BOOK REVIEW : The Right Swipe

Title : The Right Swipe (Modern Love #1)
Author : Alisha Rai
Release date : August 6th 2019

Date Read : June 30th 2019
Rating : ★★★★★

"Being vulnerable is a risk. Love—romantic, platonic, familial, it doesn’t matter what kind of love—is a risk.” She closed her eyes tight, tears leaking out. “Because you’re right. They can leave. They can die or be hurt or simply walk away.” Her eyes opened. “But a moment of that love, child, is worth it. If you have a second, a minute, a month, a year, a decade with that person? You count yourself luckily. You can use that love and the lessons it taught you to plant more seeds for love. You can live off that love for a lifetime. Are we clear?"

There are certain books, for whatever reason, you just know you’re going to enjoy before you start them; be it for the author, the synopsis, the trope.. you just know it.

The Right Swipe was that book for me.

I read Alisha Rai’s Hate To Love You last year and I absolutely loved it. So when I found out about this one, knowing I enjoyed her writing and loved the synopsis : I was sold.

Before I dive further into my spoiler free thoughts on this book, let’s see :

What is this book about?

Rhiannon Hunter is the creator of a dating app called “Crush”; it is a feminist take on the Swiping app created by her ex-employer and ex-boyfriend. Rhi is pretty cynical and she has no time for love. In fact, she has rules, and one of them is that ghosting, no matter the circumstances, is unforgivable. Except, it’s easier said than done when her attraction to the ex-football player Samson Lima is not something she can’t control. It’s even worse when she finds out the reason why he ghosted her after their one night of passion when he made her promise to meet him again and then… disappeared. The problem is, he’s the face of her rival company and the sort-of nephew of the owner; a company she wants to buy out. So staying away from Samson is not a option. Instead, they both decide to help each other out to achieve their respective goals.

I wasn’t that far into the book before I knew this was definitely going to be a five stars one. Alisha’s characters just draw you in.

First of all, the characters.

Rhiannon is an independant woman of color who took a bad situation, and with the help of her friend, made the best of it. She started her own empire and made it the best one in the industry. She's strong, fierce but has a hard time being vulnerable. I loved her, she felt very real. Her emotions were justified, and as much as her past made her kind of cynical, she didn't let it dictate her future. She persevered and it paid off.

Samson, on the other hand, is one of the kindest, nicest characters. He has such a big heart, and takes care of everyone around him. He has a heart of gold, and he doesn't need to be an Alpha to be interesting.

I also loved Katrina and Lakshmi as well as their relationship with Rhiannon. Their friendship with her made me smile so big. I'm a sucker for good friendships in books where you can just FEEL how much the characters care for each other.

And last but not least, another charater I absolutely adored : Rhiannon's mother. She is such a pleasure to read about, and so much fun but also so supportive. I adored her from her very first appearance.

“Good luck with the interview! Lakshmi sent me the link. I’ll be listening.
No pressure. Rhiannon typed her response. Going on soon, thanks. ILU.
Text bubbles. And then: I know how much time you spend on your phone, you can type out I love you. I love you, too.”

The chemistry between Rhi and Samson was just perfect. The romance? No words. The slow burn, the steamy scenes, the banter.. all of it. Samson was so respectful of Rhi’s boundaries, it was just adorable. He is so sweet without making it dull, in fact, it was quite the opposite, as this didn’t at all take from their steaminess but made it… sexier. More real. More lovable. More…. Absolutely perfect.

Another thing I absolutely loved about this book was THE REPRESENTATION. There was so much of it. SO. MUCH. It was refreshing. Most of the characters in this book were people of color, and when I say most, I mean the entirety of the main cast. Rhiannon is a black woman, Samson is Samoan, Rhiannon’s best friend and silent business partner, Katrina is a thai-american plus-sized ex-model, her assistant, Lakshmi, is Indian… Seeing such a diverse cast was like a breath of fresh air.

And the representation does not stop here, because this book deals also with sexual harassment and sexual assault, with anxiety, mental health and more. The way Rai took every topic and gave it its importance without glossing over it for representation points is something we don’t often see in romance books.

“When you’re a minority, in any industry, you feel so visible, and like the only way to get ahead is to be tougher than everyone else. You don’t cry. You don’t show weakness. You can’t be a victim.” Even now, she flinched away from the word. Victim. It was wild how, at the end of the day, even language was an elaborate ruse to keep hurt people compliant. “Victim” implied weakness; if she claimed to be hurt, she was a victim; ergo, if she was a victim, she was weak.
Bullshit.
She hadn’t done anything wrong, she’d merely taken a chance on loving someone. She hadn’t harmed; she’d had harm done to her. That didn’t make her weak. Peter’s behavior reflected only upon himself.”

Furthermore, the side-characters felt just as important as the main, their plots were just as important. For example, Katrina’s anxiety was not something that was just mentioned for the sake of it, but explained without getting into too much detail as I’m sure this will be one of the main topics in her book, which, I just can’t wait to read.

I think my only issue with this book, as was my issue with Hate To Love You as well, is that Rai tends to always finish her books just when her couple gets officially together. But this wasn’t as much of an issue to warrant a star or even half a star drop. Because this book deserves every last star of the five I’ve given it.