Despite Its Cute Moments, Betting on You Is a YA Romance That Falls Flat

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Betting on You, the new novel from YA author Lynn Painter (Better than the Movies), is a tale as old as time: Bailey has a type A personality and can’t stand smug, laid-back Charlie. But the two are, of course, made to spend time together—on a plane out of Alaska, at a movie theater, getting hired at the same hotel—and it turns out they may not hate each other as much as they initially thought. If the story ended there, it would have been slightly disappointing and woefully predictable, but at least it would have been satisfying. Bailey and Charlie’s story, unfortunately, goes beyond cliché and lands squarely in that irritating category where too much is going on and the book lacks a solid center.

From a technical standpoint, Betting on You is accessible and easy to read, but that only carries a novel so far. Charlie and Bailey are decent main characters, and their rivals-to-lovers storyline is intriguing—if, again, a little cliché. Bailey feels like a more complex character than Charlie, partly because she has more POV chapters, but she’s also sympathetic in the way she fears big changes in her life, specifically her mother’s new boyfriend and the potential loss of her sense of normalcy. Her antics with Charlie to make her mother’s boyfriend uncomfortable are childish and uncalled for, but she knows they are, and the guilt she feels afterward pushes her to ultimately deal with her worries in a mature manner. Charlie is mildly amusing with his snark and his skewed opinions about relationships, but his insistence on being a jerk no matter who he’s with keeps him from being a truly likable character.

As mentioned, both characters get POV chapters throughout, with Bailey having the majority and Charlie popping up at random intervals. While they give insight into what’s going on internally for both characters, the heavy imbalance is noticeable, and Charlie’s chapters break the flow of the narrative with how short they are and how little they offer to move the plot forward. Conversely, Painter’s writing is bogged down by curse words and Taylor Swift references, and while neither is inherently offensive, the frequency of the characters saying “fuck” or talking about Swift’s music feels juvenile and unnecessary. As a fellow Swiftie, I enjoyed the references the first couple of times they appeared, but even I can recognize when the name-dropping of song titles and gushing over the 10-minute version of “All Too Well” becomes excessive.

The plot is bursting at the seams with numerous story threads and yet feels empty, subplots popping up and then being forgotten almost immediately. I was under the impression that the hotel Charlie and Bailey work at would factor in more than it did, due to the book’s summary mentioning it, but there are only a handful of short scenes that take place there, and their employment has no effect on the plot whatsoever. Charlie pops Tums like candy due to stress, and he mentions he sees a therapist for anxiety, but this ultimately is just a character quirk instead of something he needs to work on. Bailey and Charlie fake-dating is thrown into the mix for a bit but is dropped just as quickly as it appears. Charlie finds himself involved in two separate bets—one concerning Bailey’s best friend, Nekesa, and whether or not she’ll cheat on her boyfriend, and one centered on Bailey that Charlie is desperate to keep quiet—but neither is all that interesting or important until the dreaded third-act separation, adding more unnecessary melodrama. The story’s focus is on Bailey and Charlie’s romance, and rightfully so, given that this is a romantic comedy, but the attempts to include seemingly small elements ultimately pile up and make the book weaker, almost as if Painter wasn’t sure where to stick things and what to elaborate on. As a result, some things are wrapped up nicely, while others are left unanswered (the Tums dilemma being the latter, which is honestly worrisome due to how frequently Charlie’s taking them).

To say I’m disappointed that I didn’t love this book is an understatement. I’d been meaning to get around to Painter’s novels at some point, but this was not a great first impression, and it makes me wary to even read anything else she writes. It’s a shame because Bailey and Charlie’s relationship isn’t without its cute moments, and I desperately wanted there to be more of them—I think with a sharper focus and a few more rounds of edits, this could have been a cute story. As is, it’s a book I can’t recommend, if only for the way it made me wish to never hear “Anti-Hero” ever again.

Betting on You is out now.