Bet on It by Jodie Slaughter

Bet on It

by Jodie Slaughter

After striking up a bingo-based sex pact, two lonely souls find winning has never been more fun - and falling in love has never felt more complicated.
The first time Aja Owens encounters the man of her dreams, she’s having a panic attack in the frozen foods section of the Piggly Wiggly. The second time, he’s being introduced to her as her favorite bingo buddy’s semi-estranged grandson. From there, all it takes is one game for her to realize that he’s definitely going to be a problem. And if there’s anything she already has a surplus of, it’s problems.
In Walker Abbott’s mind, there are only two worthwhile things in Greenbelt, South Carolina. The peach cobbler at his old favorite diner and his ailing grandmother. Dragging himself back after more than a decade away, he’s counting down the days until Gram heals and he can get back to his real life. Far away from the trauma inside of those city limits. Just when he thinks his plan is solid, enter Aja to shake everything up.
A hastily made bingo-based sex pact is supposed to keep this…thing between them from getting out of hand. Especially when submitting to their feelings means disrupting their carefully balanced lives. But emotions are just like bingo callers—they refuse to be ignored.

Reviewed by Joni Reads on

3 of 5 stars

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Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

When I saw this was about Bingo I was immediately intrigued. I have 5 different Bingo games on my ipad so you might say that I like to play Bingo. Add a Bingo storyline to a romcom and you can sign me up!

I thought that the mental health rep and the POC rep was really good. I liked that they didn't shy away from the main character being black. Sometimes when reading about a POC main character they tend to gloss over the fact but this book made it part of the storyline which I appreciated.

Our main character, Aja, has general anxiety and when we first meet her she is having a panic attack in the middle of the grocery store. You're really thrown right in to a very vulnerable moment with her so I immediately felt for the character.

The love interest is Walker- the grandson of Aja's Bingo partner who has come to care for his grandma after she broke both of her wrists in an accident. Walker has anxiety issues stemming from PTSD from his difficult childhood himself so he and Aja really connect and understand each other.

The spice levels of this book was amazing. No fade to black here which I loved.

So why only 3 stars? I felt like the book did a lot more telling than showing. I didn't feel fully immersed. There was no urgency to pick it up when I put it down.

And while I appreciate the mental health storyline I do feel like it wasn't executed well. While we first meet Aja during a panic attack she never suffers from another one on the pages of the book again. She mentions her struggle with anxiety quite a bit but other than being a homebody we don't really see it.

For a woman who has a panic attack in the middle of Piggly Wiggly over a box of Hot Pockets you would think that there would be more actual struggles in the book and there just wasn't.

I liked the characters, loved the Bingo storyline, the different rep that was featured in the book (did I mention Aja is also plus size?) and I would definitely read another book by this author. It just fell a bit flat for me overall so I rated it as three stars.

If you like romcoms with some good spice I do recommend that you check this out. Just check trigger warnings because of the mentions of panic attacks and anxiety that are mentioned.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 19 December, 2021: Finished reading
  • 19 December, 2021: Reviewed