Aja has moved to a small town to get away from the big city. Her social time is Wednesday night bingo where she's made friends with the old woman she sits next to. Walker hates the small town - his childhood was hell and he still has PTSD. So when he has to return home to care for his grandmother and she drags him to bingo, he's conflicted to find a beautiful woman.

Aja's anxiety and Walker's PTSD are really nicely explored. And Aja's tentative steps into a small town social group are So Real. There is a lot of care taken with these characters. Walker makes progress dealing with his past. And both have therapists and a support system in place at the beginning (though it grows), meaning the other character doesn't force them to do their work.

Oh, and it's spicy. These two have made an absurd sex deal based on bingo, and they (surprise) can't stick to it. Definitely the spiciest bingo-centric book I've read.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Aja recently moved to a small town in South Carolina to better manager her anxiety which seems to help until she has a panic attack in a grocery store. Walker sees her and recognizes what she's experiencing, as he's dealt with it himself and offers to stand next to her until it passes. Later they have another chance to meet at a bingo night. They create a sex-pact that if one of them wins at bingo, then they can have sex, but then they start to develop FEELINGS.

This book deals with some complex and heavy storylines which are dealt with in a thoughtful manner; however, it isn't discussed much in the blurb, so I would give trigger warnings for anxiety, child neglect, panic attacks and PTSD.

My honest review is given in exchange for receiving a copy of the book from Netgalley. I just reviewed "Bet on It" by Jodie Slaughter. #NetGalley

BET ON IT - JODIE SLAUGHTER
3.75⭐
PLOT -
Aja Owens meets Walker Abbots in the frozen food section while she is having a panic attact but inspite of running away he helps her calm down. They meet a second time at his grandma's famous bingo night. But they both have a series of mental health issues from anxiety to PTSD to deal while they are in the small town of Carolina.
But there is an undeniable sexual attraction which they work on via a Bet!
With Walker return back to his city life after his grandma improves .. can it only remain superficial between the two??
MY THOUGHTS -
I love reading book which deal with mental health issues..this one had a good balance...there was steam and drama.
I loved how Jodie made Aja a strong plus sized heroine who inspite of flaws was ready to battle/figure out life ....taking steps in right direction.
A good story though quite predictable.
Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

First off I want to say thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Griffin and of course Jodie Slaughter for giving me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

If you are a fan of Talia Hibbert, Abby Jimenez or Jasmine Guillory this book was written for you. Don't let the cartoon cover fool you though, if you are looking for a cute light hearted rom-com this is not the book for you. Both the FMC and the MMC struggle with severe anxiety, CPTSD and panic attacks (check tw before you read). The author does a really good job at representing day to day struggles with mental health and how it can affect your relationships, not only romantic but familial and platonic friendships as well. This one was hard for me to rate because I found the pacing of the book made it hard to get through. I loved the story though which is why I am rating it 4 stars.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of BET ON IT by Jodie Slaughter. My favorite part about this book was how both main characters struggled through their mental health issues. This commonality between them both bonded them and was something they had to overcome to be together, and the emotions involved in this were so authentic and I appreciated that. This isn't normal for me, but I actually didn't really enjoy the sex scenes and found myself skipping through them. They just weren't for me, I guess, but I still really enjoyed the emotional aspects of their relationship and everything else going on in their lives, so I overall liked the book and thought it had such a sweet ending.

A small town, friends with benefits to lovers dual POV romance.

This was a cute little romance, I really enjoyed reading it. This had some great representation: anxiety, PTSD, plus size, and a Black woman MC. Aja, the female lead, was a very relatable character and Walker was such a cutie. The book was cute, not too deep but did touch on deeper topics, surrounding mental health especially. Overall, this was such a cute read and I enjoyed reading it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital copy of this book.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the best romance book I have read in a while. Friends to lovers is one of my favorite tropes when done right, and this one is everything I want from the trope.

I love both Aja and Walker’s personal growth as well as their romance. I love how the topic of anxiety is approached. It’s very emotional and realistic. It makes the characters feel real. I haven’t and won’t be able to stop thinking about them.

Aja meets Walker when she has a panic attack in the middle of the grocery store. He's kind to her and he's hot and she's sure she'll never see him again. But, this is the small town of Greenbelt and it turns out that Walker is back in town to take care of his grandmother who has two (!) broken arms- and who happens to be Aja's bingo partner. Never thought I'd see a spicy rom com with young people bonding through bingo but that's what this is and it's both cute and sensitive. Aja and Walker both have anxiety issues which are incorporated into the plot. Their pact over the game turns, as you know it will, into a relationship. I liked them both. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A fun fast read that will make you smile.

