Hottie Noah West moves next door to firecracker Gillian Pritchard, who is really into gardening, especially the local small town competition. When he mauls her plants bordering his property, it's WAR!

Pluses: a lot of their banter was hilarious, and the side characters are a real gas. Especially the old women. The romance develops pretty much as romances do, buuuuut.....

While I think the author meant to be fat-sympathetic, there are moments when it get cringey, and I was pushed out of the story by the underlying fat phobia, which seemed to come out of nowhere.

We do get a happy ending, but it wasn't the smooth read that I'd hoped for.

- Small town
- Quirky neighbors
- Enemies to lovers
- Banter
- Fauna fiasco

I adored the Rom-Com Agenda, so I was excited for the follow up story. Featuring Gillian from the group of friends tasked with Eli's makeover, this cute story was a true delight.

Based in the small upstate NY town of Willow Grove, which is more of a seasonal destination, Gillian is dipping into the dating world slowly, but is more focused on making her garden first prize worthy. She is still stinging from placing third in last year's gardening contest. She has a plan in place, which is ruined by her new next door neighbor, Noah, who decides to remove the hedges from his yard that were the perfect backdrop for the colorful flowers Gillian was planting.

Although Noah is smoking hot, this floral affront will not be tolerated and Gillian directs her full rage upon him. Noah is attracted to Gillian, but doesn't understand her attachment to the hedges. But when Noah somehow enters the gardening contest, will there be an ongoing battle between neighbors?

This is a closed door romance with lots of banter (which I love!). I am looking forward to more from this author.

In one book you're going to take some enemies to lovers, add a dash of hilarious banter, some red hot tension, and one adorable gnome and prepare to fall in love. Jayne Denker has never made gardening sound so perfect for meeting your soulmate. I'm a sucker for the enemies to lovers/ rivals to lovers trope because the build up and almost fight against acknowledging the chemistry and attraction just puts me under a spell.

Set in an adorable small town, Gillian is getting her feet back into the dating pool after a not so pleasant divorce while Noah is starting over and somehow gets off on the wrong foot with his new neighbor. Filled with characters that make you laugh and want to cry. this tight knit bunch are just one aspect of the lovable story. There's the perfect level of arguing and quick-wit comments between the two to build that tension up. We've got a dual POV story-line to really deepen the connection with both characters and we even get just a bit of scandal and drama within the town.

A perfect 'wishing it was summer already' read to break up these winter blues and warm you up with an adorable romance.

Gillian is a pharmacist in the adorable small town of Willow Cove. She loves her community, friends, and garden, and she is determined to win the first-place trophy in this year’s garden contest. The only thing missing in her life is someone to share it with. It’s been years since her divorce, and after much cajoling from her friends and the group of retired ladies in her neighborhood, she decides to try out the dating scene. Multiple dating apps and massively failed dates later, Gillian is starting to lose hope in finding someone extraordinary.

Meanwhile, Noah West needed some significant change in his life. After his relationship with Corinne fell flat, he decided to sell his business and move across the country to the small town where he spent several summers of his adolescent years. He buys the marina where he worked as a teen and expects his new direction in life to be smooth sailing. Unfortunately, he starts on the wrong foot with his neighbor, Gillian. He soon discovers everyone in town adores Gillian, and he’s just made himself more enemies than just his next-door neighbor.

Hedging Your Bets is a cute, enemies-to-lovers, small-town rom-com. The gardening theme and community competition were fun, and I loved Gillian’s spunky personality. Gillian, the FMC, is plus-sized, and while this is a theme of the novel, it isn’t the main focus. I appreciated Gillian’s no-nonsense attitude toward other’s unwarranted opinions.

While I enjoyed this overall, it was kind of just average to me. I don’t have any big complaints, but nothing felt overwhelmingly unique or special, either. I gave this 3.5 stars but rounded up to 4.

I switched between the audio and ebook versions. I listened to at least 75% of the story and liked the narration. I loved that there were two narrators, one for Gillian’s chapters and one for Noah’s.

Thank you @dreamscapemedia, @netgalley, and @stmartinspress, for the gifted ALC and ARC.

I love enemies to lovers! It's one of my favorite troupes because it creates some hilarious moments in addition to the romance. I quickly fell in love with Gillian and Noah though. This book made me laugh and I think anyone looking for a cute romantic comedy will love it!

