Bet me to stay is a cute romance about an romance author who is trying to branch into erotic romance but she is drawing a blank on the inspiration. Going into the pub across the street from her parents pub might be what she needs. Liam knows his brother means well but his choices could lose the pub. Which leads to a bet between two brothers.

Cassie ends up being the woman who Liam has to date the next month. But he’s in for it when she invaded his mind his home and his bed. She’s getting what she needs he’s getting what she needs but what happens when they need more? It’s a great book and enjoyable to read.

Got a bit predictable at times but still an amazing love story that has so so much humor to it! Cassie was outstandingly written, her wit really added so much to the story. Would definitely recommend.

Wow! I loved this one. Couldn't put it down and stayed up all night reading. One of my favorites this year!

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

Missing something
3 stars

I’ve never read Candace Havens before despite her having a large number of novels and being a well-loved author. Actually, I’ve just found out I have read her before but just forgot. Awkward! Anyway, it was the cover and blurb that pulled me in though - both are cute and sexy and had me anticipating a smart and sexy read.

But, for some reason - this book just didn’t work for me.

Our premise is simple: a man makes a bet to save his pub - he’ll date the first woman to walk through the door while his brother stays celibate. The woman in question is Cassie Meadows - a romance author without much experience to make her sex scenes sizzle. And so the two meet and form a mutually beneficial temporary arrangement.

I can get on board with the bet and the near virginal author looking for more experience. I just didn’t really like the way it played out. Things went far too fast for me to believe there was any kind of passion or spark between the pair. The lack of build up before they got together meant the sex scenes left me a little cold. If it was supposed to be insta-love, I could have got behind it - but it wasn’t.

Cassie was a nice enough character but for someone who had little to no experience, she sure didn’t act that way. She was bold and knowledgable, demanding and feisty and her dirty chat was second to none. Now I like a little filthy banter in a book - it’s properly my jam - but this felt forced and uncomfortable. Like when your mum swears. And it happened a lot. Cringe.

Liam, again, was a nice enough character. But he was “Irish”. Luckily he didn’t “fiddle-dee-dee” or wear a green suit but it was close there for a bit. Again - it missed the mark for me in terms of cuteness, sexiness and reality.

And now onto the sex. Yes, there is a lot of sex in this book. At times I felt it overshadowed the actual plot - which is pretty much just the build up to the reveal of the “big secret” (which I can’t really see was a big deal anyway!) As I said before, there was no sexual tension which left the scenes a little flat for me. And when the dirty talk became too much, I ended up skimming. And that’s a lot to skim.

This book was just missing something vital for me to give it more than 3 stars. Cute premise and the writing flowed - but I didn’t feel anything for the characters or in their interactions. Not one for me.

I loved this one. Cassie and Liam were such great characters, and their chemistry was scorching. What starts out as a hot one night stand turns into so much more, and we’re left watching these two try to figure out their growing feelings for one another. Liam initially approaches Cassie because of a bet with his brother, but that bet soon becomes incidental to his fascination with Cassie. Cassie, meanwhile, is trying to put more spice in the erotic romance she is writing and finds more than the inspiration she was looking for with Liam. I loved seeing the progression of Cassie and Liam’s relationship, and the steamy scenes were VERY steamy. I highly recommend this book.
Note: I received a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Liam and Cassie’s story was a fun and wonderful adventure in Bet Me to Stay by Candace Havens, book one in her Abbott series. Hot, sexy, bartender Liam agreed on a bet with his brother that he would date the next woman who walks into their pub; especially since his pub was on the line. Liam never expected Cassie with her big glasses and bulky sweater, making her look like a cat lady. Cassie is funny and her smile causes Liam to wonder that’s underneath her loose and bulky clothes; hoping to get a chance to see. Cassie is a sweet romance author who has decided to up her game and write a sexier romance like the books that are selling like hotcakes. Only she can’t write the sexy stuff and need inspiration, in the worse way. When she walks into the wrong pub at the right time she finds that inspiration in Liam. Neither Cassie nor Liam is looking for a relationship while he is more than willing to teach her about hot, enjoyable sex; something she hadn’t experienced before. Thanks to Liam Cassie is not only getting the BEST SEX OF HER LIFE, but her book is about to become a best-seller. Then the axe falls and Liam learns that Cassie has not just been using him to write her book but discovers the secret she had been hiding; one that could destroy everything. Plus that no relationship rule failed to take into account that after a month together feelings and beliefs can arise, making what they had a true, loving relationship.

Ms. Havens wrote a wonderfully hot and sexy story that is not to be missed. She provided a tale rich with sexual chemistry, amusing banter, and endearing characters giving Cassie and Liam a chance for the happiness, love and a future together neither ever expected. I highly recommend Bet Me to Stay to other readers.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.

