[Review] Cheater (Curious Liaisons #1) - Rachel Van Dyken

Summary: Lucas Thorn wasn’t born a cheater. All it took was a single moment—say, a certain disastrous incident on the night before his wedding—and boom. Reputation destroyed forever and always. So now he owns it. He has a lady friend for every night of the week (except Sundays—God’s day and all), and his rules are simple: No commitments. No exceptions.

But a certain smart-mouthed, strawberry blonde vixen is about to blow that all to hell.

Avery Black has never forgiven Lucas for cheating on her sister. And suddenly being forced to work with him is pretty much a nightmare on steroids. Of course, it does afford her the opportunity to make his life as difficult as possible. But no good revenge scheme comes without payback. Because he didn’t become the Lucas Thorn without learning a few things about women.

Now Avery’s lust for vengeance has turned into, well, lust. And if Lucas stops cheating, it’s definitely not because he’s falling in love… (Pub Date: Feb 28, 2017)

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Super entertaining and lovely. A 3.5!

Lucas has made one mistake after which he found himself—he was a cheater! So now he has a girlfriend for each day of the week and has no sweat when in need of a substitute, though he does rest on Sundays and spends time with his sister. After losing a big-time job, Avery can't believe her last attempt not to be forced back into her childhood bedroom is to work as secretary of the devil who has ruined her family. First advice: don't become one of his girls. Which she breaks when a failed joke goes back to her, and now she needs to pretend to be his fiancée in an attempt to fix their families and past mistakes.

Van Dyken had disappointed me in The Bet a year or so ago, when I found it badly written and too full of clichés despite being entertaining, worst of all, it was too silly, less mature than a lot of YA's out there. Thus, I had my doubts about picking this one—I certainly had given up on the series that followed The Bet. I'm glad I ignored this and went ahead with the book.

To my surprise, the writing is something between the cheesiness of a romance and the wit of a chick-lit, which I certainly approve. So of course we still have a handful of clichés but a tone entertaining enough that they won't bother you. In fact, I love these tropes—lost love, fake engagement, etc. And compared to The Bet, she's finally learned how to write scenes with characters arguing. It was a relief, as well as a nice time. I did grin a lot during those.

What I didn't like? Both main characters were nice but we see a bunch of others who surely had lots of "screen time" but never became round beyond being mere plot devices. I feel that is one problem in most series, especially this being the first, so it could have been on purpose. I have no idea what the next ones will explore. (Edit: so the second one is about Avery's friend. I do wanna read that!)

Another complaint is about voice. The book is written from the main couple's pov's, intercalating from one to the other. In spite of Van Dyken's experience, there were still times I would have to start the chapter again because I got them mixed up since the voices were just too similar. It could have just been me but this still happened too many times over.

Also, this wasn't stellar. I was just really surprised at how much Van Dyken has improved, and could finally get what the buzz about her. I'm glad! If you're into this kind of story, you'll probably have a great time.

Rating: 3 out of 5.