The Love Wager by Lynn Painter
This is such a fun book and I was lucky enough to get an ARC of it. Lynn Painter can write witty and charismatic characters so easily. I’m yet to read a book of hers where I don’t see a little of myself in the main protagonist.
The Love Wager is one for the fake dating and friends to lovers fans, trust me, you won’t be disappointed. There’s a lot of angst, humour and swoonworthy romance. There’s also a little bit of spice, which you don’t usually get in Lynn Painter books.
Synopsis: 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.
Guard Your Heart by Sue Divin
This kind of has Derry Girls vibes but without the comedy, which is actually a kinda wild way of describing this book. My thinking behind this is the story relating to The Troubles. The difference being this one is set after the peace deal was signed.
It was such an interesting read and I remember really enjoying it. There were moments of conflict, a heart-touching romance and some very serious topics. Weirdly, my review of this blew up recently, which feels very random was I reviewed this so long ago.
Synopsis: Derry. Summer 2016. Aidan and Iona, now eighteen, were both born on the day of the Northern Ireland peace deal.
Aidan is Catholic, Irish, and Republican. With his ex-political prisoner father gone and his mother dead, Aidan’s hope is pinned on exam results earning him a one-way ticket out of Derry. To anywhere.
Iona, Protestant and British, has a brother and father in the police. She’s got university ambitions, a strong faith and a fervent belief that boys without one track minds are a myth.
At a post-exam party, Aidan wanders alone across the Peace Bridge and becomes the victim of a brutal sectarian attack. Iona witnessed the attack; picked up Aidan’s phone and filmed what happened, and gets in touch with him to return the phone. When the two meet, alone and on neutral territory, the differences between them seem insurmountable.
Both their fathers held guns, but safer to keep that secret for now.
Despite their differences and the secrets they have to keep from each other, there is mutual intrigue, and their friendship grows. And so what? It’s not the Troubles. But for both Iona and Aidan it seems like everything is keeping them apart , when all they want is to be together.
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Like this post? Why not read this one too: Book Review: Your Turn to Die by Sue Wallman