Bold Irish guy meets bookish writer. Yep. I got into this book quickly after reading about it on a review page.
Liam and his brother run a classic Irish pub while Cassie is an unknown to her family and friends a successful writer whose family owns the high end pub across the street from Liam and Finn's.

Finn can't stop falling for his female patrons and asking them to marry him. Liam is worried that Finn will actually go through with a wedding and lose the family legacy when it all falls apart. A best is made for Fin to stay celibate and Liam to date the next woman who enters the pub. Enter Cassie.

This is a fun romp and I adored both characters. Highly recommended.

Bet Me To Stay is definitely a light, sexy, read. Candace Havens took a fun setting, an Irish Pub, added in two very sexy brothers as proprietors, and threw in a light hearted bet. That was enough of a premise to start me reading. The addition of the heroine, a writer of gentle romances, who wants to take her writing to a higher level of passion, kept me reading. The reveal of the "bet" is always lurking in the background. Ms Havens definitely brings the heat, there are many passionate encounters, and I cant believe Im saying this, maybe a few too many,. I found myself skimming the love scenes as they didnt always serve to move the story along. All in all I was entertained, and would read more from Ms Havens. 3.5
I received my copy through NetGalley under no obligation.

Goodness gracious alive, I am surprised my phone did not melt from the heat this story put out!!! The chemistry between Liam and Cassie was explosive. I loved how he drew out her true self - sexual energy, self confidence, creativity, love of food, and colorful language. Cassie brought out need for someone else in Liam as well as keeping him on his toes. She was such a delightful and funny character - never knew what she would say. I thoroughly enjoyed their conversations and could picture them vividly in my mind. The sizzling scenes were plentiful and very, very hot. Definitely need an ice cold drink or fan nearby when reading this one.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review from the publisher through Netgalley.

This was a cute and steamy read. I was expecting the cute – with the socially awkward heroine who’s a closet romance writer (I have a soft spot for these heroines) and the sexy as sin bartender (gruff exterior but big ol’ teddy bear for his h?. Yes, please!) – but the level of steam this story packed was a huge surprise.

Cassie is a romance writer that’s been asked to steam up her books. Sex sales after all and her sweet clean love stories aren’t what’s popular today. But with her hang-ups and limited experience, Cassie needs some inspiration and fast.

Enter Liam, sexy bartender who can seduce her with a glance. But sexy Liam also happens to be her family’s competition and no way would he look at her the way he does if he finds out who she really is. Taking a chance to experience a no strings attached night with him, has Cassie telling one little white lie that quickly snowballs when their single night turns into something more.

This is a first from this author and I’ll definitely be following her for more! She writes down to earth, every day people and I loved it. She was also able to perfectly balance the sweet with the naughty and Cassie and Liam are a perfect blend of sweet romance and sexy chemistry that was memorable on and off page.

Memorable Moments: I loved their first meeting. You got a feel for both Liam and Cassie and their off the charts chemistry.

Would I recommend? If you like sweet and smutty, this was a perfect balance of the two. I loved both MCs.

Quick(ish) Review 3.5 stars
There are certain tropes/characters in romance that I cannot resist. Kinda grumpy heroes, nerdy girl writer heroines, secret bets, one night stand that turns into more, y’all know what I mean. You see those special little hints in a well worded blurb and you find yourself one-clicking before you know it. Well, the second I saw the blurb for this book had pretty much all of the above, I was in like Flynn (well, ok I guess O’Connor in this case). And honestly I wasn’t disappointed.

Cassie Meadows is a romance novelist who’s trying to branch out from her sweeter romances and write an erotic one but she’s lacking in some practical knowledge. She’s more potential cat lady than femme fatale, but then she meets Liam O’Connor at his Irish pub (which happens to be right across from her parents’ swankier version of an Irish pub). Liam is a bit of a grump who doesn’t do relationships (of course) and he's trying to keep his younger romance-prone brother in line. His brother bets him that he can’t stay in a relationship with the next woman who comes into the bar...aka Cassie. Unexpected sparks fly and they embark on a one night stand that turns into two...three...you get the picture. And yes, romance happens.

Liam and Cassie have some smoking hot chemistry and I loved that they did grow closer emotionally while exploring her sexuality. What I really liked that Ms. Havens resisted the urge to lean into those stereotypes for Liam and Cassie, giving their interactions extra tension and heat. I think the first half of the book starts off strong, and it’s only once it starts creeping closer to the inevitable final conflict that it sputtered a little. It didn’t flow as well as the first half did because they kind of had to revert to type. There’s hints of Cassie having had weight issues when she was growing up and being part of the cause of her insecurity/conflict with her family that I also wasn’t a big fan of, but this wasn’t marketed as a BBW romance, so I’ll give it a pass.

