This book brought some flashbacks from the 80s as a wedding theme for the main character’s sister’s wedding theme.
Lots of spiciness for my own taste bit other readers will enjoy. It relates exactly to what the title, Anger Bang says.

Thank you Entangled and NetGalley for sending me a copy of eARC. All my opinions are totally my own

Three and an half stars from me.

This this was a book that I’ve seen mentioned for a while by an author that I routinely enjoy the timing was just not right for me to read it until recently. What was I waiting for?
Thea and Kade end up in the middle of nowhere for the PR stunt wedding of their siblings. This is an interesting case of things not always being what they seem and boy oh boy what happens next…

I won’t go into too much detail, but this is a classic read by Ms Flynn. She creates entertaining situations that are multi layered and gives her characters opportunities to figure things out. Thea and Kade are both realistic people with relatable issues and insecurities that color how they approach of events around them. I appreciated watching them grow as individuals while also creating an unexpected friendship with potential for more.

The secondary cast here is small, primarily the siblings, headed for wedded bliss and parental figures. the dynamics between Thea, Kade, and the secondary group colored both their reactions to things and helped guide them to resolutions. This is a fun read that had a surprisingly emotional undercurrent and has been excited for the next book in the series.

Interesting wild ride at the start of this series! Thea is a retired child actor turns paleontologist. She feels that she doesn’t fit in with her family as her sister has reveled in her acting career and made the jump from child actor to adult actor, with her mother’s full support. In an attempt to bring back her sister’s career, she is getting married and is televising the entire ordeal, and while Thea isn’t happy about being on camera again, she shows up to support her sister. Upon arrival, she meets Kade, the best man and brother of the groom. He seems just as thrilled to be there and involved as she does, and they forge a friendship of sorts towards getting as little airtime as possible, and developing a wedding romance between them. As the days go on, they find out bits and pieces about their siblings and what truly is going on between them, where Thea is supportive of the marriage while Kade continues to question his brother and why they are getting married. While the beginning of the book dragged on for me, the ending where we find everything out was the best for me, finding out why Thea’s sister chose the groom she did, and why the groom said yes, and I was rooting for Thea and Kade to make it beyond the wedding as well.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

Anger Bang by Avery Flynn is the First book in the Downside of Dating Series. This is the story of Kade and Thea. Thea and Kade are attending their siblings wedding when they meet. They decided to secretly have and affair for the time they are together there but of course nothing goes as planned.

Hot and sexy. Unpacking a lot of stuff in this one!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This author is notorious for telling it like it is and unashamedly allows her characters to experience life. YAY

The characters are varied and multi-layered. At some points, they are ridiculous and have bridezilla breakdowns. At other points, they are doing a throwback 80’s nightmare wedding for likes and views. They unpack a lot of stuff!

Some of the characters, such as our main characters, enjoy what they lovingly call anger bangs. Hot and heavy connections tend to backfire on them.

Flynn lets her imagination go with the story, and while it’s not heavy and deep, I found it to be a great diversion read. Sometimes we need that in our lives!

Anger Bang is a funny, wild story about a farce of a wedding, ditching your crazy siblings and family, and standing up for yourself. Was it a perfect story? No, but I think it is meant to be a light-hearted, steamy story about having fun and finding love when you stop looking, despite it all!!

Thea and Kade are stuck in a particularly stinky portion of Wyoming on an 80s theme reality TV show wedding week for her sister and his brother. The setup already offers lots of humor. Add in that neither of them wants to be there, her sister is bridezilla, and between surprises from their siblings and the production crew, Thea and Kade need a way to escape.
Her suggestion (see title) morphs into a weeklong experiment. Even as they try to set rules and avoid personal stuff, it doesn't work. They both keep seeking the other out, coming to each other's rescue from the cameras and family members.
I really enjoyed this book because it truly developed the story, the characters' histories, and the reasons they fell for each other. Looking forward to book two!

Listen, I love that we had total "let's bang out of convince but then end up falling head-over-heels for one another". The banter was perfection, and the fact that we had paleontology as an occupation in a romance had me freaking out because that is one job that is underrepresented, and it worked out PERFECTLY!

Unfortunately this was a dnf for me. Both the MMCs were just so unlikeable and the setup for the FMC to want to get back at her sister was just so weird. Like the FMC herself admits that they aren't close and I don't get the sense that she even likes her sister. So why would you have the overwhelming urge to get back at your sister is this way after learning she didn't want you as a bridesmaid? Did she even want to be bridesmaid? Would she ask her sister to be bridesmaid? I think not. So, it just felt like a childish temper tantrum to want to sleep with someone the sister hates. Similarly, the MMC hates the FMC's sister for kind of no real reason. Both her and the MMCs brother are tv personality's, you can't be that mad about them televising their wedding. And to bitch about being asked to take of your baseball cap for a formal wedding... You're the asshole here, my guy.

