In the end, I loved this book. During the book, I was hooked and couldn’t put it down. Is it a literary giant? Certainly not. It’s YA romance (or rom-com) of the typical (for now) type. Within those parameters, I thought it was perfect. So, if you like YA romance, or even just romance, then this new book is going to most likely do it for you. Maybe you’ll even find yourself a new author to read in that genre.

Betting on You by Lynn Painter is a novel told in two first-person perspectives, back and forth between Bailey and Charlie, though the majority of the story is through Bailey’s eyes. It’s a pretty straight-forward meet-cute; Bailey and Charlie are like middle-schoolers when they are seated next to each other on a plane, two totally different personalities dealing with some of the same home disasters. They basically hate each other. Jump ahead to a few years later—late high school—and they end up as co-workers. They’re still on different planets, but there’s an un-acknowledged attraction, a spark. If only Charlie didn’t not believe in relationships. And if only Bailey didn’t hate Charlie. And when a bet about friends not being able to date successfully comes into play, all of the usual romance situations ensue.

I came to read this book accidentally. It wasn’t exactly an ARC given to me, but since I review ARCs, I thought this could only be a good thing. Don’t ask: I don’t even know exactly where this ARC came from, as in the name of the person who was originally given this ARC. So I can’t tattle on them, if anyone should even want me to. I waited till the book released to review, just to be extra careful. But it does mean that I can’t post quotes this time (even though I would like to) because it’s not allowed from an advanced copy, you know, in case the words change before actual publication. Here’s what really happened: someone thunked down a stack of used ARCs that they had been donated to them when I couldn’t find a local bookstore to save my life and was complaining that I needed something to read, stat. Also, they knew I read ARCs sometimes for my blog. This is the book that rose to the top once I looked them over. It seemed the most promising to me, for whatever reasons.

So yeah, I have been reading more romance (which isn’t hard, as I basically read none before) when I am on vacation or writing residencies. Without TV or streaming (and in this particular case, limiting any social media), I tend to read in the evenings to unwind. I discovered a few years ago that having a couple junk-food novels on hand for this (like genre fiction for the masses) has added to my experience. Of fun. I turned first to Madeline Miller, then Emily Henry, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, maybe there was something else in there. (Some of these are like the Doritos of literature, others more like homemade popcorn.) Then Betting on You fell in my lap, and it was exactly the kind of thing I am looking for in those moments: just fun and requiring very little of my brain or my literary criticism parts of my brain, something that will for-sure keep me interested for hours on end (which has led to me having to distance myself from a book during the day on more than one occasion. It’s one thing to be entertained of an evening, it’s another to lose work-time during the day).

I have found a problem with me reading YA romance, or even YA books with romantic elements. I’m sure not everyone feels the same about it as I do, but I am in my 40s and have teen children. When characters in a book are sixteen and getting it on in a way that’s meant to titillate the reader, I am uncomfortable. I have gotten into the habit of aging-up these characters in my head, which isn’t difficult because often YA characters act and do things much older than their age on the page, so it seems right to age them up, anyhow. I aged up the characters in this book. That said (and underscoring that this genre is not exactly written with me in mind)…

I loved both of the flawed characters in this book, and thought their chemistry was great and their banter funny and cute. Also, Bailey never had to become some cooler version of herself, ala the 90s/She’s All That or whatever, and I always appreciate that in a story. I could NOT put the book down, even though it’s a bit hefty for what it is (which could be the ARC version’s paper and print?), cuz I wanted them to get together but I also knew that a black moment was going to come and there’s always that little bit of what if it doesn’t work out? somewhere in the brain. Besides the book being engaging and cute, the characters being interesting and likeable, and Charlie and Bailey having good chemistry between them, there were some smaller things that weren’t quite right. Like, I was confused about how much TV Bailey watched when she was supposed to be some book nerd who had a successful book-reviewing thing with two other gals (who/which never actually played out in the book. Why were they/was it even there?). She shoulda just been way into shows and movies, or something. It didn’t quite make sense, and I was like, when does she have time to read even one book?

But other than that… I don’t have a ton to say here. If you like the genre, I really think this will be a win for most readers. And I would want to keep an eye on Lynn Painter for future reads. Or her previous books, which are:

• Better Than the Movies (Better Than the Movies #1)
• Mr. Wrong Number (Mr. Wrong Number #1)
• The Do-Over
• The Love Wager (Mr. Wrong Number #2)
• Better Than the Prom (Better Than the Movies #1.5)
• Accidentally Amy
• Betting on You

There are also some short stories related to Better Than the Prom, in there.

Lynn Painter has published a whopping seven books (and a few short stories) in under three years. She has met with success, especially with the Better Than the Movies series, which is still being written, but who knows? She’s only just warming up, as far as I can tell. She’s from LA, and she considers her books—which are YA and adult—to be rom-coms, many reviewers calling her hilarious or at least funny. Lol and all that. There’s not that much to find out about her, yet, and I can’t blame any author for wanting to keep it that way, under the radar, these days, but she has a cute/cool anti-bio at her website. She has fun bonus material there, keeping her online presence about the fans and what they might want. Perhaps I could learn a thing or two from her. I would like to read The Do-Over and ­Better Than the Movies (and probably Nothing Like the Movies, due out in 2024). These are her YA books and they get better reviews than her adult books (which aren’t bad reviews, just not as universally glowing, but maybe I should be reading those because of my middle-age status).

I don’t see any movie or show deals, but this isn’t surprising since she’s basically just started in with the publishing. It’s hard to say how high her star will arc and if it will draw enough attention to have a movie made—not that that’s all it takes, because there are so many factors involved that it’s literally impossible to predict right now until you are in the theater or at home on the couch and watching the movie in question.