[Rachel’s Review]: The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai

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…

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

As someone who has swiped right on a dating app one or two or twelve times I was really excited to read this book. Everyone knows how awkward dating can be (and if you don’t who are you and teach me your ways) and this book perfectly fits that feeling of liking someone enough to meet them and then the utter ridiculousness of them ghosting you afterwards. I’m usually more of a fantasy/sci-fi person than a romance person but this book was HOT y’all, like DANG.

I’ll start out by saying that I originally thought this was about two people who meet on a dating app and it is…but it also has the added bonus/plot twist where both characters work for rival dating software companies which bumps the stakes up to 11. It has elements of lovers to enemies to lovers to true teammates and was so fun and hard to put down.

Main character Rhiannon has some hard and fast dating rules that she never breaks because of some mysterious scandal in her past which we get vague references to but then really blows up the end of the book (but in a good way). Her rules are basically: no real name, no nudes, just sex and no romance. Girl tries so hard to stick to these rules but love interest (and rival matchmaking service spokesman) Samson is just too lovable to resist!

While the romance is great and so believable in this book, the really interesting part for me was some of the larger societal issues dealt with in side plots. There are characters with anxiety so bad they can barely leave their house, football players suffering from the lingering effects of repeated concussions and the lack of acknowledgement and resources from the NFL, the #MeToo movement, and sexism in the tech field. The whole book was engaging and I read it in about two days because I just couldn’t put it down. Also, yeah, it’s hot AF.

ideallyrachel

Hi y’all, i’m Rachel! When i’m not reading or talking about books I can be found rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the 72nd time, working on my own novel, cheering on JMU football (Go Dukes!) and taking advantage of all the great museums and breweries Richmond has to offer.

Check out my instagram highlights and Goodreads page for more reviews of all the books i’ve read this year!