

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: Love Wager

Author: Lynn Painter

Format: ebook (borrowed)

Pages: 315

Publication Date: 3/14/2023

Categories: Romance, Contemporary, Fake Dating, One Night Stand, Dating App

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 into the dating app that she has determined will find her new love, she sees none other than Jack, the guy whose room she’d snuck out of.

Through the app, and 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.

This one is a fun romance story about a guy and a girl who hook up at a wedding and then meet again on a dating app – but they don’t date each other. Instead they become friends and bet that the first one who finds love on the app gets a good prize.

Hallie and Jack are just pure fun together! I love that they put aside the one night stand moment that happened in the beginning and become friends. Because these two are amazing as friends, and it’s a slow burn to the moment they start sleeping together again. I loved the progression and their banter with one another.

There wasn’t too much drama between these two which felt right, even when there was one hiccup in the end between them. It already felt like no matter what you could tell Hallie and Jack were going to work it out because they were solid as friends and would make a great team as a couple.

Tropes: one night stand, fake dating, one bed

Why you should read it:

the banter between Hallie and Jack is so much fun
quick, easy, feel good rom-com

Why you might not want to read it:

My Thoughts:

I’ve only read one other book from this author and it was a YA book and I loved it. I enjoyed this one a lot too and it was exactly the kind of romance I was wanting to read at the moment: easy, quick, great banter between the characters, and lovers to friends to lovers again with great chemistry. I look forward to reading more books from this author!