This book was cute! It wasn’t my absolute favorite, but I did like it. The characters were fun, and adorable. I don’t think I’d recommend this to others, as it wasn’t my favorite favorite.

I really wanted to like this book but it did work for me. I did not connect to any of the characters in this book. I really, really want to love it.

My Rating: 3/5 Stars

My Review:
I received a digital ARC from the publisher via TBR and Beyond Tours in exchange for an honest review and place on this blog tour – thanks!

Academic rivals to lovers is one of my favourite iterations of the enemies to lovers trope, and You Bet Your Heart adds an extra layer to that with Sasha and Ezra’s pre existing relationship, making this a best friends to strangers to rivals to lovers story and I feel like that will be enticing to quite a few of you.

Sasha was a very interesting MC. She is so driven and committed to her schooling that she puts on blinders to the rest of the issues around her. So often I wanted to shake her and ask her “What are you doing??”, especially when it came to her friendship with Chance and Priscilla. I enjoyed the way that Sasha is self aware of these issues, and tries her best to fix them, even if the fixes end up being temporary. I would have loved to see more follow through from Parker in these issues, as they seemed to be relegated to the back in favour of Sasha’s relationship with Ezra.

These two definitely had chemistry. I would have loved to have a flashback or two of their previous friendship, to make this pre existing bond between them feel more shown and less told. But I can look past it because they were frankly quite adorable. Though they started off out on a rough foot, by the end I felt more confident in the way that they’d grown with one another.

My favourite part of this book had to be the way that the relationship between Sasha and her mother grows. I loved the routine they had developed with one another and the way they come together to support each other, even without being asked. By the end of the book, they were more in tune with one another than before, and with the way they both had been coping with the loss of Sasha’s father.

All and all, this was a really quick and good read. I think this will be a great addition to any summer TBR or for anyone feeling nostalgic for the problems of high school.

You Bet Your Heart releases May 30th, 2023

Sasha is a soon to be valedictorian. Working super hard to get scholarship that will help her get into college. Ezra is competing with Sasha to be valedictorian. This is more of an academic rivals to lovers but some of the things the MMC did were not something you would do to some they you have loved or like since you were kids. Their banter, while some parts were good, ultimately played as a teenage boy being “mean because he likes her”. I think a lot of younger adults / teens would enjoy this book overall. It did touch on a few sensitive subject but nothing graphic or too detailed. Overall 3/5 for me.

Academic rivals, childhood friends to lovers.

Things that would've made this better:
-more flashbacks of when they were friends, it would've given the reader more context and made the romance more believable
-the dialogue at the beginning is a bit awkward (in the humans don't actually talk like this way)
-more character development, they all felt very 2D
-better chemistry

Thank you soooooo much netgalley, the author and the publisher for the advanced review copy if this book💗
"I voluntarily read and reviewed the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”



Gorgeous book!!!

This had such a unique topic and I loved it. Sometimes, I think I've aged out of YA books but then a book like this comes along and restores my ability to read and relate to YA literature.

I think both main characters were sketched out well and the author did a great job of making them realistic.

This book was solid and had everything I look for in a YA book. I look forward to reading more by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Joy Revolution for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

You Bet Your Heart is about Sasha, a type A high school student gunning for class valedictorian and the scholarship that goes along with it. She is still learning how to deal with her father's death. She thinks she has the title in the bag but learns that she is tied with her ex-best friend, Ezra who has returned after a few years away on the East Coast. Sasha is so obsessed with winning valedictorian that she doesn't want to leave it to chance and suggests a bet on the outcome of three academic tasks. Best of the three wins the title.

Full disclosure, I DNF'ed this book at 60%. Sasha was a self-centered, entitled bitch. Ezra was your typical super intelligent but artsy with a troubled past love interest who was honestly too nice to Sasha given how she treats him.

Teenagers can tend to be a bit self-centered so I get that as a choice for your main character. But [spoilers]the complete invasion of Ezra's privacy by stealing and reading through his thumb drive motivated by her desire to win their bet is just so juvenile that I physically couldn't keep reading.[/spoilers] It made me so sick to my stomach to read about the lengths Sasha would go that I just stopped reading and after a few days actively chose to never pick up the book again.

Also, the romance between them sprang up out of nowhere. I don't get how Sasha can go from obsessed with winning to fawning over a guy she practically hates, [spoilers] ditching her mom and friends for a school assignment makes sense for her but to then extend that for a date with Ezra didn't feel in character and I didn't understand why she would make that choice.[/spoilers]

⭐️ ⭐️ (1.5)

Content Warnings: invasion of privacy

Thank you NetGalley and author for this ARC!