This was a cute rom-com that had plenty of laughable moments, a frustrating slow-burn enemies to lovers romance and a lot of incredible supporting characters. I enjoyed the banter and the characters - but I didn't adore the book. I was frustrated by some of it - I found the dynamic between the main characters hard to believe. They hated one another, but it was kind of hard to not feel as if they were blowing things out of proportion. Their attraction was apparent from early on, but again, they both pretended it didn't exist. It was honestly frustrating. I also found that the focus on her being a healthy weight and therefore deserving love was off-putting. I do not think that health or size should matter when it comes to someone's happiness and how they are treated by others. Yes, you need to be attracted to someone you are dating, but that is personal to EVERY individual...and does not mean that you can make a blanket statement that someone who is bigger/smaller is more attractive. Or healthier. Or deserves happiness more. It just rubbed me the wrong way and took away from the cuteness of the book, in my opinion. That being said, if you are looking for a fun cast of characters, definitely give this a try.
Thank you Netgalley for my advanced reader copy.

Loved this continuation of Denker's other story set in Willow Cove - strong character development and though predictable, a sweet story.

Oh, I love a good enemies-to-lovers with incredible banter and wit! The forced proximity was top-notch as well. I really loved Jayne Denker's writing in this book - I've read her other books as well so this is just added to the list! The settings and details were done so well, that I could perfectly picture everything, and I now want to get into gardening because this was beautiful!

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to review this book!

3.5 stars

This has all the makings of a cute closed-door romance. It has a town you will fall in love with, along with a whole cast of characters from the town that give it charm. While I loved that part, I just didn’t feel first the enemies part (it’s his land? Legit how can she pretend even to be that mad?) and then their slow burn romance. In the end I suppose she was with him because all the other choices in the town were so horrible? I liked some of the gardening and that she was a pharmacist comfortable in her body. I didn’t like the blackmail part. If you like small town chaste romances with a gardening element, I would give this a try.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, I DNF this book. In the first three chapters I already felt something was missing and the info dump was tough to keep up with. When a figment of Gillians' imagination said that her neighbor might be gay - I couldn't tell if it was meant in a derogatory way. I gave her the benefit of the doubt and thought "certainly not" and continued reading. I did not care for how Gillian described herself (almost admonishing herself for not being thin), so I decided to look up reviews to see if this changes. Reports said it did not - so I quit reading.

Might be a book for someone else, but not for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc. Unfortunately this one was a miss for me. I need to realize that true rom coms (not marketed as even though it's a contemporary romance) are not my thing. I found their becoming enemies rather ridiculous and it felt like we spent most of the book with them disliking each other for stupid reasons. I also found Louise March and her blackmail really dumb. I did enjoy when they came together to work on their gardens. Ultimately I wanted more gardening, more bonding and less implausible outside character actions.
I contemplated DNFing multiple times, and it did get better as it went on, but just was not for me. I'm rounding up to 3 stars because there's nothing wrong with this book, it just wasn't for me.

Rating: 4/5
I received an eARC for my honest opinion.

If you have read The Rom-Com Agenda, you will know that it’s about a small town romcom with a twist. You will see characters that you got to know in that book in this one and see how the other characters are fairing now as well.

I love that this book is a standalone but it’s about the same small-town Willow Cove and with all the amazing characters that I came to love in the first book.

I love small town romances and Denker does a wonderful job with them. I love that I really do feel like I am in a small town with them and that I know all the characters as though they’re my long-time friends. I really enjoyed this enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy that was full of great humor and love.

I thought the plot was done well. You will see where the characters meet up and get to know the town more and see what interest these new characters have in this town, but it is the characters that really make this book great.

I loved getting to know Gillian more, and I really enjoyed getting to know her story. It’s a little sad but honestly, it’s what happens in this world so much with a lot of people that can relate to her. I found her character to be easily relatable and to connect with. I loved her sense of humor and that she never gives up on something that she wants to see come to life. I enjoyed getting to see a side of her that really wanted to hate and ruin Noah’s garden but she couldn’t do it because she is deep down a really sweet person. I thought Denker did a great job with making the chemistry between Gillian and Noah realistic, you can see that they both like what they see on the outside but due to situations when they met the first time it takes them a while to see that they really do like each other and for me it was believable.

Denker is amazing at making heartwarming, fun, great banter, and amazing characters for her books. They’re all relatable, well-developed and will hold a special place in your heart for small town romances.

I can’t wait to see who is next in Willow Cove to get a chance at love.

I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to review this book.

