I'm a huge fan of Alisha Rai's books and this one was no different. This talked about tough issues that so many people can relate to. I especially loved Samson's family dynamic. It was wonderful to see these characters grow throughout the book and I cannot wait for the next book!

A contemporary romance with great diversity that takes on timely issues of workplace harassment, online dating, and more. Rai is a great writer, and I really enjoyed the first third of the book, but once the two leads began to interact and talk more, I had trouble getting into the narrative. Samson was a really nice guy - which is great - but it felt too careful, and he was always saying the right thing which isn't that realistic. I liked Rhi, and I understood why she was apprehensive about getting too close to people, but her flip-flopping and treatment of Samson got to be a little too much. I do appreciate the conversations this book has on feminism, harassment, and intimacy in the digital age, but the characters and the romance element of the novel was just okay.

I did not realize that this was Gabe's sister from the Forbidden Hearts series till like the end of the book! I don't know how I could be so dense. This is not the Forbidden Hearts series though. Yes there is drama. Yes there is awesome chemistry. But this new series has a little more laughter. It still has a heart felt story that feels modern and wonderful. I loved the inclusion of the #metoo movement towards the end of the book that I wasn't expecting. Rhi is a modern and complex heroine that feels real and Samson is just the best cuddly teddy bear.

You will not be disappointed in Alisha Rai's newest book!

Another charming and beautifully nuanced contemporary romance from the author of the Forbidden Hearts series, The Right Swipe is about the one time you should consider forgiving a guy who ghosts on you. This one is a little high on the angst scale for me, but has a pitch-perfect HEA and one of my absolute favorite Rai heroes.

3.5 stars!

A great start to a new series!

I thoroughly enjoyed the world and writing in this book. This was my first book by Alisha Rai but it will definitely not be my last. I love how this book tackled quite a few important topics like sexual harassment, consent, domestic verbal abuse and so much more. It also had a very diverse cast which I greatly appreciate.

The romance was also very swoony. We have a soft hero with a hard heroine; he is patient and sweet and thoughtful and she is confident and sure of herself (except when it comes to her feelings of course). Both are perfect for each other though their love doesn't come easy. It was interesting to see the author turn the whole hard and soft thing on it's head and have the heroine be the alpha and him the beta. Well accept when it came to sex, because then things were on a more even playing field. If there's one thing I didn't like about the romance, it was that I didn't like how it felt that Samson had to pay for the drama and past mistakes of other men in Rhiannon's life. Which leads me to my next part:

My biggest problem with this book, unfortunately was the heroine. She has trust issues a mile long, she's stubborn as hell and lets pride get the best of her in almost every capacity of her life. The one thing I really liked about her, even as I found myself becoming insanely irritated with her is that she is 100% herself, always.. I feel like the author wanted her to be this extreme sort of alpha-female who makes no apologies for who she is and while I understand what she was trying to do with this character(and one could argue that it's important to have female characters like her), it made it really hard for me to like her at times. She's bitter and hard basically the entire book and even by the end, she doesn't really go through much character growth. I'm not saying I wanted her to just be free of her trust issues and be a soft and sweet bunny rabbit, because that wouldn't have been realistic at all. But I was a bit disappointed with how little growth she really had overall. Which I guess makes sense when you take in the face that Rhiannon is unapologetically herself. Why would she see wrong in her actions when she thinks she can do no wrong, that she doesn't need anyone ever and if they want to go she could care less, etc etc?

Despite my warring feelings about the heroine, I really did enjoy this book. I hope we can get a book for some of the secondary characters like Lakshmi and Katrina because they were awesome and so interesting. Pick this up if you are in the mood for swoony romance with a great cast of characters!

Pros:
- black woman boss lady slaying the tech game but still got to have feels
- positive women relationship models
- Samoan rep!!! Where has this been
- the conversations about CTE and brain / mental health were a surprise especially coming from the jock-world of things .. really liked the way this was woven in and added other layers of disability rep into the book.
- if you like steamy, this one is descriptive. I wasn’t in the mood for it but I can see it being a plus if you were
- quirky aunt characters. I always always love quirky aunts. May i be the quirkiest aunt everrrr.
- a refreshing / different enough plot for a romantic fiction type book

Cons
- some of the character development felt repetitive / stuck.. I think I could have really fallen for these characters if they got explored with a bit more depth .. this was a big one for me so it’ll be why this one didnt soar for me.
- believability. I know it’s a book but sometimes some of the moments seemed lacking believability to a degree which cooled me off a bit..

