I didn't vibe with the book but that doesn't mean someone else won't.

I usually like small-town romances, (the community characters especially the older ladies were funny as hell)

Yet the way Gillian and Noah were at each other's throats felt a little overkill that even though I knew they were supposed to be together I had a hard time believing it.

They both were scorned before but some of their reactions to each other made it harder for me to see them together in the end.

I did like the resolution though!

This book was just okay for me. It wasn’t a stand out story and I found I just pushed through. I don’t mind a closed door romance and this was done okay. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

If you are looking for a cure clean rom com, then Jayne Denker is for you. I love her characters, their interactions, and the whole story. There are more characters in this world and I really hope that we will get their stories as well!!

I did find that the story jumped in a bit quickly at the beginning, almost expecting you to already know things about the characters, but once I caught up with the pace I was hooked. I will definitely pick up anything else that Denker writes!

What do you do when your hot new neighbor is also not easy to get along with? Gillian is happily single and just casually dating after her divorce. She loves to spend time in her time in the yard and is hoping to win a local gardening contest. The last thing she needs is her hot new neighbor ruining her chances. Noah is new to to town after a very messy breakup. Noah and Gillian do not get along right away and start to compete against each other. Their fiery banter leads to some tension as they compete against each other. This one was pretty cute but I just never fully got on board with Noah and Gillian.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Hedging Your Bets was a fun rom com read, perfect for fans of:
- small town. neighbours romance
- enemies to lovers
- garden competition
- garden gnome

The banter between Noah and Gillian was great, creating undeniable chemistry between them, and the side characters were hilarious. Loved this one and recommend to others!

I really wanted to like this book as someone that can appreciate gardening, however, I felt like the plot was disconnected, It didn’t feel like it was focusing on one major plot point, but a bunch of different issues at once. It also didn’t feel like the book flowed and that the romance came very quick and towards the end of the book.

DNF at 42%. I really wanted to like this book. Enemies-to-lovers and forced proximity are some of my favorite tropes, and I was excited to read a romance centered around gardening! It was a great plot idea and could have been a read I really enjoyed. But there was a lot of miscommunication throughout the book and both characters seemed to snap and blow up at each other for absolutely no reason. Their reactions, both in anger and attraction, were very overblown and annoyed me so much that I couldn't keep reading. I hope other people can enjoy this book since the plot seemed fun, but it was not for me.

This was such a cute cozy closed door romance with enemies to friends. Honestly the love story was adorable but I loved all the supporting characters even more. Carol, Annette, and Judy were so fun!! I enjoyed their antics from spying to inviting Noah to brunch to their showdown with Louise. Noah and Giliian made such a great couple even when they didn’t see it. I really enjoyed how each encounter layered onto the last until they were head over heels for each other.

A pretty cute rom com. Easy to read and the side characters were fun. Really enjoyed the senior citizen lady squad. The main characters seemed to actually fancy each other which is more than I can say for most of the rom coms I’ve read lately.

this was really cute and did a solid job with the slow burn enemies-to-lovers trope. i was entertained by each of Gillian’s online dating misadventures, and i loved all the characters and their small-town, close-knit relationships (especially the nosy neighbour lady trio)

i did find it a bit slow pace-wise but i’m also typically someone who leans towards fantasy with romance and not “just” romance reads. the author did a solid job showing and not just telling the FMC’s lived experience as a plus-size woman dating and living in a world not designed for her success

Such a fun follow-up to The Rom-Com Agenda. I loved revisiting the quirky crew from the town of Willow Cove and meeting new friends. Sparks flew between Noah and Gillian and with Denker's witty dialogue, it was a very charming ride.

While I did mention Hedging Your Bets being a cozy read, it’s not always that way. The book follows Gillian, a pharmacist and enthusiastic gardener who is hoping for her chance at first place in Willow Cove’s gardening competition. Her dreams go sideways when her new neighbor, Noah West moves in and completely destroys a major part of her garden. From there, these two can’t stop bickering.

As much as I enjoyed it, it was clear that Gillian and Noah were having misunderstanding after misunderstanding. I just wanted to smack their heads together and tell them to get a grip. It did take a while but the two started to warm up to each other. From there, it felt like both of them melted into puddles of goo and couldn’t help but glance longingly at the other and wish for a kiss which was just delightful to read.

Getting back to the garden competition, Noah ends up with an unexpected opportunity to best Gillian and save his own skin. While the idea is a little predictable, I enjoyed how Jayne Denker decided to tackle this. It could have been a huge blow-out fight in the third act of the story but it wasn’t. It gave Gillian and Noah a chance to talk, understand and grow closer which is so rare these days.

Hedging Your Bets might be low-angst, but the characters are dealing with a lot. Gillian is divorcing and trying to date which results in many jerks. She’s also targeted constantly for being curvy by someone in the town with a lot of power. In addition, Noah is reeling from a big breakup and being away from his ex’s son. Despite that, the two grow close and it’s just amazing to watch unfold.

As far as romances go, this was one of my favorites but I do feel like it could have done with a sparkling more of something. I don’t know what it needed but I could have done with something to spice the plot up. Maybe it needed a sex scene or a big fight or something, but there was a disconnect for me. All in all, it was great aside from my one complaint.

