Betting on Romance

The Love Wager

by Lynn Painter.

Breakups are always tough. They leave you reluctant to get back into dating and wondering if you’ll ever find that person who is “The One.” So what do you do? Well, if you’re Hallie Piper and Jack Marshall, you meet each other on a dating app, become the wingman for the other, and make a high-stakes bet that you’ll be the first one to find love. Sounds like a good plan, right? Well…

After failed relationships land Hallie and Jack in a hotel room together on the night of his sister’s wedding, they encounter each other again on a dating app. They are reluctant to date one another and decide instead to help each other search for the perfect match. This leads them to make a wager to see who can find true love first. In the process, they become best friends (and nothing more because that could ruin their friendship) over post-date tacos. Only when Jack poses as Hallie’s fake boyfriend for her sister’s wedding, does each start to question whether their bestie is also their true love. But neither will admit their feelings to the other, which is never good.

This is a fun read, filled with easy banter and awkward situations that sent me on a weekend reading binge that was totally worth it.

(Published in 2023 by BERKLEY ROMANCE, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.)