Overall: 3.5 for my enjoyment of it overall, strong 4 for what it brings to the table for this genre ! Enjoyable read I think people will really like this one when its out- I inhaled it.

Rhiannon is a strong woman who runs her own business, a mega-successful dating app called Crush. She's looking to making a big move by buying out the competition, a company called Matchmaker. But then she meets their their new spokesman: Samson, the guy who took her out for a great night a few months ago, told her he'd call...and then ghosted her. Rhi has to figure out a way to move past her anger (at herself for opening up to this man, and at him for disappearing on her) so she can sweet-talk him into putting in a good word with his boss. When it turns out that he actually had a pretty great reason for not ever reconnecting with her, she can feel herself start to care about him and that just can't happen. Rhiannon is strong, she's motivated, she's all about powerful women running successful businesses and there is just no way she's letting a man get in her way. Right?

I loved all the characters in this book. Rhi has a huge chip on her shoulder and seems kind of cold at the beginning, but then you find out more about her history and realize she has every reason to protect herself the way she does. Samson is more than just a handsome former football player (and let me say, I've read plenty of romances about former football players and they're great and I have nothing against them, but this guy takes it up a notch!). His father and uncle both played in the NFL, too, and were diagnosed with CTE (brain trauma experienced after repeated concussions). Samson walked away from the game because he felt his team was placing more importance on winning than on protecting the players, and he didn't want what happened to his family members to happen to him or his friends. Rhi's roommate and silent business partner is a former model who deals with anxiety and panic disorders and is now mostly homebound...but she's working on it. (I REALLY hope she gets her own book at some point! Hint, hint!) Rhi's assistant, Lakshmi, is a kick-ass lesbian who has awesome fashion sense and totally keeps Rhi's world turning. Samson's best friend, Dean, is a new daddy OBSESSED with his daughter to the point of grossing out his pals with TMI diaper stories. I mean, I could go on and on. Even the smaller characters here are well-developed and memorable. And the diversity! HOORAY. African-American, white, Samoan, Thai, men, women, straight, lesbian....a little bit of everything all mixed in together, just like the real world.

Also, this book deals with a lot of important issues. It's a romance novel, yes, but come on: CTE, panic disorder and agoraphobia, sexual harassment, ways women have to think about the way they dress, their office furniture, their drink orders, etc. all not to be seen as "weak" by men in the workplace? This is all really important stuff, very current and fresh, and it added great depth to an already fun story. I would probably have given this book 5 stars, which I almost never do for romances, but for the fact that it started a little slow and I had a hard time getting into it.

I've read some of Alisha Rai's other books and I was already a fan, but she takes it to a new level with this new series. I'm already trying to guess who the next books might be about, and I can't wait to read them.

**Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Collins and Avon for a romantic read!**

I'd heard good things about Alisha Rai, which spurred me to request this book on Netgalley-- and it did not disappoint one bit! Very good contemporary romance with great diversity and feminist representation. Steamy and swoony, with lots to say about the dating world these days, current technology, and workplace harassment. Very relevant in addition to being a fun, fast-paced read! I really liked it.

I found Alisha Rai when I listened to an interview that she gave on The Wicked Wallflowers Club Podcast and I have wanted to read her ever since! I am really excited to read the Forbidden Hearts series, but I want to wait until I have the final book before I go all in, so I choose The Right Swipe to be my first book and it was definitely the right choice. I fell in love with this book so hard — it was absolutely incredible!

The Right Swipe had everything going for it from the fierce, strong, ambitious heroine that we have in Rhi and the utterly sweet, compassionate, patient hero that is Samson to a wonderful storyline full of depth, heartache, beauty and empowerment. Going into this book, I briefly skimmed the synopsis, so I was really only expecting a light, fun book with a little bit of enemies-to-lovers type action and some mild heartache and while I wasn’t completely wrong, there is so much more to it than that.

The Right Swipe was fascinating, it made me cry, it made me melt, and it touched my heart. It’s inspiring, moving, and so relevant to the topics of today. I wholeheartedly loved The Right Swipe and I can’t wait to read more from this series and Alisha Rai in general!

~ A Hopeless Romantic’s Booklandia, 5 Stars

*Biiiiiig thanks to HarperCollins Publishers for this free copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

I’ve really been feeling romances lately, and this one did not disappoint! The story line was a little predictable, but still super cute. The ONLY reason I withheld the last star was because this was a little slow on the uptake...meaning it took a while to pull me in.

