Aja has fled the metro DC area for a slower pace in Greenbelt, SC. Her anxiety is more manageable there, and if her best friend is an older woman she knows from playing bingo, that's fine with her.

One day she has a panic attack at the Piggly Wiggly and is helped by an unknown man, who she doesn't see, but she hears his voice soon after--at Bingo, with his grandmother, her Bingo buddy.

More than their mutual anxiety draws them to each other, but Walker is just as determined to leave Greenbelt when his grandmother recovers from a fall as Aja is to stay there, so their relationship seems doomed. But will Walker really be able to walk away from Aja?

As much as I appreciate the effort toward diversity, some of the plot elements seem a little bit contrived. Also, Walker's continuous dropping of the final "g" in -ing words bothered me. But when I consider the romance tropes of the 1970s, I realize romances are definitely moving in the right direction now. #BetonIt #NetGalley

This book was unlike any romcom I've read this year. The plot was unique, the author had a very distinct voice and the characters were well developed. I found myself saying "that's me!" several times as the characters went through the motions of dealing with their mental health. The humor weaved into this book balanced the heavier themes nicely. I knew from the scene at the Piggly Wiggly that I was going to love this one... and the Bingo. I loved the bingo! Overall this was a four star read for me, and I could definitely see myself picking this up to reread annually in the summer. I can't wait to order a paperback for my collection!

I must admit that at first I was not keen on the writing style that incorporated so much cursing. It took me aback until I realized just how honest and realistic the dialogue actually is. For whatever reason, on paper the dialogue came off as harsh and aggressive until I found Aja and Walker's voices. Until then, it was sort of like misreading a text message written by someone you don't know—read the wrong way with the wrong voice, its connotation can be misconstrued. However, once I got to know Aja and Walker, I quickly got to know their voices: sarcasm, defensiveness, and earnestness. Kind of like when you receive a text from an old friend—you can hear their voice in the message as if they're actually saying it to you. This is where Jodie Slaughter's writing really shines, in my opinion. She doesn't just make the reader feel like they've known these characters forever, but her dialogue matches her characters so acutely that they feel real.

On top of that, her depictions of mental illnesses and how those maladies surface in day-to-day life are spot on. Everyone who grapples with anxiety or PTSD find themselves with overlapping and sometimes unpredictable triggers—like a box of frozen Hot Pockets flying out of a freezer at you at a Piggly Wiggly. I just found Slaughter's portrayals incredibly relatable and representational.

If you're not already convinced by Jodie Slaughter's unique and earnest writing, let me tell you about the romance: It's HOT and STEAMY and will make you FEEL what Aja and Walker feel.

Do not be fooled by the cover—this book is deep, heartfelt, and sexy. This is not your run-of-the-mill rom com.

I look forward to reading more of Jodie Slaughter's exceptional work.

3/5

I just couldn't get committed to the two characters. I really loved the premise of two MC's each with MH falling in love over BINGO, but idk...just wasn't the book for me I guess.

Brief Plot: Aja has escaped to a small NC town,
Walker has to come to his home town to help his
grandma, over BINGO the two form a friendship and more, but with Walker ready to leave town, they really can't have that much of a relationship form. Can they?

Thank you NetGalley & St. Martins Press for an eARC copy of this book, in exchange for my honest review!

If you’re looking for a layered romance novel that is heartfelt but still brings the heat then you will want to add Bet on It to your TBR. This book doesn’t make the MC’s anxiety a subplot, it is interwoven with the rest of the plot and is a lot of fun to read. The first half was hard for me to get in to but the second half is much better paced and was easy to get hooked.

3 stars

Can two anxious people overcome their obstacles and find love over a bingo card? Strap in for an emotional and lingering journey.

Concept: ★★★★
Pacing: ★★
Representation vs. Romance: ★★
Enjoyment: ★★★

A small disclaimer for this review: my rating has nothing to do with this book's actual contents. It has more to do with my perception what this story was going to be based on its description and pitch.

Aja spends each of her days walking hand in hand with her anxiety disorder. It's her constant companion, it affects how she goes about her day, and it occasionally severely impacts how she deals with people and experiences.

So when she has a panic attack in the grocery store one night, the last thing she wants is to meet a cute guy. Said cute guy supports her during her attack, and afterwards Aja flees into the night. She'll never see him again, right?

Well, then the cute guy shows up at Aja's weekly bingo night with the town's senior citizens. Turns out his name is Walker, he's super cute in person, and he's going to be bopping around Aja's life for the next several weeks.

Walker's dealing with some anxiety and other issues on his own, so he not only gets Aja—he's interested in her. Cue the sparks...

Aja and Walker end up in a bizarre bingo pact together that promises to deliver some steam... and they're both very much on board with placing bets on who will come out on top. (In more ways than one.)

I thought Bet On It was a very cute concept for a romance novel. Bingo isn't a sexy activity, really, but the idea of the two young people in a sea of senior citizens having a connection was kind of adorable, and the addition of Aja and Walker's anxieties gave it a very realistic edge.

