Aja and Walker first meet each other while she’s having a panic attack in the grocery store. Thinking she will never see him again, they meet each other again at Bingo Night. From there, their relationship progresses.

This was cheesy, kind of cute but also not bad??? I won’t really remember this book and plus it was love at first sight which I don’t like. The sex scenes are cringe and graphic and I don’t care for that kind of stuff in my books. I prefer wholesome where I don’t have to roll my eyes. The scenes are also in public lol

I liked the characters and the writing, it’s a fun and fast read. I also liked the anxiety and PTSD representation and that the characters are able to bond over it and understand each other.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book!

I adored this book!

Aja Owens is new in her new small quiet little town of Greenbelt and she's trying to get out there more. Which is how she starts playing weekly bingo and befriends a little old lady. When said bingo buddy's hot grandson Walker Abbott comes to town to take care of is grandmother, things get steamy.

This book was the perfect about of sweet, steamy, and angsty. Aja and Walker both deal with mental health issues centering on a heavy dose of anxiety. Their "meet cute" happens while Aja is having an anxiety attack at the local grocery store. Initial attraction on both sides and a feeling of connection over their shared mental health issues make the two quick friends who want more from each other.

BINGO SEX PACT! I loved the steamy parts of this book. Woof. Walker and Aja were the perfect amounts of soft and hot for each other and the dirty talk never got cringe-y. It was slightlyyyyy kinky cause they do be getting each other off in public... So, if that's not your thing (it gave me high anxiety and idk how they managed it tbh lol). There was also a nice amount of tension because of the rules of the aforementioned sex pact.

I think this book did a great job of centering mental illness and showing healthy relationships between all the characters. The friendships and family relationships in this book are so lovely and I adored seeing out MCs grow even though they're already doing more than most characters in a contemporary romance (i.e. therapy, etc.).

Overall, my only issue with the book was that the ending seemed rushed! I wanted a little more from the relationships built in this book. I honestly wanted to see more between Aja and her new friends, Aja and Walker, Walker and his grandma, Walker and his dad, Aja and Walker's grandma! It felt like a lot of deep connections started but didn't build quite enough though I still enjoyed this book immensely. I just didn't realize the end was the end at first!

I would recommend this for lovers of Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert or any contemporary romance lovers!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my ARC!

Bet on It is just the kind of romance that the word needs. The romance was cute and sexy, but what really stood out was how both Aja and Walker were dealing with mental health issues, and this was handled so well in Bet on It. At no point were they made to feel bad or inferior for having anxiety, panic attacks or anything (in the now, Walker had some childhood issues).

Aja and Walker compliment each other nicely, especially as they deal with their mental health struggles. If you're looking for a steamy romance that focuses on mental health this one is for you!

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel. There were moments that felt repetitive and I had a hard time focusing at the very end but I was invested in the characters. Their personal challenges added depth and did not trivialize mental health. I would recommend this novel to contemporary romance readers.

I really enjoyed this book. It was slow to start for me and at first I did have a hard time pushing through but once I was about 35% into it I found myself really enjoying this. I think where this book shines is not actually the romance. It’s these wonderful and relatable characters. The talk of mental health and how it affects not only romantic relationships but also platonic ones was absolutely my favorite part. There were moments where I found myself pausing just to take in what I read which is very rare for me in romance books. The couple is of course still great and if you’re a person who likes angst and some tension this one’s for you!! The concept was fun and really allowed push and pull within their relationship and I liked how everything ended up being a challenge for them.

This was nice! There wasn't anything incredibly different about it but I still really enjoyed it. I will read from this author in the future.

I got this as an eARC from NetGalley a while ago and literally just finished it. (Mood reader probs) So thank you NetGalley for this!!!!

Um I’m obsessed with Walker and Aja. Their banter the WHOLE book? Chefs kiss. Their tension was clear as day and oof I loved every second of it. Walker has a way with words my friends.

This book has such good mental health rep for BOTH main characters that it was nice to read.

Aja is a plus size female MC who is also a POC who just moved to Greenbelt, South Carolina to get away from the big city of Washington D.C. dealing with her anxiety of not knowing anyone in this small town other than this old woman from bingo.

Then we have Walker who is originally from Greenbelt but moved to Charleston as soon as he could to get away from the small town he grew up in. He struggles with PTSD and anxiety by just being in the same town he once left to help take care of his Gram after she fell and needed help while recovering.

The two meet, become friends, and fall in love.

Small town romance, friends to lovers what more could ya ask for?? Please read this book. It’s so good and I’m so grateful to have gotten an ARC of this. I meant to read it before it came out but my whole house got hit with COVID so I couldn’t 😩

This was my first Jodie Slaughter book and I loved it. One of my favorite things abut this book was the setting: the small town vibe and the Bingo Hall! My grandmother played bingo religiously for years, so this was a bit of nostalgia for me and I loved it! I think Jodie did an amazing job of the bingo world and the die-hard bingo players that exist.

Jodie also knocked it out of the park in terms of representation. Both characters had generalized anxiety disorder and Jodie handled this with so much care. I also loved how this played a part in Aja and Walker's meet-cute. I thought Jodie also did a great job in her portrayal of PTSD and how both of these characters dealt with their trauma.

Overall, the story was very sweet, spicy and had some funny moments mixed in. I wouldn't classify this book as a rom-com necessarily because there are some heavier topics discussed. I think it's important to know that going in.

I really enjoyed reading it and look forward to reading more of Jodie's books!

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/ St. Martin’s Griffin for this digital arc in exchange for my honest review.

