Series Name: Mr. Wrong Number, # 2
He leaned in closer, so all Hallie could see was his worried face and blue eyes. “You good?”
“Yeah.” Hallie blinked and felt like she needed to take a step back. He was too attractive for human eyes, especially when giving that sort of eye contact.
The Love Wager is one of the rom-coms you can’t help, but binge read.
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.
I adore Lynn’s books. They are always the perfect “pick me up” read. I know I will laugh, swoon, and just fall in love with anything that was written by Lynn. The Love Wager is the second book in the Mr. Wrong Number series but can’t be read as a stand-alone. This story follows Hallie and Jack, both on a quest to find their soulmate. They decide to be each other’s wing person, despite the fact that there is obvious chemistry between them. What I love about Lynn’s books is that they are so easy to sink into, and there hasn’t been a book of hers that I haven’t binge-read. The Love Wager has lots of fun, witty and sarcastic banter. Every conversation or text exchange between Jack and Hallie was utter perfection. It was fun and light while, at the same time, there were some definite spicy undertones to them.
I loved the use of technology in this book. I don’t always enjoy a rom-com where the two main characters converse a lot of text messages, but in this case, I didn’t mind. Lynn took Hallie and Jack’s texting conversations and made them fun and flirty. The character’s personalities shined in their messages, and it was great to see Hallie and Jack’s relationship deepen during these exchanges. Dating apps also play a big part in this story. As much as I don’t like dating apps, they are how people connect nowadays. It was a lot of fun getting to spend time with Hallie and Jack as they went on first date after first date with people who they met on these apps. Some of their dates were definite horror shows, and others were missing that spark.
Hallie and Jack were fabulous characters. I loved everything about them; they were great separately, as friends, and as a couple. Hallie and Jack are just a lot of fun; they love to laugh and have a good time. Their upbeat and, at times, quirky attitude just percolates to all aspects of their lives. Even though these two are fun, their characters still have a lot of depth, and they both have some issues to work through before they can become a couple.
The Love Wager is a treasure trove of romance tropes. There are lovers to friends to lovers, fake dating, one bed, and miscommunication. Right from the very beginning, things spice up between these two. They have a drunken one-night stand they can’t (and don’t want to) forget. Then when they meet up on the dating app again, they decide to be friends and help each other out with dating. The chemistry between these two was on fire even when they were friends. As the story progresses, Hallie and Jack pretend to be in a relationship with each other, and that’s when things really start to heat up. I loved the romance in this story. It was really well thought out and had just the right amount of humour, spice, and charm. I knew these two would get their HEA with each other, but the journey there was just so darn fun.
The Love Wager is a delightful, spicy rom-com that will not disappoint.
Thank you, Berkley Publishing, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
