Pulled from the archives of 2020 is The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai. I was never on any dating apps (I literally joined Tinder for a day and was both overwhelmed and terrified so deleted it right away), and luckily I found my husband (online, ironically) before all the variations became more popular, but I’m fascinated with the convenience and instantness and horrified by the judgement that these apps provide people in the dating world. I knew that a romance novel about someone who creates dating apps would be fun and I had to dig in.

Synopsis
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…

My musings
I really enjoyed that this was a romantic comedy about matchmaking apps, but that it covered some pretty serious subject matter (emotional abuse, CTE in football). I really liked Samson as a character. For some reason, I feel like I didn’t get a sense of Rhiannon well enough, but I know it’s because she’s supposed to be closed off because of her past. I also wish we got a little more background on Katrina? Or did I miss something? I don’t know why she doesn’t leave the house.

Minor spoiler, but I wish the part when all of the CEOs were at Isabella’s and were “competing” was longer. With her personality, it could have been much more fun.

I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

3.5 STARS

“Every time you hurt someone, you break off a little piece of them. Not only do they have to live with that broken piece, then the next person who comes along has to figure out a way to spackle that spot. Your behavior has ripple effects.”—Alisha Rai, The Right Swipe

Thank you to Pratik Gupta on Unsplash for the featured photo.