Hedging Your Bets
by: Jayne Denker
St. Martin's Press; St. Martin's Griffin

Set in the charming lake community of Willow Cove in New York State, Hedging Your Bets is a delightful romantic comedy. Gillian and Noah's story was a perfect first book for the New Year 2024. Having read and loved Denker's The Rom-Com Agenda in January 2023, I did not hesitate to choose her new book to start my year 2024 with humor, romance, and the fun of a small-town gardening contest.

I enjoyed the community of Willow Cove that Denker has created, where everyone knows everybody and all of their business. Female lead Gillian is a divorcee who is a pharmacist by career, with a hobby as a master gardener. She clashes and competes with her new neighbor, Noah, who moves back to the community where he spent childhood summers.

Set amid the atmosphere of neighborhood, local hang-outs and restaurants, and the beautiful lake, I was completely entertained and enthralled with every moment in this book.

Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press; St. Martin's Griffin for an advance reader's copy. My review is my own.

#HedgingYourBets #NetGalley #JayneDenker #RomanticComedy #StMartinsPress

A lovely, small-town, closed door romance with an enemies-to-lovers plot!

Gillian is professionally a pharmacist, but her passion is her garden, something she’s worked on for five years in order to win the competitive annual garden contest. Unfortunately, new neighbor and marina owner Noah initially took a dislike to the property line boxwood hedges that were in his yard, but were part of her “borrowed landscape” garden design of multiple flower beds and romantic spaces. Oops. Even though Noah is immediately mesmerized by Gillian and the town consensus is that she’s a wonderful person, her gardening rage towards Noah makes for awkward neighborly interactions. And when Noah gets conned into participating in the garden contest with an anti-romantic, hard lines, modernistic design, Gillian despises him even more.

I liked the growth the two characters showed, and I also appreciated that they had great communication and understanding once they got together.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

I loved this story, it made me laugh a lot, a fun romance. I found the premise of the book about the gardening contest very original and I enjoyed it a lot, also it has a great representation of body positivity.

If you are a fan of enemies to lovers, rom com, light and sweet romance this is definitely perfect for you,

There was lots of body positivity, enemies to lovers, and a cute small town with fun characters. I adored this book!

I loved nearly every second of this! As a very amateur gardener I loved actually reading about my hobby in a fictional setting.

The wit+banter were perfection.

Noah gets off to a rough start with his new neighbor Gillian when he not-so-accidentally destroys part of her beloved garden. Noah is ready to make amends when a town competition drives them even farther apart.

Hedging Your Bets is an opposites attract romance. It takes place in the same small town that the author’s other book, The Rom-Com Agenda, is set. They aren’t necessarily a series and can be read individually. This book is low spice and closed-door.

I really enjoyed the premise of this book. I had trouble getting past a lot of the “body/fat” talk throughout the storyline. The FMC has a lot of hang-ups with her appearance and that is referenced frequently. I have no problem reading about MCs having body image issues but I would caution as to the language that is used when talking about it.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press (St. Martin’s Griffin)!

Gillian is a happy divorce in Willow cove trying to get back on the dating scene. When her new neighbor Noah ends up wrecking her precious garden things do not start off on the right foot. Especially when Noah learns Gillian is trying to win the town’s gardening competition. Things become even more complicated by the fact that the a woman on the city counsel is threatening to make him pay back taxes on his new business if he doesn’t sabotage Gillian and her chances of winning the gardening competition. As they get to know each other Gillian and Noah realize they judged each other to harshly and actually like each other. Will Noah sabotage Gillian’s garden or will he make the right choice and go against the threats?

I liked how the issue of body image was discussed and approached by the author. And loving flowers myself, I enjoyed the premise and small town setting. A fun read!

Recently out of a long term relationship, Noah moves east to start over in the town he vacationed each summer as a child. Happily divorced Gillian is trying her hand at dating again finally, but not having much luck. Sight unseen, Noah buys the house next to Gillian and when he messes with her garden, sparks fly and not in the good way.

Hedging Your Bets is a cute, funny romantic comedy set in a small town with a grumpy/sunshine troupe that I liked quite a bit. It’s the second installment of this series, which I didn’t know when I started reading. Luckily, I’d read the first one, but other than a few continuing background characters, there wasn’t anything I needed to know to fully enjoy this new book. I love the fact Gillian loves herself the way she is and isn’t looking to change or improve herself, but rather just for someone who loves her the way she deserves. I’ll definitely recommend this one!

I really enjoyed this romance! Gardening is one of my other hobbies after reading, so I knew I’d love the gardening competition plot. It has great tropes in it, such as enemies-to-lovers and forced proximity. It has great representation of body image positivity. For those of you, who love closed-door romances, this is a great option. I’m excited to read more from this author.

Ya know, I knew I wasn't going to like this when I read the synopsis and I was right. These enemy neighbors were quite immature and it was hard to get through. I did love the gardening though!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.

This was not my favorite rom-com. I wasn’t very invested in the main characters or their relationship, maybe because they both acted foolish for half the book. It took 50-60% of the book before the main characters even started acting decent towards each other. The “conflict” wasn’t substantial enough to warrant their fighting, especially because they (especially her) are supposedly great people. This book was honestly just boring. I considered dnfing it multiple times, but it was a quick enough read, I just pushed through. There was no third act break-up, which was nice, but it’s mostly because they didn’t get together until almost the end.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me access to this eARC for my honest opinion!

