Jace and Alessandra are brought together but two separate bets. Her's being that she has to date the next guy that asks and give him three dates and he is to bring her as his date to the biggest night in sports. Even though Alessandra is a very clumsy and awkward girl Jace helps bring out another side of her. With a lot of hilarious banter and sexual chemistry between the two, the bet turns out to be the best thing that's ever happened to them.

Loved The Bet by Elizabeth Hayley!! thought the story was both sexy & sweet- the author did an amazing job of creating interesting & emotionally unique characters.

The Bet is the first book in the players series & I can't wait to read the next one.

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

Another super sexy book by Elizabeth Hayley. I can hardly wait to see what she comes up with next!

Honestly I found Jace and Allesandra to be just ok. Found it difficult to be engaged in their storyline or their development. I was hoping/expecting more. Unfortunately too much skimming through because I couldn't find myself interested enough.

I voluntarily read an advanced review copy of this book

This book was pretty good I liked where they were going with the book but for some reason I couldnt get sucked into the world that Elizabeth was creating.

Overall not a bad book I absolutely loved how Jace and Alessandra interacted and thought she was the star of the book.

Loved Jace and Ayl's love story. Bets brought two unlikely people love. Great emotional read filled with humor. Recommended read

I liked this funny story with its quirky heroine. I loved the way Aly and Jace got together for their date. The cute meet sort of tone to it being their friends who goaded them into it. I liked the downs in the story too because without them we wouldn't have the ending. I liked that even Jace, Mr. big football hero, had confidence issues just like Aly had issues not being upset that she was used as the example to her sister.

After multiple attempts, I couldn't get past the immaturity of the main characters. DNF at 20%

Look folks. I know there are lot of you out there who just can’t get into sports romances for various reasons: the storylines are formulaic, the characters are one-dimensional, there isn’t enough actual ‘sport,’ the athletes are made out to be god-like… and unfortunately, stories like The Bet, only reinforce those negative stereotypes. The novel is clichéd and dull – and the heroine, who is supposed to be intelligent and complex comes off mostly as insecure, boring and contradictory. The ‘bet’ that powers the story is offensive and derogatory to women, and the novel lacks substance. The Bet reads like a highlight reel of things these authors like about sports romance novels, linked together by the flimsiest of plots.

Jace – the Jet – Benning is a big deal. Quarterback of the fictional Jersey Commanders football team, he’s a major player, both on the field and with the ladies. When we meet him, he’s visiting sixteen year old cancer patient James in his hospital room as part of a charity he supports, Victory for Kids. Their conversation is interrupted by Dr. Alessandra Mastrazacoma, James’ oncologist. She’s all business until she spots Jace, and then she’s flustered and seems to have trouble stringing together a sentence (he’s hot and a FAMOUS football player – did you miss that?). He amused by her response and teases her about her long name. She’s awkward, tense and fidgety, and finally settles herself by crossing her arms across her chest;

Which only served to show what a nice chest she had. Not porn-star fake, but large enough to fill out an outfit. Jace realized he was likely staring and quickly lifted his eyes.
(He’s a real keeper, ladies).

Alessandra doesn’t like his teasing or his super hilarious nickname for her – ‘Master of Coma.’ When he asks if her name made it hard to get a job, she decides to put him in his place:

“Actually,” she said, “getting this job was fairly easy. There weren’t any other applicants who graduated at the top of the class and had multiple articles published in a medical journal.”
Cue the eye-roll. If Jace is a superstar on the football field, we’re meant to believe Alessandra is his match in the doctor department. She’s smart, feisty, attractive, and not interested in the handsome football star flirting with her (oh, yes she is). Though she puts on a good show, Jace flusters her and she flees the room as soon as she can.

Though Jace and Alessandra are curious about each other, they have little in common and no expectation of seeing one another again. So despite a flare of attraction on both sides, neither makes any attempt to pursue the other. But fate and friends (the best kind! They’re funny! Attractive! Risk takers!) have other plans. Out one night at an ultra-secret, cool-kids-only club with two fellow athletes (his former college roommates and best friends), Jace and his buddies get to talking about an awards ceremony they all plan to attend. Joking leads to betting, and before long, the guys challenge each other over who can bring the most gorgeous date – who isn’t a model or actress – and the winner gets bragging rights. Because they’re assholes (oh, did I say that out loud?). Meanwhile, Alessandra is out having dinner with her best friend, Lane. The friends gossip about Dr. Boyer – Alessandra’s supervisor – and his super creepy sexual harassment behavior (which for some reason she tolerates), Lane’s pathetic dating life and, when Alessandra isn’t suitably sympathetic, her own overly picky dating history. Before the dinner ends, Lane vows to go on more dates and makes Alessandra promise to give the next guy she goes out with three dates before calling it quits. Oh reader, you know who she’s going to end up on those dates with don’t you?