All in all, I did enjoy this and I wouldn’t mind reading more about Liam’s brother, if he got his own shot at romance. Just sayin’. If you’ve got the same soft spot for ONS/bet tropes that I do, you may enjoy this.

Liam O'Connor has no interest in dating, but if it gets his brother to take take a break from his own relationship, so be it. When Liam and his brother make a bet that he has to date the next available woman to walk into their pub, he has no idea what he's in for. He certainly doesn't expect to like her so much.

Cassie is in a rut. If she wants to succeed as an author, she has to be able to write sexier scenes for her books. A visit to the neighboring pub will hopefully get her creative juices flowing, and boy does it! What starts out as a casual hookup with the pub's owner, Liam, soon blossoms into more. What will Liam do when he learns Cassie's big secret?

I loved BET ME TO STAY by author Candace Havens. It was sweet, romantic, heartfelt and sexy. Liam and Cassie's family both own pubs across from each other. They are always competing. When Liam and Cassie meet without Liam knowing who Cassie is, it's a recipe for disaster. Although they have their ups and downs, they have a rather intense relationship. I loved watching Cassie grow under Liam's care. BET ME TO STAY is a keeper and will definitely be a re-read for me. I cannot wait for Liam's brother, Finn's, story.

I love books with nerdy/bookish characters... And that is exactly what Cassie is.

Liam can't bare to think that he might lose his pub. And with this brother constantly getting together with the wrong women he can see it happening in his future. So he bets him he can't stay away from females for a month and Finn challenges Liam to date the first woment that walks into the pub.
Welll in walks Cassie O' Brien. And Liam is stunned.

Cassie was a waitress at her parents owned restaurant. But for an introverted women what else was there. Well then she starts writing and her romance novels took off. But she needs a bigger hit if she wants to leave waitressing for good. So her friend suggest a erotic romance, but for a shy girl how can she write about something she has no knowledge about. So when Liam starts paying attention to her, she was a bit shocked. Liam thought he would ask her out a couple of times and be done with it, but the more time he spends with Cassie the more both of them couldn't stay away from each other.

I liked the blurb of the story, even though it lacked a bit more depth for me. I just didn't understand why she made such a big deal about the whole 'secret' thing. Was made for such a big thing but then it was like 'oh well'... I loved Liam though. He didn't want to change Cassie he liked her exatly the way she was and he made her feel comfortable with who she is.

Bet Me to Stay by Candace Havens is the story of Casey Meadows and Liam O'Connor.
Liam and his brother end up making a bet that his brother won't date someone for a period of time and that Liam will date the first women that walks into their pub.
Casey is a romance writer who looks bookish / messy since most of her time is writing. But when she is told that she needs to steam up her books she knows she might have to do some 'field' work. Casey ends up meeting Liam who sure brings spicy and hot to her mind.
This was a cute easy romance. Enjoyed it and will look for more books from this author.

eh, this one didn't really work for me unfortunately. i never really felt the chemistry between the two main characters, i would have liked the plot and backstories to be a bit more developed, i resent the cat lady jokes (jk), the sex scenes were just a bit much for me. other people seem to like it though so it's probably a me, not the book kind of thing.

3 Kiss Me Stupid Stars
* * * Spoiler Free
Mixing two Irish brothers who have a family pub is a perfect set up. The next part of this tale is the fact one of the brothers, Finn, is always falling for a woman and talks of marrying right away. The older one, Liam, loves his bro but at the same time, with the little brother being the flirt of the century, he needs to figure out a way to get a prenup created to protect their livelihood. Liam comes up with a bet Finn must stop all dating for a month, a way to make the prenup happen. Finn surprises Liam with the come back of, fine, I do it but you must date the next eligible woman who walks into the pub for that same month. The trap was set by Finn and Liam needs that prenup so hands are shook, the deal is done.

The next hook for this tale is our woman who walks into the pub. She has had an awful week. As a Sweet Romance writer, Cassie is looking to expand and her agent wants her to do a sexy book. Cassie tried but the feedback is the sex is more like a manual than sexy. Now Cassie has to either figure out a way to fix this book or going back to her family with her tail between her legs.

Cassie does not want to go to the family's place, so she goes in another direction and into the brothers' pub. Now in Boston, there are Irish pubs all over and it is not unusual to even have them on the same street or across the way. Cassie's family own the one across the way from the brothers and it is the brothers' pub where she goes to hang her head.

Making her the Next Available Woman.