However... this book kind of lost me when it came to the romance and pacing. I heard "sexy bingo bets" and thought this would be smutty, funny, and quickly paced. Not sure why I thought "quickly paced," exactly, but the other two points seemed like a given.

Instead of a lot of banter and smut, Bet On It delivered on some serious plot points, emotional deep dives, and personalized healing journeys. On a large scale. Not a bad way to go for a general fiction novel about healing from trauma and coping with mental illness, but again, given the hook of "sexy bingo bets" I was...confused. (And bored. I kept getting a bit bored.)

Overall, I thought this novel was extremely sweet and a story of personal triumph over struggle. I will be recommending it to those looking for anxiety representation in stories, and for those who enjoy emotional journey-dominant tropes in their general adult fiction.

Thank you to the publisher for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book had so many cringey parts, that it was hard to enjoy the parts that weren't. Maybe I'm a prude, but there were SO many steamy scenes that happen in public. Like really? That couples with the nickname sent me over the edge. ⭐️⭐️.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the advanced copy!

I first started reading this book and was confused - it didn’t really give off the vibe of an adult romcom. Of course, that all changed completely when they made the bingo sex pact LOL

Aja and Walker are anxiety babies, but their experiences help them stay caring to themselves and to each other. It also helps that their families are so supportive of them. The growth of Aja and Walker was definitely the highlight of this novel, and their progression to romance felt entirely natural. Their meet-cute was adorable, and their chemistry was on fire! I don’t know how, but Jodie Slaughter was able to balance the steaminess and sweetness, and it ended up tying the story together nicely <3

My one gripe was, well, the bingo. B GOES UP TO 15 DANG IT!! Also, as a Canadian I…didn’t think Piggly-Wiggly was a real store?? Is that really what it’s called?!

I’m giving this 4.25 stars, rounded down to 4.

I found this one to just be OK. I struggled at first to get into it and then even when I did, I felt like I couldn't connect with the characters. I don't think there was anything wrong with the writing, but i don't tend to like instalove stories, and this is one of them. I also kind of just found the story hard to get through because both characters deal with anxiety and it felt like a lot to take on.

Bet on It is my favorite read of the year so far! This was a fantastic novel, and I could not put the book down from the moment I started it.

Aja Owens is a millennial who has left busy Washington, DC in favor of the small southern town of Greenbelt, South Carolina. She wants to branch out on her own and deal with her anxiety and past. Although the town and her routine are different from what she experienced in DC, she finds herself falling into old patterns of isolation and letting her anxiety get the best of her. From not leaving the house much to not attempting to make friends, Aja cannot seem to escape the grasp that anxiety has on her life. But she has her bingo, weekly bingo where she is the youngest person in the room by about 30 years and her closest friend is a vibrant woman in her sixties, Miss May.

Miss May’s only grandson, Walker Abbott, is in Greenbelt taking care of his grandmother after she injured herself. But Walker hates Greenbelt and he hates the people in it more. He grew up under the care of his grandmother, as his parents both struggled with addiction. In this small town, everyone thinks they know your story and they do not mind spreading it to any and everyone they meet. Walker grows up and faces bullying by adults and his peers, worrying about his father, feeling abandoned by him, and struggling with his mental health. Struggling with CPTSD from his childhood trauma, and anxiety of his own Walker can’t wait to get out of Greenbelt and back to Charleston where he has made a life for himself that he’s satisfied with and his own little family of friends.

The only problem is that since the first moment that Walker saw Aja mid panic attack in the frozen grocery section of the Piggly Wiggly, he hasn’t been able to stop thinking about her and she can’t stop thinking about him. Drawn to each other but refusing to act on it for their own reasons. Aja can’t jeopardize her friendship with Walker, and Walker has no intention of staying in Greenbelt. Anticipation builds until one night they decide to make a pact, they’ll sleep with each other every time one of them wins a game of bingo.

This novel was the perfect romance, two people so different yet so similar manage to find each other amid their individual struggles, and together they get through them. We get to see Walker and Aja grow together and individually, as they navigate their relationship and feelings, pasts that haunt them both, and a great future that they never imagined. Jodie Slaughter did a fantastic job of accurately portraying mental health issues and destigmatizing struggling with mental health with her writing of these two characters. Aja and Walker feel like real people, who have real problems because these are things that so many people struggle with to some extent. This book was a perfect read and has a marvelous ending. I cannot recommend it enough.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sharing a complimentary advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Aja and Walker's romance is so real and honest that I felt like it made the story even more relatable. They were flawed characters who have to deal with family drama and find the strength to be brave enough to share that with each other.

I love that they were placed into a bingo hall as the meet cute! What an original idea.

Jodie's writing style was so easy to read and it flowed perfectly through the characters' storylines.

Thank you for my advanced readers copy.

Bet on It by Jodi Slaughter is a cute read takes place in a small town in South Carolina. Aja and Walker meet while playing Bingo. They both have anxiety and PTSD allowing them to connect through these issues and bingo. Aja and Walker sizzled together with off the charts chemistry. Their story was emotional, intense with its pragmatic approach to anxiety issues Aja and Walker suffer and fight against. It was a charming mixture of sweet friends to lovers in a small town, personal growth, anxiety issues, adorable characters and bingo games. Bet on It was really a delight and I look forward to reading more by Jodie Slaughter in the future. I definitely recommend Bet on It.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.