When Jace’s friends accompany him on his next hospital visit and witness the awkward interaction between Jace and Dr. Mastrazacoma, they double-dog-dare him to bring her to the ceremony (because they’re conceited dickheads) and since you can’t play a player, he agrees to the dare. He asks her out and despite everything we’ve learned about her and her intense dislike of him AND EVERYTHING HE REPRESENTS she agrees… and because of her own bet, she has to go on three dates with him!

Normally, at this point, I would tell you why I liked/disliked this story, but I think you get where I’m going with this, so I’ll save us all some time. Suffice to say, the authors want us to believe that these two complete opposites (he’s a dumb jock, she’s a genius) fall in love after spending very little time together. Instead of showing us how and why, they throw everything but the kitchen sink into the three dates – and they sort of cover that too with sex on the kitchen island. Despite their mutual ambivalence (but secretly lustful feelings), Jace and Alessandra have sex on their first date (it’s AMAZING and there are lots of ORGASMS), secret nicknames, anal sex (there’s a first time for everything right? In ‘Aly’s’ case, it’s on a third date), mindblowing (ha!) blow jobs, zip lining, surprise visits to Jace’s super lame hometown, hijinx with Aly’s hamster (yep), revenge on creepy Dr. Boyer, I love you’s… all as Jace tries to find a way to invite Aly to the ceremony (he knows it’s ‘not her kind of thing’) and also get out of the bet. Can you guess what happens?

This book is a clear case of authors trying to do too much with too little. The unlikeable principals are caricatures of the characters they purport to be – she’s a confident and intelligent heroine who’s also insecure and desperate for the love of a hot football player (did I mention she hates sports?), and he’s a hot and sexy athlete who just wants the love of a plain ‘ole good woman (who’s also conveniently a freak in the sack with a killer body). Everything about this story is over the top, overwrought and poorly executed. Jace’s friends, who I’m certain will be featured in future books, have a few funny one-liners – but they aren’t enough to save this story.

I took a risk on Elizabeth Hayley and The Bet. I loved the cover (still do!), but that’s about it. The novel simply recycles ideas (every single one) featured in better books. I still love a great sports romance, but this book, unfortunately, showcases all the reasons some romance readers steer clear of them.

I discovered Elizabeth Hayley back in 2015 with their Strictly Business series. I've been waiting to see what they would do next and, as soon as I saw the cover and the blurb for The Bet, I knew I had to have it. Sports romance is one of my favorite tropes — especially when we're talking football. And, since we're in that time of the year where I'm devouring all the football books while I wait for the new season to start, I was even more excited.

The Bet was a good, solid read. It was like a dirty version of How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days (or any other "bet" rom com), but with a unique heroine. I love a smart, awkward heroine, but I have to admit I had a little bit of trouble connecting with Aly at first. It happened though. It just took some time. I had to adjust to her straightforward and dry manner of communicating. Once I did, I realized that I rather liked her. Jace, on the other hand, I was on board with from the start. He was persistent when he wanted something — in this case, Aly — and I really enjoyed the connection between the two of them. Opposites certainly attracted here, but it really worked. I also liked that, in a twist on the "bet" thing that I'm accustomed to seeing, this time the bet was put to rest before it could do any true damage. (Even if it did become a point of conflict later, it wasn't at the level it tends to be in books or movies.)

This book delivered the awkward, the funny and the sexy. Slight spoiler ahead. I'm not really used to reading about anal sex in books (or, not in M/F books anyhow) but I thought they did a good job with it here. It seemed a little odd at first, given Aly's at times prickly disposition, but I think it really did help to allow them to connect on another level. It showed she trusted him, maybe more than she let on, even. There were several moments in the book where we got to see a bit more of the Aly underneath and I found those were some of the most enjoyable ones to me. All in all though, I thought she was a great character and her romance with Jace was great and fitting. It was nice to watch both of them grow during this book. Plus there were some pretty serious swoons along the way, too.

The Bet puts The Players series off to a strong start and I, for one, am absolutely interested in seeing where it goes from here!

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

FAVORITE QUOTES

"Have a good day, Dr. Coma. You ever need a kissing buddy again, let me know."

The bitches are coming, the bitches are coming, she thought, feeling like Paul Revere offering a warning about the arrival of the enemy.

