Oh my goodness, did I love this book? It just made me happy. Dating apps, mad friends, madder weird dates and all helping Hallie and Jack get their happy ending, I loved travelling with our couple and laughing with them.

I devoured this book!

It was a book I finished in less than 24 hours and I could have read it in on go if I had been given the opportunity!

The story is about Jack n Hal, who become friends and make a wager at who can fall in love first using a dating app. It's fun and flirty throughout the books.
It has a lot of my favourite tropes friends to lovers, one bed and it's duel POV!

Lynn Painter is an author who has made it onto my auto-buy author list and I have only love for every book.


Thanks for the opportunity to read this and I now need to read Mr wrong number!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy. This is a great rom com read-in-one- sitting-book that I just inhaled for a great escape from the madness of a busy period of the year. I haven’t read any of Lynn Painter’s books before but I will be looking into her backlist for more.

Hallie Piper is moving on from heartbreak by working as much as possible to pay off her student loans. It’s during one of these extra jobs that she has a second encounter with Jack while acting as bartender at a wedding. She’d sold him an engagement ring earlier in the week at her other extra job at a jewellery store. One angry girlfriend and a dousing in wine later, Hallie and Jack are in the kitchen commiserating their respective singledom that leads to a one night stand. This encounter convinces them they are better off as friends and wingperson for each other as they support each other in the search for a meaningful relationship. As incentive to keep on track they arrange a wager to see who can find true love first. The wager leads them where they least expected and has them questioning what they really want.

A great, easy read that will keep the reader smiling and laughing. Good banter, great meet cute and lots of the ingredients that every rom com reader loves.

This was my first book by Lynn Painter - I know right HOW - but it definitely won't be my last. I loved everything about this book, from the writing, to the characters to the storyline it was just perfect and I am leaving with a definite love for Lynn Painter herself.

Thank you netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review. I have loved Lynn Painters previous novels, including the previous book in the series, and this was no different. It had every element of romance books that I love, and kept me engaged throughout. Taking all of this into consideration, I absolutely loved this book and it contained everything that you would want in a romance book. I would recommend this to anyone, and am giving it 5/5 stars.

Lynn Painter has very quickly become one of my fav contemporary romcom authors. The Love Wager is perfectly sweet, funny and a hug for the soul. I love the banter between Jack and Hallie, it feels completely natural and the pace of their relationship is perfect.. I LOVE Ruthie. I want more Ruthie. Overall, a really fun read which is made all the more enjoyable by Painter's excellent prose.

Thank you for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I really enjoyed this romcom by Lynn Painter. Jack and Hallie meet at his sisters wedding where Hallie is bartending. Following a break up with his girlfriend Jack and Hallie go onto have a one night stand and subsequently match in a dating app. They decide to team up and help each other navigate their dates and find love. The banter and relationship between these two characters was great, I found myself laughing along with them and really enjoyed the dynamic of their friendship. This was a great, easy romcom that had me smiling the whole way through.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, Lynn Painter, and Michael Joseph (Penguin Random House) for the eARC, all opinions expressed are my own.

I loved seeing Jack’s story, after seeing glimpses from Liv’s and Colin’s book, I was so happy to learn that he got his own book. Jack has an explosive one night stand with Hallie. Whilst they part ways, it’s not long before they both reunite after trying to find love on a dating app. they decide ti up the stakes by competing to find the next love of their life, but circumstances lands them having to fake their relationship with feelings that are a bit too real!

Jack’s and Hallie’s chemistry is great, their attraction, the wit, the banter was excellent and I loved the fact that Jack fell first! The one bed trope, the fake dating and the back and forth, were well worth the wait for the final reunion. I loved Jack’s spells of jealousy, which contributed to the overall reunion - honestly I truly loved this couple!

The only downfall is that Jack definitely should have grovelled a little more, I struggled with how quickly the plot was resolved. Despite this, it was an excellent read, I highly recommend!

I really just couldn't get into this one, I think it simply falls into the "wasn't for me" category. There were some funny and cute moments, but I just did not feel the connection between them at all - and struggled to follow the storyline.

this book was SO GOOD. there was chemistry and drama and chaos and it was the best. hallie’s character was so much fun and I loved her persona, as well as the banter between her and jack - it made me smile. jack’s character was also dreamy but funny and once or twice, annoying! (the perfect amount really, there wasn’t anything to complain about at all!) there was the perfect balance between rom and com - one of the best ones i’ve read for a while.
from the beginning the plot had me hooked and it was so easy and fun to read - the chapter lengths were perfect and I LOVED the dual POV - it worked very well.
as well as the amount and variety of the tropes too - amazing!! one-bed, friends to lovers, fake dating and so many more - I could honestly go on forever about this!!
thank you net galley for allowing me to read this!

I genuinely happy squealed and danced with joy when I saw this ARC had been agreed. Lynn Painter is an incredible writer, anything you pick up with her name on the cover is just *chefs kiss* PERFECTION.

I loved everything about this book, Hallin, Hal, what a MC - perfectly imperfect, and Jack **swoon** what a heart-throb, I was giddy by the final few chapters. The rain scene with Mr Darcy style love professing - the best feels.

I have to be honest, I came into this book relatively blind. I read Better than the Movies a month ago and loved the very 1980s movie feel of it, so when this book came up I knew I had to give it a try.

For the most part, I wasn’t disappointed. Hallie and Jack were both really likeable characters but they were in a situation that was contrived and quite obviously would only ever work in a book - though it would be nice if it happened in real life!

