Hit and miss

To me, the Love Wager is a contemporary romance that felt very early to mid-2000s. The plot of this novel is basically the movie The Holidate starring Emma Roberts, in that two people hook up and decide they’re not interested in being with each other but remain in contact to discuss their dates, hookups, and other random things. Clearly, this will end with the couple getting together for real with some sex scenes interspersed.

I actually thought the Holidate was dumb but amusing enough to watch, but The Love Wager was a bit of a slog to get through. Plot-wise, it’s fine and the writing isn’t bad, but the character choices took a few stars off of this. Also, this book has dual POVs, which I usually am not bothered with in my romance novels, but this one jumped around a bit too much to be a steady read. On occasion, the POV would change in every chapter and multiple times within a chapter. After a few paragraphs, the POV would jump back and forth, and I never understood why. I thought this might have something to do with their personalities, but it might be a weird way of padding the word count here.

The real issue for me regarding this novel is the characterization. While I do not need likable characters, it makes reading an entire novel more palatable. Neither Hallie, our female lead, nor Jack, the love interest, are tolerable. Hallie never grows from the person she is on page one and remains within the emotional range of a teenage girl until the end. Jack is even worse. He’s a red flag made into one man, and I think the author expected us to find his possessive, temperamental personality charming in its own way, but it really failed. Both Hallie and Jack come off as being very early 2000s rom-com in that Hallie is very much a “not like most girls” kinda lady, and Jack is trying so hard to be an alpha male; it comes off as really sad and cringe rather than confident and sexy. Nothing about either of these two was sexy.

The plot and writing are fine, but that’s about it. Lynn Painter’s other novels are much better than this one.

Title: The Love Wager
Author: Lynn Painter
Format: Trade Paperback
Pages: 320
ISBN:  9780593437285

Three Descriptors: Pick Me Girl, Upbeat, Fast Read

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