Awwww! This is one of the sweetest, captivating small town stories the highly enjoy and I absolutely fell in with townies, their feuds, their solidarity, their genuine relationships!

Unique narration choice of this book was quite refreshing and creative! We don’t only read the POVs of hero and heroine, we also read heroine’s father and her arch nemesis’ POVs ! I have to say: I loved all those characters! The friendship, the people’s complex relationships, small town’s genuine and honest unity made me love the book a little more! This is more than romance, it’s about the tight knitted community, their devotion, their feuds, their daily life struggles!

The story telling style was alluring. You easily get into the story, involving into lives of the characters, engaging with their problems!

Jess and Carter are so lovely and great example of opposites attract! Jess is good with words as Carter is great with numbers.

Jess; left her editing job in New York to take care of her father Ross, getting stuck in Redford, feeling safe in her cocooned life! Her relationship with her father is so adorable!

Carter, a financial adviser, leaving his corrupted family empire and getting estranged with her parents for nearly one decade. His grandfather Jasper is only family he has. He was Redford’s eccentric, joyful benefactor, secretly helping people. Carter helped him to conduct his plan like Robin who serves for his Batman.

Now Jasper is dead and in his will he left 10 million dollars to townies. But there’s a catch: there will be a competition including series of challenges : scavenger hunt, hiking, racing in literally Barbie cars, pie eating contest etc. The winner duo will win and share the money!

Unfortunately the duos are already chosen by Jasper! If you want to object your teammate, you’ll be disqualified! And each of team members find themselves paired with her/ his own archenemy! Poor Jess also has to team up with Nikki: a mean girl/ bully who likes to humiliate her in front of the crowd!

And Carter teams up with Bryce: entertaining, carefree bartender.

At first Jess doesn’t care to win as much as her competitive partner Nikki, but when a secret comes out, she becomes more determined, focusing her eyes on the price. She is so adamant not to be distracted by the charms of Carter who slowly becomes her confidante.

He plans to go back to Atlanta as soon as the competition is over. There is no possible future relationship for them. They are so different!

But what if they can both win in love and get the big prize!

Interestingly I also enjoy mean girl Nikki’s POV, too. I didn’t expect to connect with her after her first appearance at the bar: bullying Jess with her mean girls group. But she surprised me a lot!

Overall: I’m rounding up 4.5 stars to 5 heartwarming, small town, entertaining stars!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin GROUP PUTNAM/ G. P. Putnam’s Sons for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

Told from multiple POVs, this story follows several people from Redford, GA, as they compete in pairs for $10 million. I liked watching the relationship build between Jess and Carter. Having just met, you’d think competing against each other would make things tense. But their banter was cute and it was fun seeing how they worked together, even on different teams.

I could have done without the “mean girls” element, but I know some people like that kind of drama in their stories.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. Watch for The Only Game In Town to come out March 21, 2023.