For some reason this book was a bit of a miss for for me. I’m not sure exactly what it was but I just didn’t connect with the characters. I liked the two main characters on their own but I didn’t really feel their connection with each other. I appreciated this was a mixed race relationship which I think we should see more often and I was sympathetic to their individual mental illness issues which I think was well written but something just didn’t work for me. I will definitely look to read more from this author though.

~Thanks to Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of Bet On It in exchange for an honest review. ~

Wow, okay, this was so dang cute and spicy!! I loved both of these characters and really enjoyed watching their development throughout this story. This is very character-focused, with both Aja and Walker struggling with their mental health along with their feelings for one another when they know it can’t last.

Slaughter does include some content warnings at the beginning and given that we met Aja as she was having a panic attack in a grocery store, it made total sense and let me know early that mental health would be at the forefront of this story. The characters each had solid backgrounds, charismatic personalities, and the banter was wonderful between the two of them. I loved that they had a pretty open line of communication, but the dialogue did feel a little unrealistic at times.

There were so many little things throughout this book that I loved, like Aja making friends as an adult, Walker coming to take care of her when she felt under the weather because of her period, an acknowledgment that she’s fat, but not struggling with her appearance or confidence, it’s simply a fact. Also the spice? God damn, 4 chili peppers, holy crap.

The third act drama both makes perfect sense and is incredibly frustrating, but at least the problematic party is aware of their guilt and assholery. The post “break up” was handled so well in Aja’s POV. It fits rom-com standards while also being a healthy depiction of grieving a breakup and allows both of them to grow from it!

I do think this is a lot heavier than one would think from the cover. Sometimes, the writing would get a little too tell not show and I wish Slaughter had stuck with the traditional one-chapter switch POV instead of changing how often POVs switched. Also, would have liked the Bingo bet to have been dragged out a little more for tension's sake.

3.5 rounded up for the mental health representation

In this steamy southern romance Aja is starting over and Walker is facing his painful past when their paths cross in two of the most unlikely ways. Author Jodi Slaughter does an incredible job exploring and supporting each character's mental health. It's clear from the very first chapter that the reader is going to get deep insight into how Aja and Walker process their feelings and navigate situations. I also liked how the reader got the see other characters support them in healthy ways as well.

There is pretty clear attraction between these two, but I found myself struggling a bit emotionally investing in their love story. I felt connected to their individual growth as characters throughout the story, but I didn't find that as much in their relationship.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for the advanced copy and the opportunity to share my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and SMP Romance for the advance review copy; all opinions are my own!

I devoured this the way Aja and Walker devoured Ms. Minnie's peach cobbler. It was hot, sweet, and downright delicious. There were such real and touching discussions of anxiety, panic attacks, and PTSD; so many people in Aja and Walker's lives loving them for who they were, meeting them where they were, wanting them to feel safe. This book felt deeply compassionate and kind toward mental illness and I loved seeing how Aja and Walker in particular recognized each other's struggles and always wanted to help each other be happy and comfortable and feel known. This book had just enough plot to keep me intrigued about what came next but not too much to overshadow or impinge on the soft, steady, endearing character development and character-driven storytelling that truly made this story shine.

Perfect for lovers of small town romance and Talia Hibbert's Ravenswood series, BET ON IT is out now! I can't wait to read what Jodie gives us next.

Content notes: mentions of parental addiction and neglect; portrayal of anxiety, panic attacks, and PTSD; discussions of mental illness and mental health.

This book was cute, but I didn’t feel the same connection with other romcoms. I like how the author ties in social anxiety and characters overcoming those daily challenges. I really liked the chemistry of Aja and Walker. I just felt like something was missing.

Thank you NetGalley and St Martin's for this advanced copy for my honest opinion!

This was such a wonderful rom com with a heavy hand of spice added. I couldn't help to love it and want more! Both bingo loving main characters were easily relatable, though also odd and quirky in their own, wonderful way. Author Jodie Slaughter wrote this book in a way that the reader was easily hooked and does not want to put it down. This is the perfect easy, summer beach read on your next vacation!

I enjoyed this book and the fun premise that takes place in it. Although it wasn't a book that blew me away I liked the characters, that so much of the book took place in a Bingo hall, and the realistic portrayals of panic attacks and anxiety.

The book was fun, sexy and I enjoyed it a lot.

A touching contemporary romance!

Bet on It by Jodie Slaughter is such a good read and resonated with me; it made me teary-eyed. The book's main characters, Aja and Walker, are both really struggling with mental health issues that people often dismiss. They both are trying their best to move forward, and it's so beautiful to read and see their progress. They are both such tender-hearted individuals that you can't help but root for them individually and as a couple. I like when the characters talk about their feelings and how what they feel is valid, no matter what anyone says. I also adore the friendships in this book and how much they encourage, understand, and truly listen to Aja and Walker. Also, Walker's moments with his grandma moved me, especially when they opened up about their feelings.

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, for the eARC.