4.5 ⭐️ || I received this arc from Valentine PR in exchange for an honest review.

Okay. I was so excited when I read the premise of this book, because I mean, who wouldn’t be excited about a book where the main character is a paleontologist!? To be honest, that’s so unique & I loved it! Did I understand all of the Dino talk? Haha no, but I loved how “nerdy” is made Thea.

Thea is on the brink of a promotion when she has to travel to Wyoming for her sisters reality TV wedding to actor Dex. Now this isn’t just any old reality TV Wedding. It’s a week long event with horrific 80s outfits, and a bridezilla for a sister, and did I mention Thea used to be a child actor and hates the lime-light?. Yea, probably not my cup of tea either.

Anyways, Thea meets Kade and takes a swig of his flask, which actually has sprite, which intrigues her. She later finds that her sisters despises Kade & when Thea hears something her sister says that pisses her off, she makes it her goal to make her sister more pissed by “anger banging” Kade who just so happens to be the brother of groom, Dex.

ANYWAYS lol. I’m not going to give away much. But this is my second Avery Flynn book and I can’t wait for Astrid’s story next. Flynn’s writing style is hilarious. It does take some time to get used to. This book is also written in third person, which I felt was confusing at the beginning but I got used to it.

“Okay, maybe having multiple orgasms in a single night of revenge sex was pushing it, but at least one good, toe-curling, forget-your-own-name climax that would have her seeing T. rexes in confetti-covered party dresses was definitely what she needed. Was that really too much compensation for this wedding-week hell?”

Thea Pope is a paleontologist pushover. Before she embarks on a weeklong trip to Wyoming for her sister’s wedding, which happens to be filmed for reality TV, her therapist challenges her to try other responses to stress besides just fawning and doing what others want of her.

Enter the brother of the groom, Kade St. James. A sexy Sprite drinker and true crime writer, he also happens to get on the bride’s nerves. After a blow-up with her sister, Thea is ready to respond to the stress. Between fight, flight, freeze, and fawn, Thea chooses another f-word with the brother of the groom.

Between the 80s-themed sponsored reality show horrors, Thea and Kade slowly start to get to know each other beyond the anger banging. It’s a lust at first sight to swapping fun facts to saying I love you in a week. Are parts of this predictable? Yes, particularly the revelations with Kade’s mom and Thea’s sister. Does that detract from anything? No. It’s campy and ridiculous but sheer fun to read. I particularly enjoyed how Thea is midsized, wears glasses, awkward as hell, and isn’t classically beautiful, but Kade worships her thoroughly.

Avery Flynn is a master at her craft, and I loved the fight/flight/freeze/fawn motif throughout. This is an ode to therapy, to dinosaurs, and to the way lust can turn into a pure sort of love.

Thank you to Valentine PR for entrusting me with an ARC!!

I devoured this book. It was fun, flirty, and very steamy. The characters were absolute delights, the reality-TV wedding drama was entertaining, and I give it all the stars. It was just what I needed.

Thea is incredibly shy and is just hoping to make it through her influencer sister's '80s-themed reality TV show wedding so she can get back to her paleontology work. Her sister has turned into an absolute bridezilla though and won't let Thea just fade into the background.

Things turn nasty between the sisters, so to get her revenge Thea picks a guy her sister can't stand and decides to use him for a good old-fashioned anger bang. It turns out that Kade St. James is good for more than just hot s.e.x and the two start spending more and more time together. Could they be in danger of catching real feelings?!

Worth more stars
So much fun, and so hot!
Thea and Kade are the siblings of the bride and groom at the reality tv, destination wedding of the decade. And it’s set in the 80’s - you guessed it, if you cringe thinking of things from that decade it’s in this book.
It’s got hilarious situations, steamy scenes, awkward moments, trauma to overcome, characters you’ll bond with and a perfect HEA.
Absolutely awesome fun.

I received an ARC from Valentine PR and this is my honest review.

I will always, ALWAYS, love a plus sized heroine and a gruff manly man. Despite the interesting title, and the adorable dinosaur cover, this was an amazingly hotttttt rom com. Avery Flynn will always be a favorite of mine in the Rom Com genre!

I am a sucker for reality shows in books. It was interesting to see it from the view of people who kind of got thrown into the reality show by relatives and were not really thrilled with the predicament.

