A laugh out loud, lighthearted, swoony romance about a cheater who doesn’t… cheat?

Everyone thought Lucas Thorn had everything he could possibly want. A winning personality and good looks to go with it, a great career and the perfect fiancée. Why would he jeopardize his seemingly picture perfect life by getting stinking drunk and waking up in his fiancée’s sister’s room? Everyone though it was obvious: he was just too good to be true. Ignoring the pain of that night, he embraced the label and became a cheater, multiple dater. Everyone knows the rules, one girl for each day of the week. That way no one gets hurt, right?

Avery Black doesn’t see it that way and isn’t afraid to let Lucas know. Forced to work for the man she once hero worshiped, was her best friend and her sister’s fiancée she can barely tolerate him. But he holds her work review hostage and needs her to fake a relationship with her for the sake of his parents. Can they ignore the kernel of the deeper than friendship connection that previously existed and intense attraction?

I’ve heard that laughter is a great form of therapy and I’m all for having a good laugh as often as possible and Rachel Van Dyken provides a real treat with this story that is silly and kind of childish that you can’t help but laugh combined with sweet sexiness.

Without giving too much away I’ll try to assuage concerns about the book’s title and the hero’s label. Lucas had realized that he was in love with the wrong woman. His fiancée youngest sister. On the eve of their wedding he makes a big mistake and rather than risk hurting anyone else he decides to adopt a no strings attached approach to relationships.

This gets very complicated when four years later Avery starts working for him and gets even more convoluted when they try to hide his nonstandard relationship style from his parents. All sorts of wackiness ensues and I just couldn’t stop laughing because by his own admission, Lucas’ parents are certifiable, just like Avery and himself, both of whom I found endearing.

Avery is strong with a sharp tongue and totally adorable. Behind his sometimes crude mouth and arrogance he’s charming and caring, honest and absolutely redeemable. Their banter is quick, witty and yes sometimes silly, and the romance between Avery and Lucas is an interesting mix of cheeky and swoony. And in the words of the notorious Lucas Thorn: I laughed and cried (from laughter) and in the end I understood.

Cheater is book #1 in the Curious Liaisons series by Rachel Van Dyken. It is a standalone contemporary romance. Told from both points of view and has a happy ending.

This book was a pretty quick and easy read. It flowed so easily and kept me so interested that I wanted to know what was going to happen next. Lucas Thorn is a cheater. He has a different woman every day of the week. One day a blast from his past comes to work for him as his personal assistant. Avery is the little sister of his ex fiancé, that he cheated on. She holds a little anger towards him and hates the person he's become. They are constantly bickering at one another, but at the same time they are very attracted to each other. Their bickering is pretty amusing. His parents are hilarious. I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to see what's next in this series,

Super entertaining and lovely. A 3.5!

Lucas has made one mistake after which he found himself—he was a cheater! So now he has a girlfriend for each day of the week and has no sweat when in need of a substitute, though he does rest on Sundays and spends time with his sister. After losing a big-time job, Avery can't believe her last attempt not to be forced back into her childhood bedroom is to work as secretary of the devil who has ruined her family. First advice: don't become one of his girls. Which she breaks when a failed joke goes back to her, and now she needs to pretend to be his fiancée in an attempt to fix their families and past mistakes.

Van Dyken had disappointed me in The Bet a year or so ago, when I found it badly written and too full of clichés despite being entertaining, worst of all, it was too silly, less mature than a lot of YA's out there. Thus, I had my doubts about picking this one—I certainly had given up on the series that followed The Bet. I'm glad I ignored this and went ahead with the book.

To my surprise, the writing is something between the cheesiness of a romance and the wit of a chick-lit, which I certainly approve. So of course we still have a handful of clichés but a tone entertaining enough that they won't bother you. In fact, I love these tropes—lost love, fake engagement, etc. And compared to The Bet, she's finally learned how to write scenes with characters arguing. It was a relief, as well as a nice time. I did grin a lot during those.

What I didn't like? Both main characters were nice but we see a bunch of others who surely had lots of "screen time" but never became round beyond being mere plot devices. I feel that is one problem in most series, especially this being the first, so it could have been on purpose. I have no idea what the next ones will explore.

Also this wasn't stellar. I was just really surprised at how much Van Dyken has improved, and could finally get what the buzz about her. I'm glad! If you're into this kind of story, you'll probably have a great time.

I wanted to love this more and maybe my expectations were high. After thinking about it a couple days, it really stuck with me though.

Lucas Thorn......well, he was totally honest. That's one thing you absolutely can say about him! And yes, although he had a woman for each day of the week (except Sunday because that's God's day and the day he set aside to spend with his sister), he was completely honest about his intentions with all of them. He was not looking for commitment in any way, shape, or form!

