Posts Tagged: Rom Com

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Light-Hearted and Thoughtful: The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai

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I received this book for free from Avon in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Light-Hearted and Thoughtful: The Right Swipe by Alisha RaiThe Right Swipe by Alisha Rai
Series: Modern Love #1
Published by Avon on August 6th, 2019
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Rom Com
Source: Avon
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
four-stars

Alisha Rai returns with the first book in her sizzling new Modern Love series, in which two rival dating app creators find themselves at odds in the boardroom but in sync in the bedroom.

Rhiannon Hunter may have revolutionized romance in the digital world, but in real life she only swipes right on her career—and the occasional hookup. The cynical dating app creator controls her love life with a few key rules:

- Nude pics are by invitation only

- If someone stands you up, block them with extreme prejudice

- Protect your heart

Only there aren't any rules to govern her attraction to her newest match, former pro-football player Samson Lima. The sexy and seemingly sweet hunk woos her one magical night... and disappears.

Rhi thought she'd buried her hurt over Samson ghosting her, until he suddenly surfaces months later, still big, still beautiful—and in league with a business rival. He says he won't fumble their second chance, but she's wary. A temporary physical partnership is one thing, but a merger of hearts? Surely that’s too high a risk…

The Right Swipe was easily one of my most anticipated romances of the year and yet general existential issues meant I didn’t get around to it before it was released or even immediately after. Alisha Rai became an auto-read author for me after I fell head-over-heels for the Forbidden Hearts series. The Right Swipe is definitely a departure from the general vibe of those books and if you come into this expecting angst and drama and lots of emotions, you won’t get it. What this book is is a light-hearted, incredibly thoughtful rom com. It may seem like a 180 from what I am used to from Alisha Rai but it also seems very quintessentially her. 

Rhiannon Hunter is at the top of her game. She revolutionized the dating world and yet still doesn’t feel like she has truly succeeded. She is always looking for new ways to further her success and become more grounded in this field. What she doesn’t expect is to have to face the man that stood her up after they connected, at a professional conference, while he is working for her rival. 

Samson has had a rough year. More like a rough couple of years. After his uncle passes away, he doesn’t really have much direction. When his aunt presents him with the opportunity to be the face of her company and help with a campaign, he is all on board. He doesn’t expect to run into the girl he unintentionally stood up several months ago, and she is the head of his aunt’s rival company.

While the romance in The Right Swipe is a very slow simmer, the MCs become friendly pretty quickly and it’s so great watching them learn to get to know each other better. There is a lot of external conflict in this book but not so much conflict within their relationship, even if it did get off to a shaky start. Even with Rhi’s truckload of trust issues, Samson manages to find his way into her inner circle and figure out how to be a good friend/partner to her.

Rhi may be a little rough around the edges but I genuinely just clicked with her. Sometimes her issues became frustrating but the way Rai unpacked and handled them made me really feel for Rhi. EVEN WHEN SHE WAS HER own worst enemy. 

Samson, and I don’t say this lightly, was perfect. And sometimes perfection might be too much for other readers but he was perfect. He is kind, understanding, thoughtful and aware that even though Rhi was imperfect and it occasionally interfered with their relationship, she couldn’t always help her reactions given her history. This all makes Samson sound very one-dimensional but Rai still managed to make him a nuanced character. Rhi didn’t completely overshadow him in the character development department.

The Right Swipe, while marketed as a romance, is not necessarily as romance driven as I expected but the character development *chef’s kiss* made it absolutely worth the read for me. I cannot wait to read Katrina’s story and anything else Rai will write.

four-stars

4 Hot Espressos

An Adorable Rom-Com: Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

Posted by on 10/09/2019 • 2 Comments

I am not entirely sure what I expected diving into The Unhoneymooners but I ended up absolutely loving it. Christina Lauren’s books are extremely hyped but I never felt a particular need to read them until I saw the synopsis for The Unhoneymooners. My general distrust of hype made me worry I’d end up not liking the book, especially because I had just DNF’d another hate-to-love romance. INSTEAD, I was cackling and swooning and generally having a great time. 

Olive and Ami may be identical twins but are opposites in every other way. Ami is the lucky twin whereas Olive can never seem to catch a break. When, at Ami’s wedding, everyone but Olive (and the bridegroom’s brother, who she hates) gets extreme food poisoning from eating bad seafood, it…

Falls Short: No Judgments by Meg Cabot

Posted by on 09/20/2019 • 2 Comments

Ummm, I don’t know about this one frankly. No Judgments has Cabot’s signature humor and promises a good time and yet, I feel like it falls short of being a truly good book?? There are certain plot points that are sort of swooped over and things like sexual assault, which I feel, aren’t handled with care.

We were introduced to Little Bridge in Bridal Boot Camp and while Bridal Boot Camp wasn’t my fav, I was still very excited to read more about this town and meet new characters. When I dove into No Judgments I found myself sucked into this town and immediately enthralled. The threat of a hurricane made things slightly more exciting (plot-wise) and I was really excited to see Drew and Bree pushed together under such…

The Bollywood Rom-Com We Deserve: My So-Called Bollywood Life by Nisha Sharma

Posted by on 10/22/2018 • 1 Comment

Two books out in a year with Indian MCs who aspire to be filmmakers? Is this a sign I should drop everything and become a filmmaker? Stay tuned to find out. Obviously this book isn’t about ~my~ so-called bollywood life but it is about Winnie Mehta’s so-called bollywood life.

My So-Called Bollywood Life basically reads like a bollywood film and I didn’t mind it ONE LITTLE BIT. There is a love triangle, lots of angst, kismet, a heroine with tons of dreams, and even a bollywood dance number.

Winnie has always thought Raj was her soulmate, after all, she’s been told her entirely life that their love is written in the stars, but when he suddenly breaks up with her and starts dating Jenny Dickens, Winnie is more…