Review: Cheater by Rachel Van Dyken

Cheater (Curious Liaisons #1) by Rachel Van Dyken

Publishing Date: February 28, 2017
Publisher: Skyscape
Pages: 320
Contemporary Romance

The Premise from the Publisher: "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…" (Skyscape).

My overall thoughts and review: So I was first introduced to RVD by a fellow blogger friend, Ambur at Burning Impossibly Bright and I fell in love with RVD's writing when I read Fraternize (full review here!) I was intrigued to pick this one up because I'm definitely anti-cheating and a book can deter me if they try to justify it in some sort of way. I was curious to see how RVD was going to handle this topic. The story follows Lucas Thorn and Avery Black. They have a history because Lucas used to date Avery's sister and they were even engaged to be married, when one night Lucas "cheats" and things are forever changed. Things are further complicated because the Thorn family and the Black family are quite close and this incident rocks them to the core. Fast forward to present time and years later, Avery finds herself working with Lucas. Lucas is not who he once was. He now has a girl for every single day of the week and he is strictly a no-strings-attached kind of guy. He doesn't do monogamy and perhaps it's the incident that happened years ago that has left him changed forever. Avery, who has always harbored a crush for her sister's ex-fiancee, doesn't fall for his ways immediately. There are some cat and mouse moments and hilarious work stuff that takes place. Avery is definitely a spitfire and I love that she can hold her own against Lucas. I will admit, I was determined not to like Lucas, but he definitely grew on me. We get flashbacks to the night where things changed forever, and we also get to see Lucas' relationship with Avery then. It's really a second chance romance because Lucas fell for Avery then, but didn't act on it because of how messed up the situation was. I loved that it wasn't a simple happy ending for the two of them. There was a lot they had to work through and trust was a big issue. There's one quote that happened in the book and it totally reminded me of Meredith's "Choose Me" declaration from Grey's Anatomy, and I just really loved how Avery handled it: "I want you to choose me not because I'm pressuring you to, because I know you'll resent me for that. I want you to throw this life away because you want to. And right now you don't. You think you do, but it's a comfort, having someone on the side, just in case. I can't wait at home, knowing that one day you're going to smell like another woman's perfume. I want all of you, not a day, not five days--I want forever" (282). Overall, I really enjoyed this second chance romance/enemies to lovers romance. The premise does seem like it can go down a dark road because of the male protagonist moving from sister to sister, but it's quite nice how things are explained. RVD touches on how you can fall out of love when things become too comfortable and simply move towards a platonic direction. RVD also writes second chance redemption really well. I really enjoyed this read and I have to say that Avery is definitely one of my favorite female leads in a romance novel. The story does continue following Avery's friend in the next one and I'm already starting that one... so be sure to keep a look out for that review! ;)

My rating of the book: ✮✮✮✮ (4/5 stars)

Available for purchase at:
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Disclaimer: A copy of this book was sent to me by Thomas Allen & Son in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.