I got this because I was obsessed with the main female Lead character but man was I surprised with how well written, sexy and warm this book is. Teaches readers about mental health and the character building was so good. I didn’t expect myself to fall in love with Aja and walker as fast as I did. Read it in a day.

I really enjoyed this! I gotta say, I'm trying to erase the cover version of Walker from my mind because that illustration makes him look like an awkward thirteen year old. I really liked Aja and Walker and this was so nearly a 5*, I just felt the ending was a bit rushed and I would've liked a bit more fleshing out of some of the side characters.

I love spicy rom coms! This story was great! And I absolutely adored the focus on mental health, but not the obsession with it, I’d that makes sense. I will definitely be reading more from Slaughter in the future.

It was definitely cute and I enjoyed that it touched on the mental health subjects of anxiety/anger. It is always good when those aspects of life are normalized and incorporated - makes those who deal with those things realize they aren't broken and it's more common than they think. I didn't necessarily feel the relationship between these two, but it was an enjoyable story.

I really connected to the way that Aja and Walker related to each other through their mental health issues. The story she’d a light on how difficult it can be for people who struggle with their mental health to be in relationships and made the situation relatable.

This was an enjoyable and cute book. I liked the characters and the dynamic between them. Overall, a good read.

This gives a new meaning to "BINGO." Aja has moved from DC to a small town in South Carolina. We first meet Aja as she's having a panic attack in a grocery store and is comforted by Walker. Walker hates this small town in SC based on his childhood growing up in a small town and just wants grandma to get better so he can back to his life in Charleston. This is a story where both Aja and Walker have issues and open up to each other, but can their game of bingo and each other help them overcome all the troubles and worries of the small town. I really enjoyed this book and liked that the characters embraced their backgrounds and were open with current struggles. It wasn't just a cookie-cutter movie-like book, which is a great thing.

Thanks to Netgalley, author and publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Overall I enjoyed this book. I liked that it addressed mental health/illness with both main characters. I also liked the bingo aspect of it because it was a fairly unique premise for me. I enjoyed seeing Aja deal with her struggles to make friends because I could really relate to her in that aspect. Aja and Walker’s relationship felt realistic to me and I enjoyed seeing their feelings grow and change. The last quarter of this book kinda dragged for me and I felt like a lot of things were repeated during that part. I would still recommend this book to anyone looking for a steamy romance with some deeper emotions as well.

Aja Owens moves to a small town and tries to build a life for herself. She suffers from anxiety attacks and is very shy. She is afraid no one understands her. One day at the Piggly Wiggly she suffers a panic attack and soon she hears someone talking to her, someone who recognizes what is going on and seems to know what she needs.

Imagine her surprise when she meets him again at her sale place, the Bingo Hall where she goes every week. It just so happens he is the grandson of her favorite person at the Bingo Hall.

Walker Abbott hates his hometown. He has had a difficult childhood. The only reason he is back is to help his grandmother, but he can't wait to leave. Until he meets Aja...

What follows is a wonderful love story. Two very broken people who do the best they can. I really enjoyed this sweet story.

Great steamy read with plenty o f body positivity and mental health awareness. Walker cones back to Greenbelt, SC to take care of his Gram and meets Aja, a woman he saw having a panic attack at the supermarket. They make a bingo-based sex (steamy!) that leads to real feelings!

This book is so good!!

This story was a great read, I really enjoyed it. I loved the mental health rep (as both the FMC, Aja and the MMC, Walker) struggled with anxiety issues with different root causes. Their relationship formed in an organic way that was so cute, and they were able to relate to each other on a deeper level because of their experiences with anxiety.
There were some spicy scenes, which I was surprised by, but definitely appreciated, and which led me to some internal introspection as to why these scenes surprised me. And I think that when we see people with mental health challenges portrayed, oftentimes their Illness makes up their entire personality/life. And we do not see them as individuals who want the same things we do when it comes to relationships, sex and intimacy, and just as deserving of these experiences.
The support system that Aja and Walker had was also an important part of the story, and showcase how having people in your corner can help you through difficult times.
A favourite read for this year.

This was so wholesome! Having this romance set in the South with themes like Southern charm/hospitality while exploring race, mental health, and more was actually really enjoyable. I absolutely loved the rep in this book (Our MC, Aja, is Black & fat with anxiety, and our love interest, Walker, has PTSD. There are also several Black side characters in the story.) I immediately fell in love with Aja and her sweet-as-peaches personality. Her journey to find people in her life who loved her as much as she loves herself was so emotionally relatable and I empathized with her so much. I adored how her relationship progressed with Walker, even if it was a little fast-paced. I guess you could say that there is insta-lust in this book, but I think it was done really well and I was honestly screaming for Walker and Aja to get together as soon as they started interacting, too. Walker's relationship with Grams was also so adorable!