The story starts at a wedding where Hallie is working at her second job, that of a bartender. She recognises Jack, the best man and brother of the bride and makes mention of it - whereupon his girlfriend, Vanessa, has a hissy fit, accusing him of cheating with Hallie and immediately putting the kibosh on any potential improvement in their relationship.

This event leads to Jack and Hallie spending an incredibly energetic night together and though the chemistry is undeniable, they build a non-sexual friendship as they start working their way through the online dating world together.

I really liked Hallie and Jack as characters, they were funny and loyal, but as with pretty much every romantic comedy there was a predictable third-act misunderstanding that could completely derail whatever they were working towards.

The additional characters, including Meowgi and Tigger, Jack and Hallie’s cats, Olivia, Jack’s well-meaning sister and everyone else, were perfect, amusing and definitely not unnecessary.

I am going to take a look at more of Lynn Painter’s stories though I did prefer her YA tale.

4 ⭐️

Lynn Painter has managed to write the perfect rom-com characters - real, with so much chemistry and both hilarious individually and together. I don't know if I could ask for anything more.

I think my favourite thing was being able to see Hallie and Jack forging a friendship.

Also, I don't know how I missed the fact that this is part of the Mr. Wrong Number Universe until I'd finished but it was definitely a good thing because that book did not do it for me.

I loved the friends to lovers trope, and enjoyed seeing their progression from friends, and how they each fought it as they didn’t want to wreck their friendship. I didn’t enjoy the tonnes of sex scenes as they took away from the romance of the story, and made it feel almost like a naff porno in parts as they became about scratching the itch, rather than about their feelings for each other. Had they not been as explicit, or as many, I’d have given this 5 stars, but I felt they detracted from the story and confused things a bit too much

This was a fun, and quick romance read that was heartwarming and funny. I liked both mcs and thought there was a perfect balance of friendship and chemistry, which flowed nicely with the story making it such a quick and addicting read.

It touched on tropes that I love (fake dating) and tropes that I could definitely live without (miscommunication) but they were well written and didn't ruin my enjoyment of the story.

At times, the plot felt predictable but I wasn't mad about it because I was having so much fun reading it.

I would love to see another book in this universe focused on Hallie's roommate, Ruthie, as she was really fun to read about, and definitely needed more page time.

This was such a delightful romcom to read! I am partial to the enemies to lovers trope but I love a good friends to lovers story when it’s done right, and this definitely was.

I loved being able to see the progression of Jack and Hallie’s friendship. Their chemistry; both romantic and otherwise, was electric on page. I loved their witty banter; it was so obvious from their interactions that they were made for each other.

Both Hallie and Jack came across as really well-rounded characters. Jack generally appeared confident and charming on the one hand but insecure and anxious about being alone on the other. Hallie was in the process of getting her life back together after a bad breakup in the beginning, but also came across as really comfortable in her skin and was unfiltered around Jack which made for entertaining interactions.

There were a number of silly grin in my face/ laugh out loud scenes and this book also had some of my favourite tropes; fake dating and one bed and they were done really well.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the miscommunication towards the end but it didn’t take away from the story too much.

All in all, this was funny, cute story that I would recommend to lovers of romcoms or anyone looking for an entertaining book to read.

Thank you to author, publisher and NetGalley for this ARC; I’m leaving this review voluntarily.

Three and a half stars.

Following a harrowing 'I don't think I ever really loved you' breakup, Hallie decides to step away from romance and concentrate on paying off her student loans and building up some savings by working three jobs and apartment-sharing. However, when an old school 'friend' talks about her being a Hot mess shit show when Hallie is bartending at a swanky wedding she realises her sensible plans might look a bit different from the outside. So when she accidentally gets drunk and has a one-night stand with the bride's brother she decides she's through acting like a college student. Hallie decides to get back into the dating game, get her own apartment, give up her part-time jobs, and dress more like the grown-up she really is.

Jack seems to have everything he could ever want on paper, rich, good-looking, highly-successful, but he's lonely. He almost made the terrible mistake of proposing to his latest girlfriend until her ridiculous (and unfounded) jealousy together with her atrocious behaviour towards the bartender at his sister's wedding brought him to his senses. His sister signs him up on a dating app - but his first match is none-other than his one-night stand from the wedding.

Hallie and Jack agree that they shouldn't date, but they get on so well that they decide to meet up after each date to discuss how it went and hone their dating techniques over tacos. Oh, and there's a side bet as to which one of them will find love first. Of course we the readers can see that they are totally right for each other but the two of them are oblivious, until Hallie finds a serious boyfriend and Jack gets jealous.

This was a pleasant read, good banter, and lots of sparks. The only problem is I didn't write a review and then couldn't remember anything about the book after only a couple of days. Ideal beach holiday reading.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Thanks for giving me the chance to read in advance. Read it in one! So lovely and would highly recommend !

This book gave me all the feels, it was soo cute I genuinely did not want this book to end. The banter between Hallie and Jack was just next level and it made me truly buy into their relationship.

This book has all the good tropes from friends to lovers, fake dating and guy falls first. This book honestly had me squeezing as it was just so cute and I would definitely recommend everyone to read it especially if you are a fan of the above tropes and love a good laugh out loud romantic comedy.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book

I literally read this book in one sitting. Couldn't put it down and I'm not completely obsessed with Hallie and Jack. I loved their relationship even before they decided to give it a real shot romantically. The vale scenes were perfect and when he surprised her with a trip back as a real couple I fell head over heals just like Hallie. Lynn Painter is one of my new favourite authors.