Loving Literatures

While Better Than the Movies by Painter has been one of my all-time-favorite reads, Betting on You was alright. It was cute, but not as engaging.

Though I do have the experience of being a child of divorce, much like main characters, Bailey and Charlie, and seeing how fast and how much family dynamics can change when a parent starts dating again or remarries, I really didn’t grasp the whole concept and plan of driving Bailey’s mom’s boyfriend out of the house. Yeah, Bailey didn’t want change, but couldn’t things have gone a little better than betting on everything and risk all of their relationships?

Should I give it to them that they’re teenagers and may not know any better of the consequences? Maybe, it just felt odd.

And readers could see a bit into the friendship of Charlie and Bailey, but it felt kind of bland at times. I could read the tension and feelings clearly printed on the paper pages, but not really feel the chemistry, you know what I mean? I felt a disconnect from this book, though I love fake-dating, and friends-to-lovers. This one fell short for me. I’ve liked Painter’s other books so far, but not so much this one, unfortunately.

I LIKED it but didn’t LOVE it.