One of the most prominent themes in this book is mental health. Both Aja and Walker had grown up (and now live) in areas where disabilities regarding mental health are swept under the rug, so seeing both of these characters be completely open about their mental health with one another while also regularly attending therapy was really beautiful to see. I loved how both Aja and Walker supported one another during each of their moments of need, and didn't shy away from their needs either. Each of their friend groups also seemed like such a great support system and I immediately went 👀 at the hint that Jade's book might be next.

The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars was that the plot felt quite simple to me at times and the sex-pact the two enact also didn't take up much of the story as the blurb made it seem it would. The ending also wasn't as strong as the rest of the story, given how drastic the third-act break up felt. I'd definitely still recommend this book though, and I'm so excited for Jodie Slaughter's upcoming works!

Let me start off by saying, I really loved this ARC. It had the perfect amount of spice for a rom-comish book, the characters felt real and I’m in love with Walker… I’m just going to say it, now I just have to break the news to my husband. The way Jodie wraps in mental health, anxiety specifically was perfection and made me feel so incredibly seen. I don’t think I’ve read a book recently that was written so openly. It made both Aja and Walter even more likable, it made me root for their own healing and they as a whole even harder.

I found myself giggling, blushing, screaming, and any other gasp or sigh I could fit in while reading this. It was a breath of fresh air from what I’ve been reading.

WHAT I LOVED
🍑 Oh the spice, hot damn it was so good!
🍑 Mental Health being an open topic of discussion
🍑BINGO and all that came along with it

WHAT I WANTED MORE OF
🍑 I wanted more togetherness when it came to the MCs
🍑 The last chapter and Epilogue left me feeling like I need one or two more paragraphs. It felt just ever so slightly unfinished

Overall, it was such a fun and steamy read! I picked it up and found myself not wanting to put it down or finding any moment in my day to pick it up.

STARS
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SPICE
🌶🌶


Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for this ARC.

great book about doing bingo and meeting someone. I liked that there was attraction and working on things with family and with themselves. I enjoyed the heat and the romance and finding oneself .

I would first like to thank NetGalley for the advance copy of this lovely little jewel. Bet On It was an amazing journey between Aja and Walker who both suffered with anxiety and mental health issues discover so much about themselves through a relationship she Aja forged with Walker’s grandmother May at the local Bingo Hall. Walker comes home to take care of his grandmother after she experienced a bad fall, someplace he vowed to never return to because it was never kind to him. Greenbealt was a source of his anxiety, but meeting the beautiful, full figured girl having the panic attack in the local Piggly Wiggly made him think of her more than the town. When he makes his first appearance at Bingo to find the girl from the frozen section isle is the same girl his grandmother is always talking about he is intrigued and excited for a number of reasons. His head says, keep away because I’ll only be here temporarily, but Aja has a pull that Walker simply cannot ignore.

Aja is not the type of girl that “lusts” after the first guy she sees, but there’s something about Walker that makes her want to forget her good sense. After all, he’s Ms.May’s grandson and will only be here temporarily. She instantly has a connection with Walker because he sees her like no one else has, he understands her, and he just does something to her like no one ever before. Can she handle a friendship until he leaves? When things get physical, complications arise for both parties and they make a plan…it works, but when the plan is due to payout it does and unfortunate circumstances arise that complicate an already complicated situationship! What do you do when you both love each other but are afraid to say so because of your past, distance, and plain old fear?

Jodie Slaughter gave me an intensely good time with this book. The laughter, finding your people when you think there’s no one out there for you, the hilarity and accuracy of the “bingo culture,” and finding love even when you’re equally damaged, but also equally deserving!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Bet on It is a sweet, sweet, sweet story. And it is also a spicy, spicy, spicy story. In fact, it’s the perfect blend of the two.

Aja Owens is doing pretty well, if you accept that her entire social life consists of hanging out at bingo with elderly people qualifies as pretty well. She’s left the city for this small town where she can mostly just hide out. When she has a panic attack in the grocery store a voice behind her talks to her and just stays with her until she calms down. She was so grateful, felt like he got it, didn’t push, just waited for her to get through it. She didn’t expect to ever see him again and knew if she did it would be humiliating. Just like so much of her life has been about humiliation because she can’t control her emotions, can’t help being anxious.

So surprise – and not in a good way - when that mostly disembodied voice in Piggly Wiggly turns out to be the grandson of one of her few new bingo friends, Ms. May Abbott, a feisty old character who has broken both arms. Her grandson Wally (Walker when he has the choice) has come down from the city to help her. Aja is waiting for Walker to say something, something humiliating, and when he doesn’t, and when she gets a good look at that face and that body, well, whoa, just whoa. Can you say instant – like lightning fast – attraction?