Enter Avery Black.....Not only his new intern, but the younger sister of his one-time fiance and the sister of the girl he cheated on his fiance with......sound f'd up? Well, it was! But there is a reason for what happened in the past, and why their one-time very close friendship came to an end. A forgivable reason?? Well, I guess so. No, it was forgivable. But the person he became was not good.

Even with a hate so strong for him, Avery needs the internship and sucks it up to work with him. But man, she did not hold back with letting him know exactly how she felt about him! And what do you do with all that built up anger and tension? You got! Sex! Hot, steamy, mind blowing SEX!

I ended up really loving the book and can't wait for Austin's story in book 2!

I usually like van Dyken's works but I didn't care for the premise of this and found the redemption hard to believe. Just had a hard time supporting the MC.

I enjoyed this story. It was predictable yet still enjoyable.
A forbidden second chance romance with a happily ever after, can't beat that!
I can't wait to get Austins and Thatchs story! Re

*FIVE SEVEN DAYS A WEEK STARS*

With a title like "Cheater" and a blurb about a man cheating and falling in love with his ex finances sister, let me just I had SERIOUS doubts here. They were all completely unnecessary as Rachel absolutely delivers with this one!!

(sidenote it's not exactly what you think you need to read this one!)

Lucas Thorn is every woman's walking wet dream, and let's just say he turns those dreams into fantasies, until a certain strawberry blonde comes bulldozing back into his life, Thai noodles in tote! Their love story is one of real life with ups and downs, crazy parents, even crazier siblings, and a bond that's withstood even more crazyness.

I adored everything about Avery, the bluntness and wittiness she possesses, to her winner takes all take it or leave it approach.

The side characters Thatch and Austin we're great, and I can't wait for their story and hopefully more headlocks (Go Girl!)

A definite 5 star read from Rachel, and though this novel is definitely written by her, the tone and dialogue are different from her others and it rocks!!

I decided against reviewing early on GR to respect the author. I did like the beginning of the story but didn't truly enjoy it overall.

I will admit I had mixed feelings about reading this book. When I first saw it I was excited, because hello, it's another RVD book!! However, the title also worried me. Cheating as a main topic in a book isn't usually something I read ... it's not my thing. But this is RVD I'm talking about. I had to at least give it a go.

Cheater drew a number of emotions from me, but overall I really enjoyed it just like any other RVD books. Lucas made me angry and annoyed the hell out of me. I just wanted to bang his head against something hard for being so stupid. However, I also grew to love and feel for him. He was a guy who cared in the end, he just had lost his way.

As per usual, RVD has brought her usual flare for dramatic comedy into this book. Some of the jokes are almost slapstick, and the characters become a bit over-dramatic, but I love it. This book also had me grinning from ear to ear and laughing to myself. I thought the banter and quick-wittedness of the characters was great.

Overall, I'm glad I took the chance on this book. If you love RVD you definitely won't be disappointed. And if you're like me with the cheating thing, I'd still say give it a chance. It's not exactly what you think it will be.

I would definitely recommend this and am looking forward to Thatch's story!

This book was definitely was not what I expected!!! It was just so much more!!! I loved the banter, the sexy times, the funny times! Just everything!! It was such a good story about a second chance romance with a crazy family that had me rooting for the couple since page 1!! I hope this is a series!! I want to see a book about Austin!!

I'm sad that a lot of people will skip this one because of the premise of the book.
Cheating sucks, yes, but it's part of real life. I don't know many people who haven't cheated or been cheated on.
Lucas and Avery were close, until one night (the eve of his wedding to Avery's sister) ruins everything. Lucas is now a serial cheater. To me dating women who are aware of other woman is not cheating.
He has a different woman every night. Avery needs this good review at her new job, only Lucas the man who broke her heart is her boss. She's smart mouthed, sassy and holds her own. Lucas and her have such a chemistry, but it's forbidden. And who wants to be someones day of a the week.
"In every way that matters, yes. When a man loves me, he's going to get all of me, not twenty-four hours."

Note: I received a copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I haven't read a book by Rachel Van Dyken in a while and was immediately intrigued by the premise of Cheater. This was a good mix of friends turned enemies turned lovers which cover two of my favorite tropes.

While some people may be immediately turned off by the "cheating" aspect of this book or the fact that Lucas was engaged to Avery's sister, it's not entirely what you'd think. I would suggest not letting any bias deter you. RVD handled the romance in such a way that you couldn't help but root for Avery and Lucas to get together.

Avery was a strong, likeable MC. She was a little clueless at times but that just added to the fun. Lucas was just as likeable. For all his claims at being a "playboy", he was a true romantic at heart.