I LOVED THIS! BET ON IT is a swoony, sexy small town romance about two millennial bingo buddies who make a sex pact. If you like character-driven love stories that explore hard hitting topics like mental illness, therapy, anxiety disorders, PTSD, and healing journeys, I strongly recommend this book.

I enjoyed Jodie Slaughter’s writing, and she did an amazing job with dual-POVs. Aja and Walker were great narraters and three-dimensional characters. Their chemistry was phenomenal and felt very organic. In addition to the romance, I loved how Aja’s story also revolved around her making new friends.

If you are looking for a book with fantastic anxiety representation, I cannot recommend BET ON IT enough.


CWs: anxiety, panic attacks, PTSD, parental neglect (past), alcoholism, addiction

Aja and Walker are goals.

Bet on It was such a beautiful and spicy af romcom with plus size and mental illness rep. I loved seeing myself in Aja. She was so relatable. I also really loved that Walker was portrayed with mental illness because we don't get male perspectives on this often. Both were so healthy for one another it was beyond cute!

This is definitely a quick read you are going to devour!

I thought this was a sweet romance that handled hard topics elegantly. Both of the main characters struggle with anxiety & panic attacks. It feels like the author had a thorough grasp on what that means for people. I thought the way the main female character was described was refreshing. The fact that races are briefly mentioned but not the focus was also refreshing. Highly recommend reading this book if you're looking for sexy & sweet romance.

Thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for advanced copy in exchange for my honest review

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book provided to me through NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Jodie Slaughter and St. Martin’s Press for giving me the opportunity to read this book!

Aja and Walker have a very unconventional meet cute when Walker happens upon Aja in the Piggly Wiggly frozen food section having a panic attack. Walker immediately recognizes what’s going on with Aja, since he struggles with mental health issues as well, and these two strike up a very unlikely friendship. Walker is back in his childhood hometown, where he swore he would never return, to help take care of his Gram who happens to be Aja’s BINGO buddy, so these two run into each other by happenstance again. Try as they may to remain only “friends” we all know that never works in romcoms...

I enjoyed reading Bet On It by Jodie Slaughter. Having grown up visiting family in South Carolina and going to college there, all the references to the state I hold dear to my heart made me very nostalgic and miss SC a whole lot while reading the book. She really had me at Piggly Wiggly (I’m Big on the Pig!) and peach cobbler. One thing I wasn’t expecting, but also never mad at, is the steam in this one – so if you’re more of a closed door romance reader this one may not be for you. One thing I did struggle with a little bit with was the perception I had of Walker (supposed to be a Southern gentleman), and then the dirty talk and way he would sometimes objectify Aja during his internal monologue – they didn’t really feel to me how he would be.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable book. The mental health representation (anxiety and PTSD) were very well written, and I’m appreciating in romance nowadays that not all of the characters have to be perfect.

Bet on It is a a unique in that it has a bingo theming. The two main characters Aja and Walker initially meet in a grocery store. Aja is in the midst of an anxiety attack and Walker helps her by just being there for her which is the way that he likes to be helped during his panic attacks. Later Walker brings his injured grandmother to bingo and learns that Aja is the new friend that his grandmother has been talking about. Despite the awkwardness at seeing each other again there are sparks and romanic tension. The two have amazing chemistry and the author does a great job addressing mental health issues. I did struggle to read this as it sometimes raised my anxiety levels. Also, I felt that a book that had a major focus on bingo would be more accurate. For example there were numbers called in bingo that don't exist like B47 and O25.

3.5 stars. Bet On It was a steamy summer read and I would definitely recommend. The sizzle between the two characters leaps off the pages and it definitely kept me reading.

This is the story of Aja and Walker, who met during Aja's panic attack in a grocery store, and meet again when Walker goes to bingo with his grandmother, who sits next to Aja for her weekly social outing in her new town. I loved the relationship between these two and was surprised at the spiciness of the book. I also loved the focus on the characters' anxiety and how it impacted their lives, and their work to manage their mental health. I think it was very realistic.

My biggest disappointment is that I read this book because I love bingo so much, and the bingo pieces of the book were not at all accurate. It mentioned the numbers, which I'm hoping was a typo, but it did not match the correct numbers with the letters in B-I-N-G-O, and twice during the book, it mentioned there were only about 3 numbers left in the basket, and the main characters were hoping to call bingo soon. There is no way - even in a coverall situation - that it gets to having so few numbers left without someone calling bingo.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a complimentary copy of this book.

This book was truly delightful. The tone was unique, and the characters were lovable, and I can't wait to see what comes from Jodie Slaughter in the future.

🔥 Bingo Sex Pact
🏠 Small Town
❤️ Anxiety & PTSD Portrayal

I loved the portrayal of mental health (anxiety and PTSD) in this book! I have anxiety, so I really appreciated the exploration and prioritizing of the character’s emotional health being at the forefront of the book.