Since Cassie wasn't planning on doing anything but feeling crappy, her appearance kinda matched: sweatpants, oversized sweater, and her big black-framed glasses. Her hair was tossed up with a clip and she only was interested in figuring out her next move in life.

Well, Finn came over to her, eyes sparkling and starts to see if she will fit the need for the bet. Cassie sees how handsome he is, no doubt, but he is not who catches her eye. It is Liam who rocks her world and with the both of them chatting, each is s little shocked and surprised by the way they are both interested in each other. Cassie doesn't give her real name, she gives her author-name so Liam has no idea her family is his competition.

What starts out as a bet from Liam's side and sexy research from Cassie's becomes something very different for both of them.

This story had a bit of insta-attraction, plenty of dirty talking, sexy sexy times, and a man who would rock anyone's world. Cassie had a lot of "Learning" to do and Liam was a fantastic teacher. There was also the knowledge of how things were going to blow up on them... and waiting for the "shoe" to drop.

It was a fun read and I will look to see what else the author puts out.

A gifted copy was provided by author/publisher for an honest review.

This was such a fun and sexy book to read. It was fun to be in Casey Meadow's mind as she struggles with the lack of romance in her life and as she meets Liam. It was equally fun to be in Liam's head as he absolutely refuses consider being in a relationship even as his brother bothers him about doing something other than working. There was some meta stuff going on that I quite enjoyed since Cassie is a romance author who seeks inspiration to increase the sexiness in her books. Bet Me to Stay was a fast, fun, sexy, and sweet book to read. I enjoyed reading about the process this couple takes as they go from something seemingly casual to something so much more. There was a big plus to have Liam actually be the one to consider the distance their journey could take. If you love the romance genre, you will not be disappointed.

Bet me to Stay was my first book by Candace Havens.

I liked the story and the writing. There were a couple little mistakes, like first they have been seeing each other for a couple of weeks and a couple pages further they know each other a week. But overal a good story

Time for another episode of the good, the bad, and will I read this new-to-me author again? Yes, this is a new-to-me author. She seems to have quite a few books under her belt, but I haven’t yet read her until now.

I adore Cassie and Liam. They are really good together and have some chemistry. Separately, they are also interesting and fun characters. The way they meet is also interesting, and things only progress the way they do because of the events of the day for both characters. In other words, they’re both in the right place at the right time…physically and mentally.

While I like the concept of Cassie trying to spice up her own sex life in order to better write sexy scenes in her romance books, this opened up the sex scenes in this story to closer scrutiny. At least that’s the way I felt. Some of the scenes more than stand up to any test. Unfortunately, some of the scenes seemed a bit more forced and stilted. Just as Cassie was told in the beginning, it’s more than insert tab A into slot B. But a couple of scenes seemed to be doing exactly that. Like the author had a list of positions she wanted to make sure to check off through the course of this story.

It’s no secret I’m a timeline/small detail stickler. I’ll reiterate my stance on this for those that don’t know. If mistakes become too numerous, are blatantly wrong, or start distracting from the story I will call them out. Otherwise I let the mistakes slide. Now, the ARC I received of this story was obviously an early copy and hadn’t been fully edited yet. So some word tense (which I’m terrible at myself but always seem to notice when it’s someone else’s writing) and editorial issues I ignored. But there are more timeline issues and little mistakes than I’m comfortable with letting slide. If these things don’t tend to bother you, great. If they do, be forewarned! (And if you are nit-picky like me, rest assured the fact that Liam has an accent is eventually explained. It seemed to me it went too long for Liam’s situation to be fully explained because his accent and some things about his parents and grandparents were really annoying me until he finally gave his story to Cassie almost a third of the way into the story.)

Many things in this story work, and work well. But the things that weren’t working for me seemed to be mistakes a less seasoned author would make. I could see her potential and did enjoy the story for the most part. Then, last week, I received an email from one of the publicist at Entangled explaining that they had decided to go back and do another rounds of edits on this book. Unfortunately, I have not had the time to go over the updated version they provided through Net Galley. This book came out yesterday and I would normally have posted my review by that time. I put this one off another day hoping I’d get to give the updated version at least a quick peek. Rest assured, if I am able to read the re-edited version I will come back to update my review if need be. In the meantime, I believe I will give this author another chance since I did enjoy a lot of this story.

This was a really cute story! I was interested to see how the chemistry would be between Cassie and Liam considering how the book started and I wasn’t disappointed. I loved how they really built on that first night together and the sparks between them kept on intensifying. I do enjoy a good dirty talker, but in this case it was a little too much for me. It just seemed a bit forced and unrealistic. Overall though, this is a really sexy, fun read!