Noah, a walking red flag incapable of basic human interaction, meets Gillian, a human doormat, and hilarity ensues (not) in a small upstate New York town. In three quarters of the book, they have absolutely nothing in common, a complete inability to have a civil conversation, and yet inexplicably want to bone every time they see one another? There are approximately 58752 locals involved in their “ship”, which is the the literal definition of my worst nightmare. Gillian is obsessed with how her body is perceived by others, Noah is obsessed with everything except the fact that he’s an ahole to perfect strangers, and the author is obsessed with repeating the same facts over and over again (WE GET IT, ITS DRY AS FCK IN THE DESERT AND NOT IN UPSATE NY). The so-called “drama” around a gardening competition could have been sweet/cozy but was ultimately ridiculous and honestly boring (and I enjoy gardening). There was zero chemistry between the main characters and I have no idea why these two people are in love, other than Noah is on the rebound and Gillian is desperate for affection.

I gave a .5⭐️ for Noah’s naked dancing with a garden gnome cause that shit was funny as hell.

This was an adorably sweet romance full of heart and joy. I enjoyed the relationship growth between the two main characters. The main thing enjoyed? COMMUNICATION. They communicated their problems and worked them out together. It was a refreshing change from the third act breakup in this genre. There was no *spice* but that's just a personal preference and I was able to enjoy the story for what it was. I also liked that the main character was plus sized. The problems and feelings she had were very realistic and I was happy to see that explored. I will look out for this author in the future.
Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for this ARC.

Hedging Your Bets is Jayne Denker’s newest sweet romantic comedy starring feuding neighbors. It includes characters from The Rom-Com Agenda but can be read as a stand-alone.

Gillian Pritchard is a divorced pharmacist in Willow Cove, New York. She is happily single and reluctant to date after several disappointing matches from dating apps. Although she is 5’ 8” and full-figured, in good shape, she gets fat shamed. She spends her spare time socializing with her female neighbors and working in her garden. She enters a gardening competition each year and is determined to win.

Noah West has just moved to Willow Cove, where he spent teen-age summers with his beloved Uncle Manny. Noah sold his art gallery in Palm Springs after a bad breakup and bought both the house next door to Gillian and Spencer’s Marina. Noah’s allergies kick in as soon as he arrives in town, so he immediately digs up the bushes just inside his property line. That upsets his new neighbor because it was part of her landscape design.

When Noah also enters the gardening contest, the competition between him and Gillian really heats up. They have totally different styles, and there’s a lot of descriptions of their plant arrangements. Noah is attracted to Gillian, and he sees her size as an asset. They have a lot of chemistry and their banter is hilarious.

Hedging Your Bets is a sweet romantic comedy, with no profanity or sex. It’s refreshing to read a story about a professional woman who has her act together and is happy with her size. The chemistry and banter between Gillian and Noah are outstanding. The cameos of Leah and Eli Masterson from The Rom-Com Agenda are an added bonus. This is a well-written romantic comedy that will be enjoyed by fans of Hallmark movies.

I received an advance review copy (ARC) from NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I love me a good enemies to lovers story and what is better than neighbour nemesis’? I loved this one so much and the friend group in this series is the best! Noah & Gillian’s banter was top notch and I loved every second.

Thank you to netgalley & St Martin’s press for letting me read this one in exchange for an honest review.

hedging your bets was a slow burn, enemies to lovers romance surrounding an upcoming garden competition. i really wanted to like this book but it was so slow and it introduced side characters that didn’t really add much to the story. they just needed to get together way earlier because it was dragging for me.

First and foremost, I am thankful to be able to give my thoughts and reviews for this early read. Secondly, this is my first rom-com! I thoroughly enjoyed every page and felt all emotions in this book. The author has such a way of getting the reader to be engaged and fully immersed in the pages.

First read of the year and it was an amazing read. Characters, the plot, and even plot twists were thought out well. This book tugged at my heart strings and even made me laugh. All in all, I would recommend this book to everyone.

This was so stinking cute! I’m so happy I started my 2024 reading year off with this lovely book.

After being happily divorced for several years, Gillian realizes she’s happy to stay that way after many failed dating app attempts. That is under she meets her hot new neighbor and they go head to head in the community garden competition.

I absolutely adored Noah and Gillian. Their chemistry was a hit from the beginning and the banter just made it even better. I also loved the garden competition and the freakin gnome! I was rolling about the gnome.

If you love a good enemies to lovers romcom then I highly recommend checking this one out! This beauty releases on January 9th!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for the e-arc!

Jayne Denker had written an adorable enemies to lovers romance. Noah and Jillian start off on the wrong door as neighbors when Noah removed a hedge. They found many ways to agree to disagree. Slowly they find common ground, and the HEA is just totally sweet.