Rhiannon is our MC and she’s the CEO & cofounder of Crush, an app that sounds very similar to Bumble with its woman-centered matching process. Her direct market competitors are Swype, a Tinder-like hookup app, and Matchmaker, the eHarmony type brand. She’s been through some rough times and feels that she has to be tough or else things will come crashing down.

Queue Samson Lima, ex-NFL player, exceptionally patient man with a rather large chip on his broad Samoan shoulders. He believes in love, and he believes he could have it with Rihannon...but she’s not making it easy.

The Right Swipe is a cute story about second chances, stepping out of your comfort zone, and opening your heart so that love can find its way in.

The Right Swipe really took a long time to connect with me. If it wasn’t by Alisha Rai, who I love, I might not have gotten past the first third of the book. I had a difficult time connecting with Rhiannon, the extremely wealthy and successful but prickly and defensive tech queen with commitment issues. As the story goes on, the reasons for her issues, as well as for Samson’s issues, becomes more clear, and they become more relatable. Once I finally started caring about what happened, I tore through the rest of the book.

I appreciated a lot of things about this story–especially the elements of #metoo and NFL activism involved in the story and the diversity of the characters. Many of the issues addressed in the story were both incredibly relevant and yet written in a way that made them timelessly relatable. The diversity is wonderful too. This is not an #ownvoices novel, but it’s fantastic to see an author creating such an effortlessly diverse world. Rhiannon is African-American. Her friend Katrina is biracial Asian. Samson is Samoan-American (the first romance I’ve read featuring a Samoan-American hero). There are Muslim characters and plus size characters and LGBTQ characters and characters dealing with mental illness. I also appreciated how Rai melded NFL activism with the issue of CTE in retired football players. Not Colin Kapernick, but it made me think of him.

Most of the characters were pretty likable. Go figure that it was the white lady, Annabelle, who annoyed me the most. I struggled to really understand her and her motivations–she just seemed flighty and spacey and eccentric to the point of mental illness sometimes. I understand her connection to the story, but I did not like her, I didn’t know how she had succeeded as well as she had in life, and I didn’t see how any of the characters in the story liked her either. I also didn’t like Peter, but we aren’t supposed to like classic narcissist/ sociopath/ abuser Peter. He was thoroughly horrible, in the worst kind of believable way. I DID like Rhiannon’s dashing assistant Lakshmi (one name only), and hope we see more of her in the rest of the series. and I was excited to see Jia towards the end of the book, and look forward to what I presume will be her story in one of the next books. That would be a first for me as well, and I welcome it. I also hadn’t realized the connection between this book and the Kane/ Forbidden Hearts trilogy until Gabriel and his fiance and then Jia appeared. Once I realized it, it gave the story added depth.

Much of what I didn’t like about the story was just personal preference. I couldn’t care less about professional football, and am tired of reading about super wealthy and/or famous characters. I just don’t relate. I’m also not crazy about the second chances for a past random hookup trope. So these were my own personal issues, that shouldn’t reflect poorly on the story itself. Which is why I rated it 4 out of 5 stars, even though I didn’t love it. Also, because I love the cover, which is bright and modern and fun and highlights the diversity of these characters.

Despite not absolutely loving this book, I’m looking forward to reading the rest of this series. I trust Alisha Rai to write complex, diverse characters, and I’m excited to read more about Jia, who I presume will be the next romantic heroine in the series. If you enjoy diverse romances starring rich and famous characters with likable sidekicks and acknowledgement of real-life issues as well as true love and sexy times, I hope you’ll check this out.

Thanks, #Netgalley, for letting me read a free advance copy of #TheRightSwipe in exchange for my honest opinion.

What a fun read! I love everything I have read by Alisha Rai and I was so excited to read this one... Can't wait to recommend it to my library patrons!

This wasn't my favorite book that I've read by Alisha Rai but I enjoyed it. The plot was interesting, with Rhi being the creator of a more feminist dating app and Samson being the new spokesperson of a rival app. I liked the story and characters but I didn't love it. The relationship between Rhi and Samson fell flat for me and I struggled to connect with the character of Rhi. However, I did really enjoy the side characters and I hope that Katrina and Lakshmi get their own book! Overall an enjoyable read.

I was immediately sucked in to this story. I love diversity in romance, and this was one was great because it will challenge assumptions of white normative romance stories. The author was mindful of character development and great plot development. Rhi is headstrong, driven, and still human regarding her past. Samsom is a complicated guy with a history he is still dealing with. I love the fact that throughout the book, Rhi didn't succumb to expectations of her, nor did she give up what she believed in for the sake of love/lust. This is the kind of feminist romance that I've always longed for!

