Book Description

The first time Aja Owens encounters the man of her dreams, she’s having a panic attack in the frozen foods section of the Piggly Wiggly. The second time, he’s being introduced to her as her favorite bingo buddy’s semi-estranged grandson. From there, all it takes is one game for her to realize that he’s definitely going to be a problem. And if there’s anything she already has a surplus of, it’s problems.

In Walker Abbott’s mind, there are only two worthwhile things in Greenbelt, South Carolina. The peach cobbler at his old favorite diner and his ailing grandmother. Dragging himself back after more than a decade away, he’s counting down the days until Gram heals and he can get back to his real life. Far away from the trauma inside of those city limits. Just when he thinks his plan is solid, enter Aja to shake everything up.

A hastily made bingo-based sex pact is supposed to keep this…thing between them from getting out of hand. Especially when submitting to their feelings means disrupting their carefully balanced lives. But emotions are just like bingo callers—they refuse to be ignored.

Jodie Slaughter’s Bet on It is a heart-stoppingly fun, emotional romance that will have readers falling in love until long after the last page is turned.

My Review

I am woefully behind in my reviews due to real life getting in the way of review writing, but I’m making it my goal to get caught up over the next few months.

I read this book last summer, and I liked it a lot. I’m a sucker for conditional relationships and “let’s just get this out of our system” and this book has BOTH of those elements. Hookups based on bingo wins is cheesy in the best possible way. That goes double for both protagonists thinking that they’re not going to catch any feelings in this endeavor.

I loved the inclusion of mental health issues for the protagonists. As someone with anxiety, it was very affirming to see characters in a romance dealing with some of the same issues as me.

As much as I loved this novel, the “dark moment” was a bit much for me. I don’t want to give too much away, but I think it wasn’t handled very well by one of the parties involved and it felt like a betrayal of all the trust and communication they had built up over the course of the book. Again, I don’t want to give anything away, but I promise there’s no cheating involved.

I would recommend Bet on It. Despite the reservations I detailed in the last paragraph, I did enjoy this book. It’s sweet and tender and a lovely small town romance. I am definitely going to look for more books by Slaughter in the future.

I received a digital ARC of this book from St. Martin’s/NetGalley.