I enjoyed it a lot! Such a cute book. This book is a fun and flirty romantic comedy. I highly recommend this and will most definitely will be reading again. Cute YA! I highly recommend this!

This was a lot of fun! Academic rivals are always a trip. I definitely related to both of their experiences. Definitely worth checking out.

You Bet Your Heart is one of those books that sweeps you away. You try to figure out what will happen. Because when you risk your heart, your future, the consequences can be disastrous. For Sasha she has to discover what her dreams, her love, and her friends, are worth to her. Is her future worth anything in her life? The grades, the 'securities', the possibilities. Throughout You Bet Your Heart, Sasha is confronted with both challenges to her future, and ghosts from her past.

You Bet Your Heart is a young adult novel with black lead characters Ezra and Sasha. The story revolves around the competition for valedictorian, while the romance between the two blossoms.

Sasha was a fun MC for most of the story, ready to go to any extent to win the title she believes she deserves and the attached scholarship. Her extreme desire to pay a 'tribute' to all those who sacrificed for her was what distanced me from her. Ezra didn't have a POV in the story (I would have liked that) so I don't feel as strongly about him. I never understood his motives for winning the position and his initial meddling personality.

The third act and ending were extremely rushed. To put it simply, the romantic feelings literally pop out of nowhere and then it becomes super serious, and we have no clue what's going on. The last few chapters made no sense and although there is a character arc, it is so abrupt that the MCs feel like different people by the last page.

I had some expectations from this book but it didn't live up to the blurb. I'm not impressed by it, so I don't recommend it, but I wouldn't discourage you either. So if you want to pick it up, go ahead my all means.

“You Bet Your Heart” by Danielle Parker is a sweet YA coming-of-age novel that sees two former best friends overcome their differences and challenge one another to step outside of their comfort zones. Sasha Johnson-Sun (lovingly known to very few as SJ) and Ezra Davis-Goldberg become friends in elementary school, bonding over their long last names, being biracial (SJ Black & Korean, Ezra Black & Jewish) , and their shared nerdy interests. The pair suffered a pretty harsh falling out, and don’t reconnect until they find out that they’re tied for valedictorian and a $30k scholarship from their high school, Skyline. Sasha has worked incredibly hard to be the best of the best in school to honor her late father and her mother who cleans houses for families in much more privileged positions than they are. Ezra deals with pressure to succeed, and does so almost effortlessly, but lacks the drive and dedication to his future that Sasha boasts. Instead of leaving the results up to the principal’s discretion or letting themselves just run the rest of their high school courses as normal, Sasha and Ezra set up a bet system on their final big assignments and placed the stakes that with the best two out of three, the winner would take all.

The story follows Sasha as she is on a journey to have a deeper understanding of the meanings of life and what legacy really is. Her passion for success is admirable and awe-inspiring, but she struggles to find herself in any other aspects of her life. When Ezra re-enters her life, she begins to buff up against her usual rigid and strategic ways and starts to let loose and enjoy herself and her youth.

The bets get a little messy, and the both of them do petty things in the name of competition, but the time they spend together forces them both to come clean with themselves about the reasons they fell out in the first place and confront them with one another. I do wish that one particular thing that Sasha mentions that Ezra said to her out of anger was addressed outright because it needed acknowledgment and a more explicit apology, in my opinion. But the story is adorable, well-crafted, and feels pretty true to a high school experience (aside from the scholarship size, maybe I’m not hip to high schools that can roll like that, but wow). Grief is handled with delicate care, and the ways that both Sasha and her mom deal with their feelings show just some aspects of the range of expression one can have when going through an intense loss. I really enjoyed this read and rate it a solid 4 stars.

You Bet Your Heart was such a cute book and gave me everything I need in a YA contemporary romance!

Sasha is a very determined and focused character and hopes to be the high school valedictorian, but her plans are put on hold when she discovers she is tied with her ex-best friend, Ezra. Ezra moved away years ago not long after Ezra and Sasha had an argument and didn’t reconcile. Since he’s been back, they haven’t spoke and act as though they don’t know each other. Learning about the tie kick starts sasha and Ezra into spending more time together, whether Sasha likes it or not.

Determined to win, Sasha and Ezra agree to a bet, and whoever loses has to flop their last assignment so the other has a clear shot at valedictorian. I love academic rivals and it’s even better when they both have shared history that is eventually brought up but leaves you guessing about what happened. Sasha and Ezra work through a lot of things in this book and grow a lot closer whilst doing so.

