Betting on You

September 15, 2023
Unlikely friends fight their growing feelings for each other while placing bets on other people's love lives. Bailey met Charlie while flying from Alaska, where she grew up, to Nebraska, where she and her mom would be living after her parents' divorce. Although they briefly bonded over their parents' divorces, Charlie's cynicism grated on the rule-following Bailey, and she was thankful to part ways with him. Three years later, to Bailey's dismay, she runs into Charlie when they both land jobs at Planet Funnn, a mega-hotel that's "like a giant landlocked cruise ship." This time around, Bailey and Charlie begin to get along better. To entertain themselves during their long shifts, they observe and make bets about the hotel guests. But they risk taking it too far when they bet on whether their co-worker Theo will end up with Nekesa, Bailey's best friend, who's in "a perfect relationship with the perfect guy." The book explores Bailey's conflicted feelings toward her mom's new relationship with Scott (who doesn't "do anything wrong" but whose presence changes "the vibe" at home), but it does so in a way that diminishes a primary source of conflict. Bailey's and Charlie's feelings become even more complicated when Charlie helps Bailey with a fake-dating scheme intended to scare Scott off. Some of the banter between the leads, who are coded white, feels more aggressive than playful, detracting from their intimacy, and the circuitous plot may fail to sustain readers' interest. Disappointing. (Romance. 14-18)

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October 9, 2023
Opposites attract in this witty romance by Painter (Better Than the Movies). When Bailey meets Charlie, her seatmate on a flight from Alaska to Nebraska, she’s immediately
put off by his cavalier attitude. Though they find common ground in being the children of divorced parents, they
disagree about almost everything else, including Charlie’s insistence that “guys and girls can’t be friends.” After the flight, the teens go their separate ways, until three years later, when, now 17, they both land jobs at a resort. As the two develop a friendship—and maybe something more—Bailey recruits Charlie in her ploy to drive away her mother’s new boyfriend, who she feels has upset their mother-daughter dynamic. Bailey and Charlie also unearth their years-old argument over whether guys and girls can be friends when Charlie reveals his belief that Bailey’s bestie, a coworker, will cheat on her boyfriend while working at the resort. Bailey bets against him, but the wager soon comes back to bite her. Via alternating perspectives, the characters’ good-natured and combative banter, and an emergent fake-dating scheme, Painter breathes new life into a familiar premise to present an entertaining low-conflict romp. Bailey and Charlie cue as white. Ages 14–up.

December 1, 2023

Gr 9 Up-Seventeen-year-old Bailey meets Charlie, "Mister Nothing," for the third time during training for her new job. She did not get a good vibe from him three years earlier when she was just starting high school, and she is not interested in getting to know him now. Unfortunately for her, they end up working together at the front desk of hotel waterpark Planet Funnn and getting to know each other is inevitable. They begin to bond over their parents' divorces as well as dealing with their mothers' new boyfriends, until a trip to Colorado from their home in Nebraska changes the course of everything. Their relationship flip flops from co-workers to friends to a possible romantic connection. In typical rom-com fashion, there are besties who offer advice, suggestions of fake dating, and exes who muddy the waters. The story is told from multiple points of view. Emotions for both main characters ricochet and are inconsistent with their personalities, making some of their actions unbelievable. Strong language is peppered throughout, which seems at odds with the tame romance. VERDICT Bypass this one and stick to the works of authors Jenny Han and David Yoon.-Elizabeth Kahn

Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 31, 2024
Grades 9-12 When Bailey and Charlie first meet on a long solo flight back to their newly fractured families, they don't like each other. But when they meet for a third time as new hires at an entertainment center, they finally start to appreciate each other as friends. When their friendship begins to tip into something more, both teens, who have experienced the fallout of failed romantic relationships, wonder if they should put any faith in love. Told in dual perspectives and absolutely packed with rom-com references, Betting on You is a sweet story of love overcoming even the most jaded young heart. Readers will likely come for the enemies-to-lovers vibes, but stay for the insightful look into what it's like for teenagers to navigate their home lives, and love lives, after their parents split. Betting on You hits all the right rom-com notes and should delight fans of To All The Boys I've Loved Before (2014).

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