It Runs in the Family: Love is a Gamble

My sister Melissa is back on the blog to be a (semi) regular reviewer starting this month! Mel reads a lot of paranormal YA, as well as NA novels, so she'll be posting about books that I might not necessarily read (or haven't gotten to just yet). 

The Wager by Rachel van Dyken

Series: The Bet #2

Publication Date: October 1, 2013

Source/Format: Bought || Kindle e-book

What is it about a junior-high crush that can send an otherwise intelligent woman into a tailspin? TV reporter Char Lynn wishes she knew. Jake Titus is too rich, too handsome, too arrogant: a trifecta that once lured Char into the best night-and worst morning-after-of her life. Now they've been thrown together in a wedding party. It's awkward, but survivable . . . until Jake stops acting like a jerk, and starts acting like the man she'd always hoped he could be.

If watching your brother marry your best friend is weird, being attracted to your best friend's other best friend is downright bizarre. Unfortunately for Jake, Char hasn't forgotten how he once tossed her aside. Worse still, Jake's already-nutty grandma is even crazier about Char. Cue meet-cute shenanigans and all manner of meddling, and somehow, Jake's falling. For Char. Now all he has to do is make her believe it ...

Another day, another wager – another GREAT love story…If you enjoyed The Bet just as much as I did, you’ll find yourself dying of laughter with its sequel. Now it’s Jake Titus’ turn for a happy ending, and with Travis & Kacey joining in the odds against Grandma Nadine Titus, the game of love just got a lot more interesting.

+ The Story – Little “accidents” and harmless manipulation may not be the ideal way to get the girl, but Jake Titus cannot escape love when it comes knocking – or better yet, when it knocks him off his feet. Once again it’s with the most unlikely of women – Char Lynn, Kacey’s other best friend. But there’s definitely no reason to fear, when Grandma Nadine Titus is near. Her victims this time would never see it coming. Once scorned by this millionaire playboy, Char would be the last person you expect on board the Jake train. But like I said, after a couple of “accidents” and a “little” push here and there by Grandma Titus – wager included, these two find their own happily ever after. You think after the Bet, the game may be getting a little old, but that’s definitely not the case. In fact, I for one believe it just gets better when the stakes are higher.

++ Grandma Nadine Titus - This woman is a godsend. There’s no doubt about that. If you loved her crazy antics before, with the Wager, you’ll only find more reasons to love her (hence, the ++). I seriously would kill to have a grandmother like this, even if she can be a little overbearing. Well – okay, maybe a LOT. But a mother knows best, right? In that case, Grandma Nadine would be THE expert. She's already a master of manipulation (with good intentions, of course). In Jake’s own words: Karma: It was finally coming for him. And it was in the form of an eighty six year old woman with lipstick on her teeth. Hell.

I say: hell, YES.

+ The Perfect Lines (cue *swooning*)

- “And you’re the expert on what type of girl I am?”

“Absolutely”

“Well then, what am I?”

Jake tilted his head to the side and gently ran his left hand down the side of her throat.

“Forever. You’re the forever girl.”

- “I have this need to prove to you that it won’t just be one kiss. Because it’s going to be the first of a hundred thousand kisses. It’s going to be the first of the last kisses you ever receive…I want to ruin you for anyone else’s kisses. I want to brand you as mine. I want to hear you say my name, not because you’re irritated, but because you’re so damn turned on you can’t think straight. I want to do that to you. I want to make you mine.”

Overall, I would give The Wager just as many, if not MORE *snaps* than The Bet. Both may be equally interesting in their own right, but I just find the story of The Wager far more amusing. We all know at this point that Grandma Titus must have something up her sleeve, and of course we can pretty much predict how the story ends, but the in-between, “how”, though? Now that’s what makes this “accidental” love story, a downright entertaining one.