The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai (ARC Review)

Title: The Right Swipe
Author: Alisha Rai
Type: Fiction
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Avon (HarperCollins)
Date published: August 6, 2019

A physical copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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 enjoyed this one! The female lead, Rhiannon, was really relatable for me because I’m also a young woman who has been hurt by men in the past and I’m also a young woman working in the business world. I really enjoyed the role that Rhiannon’s company played in this book because it’s a big part of her life and therefore should definitely have an important role in the story as well. I felt inspired by Rhi and how she runs her life and her business, how she treats her employees and how she tackles problems, while also feeling sympathy for the things that have happened to her and the way that she’s closed parts of herself off because of those things.

Enter handsome Mr. Samson Lima! He is quite handsome, yes. But I’d like to point out that there’s more to him than his good looks. I really liked how much depth Samson’s character has. There were definitely a lot of facets to his character, and I enjoyed finding out about all of them. I also really liked watching him develop, watching Rhi develop, and reading about how their relationship together evolved. I also wanted to point out that while this is definitely a romance and that the romance plot took centre stage, the story also focused quite a bit on Rhi and Samson’s relationships with other people in their lives! All in all, this story was real, it was romantic, and I can’t wait to read the next book in this series which will focus on the love story of Rhi’s BFF!

Alisha Rai writes award-winning emotionally complex contemporary romance novels and is frequently sought as a speaker on a range of topics covering romance and media. She is the first author to have an indie-published book appear on Washington Post’s annual Best Books list. Her books have also been named Best Books of the Year by NPR, Vulture, Entertainment Weekly, Amazon, Kirkus, Bustle, and Cosmopolitan Magazine and her novels have won the RT Reviewer’s Choice Award for erotic and contemporary romance. When she’s not writing, Alisha is traveling and tweeting. For inquiries, comments, etc., please contact Alisha directly via email or @ her on Twitter.