I enjoyed this book and found it to be fun. It started off as an enemies to lovers, which isn't always my favorite trope, but I liked it here. I liked the slowish burn and seeing the two characters getting closer over time. I liked that both Noah and Gillian had past relationships and I enjoyed learning about their history and how it influenced their present.

Overall I would give this book 3.25 stars.

I got this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

Fun and intere, fresh story and lived the two main characters. This rom com was cute and nice to read , very refreshing.

As this was my first read from this author and I just have to say that I adored this book. I love that the book takes place in a small town in Upstate New York and not the city this time I love a little change. The characters throughout the story find themselves whether it was moving to find something better or getting over a breakup. Their Journeys were refreshing. I love how the story moves nice but it's also slow burn so you're able to keep up while wanting more.

3.5 stars rounded down. This ended up being a sweet closed-door romance. The first ~60% and the last ~40% felt honestly pretty different, and the last 40% changed how I felt about the book (in a good way).

Hedging Your Bets takes place in Willow Cove, a charming small town on the water, and it comes with all the typical small town shenanigans (meddling old lady gangs, terribly small dating pool, Taylor Doose-style person who runs too many things in the town, etc.). Gillian is a pharmacist and gardener who has her heart set on winning the town's gardening competition and is reentering the dating pool after divorcing her husband who didn't like that she was mid/plus size. Noah is new to town, having left California after a breakup, and he buys the house next to Gillian sight unseen as well as the marina in town when his uncle, who lives in Willow Cove, tells him about it. Gillian and Noah have several meet-disasters, resulting in a "he/she is so annoying and I hate him/her but also he/she is hot and that makes me even more mad."

I'll start with the things I liked about the book. The meddling old lady gang was hilarious. They always appear, and they always know everything, and this particular meddling old lady gang was generally helpful.

I also generally speaking liked Gillian and Noah's dynamic. When they were bickering, there were some good pranks that were played. And once they finally admitted they liked each other, they were sweet. There wasn't any miscommunication, and there wasn't a third act break-up, and they were silly and funny and nice to each other.

On the other hand, there were times that they were mean to each other, and it wasn't in a cute enemies-to-lovers kind of way, which was less enjoyable to read about. And in the front half of the book, part of why I wasn't enjoying reading it as much was the presence of a villain who was genuinely bad.

The back half of the book definitely made up for the front half, so it ended up being nice to read. But the front half was definitely a slog for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an eARC of Hedging Your Bets in exchange for my honest review.

Cutie little small-town, slow burn, enemy(ish)-to-lovers, closed door romance.

We follow our FMC, Gillian-pharmacist and gardener extraordinaire- as she navigates day-to-day life in the sleepy little town of Willow Cove. And life is going well for her until Noah West moves next door-highly opinionated and suffering from a wicked case of allergies-and rips out bushes that were part of her garden design. This is the beginning of their little feud, but we also see them battling with being secretly attracted to each other.

This was pretty slow burn, the majority of it was spent with them bickering back and forth, and Gillian trying (and failing) to date men via dating apps. I didn't LOVE Noah and Gillian together; I didn't feel like they had great chemistry, but I enjoyed the build up to them getting together. The friend group dynamic in this book was my favorite part. I love their love for each other, and their interactions and protectiveness and banter with each other. The one part of this that I just really didn't like was her "Inner Bette" voice. She is described as some sort of phantom that talks/interacts with Gillian, giving her dating advice, and judging her, which was weird to me. I don't feel like her character added anything beneficial to the book. Thank you to Netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

I’m so excited NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press gave me the opportunity to enjoy this fun and funny book from Jayne Denker in exchange for my honest review.
Gillian and Noah, both freshly single, find themselves living next door to each other in Willow Cove. I found this closed door romance to be cute and entertaining, but the sometimes dragged out enemies-to-lovers had me a bit annoyed at times. The very many Willow Cove residents did add colorful flair. I appreciated Denker’s plus-size protagonist and the authentic experience that went along with a woman daring to live a happy life in a larger body.
If anyone is looking for an enjoyable rom-com, I will be suggesting they add Hedging Your Bets to their TBR list.

I really enjoyed The Rom Com Agenda last year so I was really excited for another trip to Willow Cove and the group of characters I loved there. This book focuses on Gillian and her new neighbor, Noah. Overall, I thought this one was just okay. There were some cute and funny moments (the little old lady neighbors were adorable!) and I did like when the enemies FINALLY turned to lovers, but the story didn’t really grab me the way The Rom Com Agenda did. The garden competition, which seemed like a HUGE deal in the synopsis and beginning of the book, felt like an afterthought towards the middle of the book to the point where I forgot it was happening. Both Gillian and Noah were interesting characters, but there was nothing that made me feel especially connected to them. This was just a middle of the pack book for me. I’m assuming there will be a third Willow Cove book and if it’s centered on Delia and Gray, I will absolutely read it!


Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced digital reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was just okay. I wouldn’t say it’s bad and it may be just what a gardener, small-town, clean romance lover might like. But I found the character’s inner Bette phantom distracting, didn’t like how the main character Gillian seemed to be completely gorgeous and a beautiful person inside, but would be made to feel as ugly due to her size by less than ideal dating app individuals. It was a bit ridiculous. So, while I did finish this book and the predictable ending was nice, it wouldn’t be one I would recommend not read again. I did like that the romance wasn’t a vulgar one.

I received this ARC from the publisher for my honest opinion review.