Walker Abbot is in town temporarily, only because his Gram had an accident and broke her arms and needs his help. But he hates, loathes, despises this little town and pretty much everyone in it and hanging around is not on his to-do list. When he helped Aja in the store it was because he recognized another lost soul having a terrible time in a public place who needed help. But now, at bingo of all places, here she is again. And when their eyes meet, well, he’s lost from that moment on. We know it, most of the people they know see it, but you have to give Walker and Aja credit, they valiantly fight it because they know from all their past experiences there is no hope for long-term relationships.

The way they fight it is silly and sexy and sweet. A goofy bet about winning at bingo? A “little exception” here and there? You want them to just face it and get together already, except that you are laughing so hard at their antics and the predicaments they get themselves into you want more of this fun stuff. That is when you are not wiping your eyes over how heart-stoppingly sweet these two are together – or when you are not catching your breath because the fire between these two is pretty darn hot!

This is a story you just must read, and a new-to-me author that I must read again. Yep, it’s that good. Funny, sexy, sweet, sometimes sad – and joyous. Thanks to St. Martin’s Press for providing an advance copy of Bet on It via NetGalley for my reading pleasure and honest review. Author Jodie Slaughter has not only written a funny, sweet, sexy, satisfying book; it is also a brave book. It tackles head-on PTSD and anxiety and puts right in our face that these are not just trivial little emotional episodes we can suck up and get over. They take hard work to control, hard work we have to do over and over when they pop up again and again, and cause upheaval to all our best-laid plans. And reading pleasure bonus, through the eyes of our lovable, wacky main characters Bet on It deals with issues like race and weight the way we all should: they just aren’t there. Walker is long, lean and blond; Aja is short, stout and Black but those facts are just part of the story, like having blue eyes or big feet. That’s not to say there aren’t others in the story who don’t behave as they should, but we see Aja and Walker through each other’s (sometimes pretty steamed up) eyes and they are beautiful. As is this story. I recommend Bet on It without hesitation and am off to find more by this fabulous author. All opinions are my own.
#BetonItNovel #JodieSlaughter #SMPRomance

Aja Owens moved to one of the smallest towns in America to get away from the city and all the anxiety that it causes her. Small town life just suits her better and going to bingo every week to hang out with her bingo buddy fulfills her life… or so she thought. If it was up to him, Walker Abbott would never visit his hometown again, but his grandmother needs his help when she falls and ends up in two wrist casts. Walker comes back to Greenbelt and finds something better than just heartbreak and memories. Aja and Walker bond over bingo, peach cobbler, and their anxiety and trauma. Will Aja be enough for Walker to overcome his past and want to stay with her?

I fell in love with the feel of small town life in Greenbelt, South Carolina and by the end wanted to just indulge in a slice of peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream. Aja and Walker are the perfect characters for each other. Each are battling their own demons, but together they can help each other overcome challenges. They understand each other like no one else would, which makes their romance so much sweeter. This would be the perfect summer time romance to read out on the porch in the sunshine.

I so wanted to love this book. Mental health, small southern town, and romance? All things I’m into. Unfortunately, something about the way the southern characters was written was just off. It made it really hard for me to enjoy the story, much as I wanted to. Also, I was hoping for a little less pining and “oh, we’re definitely not a thing.” It was still fun overall, but didn’t nail it.

I love books that revolve around games ... literal games ... and romance. A bingo sex-pact, I've realized, is as much fun for a reader to read, as it is for Aja and Walker to experience. Though this story is not all fun and games, and we get as invested in the protagonists coming to terms with their anxiety and past traumas as wanting a happily-ever-after for them.
It's a well-written story that will stay with you longer than the couple of days it'll take you to read it.
Highly recommended for representation and sweet love.

Thank you to NetGalley and SMP for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

CW: General anxiety disorder, panic attack (on page), PTSD, parent with drug dependence (past), family tensions, parental neglect (past), brief moment of self-harm ideation

There was a lot to like in this book. A cute premise of meeting/hanging out at an elderly bingo game. Insta attraction, and the steam moments were hot in this book. Two people escaping in a lot of ways and recognizing something in each other.

Unfortunately the external tensions/plot overtook the romance for me. I would have loved to see more of the MCs together falling in love, dealing with things together rather than so separately. There wasn't necessarily a building of intimacy or the quiet moments and then unfortunately the book just ends rather than showing them what they could be like together.

While dealing with some heavy topics this was a quick read that wasn't overly angsty, that I think many will appreciate, just my own personal preferences made it harder to connect with this one.

Steam: 3