This book wasn't what I thought I was going to read. It was SO. MUCH. BETTER!

I was positively surprised by the perfect banter, the humour, the perfectly drawned characters... I laughed so much, I cried, I snorted so often, I grew attached to Thea and Kade (and, yes, to Jackie too). I loved the self-improvement dimension of the story, how Thea decide to take her fate in her hands, to go waaaay outside of her comfort zone, and it pays off great! And the spice. I didn't know there was spice in that book and I don't ever want to go back now.

If you like your books with spice, lot of self-derision (80's themed wedding anyone?), great humor, but with a touch of personal growth on the side.... This one is PERFECT for you.

Avery Flynn is a new-to-me author. I'm now curious to see if her other books are as great as this one.

Please note that I received a complimentary e-copy of the book through NetGalley as part as a TLC book tour. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I loved this book. it was instant love between Thea Pope, the shy paleontologist, and Kade St. James, the true crime author. They both met at their sibling’s reality tv show wedding. Sounds horrible? Yeah, it was. I have never read a book with an instant love trope so it was a great start as I liked it.

The story was in the third pov which was super weird for me as I don’t like that way of writing. But it was okay to give it a try.

The entire book takes place around a week but the physical chemistry between the two was immediate. They got to know each other more and more through the wedding things.
I love how the author mentioned alcoholism and its effect on children and families. There was too much miscommunication in both families. But I am glad all the misunderstandings were clear at the end of the wedding.

I loved that the characters worked through these struggles and you saw character development - not only within themselves but also in how they acted towards each other. I love how therapy helped Thea in taking a stand for herself.

I love that we got to read about family trauma, sibling bonds, mother-child-stained relationships, emotional struggles, and the excessive need for therapy.

Overall, it was a good book. I cannot wait to read the next book in the series.

I had to DNF this book. I didn't enjoy it in the slightest. I couldn't connect with either main character.

A little late writing the review, life got in the way. This story had all the emotions, love, lust, angry, and sadness. It was a good book to read and the spicy scenes were abundant and well done, so if you’re having a hard time reading this book then the lust between the two will keep you going.

An 80's themed monstrosity of a public wedding a sister and family that treat you like a doormat and a hot get back at the bride groomsman to hook up with. Who knew that this would be Theo Pope's upcoming vacation. This scientist is about to make a discovery of the best kind and we are not talking about her dinosaur dig. When her bridezilla of a sister is getting married in the most public way a reality star could she does what she sees fit. Enter Kade St. James and all his rough and tumble good looks. A mystery suspense author that also happens to be the groom's brother and her bride to be sisters thorn in her side. Strap in and get ready for quite a ride with Kade and Theodore. This couple had wonderful chemistry, were written with real feelings and doubts and were so much fun to fall into the pages with!
~~Michele McMullen

Timid paleontologist Thea Pope has been dragged to Wyoming to participate in her high maintenance sister 80’s themed reality tv wedding. When her sister admits she never wanted Thea to attend the hurt is instant.Thea does the one thing she knows will get under her sister’s skin..to bang the best man and grooms brother, Kade St James. No strings attached for a week, what’s the worst that could happen?

3.5 stars for this story. This was my first novel by this author and I was pleasantly surprised! I enjoyed the banter, connection & spice between the MC’s. The plot focus on certain topics that you don’t see as much in romance novels.This was a quick read(less than 300 pages) and I didn’t want it to end! I did dock points as I think some groveling at the end should’ve been longer & I wanted to know where Kade stood with his mom. Also still felt Thea’s family was so awful and didn’t justify how they treated her. I’m excited to know this is start of a series ! I can’t wait to read the next story!

Did I hate almost every side character in this story? Or at least when it came to the FMCs family? Yes, absolutely.

A funny romcom featuring Thea who must return home to be maid of honor in her sister's quirky 80's themed reality show style wedding. The drama is high and constantly testing her boundaries being the more shy, introverted sister.

As someone that also has issues standing up for themselves and getting walked over, especially by those closest to us, I completely understand. There is a positive spin where she does know this and is in therapy, and I love positive mental health representation. However, there are some excuses given to side characters, especially the sister, on why they are so cruel and callus to the FMC, and I was side-eyeing them the whole time. They were terrible and I just wanted to whisk her away.

Kade brought me joy and gave us laughable moments as he and Thea begin to connect. The banter is wonderfully done and had me smiling, which was a nice reprieve from Thea's terrible family. Thea grows through this short time and pushes out of her comfort-zone and her growth was what I loved best.

Thank you so much to Entangled for the ARC!