I thoroughly enjoyed the banter between these two and liked that they didn't get together immediately, though I do wish this was dragged out a bit longer.

If you're looking for a light, fun romantic read, I'd highly suggest this one!

I really enjoyed this book! It did start out a little slow but it got better after a bit. Lots of laugh out loud moments and sweet spots. The heroine is spunky and quirky. I like a girl who loves good lol. The hero was a definitely human but very hot. He knew he was hot and charming and he played on those qualities. These two were great together! This was my first contemporary romance that I've read by this author and it won't be the last!

I have to say that I was almost pre-disposed to go into this book expecting not to like it. There is one thing I can't abide in real life and tend to stay away from in my fiction and that is the subject matter of cheating. I trusted this author, who I've read and enjoyed before to handle it with some of her typical humor and she did. I enjoyed the heck out of this book and I absolutely LOVED the character of Avery who doesn't want to have to work for Lucas (AKA the guy who was engaged to one sister and cheater on her with another). I very much enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the next in this series.

I received an ARC copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.

I will be honest an admit that I didn’t even glance at the blurb before I started to read the book because it’s being on of Rachel Van Dyken’s works was convincing enough for me. Unfortunately the plot didn’t really agree with me.

Just from the title you can guess pretty much what’s going to be the main focus of the story. Yes, cheating. I generally doesn’t have a problem with cheating in books it can make the story a bit more emotional (not so much in real life), on the other hand forgiving a cheater for stupid reasons is another thing. And really if you read a little of the story you realize that the cheating situation is not as serious in it as the blurb and the characters would suggest. However the whole story is written in a way that it makes you more aware of the cheating than necessary. There is too much focus on it with the constant mentions and reminders; makes the plot tense and I personally felt obligated to hate Lucas. So yeah the plot wasn’t the most appealing situation. Because of this it took me significantly longer to finish the book than I intended. Even so I find Rachel Van Dyken writing style really clean, crisp and entertaining. She has a couple of returning motives in her stories as it happens in this book too, but she is a really productive author so I think it’s understandable. What I really like about her that she creates unbelievable funny scenes in her books and generally her stories are dominated by humor. This is present in this story too, but not as successfully as some other books of hers. It just didn’t come through me at every opportunity.

“Rest assured, he’s gone completely blind in his left eye. I highly doubt he’d able to hit a moving target.”
“Great, Avery, I’ll just practice my zigzag.”

“. . . . I saved your life with my kung fu.”
His menacing grin did funny things to my stomach.”Admit it. The closest you’ve been to king fu is the movie Kung Fu Panda, which you probably watched because you’re convinced the panda is your spirit animal since it’s always eating.”

The story is told from dual point of view, Avery’s and Lucas’, the two main characters. Avery is really stoic, sarcastic and cynical and also pretty desperate at the beginning of the book. She is the constantly criticized little sister which made her a bit prickly. She is also have a mean, vindictive side and extremely jealous and let’s be honest meddlesome. So its maybe fate that she meets with Lucas, the last person she really wants to meet when she is at her most desperate predicament. Her being extremely stubborn and afraid to let him in again doesn’t help their situation one bit. Their unique humor and extreme attraction to each other is the one thing ease the situation.

“Family pressure combined with drunkenness and lying makes people do really stupid things. You know, brain cells die because of the . . .” He licked his lip. “A-alcohol.”

Lucas is an enigma for me. For one his idiotic mentality, insensitiveness and lifestyle doesn’t really agree with some of his actions. He wants somebody to go home too, whom he can enjoy his life outside of work, he lives kids and so and so but can’t commit to a relationship. He is lying to himself. Really when I was reading about him one thing jumped into my head. The Pygmalion effect, all his life everybody counted on him cheating, they were really waiting for the moment so he started to believe it about himself and maybe a bit out of spite he ‘accepted’ his fate.
This conversation almost made me abandoning the book:

“Until next Friday, Lucas Thorn.” She pulled out a compact and started to fix her face.
“I will put you down for every Friday.”
“ Thank you. “She grinned. The snap of the compact shutting closed mad me jump in my seat. “For allowing me to take the open position.”
“ You proved your worth!” He called back.

(This after a quickie in his office. It’s just disgusting and I can’t believe that any woman would act like this.)

The supportive characters mainly the families are quite crazy, kinda caricature-ish. They all represent some extreme personalities but this is something else that is specific to the author.

After the initial obstacles their love story is cute and funny, maybe a bit mushy too for a couple of chapters. It has it funny moments and drama too. I enjoyed it but not my favorite from Rachel Van Dyken at all. I just couldn’t get odds over the topic.