A chance meeting at a romance convention. Already off to a good start. Cathryn Fox really caught my attention with Betting on the Wrong Brother. I am used to her brand of sexy romance that consists of high volumes of sensuality that bring the body to a boil and touched the emotions. Ryan and Andi's story had some of those qualities but it also tickled the funny bone as well. A traumatic event in her past has made Andi cautious and introverted. Ryan has struggled with self esteem issues as well. The one thing I loved about the What Happens in Vegas series is that it puts romance writers in awkward situations and humanized them. I don't want to give away to much but will say there are a lot of surprises. I received an ARC of Betting on the Wrong Brother in exchange for an honest review. Catherine Fox got it right.

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This one didn't work for me. I picked it up at a time when I'd had my fill of insecure heroines... and this story has an insecure heroine with a vindictive streak. Andi Palmer, romance author, wants to get back at a boy from high school so she comes up with a revenge plot to make him sorry. Only she has the wrong guy as she has mistaken Ryan Grayson for his brother, Nolan Wheeler. Tons of miscommunication and misunderstanding ensue, along with several rounds of sex for the wrong reasons. I just found myself not caring. I didnt like Andi or her antics. I liked Ryan, but his beta personality made his playing alpha in the bedroom suspect. I ended up skimming alot just to see how the big reveal played out. And I still couldnt bring myself to care.

This one has some decent reviews, so maybe I'm just being moody. It happens. I received an advanced copy of this book from Entangled via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 2 stars / 3 flames. ( )

Full Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from Netgalley as part of the Tasty Book Tours blog tour, in exchange for an honest review.

My Thoughts: I really have been on a contemporary romance kick, but it’s getting easier to figure out what I might actually enjoy by the synopsis alone. It can be hard to judge a book on just that basis, which is why reading reviews help. However, with contemporary romance it’s much harder because everyone has a very different threshold for what they think is corny or over the top.

At first, I was a little skeptical of the story because I just imagined it going a different way, based on the synopsis. I didn’t see how that would work, at all. How the author wove things together was interesting and definitely kept me reading to see how on earth this would work. Ultimately it’s one of those things that can be solved with a very simple solution, but the book would be about 2-3 pages if that happened.

Ryan and Andi definitely had chemistry right from the start. They were also full of funny little moments that are sometimes left out of contemporary romances because they aren’t steamy enough or whatever. I personally love those moments because they make it feel like more of a relationship and a little less contrived. Having said that, the book does take place over 1 week, so it had a little bit of an insta-love feeling.

I really liked Ryan. He’s a horror writer (I love reading horror) and goes out to haunted place as research for his books. That’s awesome. That addition brought the book up in my opinion. It added an extra little quirk that made Betting on the Wrong Brother more interesting. There was one part that I have to mention. Ryan was supposed to be doing a sexy dance and everyone thought it was sexy, but for some reason this is what I imagined (and laughed at) was more in line with Hugh Grant's dancing in Music & Lyrics or Love Actually.

Andi was kind of meh for me. I suppose I liked her because I did want her to end up with Ryan, but I thought she was kind of boring. She never really jumped off the page for me, which was disappointing because I actually have quite a few things in common with her. I did love that she was afraid of ghosts because that was hilarious paired with Ryan’s “haunting” research.

In the end, I really did enjoy reading Betting on the Wrong Brother. It did have me rolling my eyes a few times, but mostly it kept me hooked and reading until the end. If you’re looking for a smile-worthy, adult contemporary romance, I would recommend Betting on the Wrong Brother.

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This is a fun, quick and enjoyable story. It is well written with characters that are well portrayed and easy to connect with. There are many funny moments and steamy encounters. This was my first time reading a story by Ms. Fox. I was pleasantly surprised by her work.

ARC received from Entangled Publishing in exchange for an honest review. ( )