This is an easy, entertaining, funny, page turner, romantic, steamy, emotional read with wonder characters and a great plot. Aja and Walker meet in the frozen food section of the Piggly Wiggly where Aja is having a panic attack. Walker stays with Aja until she recovers from her panic attack. The two meet again at a bingo game with Walker’s grandmother Ms. May. Aja and Ms. May are friends. Walker is in town to help his grandmother who had a fall. Ms. May has been talking about her grandson to Aja. The two connect immediately with an attraction to each other.

If you’re looking for a fun easy read that will have you turning the pages this is the book to read.

I received an ARC via NetGalley and St. Martin Press and I am leaving my review voluntarily.

This book was so fun to read. I’m not always a fan of books dealing with mental health because sometimes it doesn’t represent real life, it’s more like someone researched every symptom and listed them all out, but this book shows the nuances in where they can originate and how they can manifest.

I love that Aja and Walker helped each other navigate their trigger moments and that the people close to them embraced them for all that they were and responded to them in a way that acknowledged their struggle. It was really sweet the way Walker had his chosen family that he really gave him a place in the world. PLUS, it had just enough spice without any of the cringe that sometimes can come with those scenes.

I loved their story, I will definitely buy it and can’t wait to read it again!

Thank you to NetGalley, Jodie Slaughter, and St Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this eARC.

Do not let this cute cover and title fool you, this contemporary romance has some spicy scenes and some heavy topics. I really enjoyed the character development and their relationship as BINGO friends to lovers. It gets complicated, but the topics that are battled are real. Please read content warnings prior to picking this one up. Highly recommend this book!

I really appreciated that the author took the time before the book to list the content warnings so that readers were aware of the more intense content that could possibly be triggering. I'm so glad that that is becoming a more normalized feature in books and hope that continues!

Bet on It had a lot of fun moments as well as emotional and deep moments. I thought there was a good balance between fun, lighthearted scenes and more personal and serious scenes. It was an enjoyable read, but I don't know if I'll remember much about it in a few months time

I enjoyed the tone of this book and it flowed very smoothly. The heroine was plus size and confident and the story didn’t revolve around her weight. The ✨spice✨was *chef’s kiss*. It covered some heavy topics and I feel like it was done well.

****Book Review****
⭐️⭐️

Title: Bet On It
Author: Jodie Slaughter


There wasn’t a lot to like about this book. I found myself wondering why I am even continuing to read it. Sometimes the banter between Walker and Aja made me cringe.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for a copy of Bet On It in exchange of an honest review.

I love a romance of two sweet, flawed people who find each other! This book did a great job of balancing lighthearted content with the heavier stuff, which is always great to see. Two things did keep pulling me out, though: I've played A LOT of bingo in my life, and many of the letter number combos during the bingo sections did not correspond to realistic combinations in any games I've played (either bingo has changed since I was a youth or maybe this was fixed in edits?) and the way Walker's dialogue was written in dialect was weirdly off-putting to me. Other than that, what a great small town romance!

I loved this! It was a sexy read, it was fun and there were a lot of emotions in it. The portrayal of mental health was so well done and I loved how relatable the characters were.

Thank you #Netgalley for an early read of #BetOnIt

This was my first time reading a book by Jodie Slaughter but it will NOT be my last. I really enjoyed this! Slaughter handled the character's anxiety with such gentleness and care. I loved Aja and Walker so much - they felt so *real* and their chemistry was insaneeee. Highly recommend!

DNF at 30%. I really appreciate the mental health and anxiety representation in this book, but I'm finding it hard to connect with the characters or the story beyond their shared experiences with anxiety. In the first third of the book, the story seems pretty one-dimensional and I'm not picking up the chemistry between Walker and Aja.

Thanks to SMP Romance and NetGalley for the gifted copy.

“Bet On It” deals with a paralyzing form of mental illness. Aja Owens doesn’t “feel like she was a Black woman Rising. She felt like she was falling into an ocean of fear and doubt”. Scoping out a calmer place to live she chooses to move to Greenbelt, SC, away from her noisy and busy life in DC. Walker Abbott is a kindred spirit. Abandoned by his parents as a youth, after therapy and medication, he is trying to become untangled from his panic attacks and having some success until he returns to his hometown of Greenbelt, SC. Their existences feel “precarious, like they were always hanging off a ledge by a thread.”

Remembering “the nature of their mental illness meant it was next to impossible to enjoy lives free of complications” gives you some semblance of the problems that people with PTSD face. Walker Abbott intones “sexual tension was more poetic when it was unresolved.” I agree and think the whole issue would have been better dealt with a little less steam. But hey, who am I to dump on a sweet rom com.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a copy.

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for an ARC in exchange for a review. Opinions are my own.

This book is so cute! I've seen a few book people on Twitter talking about this book, and I read White Whiskey Bargain so I was excited to see if it lived up to the hype. It did! Aja and Walker are kind lovely characters who meet when Walker comes home to his small town in SC to help look after his injured Grandma, who is Aja's Bingo Hall buddy.

I know a lot will be made of the Bingo hall/setting for their friendship development, but I feel like it was treated with understanding and respect rather than as a "unique" setting to set it apart. The MH and fat rep are treated the same. I know treating serious conditions and people like people should be the lowest bar, but we are living in times where people don't see or understand how reverse racism books are harmful so I think it's worth mentioning. I loved the portrayal of supportive friendships, therapy and redemption.

While there are some serious topics within the book, they provide context. The book is funny and sweet, with a cozy romance plot. I would highly recommend it to anyone.



#NetGalley