Sasha feels like she must go to uni and win the valedictorian position and the scholarship money as her mother’s dreams were put on hold when her father died and she could no longer afford the time or money to go to university. Therefore, Sasha’s priority was always school and education, and Ezra comes in and kinda shakes that up a bit. There were definitely some moments where I would have kicked off more at Ezra for potentially disrupting her chances, but Sasha remained a lot calmer than me!

I really enjoyed this one and definitely need to read more books off the Joy Revolution imprint because they never disappoint!

I love YA books that don't have a ton of teen drama. Sasha and Ezra used to be best friends, until a falling out and when he moved away, she didn't even miss him. Even a little...
Ezra and Sasha are now pitted against each other for valdictorian and a scholarship that Sasha needs. Ezra feeds into this game they play, but only so he can have Sasha's attention, he misses her but will never tell her that. So they come up with bets and whoever wins will win the scholarship and the other will forfeit. When the games start feeling like something more, will Sasha choose love over her life path or will she let what she thinks her family wants get in her way of happiness?
I liked that this book felt real, these two had family drama and it impacted their ways of thinking. We don't really understand how much what goes on around us in high school molds us and shapes us, but this book hit the nail on the head.
Thanks to Random House, Netgalley and Danielle Parker for an early copy.

This book was utter perfection and a great YA read. Sasha and Ezra were best friends, now student rivals, betting to see who will win the Valedictorian spot, and some scholarship money. I totally understand Sasha and her reasons to why she has been working so hard to get to that point, she lost her dad, her mom has struggles most of her life, she wanted to be the first generation to go to college, but shes missing something, and then we have Ezra. He is biracial, Like Sasha, but he's more carefree, he's an intelligent person, but he enjoys life, doesn't take things too serious and is going with the flow. They both teach each-other something valuable, and their romance blossoms in such a beautiful way. Their relationship teaches her how to work hard but not lose ourself in pursue of those goals, being happy where you at in life, and also giving back.

I was heartbroken when I finished this book, thats how much I loved it. Thanks NetGalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

I really wanted to love this book. I was so excited for diverse characters in a grumpy x sunshine love trope. I wasn’t that big a fan of SJ and even less of a fan of her chemistry with Ezra. The relationship and their connection always came across as sort of meh but I was hoping other parts of the story could make up for it. I thought maybe her bonds with her friends might be fun but that also seemed to fall flat. I did like her relationship with her mom. It was sweet. I wish we saw more layers to SJ and maybe things might have been different if the story was from Ezra’s point of view. He seemed like a fun character. I’d still tell others to check it out but the romance and depth wasn’t there for me. 3.5 stars.

Thank you Danielle Parker and Joy Revolution for the advanced reader copy of You Bet Your Heart. 3.5 Stars!

This story follows our main character Sasha, SJ, on her path to graduating High School and trying to get the Valedictorian Title and Scholarship at her school. However, what she thinks is a done deal is no longer as easy as she thinks when she finds out her old best friend turned enemy, Ezra is, also, in the running. Instead of letting the decision fall into the principle's hand, Sasha takes it on herself to make a bet with Ezra to determine who gets the title.

Sasha's character is extremely determined, confident and strong and definitely a someone to look up to, but, also, has faults of letting herself live her life and experience everything life has to offer. Ezra steps in to show Sasha that life is much more than your accomplishments. While Sasha holds a strong stance on wanting to succeed in life, Ezra breaks down her walls by reemerging into her life and pushing her outside of her comfort zone. as well as melting her heart.

Overall, I found this story to be cute and sweet, but, also, done before. It wasn't anything super special and the writing trying to incorporate slang from Gen Z really broke my ability to fully fall into the novel. I am giving this a 3.5 stars.

I enjoyed most of this book! Sasha is a great young adult main character. Her characteristics are exactly how I imagine an eighteen year old thinks. Ezra is a curveball I really enjoyed. Even though this story is told in Sasha’s point of view, I really felt like I got a lot of Ezra’s thoughts.

The ending was not as powerful as I needed it to be. The build up was perfect, the heartbreak even better, then the resolution was just…flat. If it weren’t for that I think this would be one of my go-to YA recommendations!

Thank you NetGalley for an early read!

I'm just not feeling this one. The MC is a little too whiny, and there just doesn't seem to be any depth to it emotionally. It could just be my mood right now, and the fact that the last book I read was only a two-star read, but this book isn't for me.