REVIEW: The Neighbor Wager (book) by Crystal Kaswell

The Neighbor Wager is a contemporary romance. I bought my copy new.

Review:

When they were kids, River lived next door to Lexi, the beautiful girl of his dreams, and her sister Deanna. He never really felt like he fit in. Lexi and Deanna basically lived in a mansion, and the only reason River's grandmother could afford to live in the same area was because she'd bought her house ages ago. Meanwhile, his mother was an addict who'd basically left him with his grandmother. Still, that didn't stop him from fantasizing that, one day, Lexi would realize that the two of them were meant to be.

Years later, Deanna and Lexi are in business together, trying to find investors for their dating app, Meetcute. Lexi is in her longest lasting relationship ever, 6 months with a guy she met through the app. Although she's happy, she isn't ready for a commitment, so she's horrified when one of their potential investors wants to make her, her boyfriend, and their future wedding (he hasn't proposed, and she doesn't want him to) the face of the app and the things it can accomplish for users. 

Still, Deanna figures they can work with it somehow. Until River turns up again, and Lexi, who'd previously never paid much attention to him, is suddenly intrigued by his attractive looks and tattoos. Knowing that the future of Meetcute depends upon it, Deanna becomes determined to keep Lexi and River from spending much time with each other. As sparks start to fly between Deanna and River, everyone finds themselves having to figure out how they really feel.

There's also a drunken bet, Lexi taking a brief "break" from her boyfriend, River worrying over his grandmother's health issues, and everyone talking about romance and sex at some point or another, but you get the idea.

I had a really hard time trying to make myself care about these characters and their relationships. River, both when he was a teen and an adult, had a habit of getting fuzzy-brained around Lexi and mentally comparing her to the sun. Supposedly he was interested in more than just her looks, but it didn't really sound like he'd ever spent much time with Lexi, so I couldn't see how that could be true. Meanwhile, Lexi was comfortable with casual sex but terrified of more emotionally involved relationships, and Deanna insisted that she didn't believe in love. Everybody spent a lot of time talking about romance, but their visions of romance seemed to be inextricably tied to sex. Which they also thought about a lot.

When Lexi declared that she and her boyfriend were on a "break," I cringed and braced myself for Lexi and Deanna to fight over River. Thankfully, weirdly, that never really happened - River snapped out of his obsession with Lexi a lot more quickly than I expected, and Lexi put so little effort into chasing River that I thought for sure she was actually trying to set him and Deanna up (she wasn't).

All in all, this really wasn't for me. A book about Lexi and Deanna's sisterly relationship probably would have been more interesting than this romance between Deanna and River.