Betting on You
Ratings24
Average rating3.9
A New York Times Bestseller From the New York Times bestselling author of Better Than the Movies, this “entertaining” (Publishers Weekly) rom-com in the vein of She’s All That and 10 Things I Hate About You follows a teen girl who unwittingly finds herself at the center of a bet while working at a waterpark. When seventeen-year-old Bailey starts a new job at a hotel waterpark, she is less than thrilled to see an old acquaintance is one of her coworkers. Bailey met Charlie a year ago on the long flight to Omaha, where she moved after her parents’ divorce. Charlie’s cynicism didn’t mix well with Bailey’s carefully well-behaved temperament, and his endless commentary was the irritating cherry on top of an already emotionally fraught trip. Now, Bailey and Charlie are still polar opposites, but instead of everything about him rubbing Bailey the wrong way, she starts to look forward to hanging out and gossiping about the waterpark guests and their coworkers—particularly two who keep flirting with each other. Bailey and Charlie make a bet on whether or not the cozy pair will actually get together. Charlie insists that members of the opposite sex can’t just be friends, and Bailey is determined to prove him wrong. Bailey and Charlie keep close track of the romantic progress of others while Charlie works to deflect the growing feelings he’s developed for Bailey. Terrified to lose her if his crush becomes known, what doesn’t help his agenda is Bailey and Charlie “fake dating” in order to disrupt the annoying pleasantries between Bailey’s mom and her mom’s new boyfriend. Soon, what Charlie was hoping to avoid becomes a reality as Bailey starts to see him as not only a friend she can rely on in the midst of family drama—but someone who makes her hands shake and heart race. But Charlie has a secret—a secret that involves Bailey and another bet Charlie may have made. Can the two make a real go of things…or has Charlie’s secret doomed them before they could start?
Series
Featured Series
1 primary bookBetting on You
Betting on You is a 1-book series first released in 2015 with contributions by Lynn Painter.
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This was my first Lynn Painter book, but wow, it won't be my last! Not only is the main plot fun and interesting, the fake dating premise was done in a fresh way, and made this story unputdownable. Although at the very beginning of the story both main characters were not likable to me right away, they both grew on me, and it didn't take long for me to root for them, not only for their romance, but for their own personal growth as well.
I really loved watching them both navigate life in a divorced parent family, only because Lynn Painter did all of those conflicting feelings realistic justice through both Bailey and Charlie's narrative. And the chemistry between Charlie and Bailey?!? Chef's kiss
If you need a good binge read, you just found it!
Cute little romance. I could also really relate to Bailey, being a child of divorced parents myself. The author did a really good job describing the thoughts and feelings a teenager goes through while experiencing that.
I was recommended this book because I asked for “hot kissing scenes but no sex” and it partially delivered. There wasn't sex. But there was definitely a lot of talk about it.
When I first started this book I was worried they were going to turn Bailey's quirks into some flaw that needed to be changed. I was gonna rage and then DNF this so hard! Luckily they didn't go that route, so I'm happy to say I finished until the end.
The story has promise but I feel like it was too long and had too many side stories that didn't go anywhere. There are so many things we could have explored more like Charlie's OCD/anxiety about germs. And unfortunately I feel like we spent too much time on the whole divorced parent thing. Look, I'm a kid of divorce, but you want your mom to be happy but you don't want her to be happy? And then we find out her soon-to-be-husband was also a child of divorce but didn't think twice before proposing infront of Bailey's mom, but also doesn't apologize for it?. Are we even trying?
This would have been a 4 stars if the ending was solid, but it wasn't. It felt rushed and unearned. If you're gonna give me a 3rd act breakup, Charlie doesn't get to just show up at prom with a cat and it's okay. I also feel like the characters wasted too much time on this fake-dating thing. Surprisingly, though, I didn't care about all the Taylor Swift references. But to fair I probably missed half of them.
So, it was okay. The kissing scenes could have been hotter and the ending could have been better. I don't think I'd re-read this again, and I'd be hesitant to recommend it to someone else, so just under 4 for me.
