Rating: ★★★★
Audience: YA Contemporary Romance
Length: 432 pages
Author: Lynn Painter
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: November 28th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

From the New York Times bestselling author of Better than the Movies, this swoon-worthy rom-com in the vein of She’s All That and 10 Things I Hate About You follows a teen girl who unwittingly finds herself at the center of a bet while working at a waterpark.

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?

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an eARC.

THE BANTER.

I absolutely think that Lynn Painter writes some of the best banter I have ever read in rom-coms. I LOVED the way Bailey and Charlie brought the slowly building tension through well placed snark and sarcasm with a hint of some real feelings.

The strangers to friends to lovers was super cute. I loved the friendship and how it took up a lot of the book. The slow burn was fantastic and I really felt the chemistry between them.

I connected deeply to the themes surrounding divorced parents, seeing parents in new relationships and that struggle to watch things move on around you and not knowing where you land. It’s a big sucker punch that I could understand the way Bailey and Charlie were working through their situations.

As a YA book I do think there was a bit too much language, otherwise nothing else bugged me. I think if I could have had a little bit longer chapters from Charlie I would have known him even better. There was something slightly missing from that angle.

But honestly, another great read from one of my favorite romance authors. I love her books. I love how easy they are to binge and just ENJOY. And this ending was real stinkin’ cute and I loved Bailey and Charlie.

Overall audience notes:

• YA Contemporary Romance
• Language: strong and high
• Romance: make-outs
• Violence: low
• Trigger/Content Warnings: strained parent relationships, cheating (side characters), theme surrounding being a child of divorce

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