I loved this book so much!! It had it all sexy football quarterback who is best friends with a hockey and baseball player and the hot children's cancer doctor who is scared of living life. It had witty fast dialogue yet emotional depth that has you tearing up from laughter and crying in the same chapter. The oreo conversation was hilarious! Jace and Alessandra both agree to go on a date with each other over two different bets, which will cause problems later in their relationship. Jace brought new challenges and exploring life to Aly narrow view of it. Aly brought balance and thinking before you leap to Jace.

I can't wait to read more from Hayley in the Player series.

3.5 stars

The Bet by Elizabeth Hayley is a good read.
The storyline was easy to follow, it was entertaining and I enjoyed watching the main characters Jace and Aly come together.
They were both likeable, relatable characters and I could easily see them having a wonderful and happy life together.

Overall, The Bet is a nice start to The Players Series and I'm looking forward to the next book.

*Thank you St. Martin's Press via Netgalley for the advance copy*

Jace and Aly (Alessandra) make a hot couple in The Bet. Jace Benning is the QB of the Jersey Commanders and when he meets Dr. Alessandra Mastrazacoma while he's visiting one of her oncology patients, it's one of those awkward but cute meet cutes that you see in chick flicks and rom-coms. He's a sexy professional athlete and she the socially inept but brilliant doctor. When Jace makes a bet with his two fellow athlete friends that he can get the hottest woman to go to a charity event with him, he knows he has to get Dr. Coma, as he calls her, to be his date.

And cue the sexy times, but interspersed with a lot of sweetness that is enough to make you smile. Aly, as she asks him to call her, really is socially clueless, but Jace likes it about her, is drawn to her analytical brain, while she's drawn to the sweet side he displays for her. It was inevitable that one or both of them would end up hurt, but the way Jace makes it up to her is so sweet and adorable that I couldn't help but swoon.

There were a few things included in The Bet that felt a bit like unnecessary add-ons, like the secret club the guys end up becoming part of, her sleazy ex and her sleazy boss, but on the whole this is an entertaining, sexy story. Jace isn't as big of a womanizer as so many sports romances throw in our faces these days, and Aly is a breath of fresh air with her awkwardness and lack of social graces, and their connection is both sexy and sweetly emotional. I really ended up liking The Bet, and am looking forward to more from Elizabeth Hayley.

In 2009, Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan talked about anal sex having become the new oral of erotic romance, in their book Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The SmartBitches’ Guide to Romance. In essence, they said that anal had become a staple of erotic romance, having finally made inroads into New York print erotic romance after having been made popular by the smaller digital presses. And there was certainly plenty of anal sex in erotic romance from m/f pairings to m/m pairings to the many flavors of menage romance pairings (and still is). But of late, the butt sex seems to be entering into mainstream romance, sometimes a bit surprisingly to readers as if it was offered without enough lube. What does anal bring to the mainstream romance? Has anal lost its taboo tag? Is anal virginity replacing vaginal virginity? Let’s take a look at some examples.

Recently, a couple of contemporary romances have had surprising anal sex in them, and by surprising, I mean that I, the reader, was surprised (not the heroine - that would be bad). First up is The Bet by Elizabeth Hayley, (Amazon | B&N | Kobo) a sports romance in which its hero Jace asks out Alessandra because of bet made with his friends. Jace is a famous football player who meets Alessandra at the hospital where he volunteers, spending time with sick kids. Alessandra is one of Jace’s friend’s oncology doctors. Alessandra is a super smart woman who is socially awkward and who only accepts the date because of bet of her own. She finds Jace very attractive, and decides to date him and indulge in sex because they have great chemistry. On their third date, they have the following exchange:

“You bet your ass I do.”

“Is that what we’re betting,” she replied, her voice low and raspy.

He tilted his head in confusion. Surely she wasn’t saying -

“My ass. Is that what we are betting,” she clarified.

Jace almost fell off his stool. “Are you...are you fucking with me?”

“Not yet.”

The two rush out of their cooking class, so they can get home and have anal sex, at Aly’s request (this might be a case of surprise anal for the hero). It is her first time, and Jace gives her plenty of opportunity to back out if she wants. In this case, the anal sex seems more about Aly’s desire to explore her sexuality with Jace in what she believes will be a temporary liaison. It didn’t seem to be about increased intimacy or sharing a new first with each other. I felt here it was more about the heroine’s exploration of her own sexuality in the confines of a relationship that offered her a safe place to explore. But Jace was certainly eager to be the first in Aly’s dark channel.

