This thoroughly southern story is pretty cute and has plenty to recommend it. I appreciated how many big issues it touched on. I am always intrigued to read about characters who suffer from anxiety as it’s something I deal with as well. I think it can provide a wonderful chance to shine a light on mental health awareness. Opening the book with a scene where we see Aja having a panic attack in a grocery store, and then Walker finding her and helping her, was a great way to show us who these people are and what they’re dealing with (while also being a very interesting way for them to meet).

While it was not my personal cup of tea (it was never able to really grab hold of me and get me as emotionally invested as I would have liked) I do think many readers will find it endearing and enjoyable.

Things I liked about the book:
* the mental health aspect and how it normalizes therapy
* the way racial and cultural differences were observed and discussed
* the acknowledgment of how difficult it can be to make friends as an adult (especially if you have anxiety)
* How much your childhood affects the rest of your adult life

And if you like the following, I think you’ll enjoy this book:

* Southern gentility
* Plentiful use of “y’all”
* Meddling grandmas
* Ornery elderly bingo players
* Emotionally healing peach cobbler

3.5 stars out of 5

*arc for an honest review*

i really loved this book but something i really look forward is the couples first kiss it’s supposed to be my favorite part and be able to remember it? but this i forgot about it in like two chapters and after their first kiss they had sex…like i also like it when they don’t rush i don’t know probably just me but overall i really loved it.

This was a fun read. Good characters and the author dealt with emotional issues with gentleness. I did cheer on Aja and Walker.
My first books by this author and it will not be my last.

Great premise and both Aja and Walker were great leads. I like the idea of the bingo pact, and that they both had anxiety issues to work through. But something was missing and I couldn't figure out what. It was a bit odd that they so easily talked to each other and physical intimacy wasn't a problem given how much anxiety they both had.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

A fun read perfect for Jasmine Gillory readers. Loved the small town setting and Aja and Walker. Their shared anxiety issues and how they managed them made this book a really good read. Fun and satisfying read.

3.5

cute! i liked how aja and walker complemented each other not only as a couple, but as people. i thought the bingo pact was kinda dumb but ok. spicy!

#netgalley

The premise was good but I found the execution lacking, could not keep focused. The plot centered around emotional disorders and while it was dealt with sensitively, I could not get into the story or even to care much about the characters. I skipped through several chapters just to get to the end.

The heroine has anxiety and the hero suffers from PTSD from his childhood. The hero has to come back home to help take care of his grandma. His grandma and the heroine are bingo buddies.

It was pretty easy for me to get into Bet On It. I liked the characters. Mental health was a big part of the book. It being talked about so much was helpful to get a deeper understanding of the characters. I do always enjoy when there is a special food that is important to the story. Peach cobbler was it. The bingo hall was like another character. There were a few moments I was like “Hurry up and get on with it. “ Overall, I enjoy it and was able to finish the story. Finishing books has been my struggle lately.


I voluntarily read an early copy.

Bet On It was a delightful book perfect for hopeless romantics. I loved the anxiety and PTSD representation and thought it was great. There were some lines that explained exactly how I felt into words. The main characters Aja and Walker are lovable people and really felt real. I've never read a romance story taken place in South Carolina or at a Bingo. This is one of those books you read and think about for a while after you finish. Fast paced and got me out of a reading slump.

I think I'm in the minority, but I didn't love this book. I love romance books, meet cutes, friends with benefits, etc. This book was just strange to me for some reason. I appreciate the realness of anxiety and PTSD as I think more books should mirror real life issues; however, I found it strange that the characters both had such anxiety but are able to be candid and intimate with each other almost right from the beginning.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Walker Abbott comes back to Greenbelt, SC for two things: to take care of his injured grandmother Ms. May and enjoy the perfect peach cobbler. When he takes Ms. May to her weekly bingo night and meets her bingo buddy, Aja Owens, you can bet that more action occurs between the two than just bingo playing!

I LOVED this book. The romance scenes are sweet, the spicy scenes are steamy, and touch on important topics such as mental health and coping. The way Jodie Slaughter writes really immerses the reader into the scene, and the conversations that take place feel so realistic that I could hear the characters talking.

If you’re a fan of romance, spice, and the friends-to-lovers trope, then you will enjoy Bet on It by Jodie Slaughter. I give it 5/5 stars overall and 2/5 on a spice scale. It will be published on July 12th 2022, and will be a hot summer read!

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is such a cute and swoon-worthy romance! My only complaint about this book is how horny-energy the characters were. I realize that I normally read books set in metropolitan areas, so reading this story set in a small town in South Carolina, was such a nice departure from my normal books.

