Late last year, I heard about the book Betting on You by Lynn Painter for the first time, because it got its Dutch release. However, it sounded like the perfect summer book to me so I left it on the shelf until now. Was this romance for me?

About the book

Betting on You by Lynn Painter
Series: Betting on You #1
Published by Simon & Schuster on November 28, 2023
Pages: 432
ISBN: 9781665921237
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young adult

When seventeen-year-old Bailey starts a new job at a hotel waterpark, she is less than thrilled to see an old acquaintance is one of her coworkers. Bailey met Charlie a year ago on the long flight to Omaha, where she moved after her parents’ divorce. Charlie’s cynicism didn’t mix well with Bailey’s carefully well-behaved temperament, and his endless commentary was the irritating cherry on top of an already emotionally fraught trip.

Now, Bailey and Charlie are still polar opposites, but instead of everything about him rubbing Bailey the wrong way, she starts to look forward to hanging out and gossiping about the waterpark guests and their coworkers—particularly two who keep flirting with each other. Bailey and Charlie make a bet on whether or not the cozy pair will actually get together. Charlie insists that members of the opposite sex can’t just be friends, and Bailey is determined to prove him wrong.

Bailey and Charlie keep close track of the romantic progress of others while Charlie works to deflect the growing feelings he’s developed for Bailey. Terrified to lose her if his crush becomes known, what doesn’t help his agenda is Bailey and Charlie “fake dating” in order to disrupt the annoying pleasantries between Bailey’s mom and her mom’s new boyfriend. Soon, what Charlie was hoping to avoid becomes a reality as Bailey starts to see him as not only a friend she can rely on in the midst of family drama—but someone who makes her hands shake and heart race. But Charlie has a secret—a secret that involves Bailey and another bet Charlie may have made. Can the two make a real go of things…or has Charlie’s secret doomed them before they could start?

My review

This reading experience was so different from what I’d ever imagined it to be. This is one of those examples that wrong impressions and expectations have a huge influence on your reading enjoyment. According to the blurb, this book was mainly set in a hotel including water park, so this gives off major summer vibes. However, most scenes don’t play out there and this story didn’t even take place during summer holidays, something I expected as well. I also expected this to be a YA/NA crossover, but this felt very YA to me. And YA romances are becoming quite a big nope for me.

When Charlie and Baily run into eachother at the airport and are sat next to one another on the same flight, they both don’t like eachother. This is were the book starts. Then it jumps two years forward, another random meeting between our main characters. Then, we move to the current time and space and Bailey and Charlie run into eachother again, much to especially Bailey’s dismay. However, they now can’t escape from one another and develop a friendship pretty fast. And maybe there’s more to it. I’m not sure what to think about these characters. They are okay I guess, not that extremely interesting. We get to know Bailey best, since most of the book is written in her POV. Painter switches to Charlie as well, but we barely get to know him. So, I didn’t understand why he has to get his own POV. Moreover, I didn’t get to know Bailey that well either, she stays quite shallow in my opinion. Maybe this is because I’m outgrowing YA romance, but I needed more. She is written fine, but I just couldn’t connect to her and nor to this romance.

Apart from the unnecessary POV for Charlie, the writing is okay. Sometimes it’s a bit stiff nevertheless, so I couldn’t quite get into this book. The chapters are really short though, but the story felt dragging anyway. I’m not utterly positive about the plot either. It’s very, very generic and I zoned out quite a few times. I missed character development and I need that in my romances now. Also, most of the book is set during the school year and in winter, so where are the summer vibes? I expected the characters to be in the water park a lot, but there’s not many scenes in the hotel like the blurb suggested them to be. Neither were there other elements present that the blurb suggest, because Bailey and Charlie don’t keep track of their guests progress in romances. Painter has woven some serious themes into the story though, such as divorced parents, one of them living long distance and the possibility of losing touch with them. Besides these themes, I really don’t know what this book wanted to do. I was able to finish it quite quickly, but I wasn’t intrigued or whatsoever.

Since Betting on You by Lynn Painter is more of a YA romance, there wasn’t supposed to be any smut. Did I miss it? Quite honestly, yes. In my opinion there is so much more tension when a romance novel contains smut. However, this book felt lacking to me in more ways. I didn’t understand why this had to be a dual POV, since Bailey gets the biggest portion of the book anyway. Also, the story wasn’t intriguing enough, nor was the romance. Overall, this book was just fine to me and nothing more. Especially not swoonworthy as several reviews suggest this book to be.