Noah moves next door to Gillian and gets off on the wrong foot when he destroys the backdrop to her prize-winning garden. Though both seem to enjoy the other's company, they keep stepping on each other's toes and become enemies instead of friends. Their feud comes to a head when both have entered the local garden competition and there can only be one winner.

This was a charming small town, an enemies-to-lovers story. It was a cute, low-angst, entertaining read. There were some funny moments (like the gnome) but I wish there were more. There could have also been more bickering between the two if they were truly enemies.

I didn't find this book particularly unique and found that the enemies portion of the story was not there. I found they said they hated each other, but were friendly, and developed to more. They seemed to like to think that they were enemies, but if they had just talked they would have discovered they were friends.

I liked the cast of side characters we got but would have liked to get more meddling by the neighbours, they could have added more antics to the story.

This was a cute and enjoyable read, and I had a great time. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of this book. All opinions are 100% mine.

Read if you like: slow burn, next-door neighbours, opposites attract, enemies to lovers

Gillian’s favorite hobby is gardening, and she makes an enemy when her new next door neighbor, Noah, destroys her hedges. This story is an enemy to lovers, small town slow burn romance. It was closed door on the romance, so this is a fun read if that’s your style. The writing was very charming. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this advanced read.

Hedging Your Bets by Jayne Denker
Narrators: Katelyn Levering; Nick Mondelli
Rating: 3.5 stars
Steam: Closed-door
Pub date: 1/9/24

Noah and Gillian get off on the wrong foot when Noah first moves in next door and accidentally destroys a part of Gillian’s prize garden. Somehow, the animosity between them keeps getting worse instead of better, and it doesn’t help that these two run into each other everywhere in the small town of Willow Cove.

This is a super cute enemies-to-lovers, small-town, romantic comedy that’s full of humor and heart. Gillian and Noah are relatable, and their banter is a lot of fun. The small-town atmosphere adds charm to the story, and the quirky side characters are hilarious.

I love the unique addition of the gardening contest, giving a layer of competition and camaraderie to the story’s budding romance.

Overall, a light, quick, heartwarming rom-com that I really enjoyed on audio. The narrators did an amazing job bringing all of the characters to life.

If you’re a fan of low-spice romance, then you should definitely give this one a chance.
Thank you so much to St. Martin’s Press for my early copy and Dreamscape Media for my complimentary ALC.

When Aretha up and leaves to Tampa, in walks Noah West, the new owner of her house and the town marina. He soon makes himself the nemesis of his next door neighbor, Gillian after unknowingly ruining her gardening design. All hell breaks out between the two over the local gardening competition, which soon turns out that the feuding, is not the only tension between the two.

Gillian has been finding herself not just weeding her garden, but also the terrible men on the dating apps she’s been using. Noah moved across country to Willows Cove where he used to vacation as a teenager to nurse his recent break up.

When I say I instantly feel in love with these two, I mean head over heels. These two had me laughing and swooning the entire time. Not only does Denker write phenomenal main characters, but her side characters make the story even better. I don’t know who was rooting for these two more, me or the old hens on the block.

All I can say after reading this book is that there is love for everyone, even the grumps. And I will never look at a garden gnome the same.

This book was a good starting point for the year. It was fun and quirky, while also being super enjoyable. My biggest complaint is that this book came out in the middle of winter and I can't go outside and work on my garden after reading this. I'm having garden envy! 4 stars

I read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I loved Jayne Denker's previous book, so this one felt a bit different. I wasn't as invested in this relationship as I was previously. Maybe it was just me, or maybe it was the arguing that put me off. Or it could have been the small issues that sort of came out of nowhere, like Gillian's weight, or Noah's random business.

Hedging Your Bets follows Noah and Gillian in a great demonstration of enemies-to-lovers. Noah is new in town and Gillian is a local. After unintentionally destroying her hard work, Noah becomes enemy #1 in their small town. With the yearly garden contest on the horizon, their true rivalry will come to pass.

What I liked: I found this book to be a cute read. I enjoyed at the beginning of the book how Gillian’s weight is barely mentioned, but acknowledged that she is curvy. I loved to see her confidence in herself and the fact that her weight was not the main part of the story. The slow burn in this book felt very natural and showed a great progression of their relationship.

To keep in mind: while I loved the beginning about how Gillian’s weight is not a plot point, I was not a fan how addressing her weight seemed to just appear in the middle of the book and become an issue out of the blue. I found the climax of the story uneventful. We are lead to believe this huge issue is happening, but it gets resolved in a paragraph. The bad guy in this book had so much potential to add dynamics to that story, but she felt very one dimensional. This was also a fairly closed-door romance if you enjoy that.

Rating: 3⭐️ This book was cute, and as an avid gardener I loved an enemies-to-lovers surrounding one of my favorite hobbies. The author is a good writer, I just felt that this story needed more polishing by adding more dimension to the characters and the climax of the book.

Thank you to NegGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Hedging Your Bets comes out January 3rd!

This book was a romance with a grumpy x sunshine trope which alternated a little bit. I loved the premise but I wanted more from the characters since I did not feel connected to them or fully understand their motivations. In conclusion, it was a really fun book but it fell a little flat for me.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Gillian is trying to get her mojo back after her divorce. Her ex-husband left her doubting herself - because of her size - although she is a successful professional woman who is highly regarded in her community. Her elderly next door neighbor suddenly moves and her house is bought by Noah, a former summer visitor to the area. Noah is regrouping after moving across the country after selling his business and having a relationship end. It's hate at first sight for them, but is it? Good read!