Key Details
- Narration: Lucy Rivers keeps the comic pacing brisk and doesn't oversell the punchlines, though carrying both a swaggering hero and a sharp-tongued heroine solo is a genuine juggling act.
- Themes: Reformed playboy, forced proximity, sibling loyalty and betrayal
- Mood: Fast, flirty, and unapologetically silly
- Verdict: A funny, briskly paced series opener that earns the laughs its reviews promise, if broad comedy over subtlety is what you're after.
Lucas Thorn has a rule for every night of the week but one, and that rule is simple: no commitments, no exceptions. So what happens when the one woman guaranteed to see through him, his ex's furious younger sister, gets stuck working beside him? Cheater, the audiobook opener to Rachel Van Dyken's Curious Liaisons series, spends a little over seven and a half hours answering exactly that question, and narrator Lucy Rivers gets to referee two people who clearly enjoy fighting more than they'd ever admit out loud.
The Verdict, Briefly
Avery Black has never forgiven Lucas for cheating on her sister, and when the two of them are thrown together professionally, her plan is simple: make his life as difficult as possible. Van Dyken plays this for maximum comic mileage rather than slow-burn tension, and the reviews back that up. One listener admitted the dialogue “had me in hysterics” reading the book, describing “tears of laughter and even had a ‘spat my tea’ incident” and adding plainly, “I have to admit I haven't laughed as much in ages.” That's the register this audiobook is built for from its very first scene.
Lucy Rivers has to carry both halves of that banter solo, which is a real test in a book this dialogue-heavy. A reformed manwhore and a vengeance-minded heroine need distinct enough voices that the reader never loses track of who's landing the last word, and by most accounts here, she manages it without leaning on exaggerated caricature to tell them apart.
That rule reveals itself as a code with exactly one exception, Sunday, which he treats as sacred while every other night stays fair game. It's the kind of rigid personal rulebook romance readers know is built specifically to be broken, and Van Dyken telegraphs that early without making the eventual unraveling feel cheap or rushed.
Why Cheater Works as an Audiobook
What keeps Cheater from feeling like generic enemies-to-lovers fluff is the family wound underneath it. Avery isn't annoyed with Lucas over some minor slight, she's avenging her own sister, which gives the antagonism real weight even while the tone stays light. One reviewer needed only her star-rating title to make the point: “4 ‘I nearly died from laughter’ stars”. The premise sounds harsher on paper than the execution actually plays, and that gap between expectation and delivery is really the throughline connecting most of the positive reader reaction.
The workplace-proximity setup also does real work here, forcing two people who'd otherwise avoid each other into daily contact, which is where most of the comedy and most of the chemistry both live. Van Dyken clearly knows this genre's rhythms, and as the first entry in Curious Liaisons, Cheater is doing double duty: telling a complete story while setting up whatever comes next in the series.
Another reviewer's title alone tells you how she felt going in: “Don't let the title fool you... this is a must read!” In the review itself she admits the title nearly talked her out of a one-click purchase, but adds, “I'll read anything that Rachel Van Dyken releases,” trusting the author's track record over her own first impression. That kind of loyalty from readers says something about how consistently Van Dyken delivers within this genre.
What starts as Avery's vengeance scheme doesn't stay that way for long, and Van Dyken plays the shift from payback to real feeling with more care than the premise necessarily promises. Lucas has spent so long treating attraction as a game with fixed rules that he's genuinely unprepared for a woman who's supposed to hate him getting under his skin instead. Watching his own playbook, built to seduce and never commit, start working against his intentions rather than hers is where the book's comedy and its actual romance meet, rather than staying two separate ingredients stirred together.
Points to Consider
This particular audio edition currently carries only a handful of ratings, which is worth flagging honestly, though a small sample on a series opener usually reflects how recently it was recorded rather than any real reception problem. More relevant to your enjoyment: Lucas's redemption arc leans on charm and persistence rather than a long, hard-earned reckoning with what he did. If you want your reformed-playboy heroes to suffer longer before they're forgiven, this one moves through that reckoning briskly.
The humor here runs broad and unapologetic, closer to slapstick than to wit that rewards a second listen. That's clearly the intent, given how many reviewers mention laughing out loud or nearly choking on their tea, but it does mean subtlety isn't really on the menu. If you're after a quieter, more literary romantic comedy, the volume here is turned up considerably higher than that.
None of this reinvents the enemies-to-lovers or forced-proximity playbook, and it isn't trying to. Avery's introduction as a “smart-mouthed, strawberry blonde vixen” is a familiar archetype, and Lucas's rakish charm follows a well-worn arc for reformed-playboy heroes. The pleasure here is in the execution and the banter, not in genre innovation, so adjust expectations accordingly if you're hoping for something that subverts the formula.
The Right Listener for Cheater
Rachel Van Dyken's existing readers will know exactly what they're signing up for, and newcomers who enjoy a fast, filthy-minded romantic comedy with a sharp-tongued heroine will likely find themselves grinning through most of it. It also works well for anyone who wants a single-sitting-friendly listen rather than a sprawling, multi-book commitment right out of the gate.
Because this is book one of Curious Liaisons, how much you enjoy Cheater on its own terms will shape whether the series is worth continuing. The chemistry between Lucas and Avery has to convince you by the closing chapters, since that's really the audition for the rest of the series, not just a self-contained romance you can walk away from satisfied either way.
Because the book sits across both the comedy and general fiction shelves, it's also worth a look for readers who don't usually reach for straight romance but enjoy a funny, character-driven story with real dialogue chops. The banter is genuinely the selling point here, more than the plot mechanics of the central conflict.
Curious Liaisons as a series name hints at more mismatched pairs to come after Lucas and Avery, worth knowing if you like confirmation there's a bigger world before committing to book one. Beyond plot, this is also a genuine argument for the audio format specifically: banter this rapid-fire benefits from a narrator's comedic timing and pause placement in a way that's harder to feel just reading the page, and that timing is really where Rivers's performance adds the most value over a silent read.
Questions Listeners Ask
Does Lucy Rivers voice both Lucas and Avery in this audiobook, or is there a full cast?
It's single-narrator performance. Lucy Rivers voices both the swaggering hero and the sharp-tongued heroine, distinguishing them through pacing and tone rather than a second performer.
Is Cheater a standalone audiobook, or do I need the rest of the Curious Liaisons series first?
Cheater is book one, so it works as a starting point. It closes its own romance while setting up the series that follows.
How long is the Cheater audiobook, and is it a quick listen?
It runs a little over seven and a half hours, and the fast comic pacing makes it feel briskly paced even at that length.
