The Bridal Bet, by Trish Wylie

TITLE: The Bridal Bet
AUTHOR: Trish Wylie

COPYRIGHT: 2003
PAGES: 176
PUBLISHER: Mills & Boon Tender

SETTING: Contemporary Ireland
TYPE: Category romance
SERIES: None

REASON FOR READING: Can't remember why I bought it, I picked it up at random from my TBR pile in Uruguay

The biggest gamble of his life!

Ryan Callaghan and Molly O’Brien have been best friends for ever. But a childhood game turns serious when Ryan dares Molly to pretend they’re dating and she accepts!

Ryan’s quick to point out that pretend couples have to do a lot of very real kissing. And, as old friends become brand-new lovers, Molly realizes that the stakes for this bet are far higher than she had first thought.

Boring, boring, boring. It's strange, because I love friends-to-lovers plots, and I was really looking forward to the Irish setting, but I could barely bring myself to finish this. I didn't engage with it at all. At no point was I at all absorbed in the story.

I found the plot ridiculous and contrived. Ryan and Molly have been best friends since childhood. Molly moved in the US for some years, after breaking up with her long-time partner (also a good friend of them both), but she's recently moved back to her tiny hometown in Ireland. She and Ryan are living together, and as the book starts, they decide to pretend to be involved because... well, I never understood the point of it. It involved making Molly seem more interesting, and thus getting this guy to notice her. Sounds like a pretty idiotic way of achieving it, really. If what it takes to get him interested is Molly being in a relationship, then he's a right bastard, IMO.

Anyway, while pretend-kissing, Molly and Ryan realise that they quite like it and find it hard to keep it pretend. But oh, no, they absolutely can't get involved, because.... well, I didn't really understand that, either. I suppose because otherwise the book would end on page 20.

At one point Molly's ex shows up and it looked like the story would get a bit more interesting, but no such luck. Things soon fizzled, ending up with a pretty lame Big Misunderstanding.

There was nothing truly offensive here, but it was all so mediocre and boring that I can't recommend this book.

MY GRADE: A C.