Quick Take
- Narration: Lucy Rivers handles Rachel Van Dyken’s rapid-fire dialogue and comedic timing with good instincts, keeping the banter from feeling repetitive over 7-plus hours.
- Themes: Reputation versus character, revenge as cover for attraction, the gap between what people claim to want and what they actually need
- Mood: Light and comedic with a warmer core than the premise suggests
- Verdict: Listeners who enjoy witty enemies-to-lovers romance with more substance than the setup implies will find Cheater a genuinely fun listen, particularly if they go in with modest expectations about the serious content.
I picked up Cheater mostly because the title is aggressive enough to be either a warning or a promise, and with Rachel Van Dyken it turned out to be neither. What the book is actually about is a man whose reputation was cemented by a single terrible night before his wedding years ago, and a woman who has spent since then building a righteous grievance against him because that night involved her sister. The enemies-to-lovers architecture is transparent from the first chapter, but the question with Van Dyken’s work has never been where it is going, it is whether the journey there is enjoyable enough to sustain the trip.
Lucas Thorn has organized his post-disaster life around rules designed to protect everyone, including himself, from the consequences of feeling too much. He has a different companion for six nights a week, Sundays exempted. He does not do relationships. He does not do exceptions. And then Avery Black, younger sister of the woman he wronged, is assigned to work with him, and she does not intend to make any of it easy.
Our Take on Cheater
Van Dyken’s strength is dialogue, and Cheater is the best possible showcase for it. The banter between Lucas and Avery crackles with the specificity that distinguishes good comedic romance from its generic counterpart, these two are not simply trading pleasantries with tension underneath them but actively trying to outmaneuver each other in conversations that have subtext and stakes. One reviewer mentioned a line that generated a genuine tea-spitting incident, which is hyperbolic but not inaccurate about the book’s humor level in its strongest moments. Van Dyken is genuinely funny in a way that most romance writers who aim for comedy are not.
The book is the first in the Curious Liaisons series, and it establishes the formula the series operates on: a protagonist whose charming-jerk exterior conceals real damage, a love interest sharp enough to see through the performance, and a central misunderstanding or obstacle that the third act has to resolve. The formula is visible, which one reviewer noted as a mild criticism, the serious emotional confrontations between Avery and Lucas that the situation seems to demand do not fully materialize, and the resolution arrives through banter rather than reckoning. Whether that is a problem depends entirely on what you are reading the book for.
Why Listen to Cheater
Lucy Rivers captures Van Dyken’s comedic rhythm without over-emphasizing the jokes, which is the right approach. Audiobook narrators who telegraph humor by adjusting their tone around punchlines tend to deflate the effect; Rivers delivers the lines cleanly and trusts them to land. The 7-hour-and-38-minute runtime is appropriate for the book’s weight, light enough to move through in two or three listening sessions without requiring extensive commitment or sustained emotional attention.
What to Watch For in Cheater
Listeners hoping the book will interrogate its central premise with more seriousness than it actually delivers may be disappointed. The backstory, Lucas genuinely did something damaging to multiple people on a single terrible night, is treated primarily as context for the romantic complication rather than as something that requires proportionate emotional accounting. One reviewer expressed frustration that Avery accepts Lucas without a more substantive confrontation about what happened, and that is a fair reading. Van Dyken is writing a comedy with romance, not a moral inquiry with romance, and the book’s tone consistently prioritizes the former. That is a choice the book makes openly, not a flaw it is unaware of.
Who Should Listen to Cheater
Ideal for listeners who want a fast, funny enemies-to-lovers romance where the primary pleasure is the back-and-forth between protagonists who are evenly matched in wit. Those seeking emotional depth or narrative accountability around the backstory premise should adjust expectations. Van Dyken’s existing readers will know exactly what they are getting; newcomers who enjoy comedic romance but prefer a lighter register will likely find this a comfortable entry point.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Cheater need to be listened to in series order, or does it work as a standalone?
It works as a standalone. Cheater is the first book in the Curious Liaisons series, so no prior context is required.
How does Lucy Rivers handle the comedic dialogue between Lucas and Avery?
Well. Rivers delivers Van Dyken’s rapid banter without telegraphing the humor, which is the right approach, the lines work because they are well-written, and Rivers trusts them rather than performing around them.
Is the backstory about what Lucas did actually addressed with any seriousness in the book?
Only partially. The book acknowledges the past harm but treats it primarily as context for the romantic tension rather than as something requiring full emotional accountability. Reviewers have noted this as a choice that fits Van Dyken’s comedic register but may frustrate readers expecting heavier resolution.
How explicit is the romantic content in Cheater?
The book includes adult content consistent with contemporary romance conventions, not graphic, but not fade-to-black either. It is pitched for adult romance readers rather than clean romance audiences.