I’m not a big fan of public sex scenes, so that did affect my rating (as there are two? public sex scenes). Overall, I did enjoy Aja and Walker bonding over bingo and forming an emotional, as well as physical, connection to each other.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for an e-ARC!

Content Warnings: child neglect, panic attacks, PTSD, drugs and drug abuse

The way Jodie tackles mental health in this book was both accurate and beautifully written. Both Aja and Walker struggle with anxiety and It was refreshing to see how the author showed how anxiety is experienced differently from person to person. Normally I gravitate towards books with more intense romance; however, this novel, really captured the depths of different ways to love. Aja and Walker understood each other and through their relationship were able to understand themselves.

Walker’s love and affection for Aja were truly incredible to witness; he truly saw her to her core and was able to love and accept her. Aja had her internal battles when it came to Walker, but watching her heart thaw and welcome the love she deserved was inspiring. If I were to take away something from this book it’s that you are worthy of love despite what you’ve been through. Mental health can be debilitating, but if Aja and Walker can work through it, anyone can and you are worth it.

This story received 4 stars from me

Two anxious small-towners connect to create a frenetic atmosphere in BET ON IT by Jodie Slaughter.

I liked the mental health rep in this book. It felt authentic and was used as a fragment of both of the characters' personalities rather than used as a plot device.

The plot device -bingo and a very sexy bet, made the tension high and risks even higher.

There is a lot of sex in this book. More sex than romance. More sex than relationship. More than anything else. Some of the language was cringey or superfluous, especially in audiobook format.

Otherwise, I thought this made for a steamy-flash in the pan, summer read.

Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio, and St Martins Press for the advanced copies!

Bet on it…⭐️⭐️⭐️

I breezed through this in less than two days (and not a weekend!) because I absolutely loved it. It was sweet, well-written, sexy and featured an actual plus-size character who loved her body and was loved despite her body, and there’s just not enough of that in the world.

There is no way I could cover how much I love (and relate to) Aja, the female protagonist: she’s a big girl who suffers from anxiety, likes to hang around older people and whose day job involves writing words for social media. I mean, other than the fact that I’m white and don’t live in the South, I could see myself in her. She was who she was and made sure the people around her respected her for it. And then there’s Walker, the more typical southern boy with a traumatizing past that affected him. He felt like a whole person—and a dreamy one at that!

While I love that most of their relationship was healthy—they tried to set boundaries and were respectful of them (until both of them were comfortable enough breaking them!), they had meaningful conversations and were super believable as a couple. That is until the central conflict comes into play near the end of the story. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, so I’m not going to say anything more than I don’t think people (even those with PTSD) would act the way he did for as long as he did. I wish Slaughter had resolved the problem earlier—I don’t see why that much time needed to pass.

I was not expecting this to be as sexy as it was. It wasn’t inappropriate or crossing a line or anything, but the sex is pretty explicit (and sexy!), and I love that we got to see bigger-bodied people have sex in a healthy, loving way where their size wasn’t an issue or even talked about. The chemistry between the characters was insane, and unlike anything I’d read in a long time.

I highly recommend this to anyone who loves these kinds of books, especially those with anxiety or PTSD (we deserve love, too!) and all my big girls out there. I can’t wait to go back into Jodie Slaughter’s back catalogue and read some of her other stuff.

4.5 STARS

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Bet on It was a wonderful exploration of mental illness, but I was ultimately bored with all of it.

While in the frozen food section at a local grocery store, Aja found herself trying to calm down from a panic attack minutes from the store’s closing. A helpful stranger approached her and offered to help which made Aja both thankful and horrified. Days later while at Wednesday bingo, Aja was surprised to see that her helpful stranger, Walker Abbott, was the grandson of the nice woman she sat next to every week. Walker was clear that he had no intention of staying in town longer than he had to, but he and Aja kept finding themselves drawn to each other. A pact to win at least one game of bingo brought them closer together, and they ultimately found comfort in the other.

This was my first Jodie Slaughter book and her gentleness while writing about mental illness was appreciated. She’s skilled in bringing up tough conversations and can write some incredibly sexy scenes, but I never connected with Aja and Walker as a couple, which dampened my reading experience. Aja and Walker’s relationship was soft and realistic and I liked how Slaughter navigated it, but their instalust connection made it hard for me to understand the characters before they completely gave in to their attraction to each other. Readers who don’t mind a bit of instalust will have better luck with this one.

I enjoyed Angel Pean’s portrayal of Aja, but her performance as Walker took me out of the story a bit. I’m hesitant to recommend this to audiobook newbies, but it is worth a listen for anyone else who enjoys audiobooks.

Bet on It had some precious moments as Aja and Walker navigated friendship and families; however, this is a story that I’ll inevitably forget.