While I'm no expert in mental health issues, I feel like the author dealt with it really well in this book. From navigating anxiety to PTSD within the two characters, I felt Jodie did a really great job of incorporating them into the storyline.

The romance in this book was so soft, I just absolutely loved how Aja and Walker's relationship was developed. This book left me giggling and tearing up. While I do love a good smut scene, and trust me, this book had some good ones, the amount of times the MCs were just thinking about ripping each other's clothes off even in the very beginning when they first started interacting was a bit much for me. However, if you're really into a lusty and soft romance, this book is perfect!

A book with bingo, sex pacts, and anxiety in it, what else could you want? I did enjoy reading this book, but it got repetitive towards the end. A cute book overall though

An amazingly well written book dealing with the mental health issue of anxiety. The characters are well developed and we care about them. Their inner conflicts are real. Unfortunately, pages of angst, lust, and sex do not make a book.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
My favourite romance books are ones that also deal with serious topics. You get to explore complex and at times heavy subject matter, but with the light-hearted cuteness of a love story to help balance it out. Bet on It did just that with its characters dealing with mental health issues while also being involved in a bingo related sex pact. It may sound cheesy but it was a lot of fun. I also really appreciated that both the main characters had their own mental health struggles, which allowed them to relate to each other. I hate it when the conflict in a book stems from one character not being able to understand their romantic partner's mental illness.

Review is posted to my Goodreads account.

I loved reading about Aja and Walker! This has anxiety rep and a swoony steamy romance!! I loved that it also had bingo init.

This a fairly good romance, with plenty of spice and some sweet moments between the two leads. But honestly the writing and the characters just weren’t for me. I felt like a lot of it was extremely repetitive, so much so that I found myself skimming sections of the book.

This is one of the best fwb (friends with benefits) books I've ever read. The bingo, the shenanigans, the friendship, the communication. And whew was it sexy!

Jodie Slaughter could (and has!) make me read any genre of romance because she just masters ROMANCE so beautifully. The beats are there, the emotions are there, the steam is there. Like any other stellar, dynamic romance, this story centers the love story and romantic arc of two (or more, but in this case it is two) people while simultaneously and intrinsically chronically the internal, emotional journey of each party towards a fuller, more integrated, more realized version of themself through healing. The arc of the story is towards a vibrant, supportive community and the new-friends-in-adulthood side plot is so beautiful.

I love a sex deal, especially one that is made for absolutely no discernible reason but is so very important to the characters. The tension! The self-imposed torture for the sake of guarding against future heartbreak! The "slip-ups"! It's delightful, and delightfully steamy.

Walker is a big old cinnamon roll with a whole lot of emotional baggage and Aja is an anxious, introverted, strong-as-all-hell heroine who not only demands to but is fully equipped to take care of herself. She's a fat Black woman and he's a straight-sized White man with PTSD, and watching the two of them learn how to be friends and then more is a delight. It is a strangers to friends to fwb to lovers that masters the most essential part of that plot structure - friendship.

If you like Talia Hibbert (but maybe want a version of her British masterpieces set in the American South), I cannot recommend enough that you pick this one up.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's for this ARC.

CW: Anxiety, PTSD, panic attacks (on page), addiction

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was an absolute DELIGHT to read. I loved the premise but the execution of this love story was better than I imagined.

Right off the bat my heart was invested in the characters. In both Aja and Walker and the difficulties they were overcoming for themselves and the understanding they found with one another. It was glorious, reading the sexual tension between them building and morphing into genuine affection and love.

My heart also ACHED for them, when they faced certain difficulties. My heart was also bursting with pride at them for all the hard work they were putting in to survive the anxiety and panic attacks they live through.

Basically Jodie did her job so wonderfully in making me feel and care about her characters. I cannot WAIT to own a physical copy of this book! I love that I’ll have another book in my library of a fat girl finding love. These books are stories of hope that someday someone will love me for me. Thank you for writing story Jodie.

P.S. beware, this book will make you CRAVE peach cobbler. I’m literally so sad I don’t have a hookup for some good pie.

We meet Aja as she is having a panic attack in the middle of a store in the small town she moved too. Suddenly, a stranger is there helping her breathe through it. (Swooning already.) Fast forward, she meets this stranger again at the weekly bingo night she attends and BOOM, from there on out we experience Aja and Walker slowly falling in love, regardless of how hard they resist. I loved their story, but I think what made it even better was how real and relatable both Aja and Walker were. As someone who has experienced anxiety throughout my entire life, I constantly found myself relating to the experiences of both MCs.

Bet on It by Josie Slaughter is a great contemporary romcom that had me captured from the first page and continued to keep me coming back for more until the end. I really liked this one.