The Bet (Bet, #1)

by Rachel Van Dyken

Tanya Eby (Narrator)

Indulge in this "laugh-out-loud" (Jill Shalvis) #1 New York Times bestseller about two childhood enemies who--decades later--discover that there is a fine line between love and hate.

"I have a proposition for you." Kacey should have run the minute those words left Seattle millionaire Jake Titus's mouth. It's been years since Kacey's seen her childhood friend Jake, but the minute Jake mentions his ill grandmother, Kacey is ready to do anything for the sweet old woman. And if that means pretending they're engaged for her sake, so be it.

But Kacey wasn't counting on Jake's older brother Travis still being there. She calls him "Satan" for a reason: she's never forgotten the way he teased and taunted her. Yet when they meet again, Travis's gorgeous smile is a direct hit to her heart . . . and Kacey's more confused than ever. As the days pass, only one thing starts to become alarmingly clear -- she never should have accepted Jake's deal.

• ISBN10: 1478902299
• ISBN13: 9781478902294
• Publish Date: 26 August 2014 (first published 1 January 2013)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Blackstone Audiobooks
• Format: Audiobook (CD)
• Duration: 7 hours
• Language: English

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

The beginning of this book was a little rocky for me, but once it hit its stride, I began to enjoy it. It was humor-filled and fun. There were some really sweet moments shared between Travis and Kacey and grandma was the gift that kept on giving. The ending was especially strong for me, and I will be checking out Jake's story.

Overall: Not amazing, but enjoyable. I borrowed the audiobook from the library, so I have no regrets as it did it's job making me laugh and keeping me entertained.

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[Angie]

The Bet was very disappointing. It's chock full of awful people! How am I suppose to care about them falling love when I can't even stand them? It all starts with Travis and Jake as little boys and they bet who's going to marry Kacey. Jake and Kacey were best friends, while Travis picked on her relentlessly. Fast forward several years, and Kacey hates them both. Her and Jake had a falling out in college and Travis acts like she doesn't exist. Then Jake turns up and offers to pay off her student loans if she'll come back home with him pretending to be his fiance to make Grandma happy. Kacey can't say no to that.

Jake is seriously one of the absolute worst characters I have ever read and unfortunately he's one of the POV characters in The Bet. He is conceited and selfish and manipulative. He doesn't care about anyone but himself. I hated him! And not even in the love to hate kind of way. He's just horrible! Even his own family thinks so! I could not see how Kacey could put up with him. I also couldn't see how she got upset with him, when she knew it as all fake to begin with! Travis, who is the love interest, was frustrating as well. He's 23 and still picking on Kacey because he likes her! Grow up! And she acts like she's the victim, and he's so awful to her, but she gives it right back! She doesn't miss a moment to make fun of his stutter, which is just down right cruel.

The Bet was just an overall mess. There was no point to the fake engagement since everyone knew it was fake. Grandma was some kind of grand puppet master, and I think all of her meddling was suppose to be funny and heartwarming, but I didn't like her messing with everyone either. I never really got a sense of who Kacey and Travis were either. They were either being awful to each other, or ripping each other's clothes off. I guess I just didn't get the humor of this one and read it all as cruelty.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[Rowena]

Kacey has known the Titus boys since she was a little girl. Jake was her best friend and Travis was her worst enemy and one day she had everything and then one night, she lost it all. Her family. Her best friend. And her second family.

Jake and Kacey were inseparable growing up. They were there for each other and then they dated and then they stopped dating and then stopped talking. Travis has always been around but Kacey called him the devil because he tormented her when she was young and she didn’t like him…at all. Too bad Travis has been in love with her for his entire life. He was just terrible at showing her, let alone telling her.

I’ve never read anything by this author before but I was looking forward to reading this one because it sounded like something fun and while this book was fun, there were times when I wanted to wring the hero, the heroine and the hero’s brothers necks. I know that these guys were pretty young. Kacey and Jake are 21 and Travis is 23 but man did they act all kinds of childish in this book. They yelled at each other a lot, they pranked each other a lot and at first, I thought it was funny but over the course of the book, it just got old.

I did enjoy getting to know both Travis and Kacey because when they weren’t driving me up the wall with not saying how they feel (Travis) and saying stupid shit (Kacey). But as I kept reading the book, I began to really like the two of them together. Travis was hot and I loved the way that he loved Kacey, from afar. He was so good for her and to her that I was going to be royally pissed off if she started having feelings for Jake again.

At the end of this book, there’s an excerpt for Jake’s story. I’m mighty curious to see how Van Dyken redeems Jake because he was a total douche in this book. I didn’t hate him but I didn’t exactly like him either. I did love the hell out of Grandma Nadine though. She was pretty awesome.

Overall, this book was cute and it was funny. There were parts that drove me up the wall but not enough that it ruined my enjoyment of the book. I thought that Van Dyken did a great job of turning Travis and Kacey’s relationship around and I loved seeing them fall in love with each other. I will definitely be reading more from this author and I would also recommend this book to fans of contemporary romance and New Adult books. It’s cute.