As a lover of romance, I'm almost ashamed to say that this was my first time reading Alisha Rai. I'd heard so many good things about her, and I wasn't disappointed. The Right Swipe has a very interesting premise and strong, likable characters. Samson is a former pro football player currently serving as the spokesman for an online matchmaking company. Rhiannon is the tough CEO of her own dating app, looking to buy another company to prove herself even more. The cover art makes the book seem like a light-hearted rom-com, but while it has some light moments and a good bit of humor, the Right Swipe hits some heavy topics like workplace sexual harassment and CTE in pro athletes, Both main characters have some serious issues from their past that they are working through but that still affect the way they handle their current relationships.
I have to say that I love Samson. Like really love him, He came off as just a genuinely good guy,one who was always there to help and support those around him and actually cared about the happiness of others. I loved the chemistry between Samson and Rhiannon, and how devoted Samson was to her, even after such a short time. But at some points I found myself getting frustrated with Rhiannon's insistence on punishing Samson, and by default punishing herself, for other men's behaviors. I was really happy that they were able to work it out in the end and it wasn't in some crazy far-fetched way.
Another thing I really liked about this book and a definite strong point in Rai's writing is her creation of interesting and endearing secondary characters. I know this book is the beginning of a series and I hoping to see some of those characters we met in the Right Swipe in future books. As always I gravitate to diverse and inclusive books and this one definitely fit the bill. Rai features characters of all races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and ages.She created a wonderful cast of characters and I look forward to reading more from her.

While The Right Swipe isn't Alisha Rai's absolute finest book, it's a smart, feminist opening to a really promising new series, and one that is sure to be enjoyed by her fans.

I really enjoyed this book. It's a strong contemporary rom-com. It's not realistic, I don't think, it employs a typical rom-com formula in an online dating setting while touching on a number of issues including race, ghosting, #metoo, concussions in football, and the software industry. I had fun reading it, but I didn't get particularly attached to the characters.

The relationship between Samson and Rhiannon felt kind of hollow, but perhaps that was just me. Rhiannon and Samson were good characters, but each of them was a little too much. For example, Samson is a former pro football player that has two relatives that were also pro football players, and is the nephew of the owner of the Matchmaker app, and is acting as their spokesperson. It was just a bit too much for one character for me. I'd love to give this book another chance because I think I enjoyed it less due to my mood.

I enjoyed this book, but didn't love it. Rai packed some heavy issues into this romance, like me too and football-related CTE, and it worked in the story, but it was definitely unexpected. The romance between the two main characters didn't grab me, which was disappointing. Despite my not loving this book I'll continue to look forward to Rai's works.

Thank you Netgalley for early access to an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This is my first Alisha Rai title so I was excited to dive in! I enjoyed this story and couldn’t put it down, so I decided to give it 4 stars! What kept it from 5 stars was honestly my personal ability to suspend disbelief (there were outlandish situations I just couldn’t believe, and as a contemporary romance that sorta bothered me). I also would have liked a little more buildup in their backstory, but overall I enjoyed this book and I’m excited to read more by this author!!!

I received this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

I love Alisha Rai’s books, so I was thrilled when I was granted early access to The Right Swipe. I already knew the character of Rhiannon Hunter from Hurts To Love You (She’s Gabe’s sister!) and I looked forward to finding out her story. Rhiannon is the creator of the app Crush, a feminist version of Tinder. Still reeling from a broken heart, she rarely dates and is particularly hesitant to get involved since the one person she almost let in disappeared.

The man in question, Samson Lima, is a retired pro-football player who controversially walked off the field in the middle of a game ten years ago. He’s reappeared in Rhiannon’s life as the spokesperson for her app’s rival, Matchmaker. He wants to team up for a series of “dates” that would bring attention to both their apps. Rhiannon wants to buy Matchmaker, so she agrees to his terms, though she resolves to be extra protective of her heart this time. Samson has a good reason for disappearing and wants a real relationship, but knows it will be difficult to convince Rhiannon he’s the right man for her.

Aside from the romance aspect of the book, Alisha Rai puts a human face to topical issues such relationship and workplace harassment and CTE. Both are currently hot topics and will resonate with anyone following the news.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read and it was nice to catch up with Gabe and other characters from the Forbidden Hearts series. Since this is the first book in a new series, I’m wondering which character will be the subject of book 2.