Love Me in the Dark by Mia Asher
Love Me in the Dark by Mia Asher

The next book is Mia Asher’s Love Me in the Dark, (Amazon) a contemporary romance where a woman in a bad marriage finds freedom abroad and in the arms of another man. Valentina meets Sebastien in Paris while she is there trying to figure out if her marriage is worth saving. This romance is slow developing because Valentina is married, and it isn’t until near the end of the book that these two get together in a physical sense when Sebastien comes to New York to fight for the woman he loves. When Valentina finally flees her not-so-nice husband, Sebastien is there to take her away. The two finally consummate their relationship. The next day, the two are about to have sex again, when Sebastien asks her if she has ever had anal sex (she hasn’t).

“Do you want me to take you here?”

“Oh God,” she moans, and it makes my cock rock hard.

I continue to torture her by adding another finger, plunging them inside her. Slow and fast. Shallow and deep. Her cunt contracts around me as I curl my finger-tips against her wall and finger fuck her to hell and back.

“Do you want me fucking your sweet ass?”

“I...“ She moves her head side to side, pushing her ass up, seeking relief. “Yes, just take me, please. I can’t wait any longer. Please Sebastien...”

And, of course, he does. With hotel lotion for lube. In this case, this act of anal sex did seem to be more about staking a claim on the heroine in a way that no one ever had before.

In both of these non-erotic books, I was very surprised by the butt sex. Anal sex isn’t new to contemporary romance of course. Jo Davis has written anal sex in her Firefighters of Station Five books which I’d consider to be romantic suspense rather than erotic romance. And also Lora Leigh has written anal is many of her non-erotic romances, several of the Elite Ops books feature this growing-less-taboo-by-the-minute act. And there are others, but anal sex certainly hasn’t been a staple of mainstream, non-erotic romance. In most of the books I’ve talked about here, the heroine is a anal novice, and the seems to be be a way to allow the hero to experience a first.

Currently, exploration of anal sex in contemporary romance seems to be a way for the heroine to offer the hero something no man has had before (something that admittedly grates on my nerves because there seems to be a need for the heroine to be virginal in some way).

What are your thoughts? Is it necessary for the hero to take something from the heroine that she hasn’t given to anyone else? Am I reading this wrong? Do you think that anal sex offers something different to the romantic relationship? Do you want to see more butt sex in non-erotic romance? Let me know what you think.

This was a cute story, between two people that looked like they had nothing in common. Alessandra,(Dr. Maz) to her patients and Dr. Coma to Jace, was a genius, however her social skills truly lacked, she was clumsy, awkward when around others, especially handsome men. She meets Jace in the one of her patients room, and the meeting did not go well due to her clumsiness, a situation arises that she grabs and kisses him, and he was pretty stunned, he knows that they have nothing in common, but there is something about her. Jace and his friends make a bet, on who can take the best looking date to a gala event, and his friends choose Aly for him, as his date, because she was also a bumbly mess in front of them. At the same time, Aly's friend bets Aly that the next guy to ask her out, she has to agree to go out with him, for atleast three dates, and of course that guy was Jace. As astonishing as it sounds, they connect in more ways than one, and they fall in love, and Jace tells his friends, that she is no longer part of the bet, but he never mentioned to Aly how they got there. Of course, it comes and she is heartbroken and feels betrayed and lied to, and breaks up with him, and he is heartbroken also. Lane, Aly's friend reminds her, that she also had made a bet, and if not for that bet, they never would have gone out. Anyway, it does get resolved, and I am happy for the HEA, I enjoyed the other aspects of the story also, I think you will to, now I hope to read of the others. Enjoy!

***ARC Provided by the publisher via NetGalley***

I really wanted to like this one. I liked the premise, and the idea of the football star with a woman who know nothing about the sport.

But, I didn't really like Aly. Or, I guess more accurately I was not able to relate to her. She was charmingly awkward at first, and I figured when we got to know her better, and she got more comfortable with Jase, that she would be less awkward. This didn't happen and it made it difficult to relate to her as it felt like I was never able to get to know her.

There were parts of the book that I liked, but overall I did not really enjoy this and I am not able to recommend it.

This is the first book I have read from this author. I really enjoyed this story. The Bet is a cute story about a professional football player and a nerdy doctor. The banter between Jace and Aly was honest and funny. I can't wait to read other books by Elizabeth Hayley. I would recommend this book.

The Bet is exactly what you expect. It's funny, sweet, and has some great lines. A doctor with zero, yes- zero, sports knowledge and an NFL player together because of a bet. Different reasons and different situations make it fun and keep you pressing to read more.

James stole the show. Seriously, if it wasn't creepy, i would keep him. Sigh, great kid.

I have a feeling others will fall. Gabe is going to be highly entertaining to watch him fall for someone other than a bimbo for a night. I hope he falls hard.

An intense, romantic sports story that delivers everything you want in a book and makes you not want to put down till you get to the end and re-read it all over again. You have to try this book, you won't regret it I promise. Totally recommend