Betting on You

first lynn painter book! cute and fun
okay charlie is literally so thoughtful and sweet wtf.i cannot get over some of the INSANELY CRINGEY DIALOGUE, not being too far removed from my teenage yrs had me DYINGGGG. like teens def dont talk like this.i related to the divorce struggles, however i thought charlies germs and stress would be a bigger plot point.full review to come

Lovely YA Novel about friendship, first love, and the beauty in commitment
I had to take a moment after reading this to really gather my thoughts. Overall, the banter and compatibility between our leading lady and man was, no surprise, enjoyable and engaging. I love Painter’s ability to write two unseemingly personalities and make them gel. It’s truly one of her strengths. My problems didn’t lay with our main characters or how they reacted to situations. The opposite, in fact, as I felt their emotions were completely justified with little justice for them in the end.I’ll start with our darling main girl, Bay. What an absolute sweetheart. Her relationship with her mother was supposed to come off as “close” but ultimately revealed itself to be surfaced. Bay is 17. She is not a grown woman, she is still a child. The way Emily reacted to Bay’s emotions and her insecurities with having a strange man around the house did not sit well with me. I am mother of both a daughter and a son, and I can say, Emily’s behavior was so, so self centered and awful it was beyond cringe and so disheartening she would treat her daughter the way she did and have the audacity to make it seem like Bay was the problem. On the other hand, Bay’s dad was completely skimmed over and all I got was at one point he wasn’t a dead beat and then he turned into one?On the other hand, our goofy, complex stud of hero was completely jipped of all justice when it came to his family. This boy was angry and bitter and the complete ignorance of his parents and the mom’s boyfriend was jarring. Therapy and tums were not what he needed. But a lending ear and someone to show they truly care about what he’s going through would’ve been a good start.I just had such a problem with the parents in this novel it was hard to truly feel happy for Charlie and Bay.In the end, this novel unraveled to be a story about the relationship between parents and their children and in that regard it really missed the mark. I mean REALLY missed the mark. The whole story is centered around two children dealing with divorce and finding solace and companionship with each other, but at the end of the day, if all grown ups suck around them, it’s hard to remedy the fact that Bay and Charlie end up ok when they have so many unsolved problems with their parents.I do love Painter’s writing. What a gift to read a novel and feel like you’re watching a movie. But the modern day outlook on divorce and the idea children need to just grin and bear it because the parent needs to be happy just left me feeling empty. The child is still living under your roof, under your authority.They take priority ALWAYS. Children are not responsible for parent’s happiness.

So much banter!
This book went above and beyond by expectations! Topped better than the movies as my fav Lynn painter book! It’s full of banter and cheeky cute moments! I binged it in one day, literally couldn’t put it down! This is one of those books that gives you the swoony/giddy feelings that makes you wish you could hop in a Time Machine and read it for the first time again!

Great YA romance
I love Lynn Painter and this book didn’t disappoint. I love the different POVs on how their parent’s divorce affected them, and how they kept meeting at different point of their lifes. And I loved Charlie and his humor and how much I laughed in this book.

Es war ein Geburtstagsgeschenk und ist gut angekommen

After reading and absolutely loving Lynn Painter’s other YA novels (Better Than The Movies and The Do-Over), I had the highest expectations for Betting on You: unfortunately, I ended up disappointed.First of all: maybe it’s cause I read all of Painter’s YA books in the span of 6 months, but most of her characters are starting to blend together for me. Bailey sounded like a mix of Emilie and Liz, just with different quirks/hobbies (books instead of romcoms), while Charlie was basically Wes, no differences except he was a bit more annoying. The focus on the main characters’ issues with their divorced/estranged parents contributed to the deja-vu feeling I had for most of the book.I really didn’t like the characters: not Bailey, our FMC, who was whiny and frankly immature for 90% of the books, not Charlie, the MMC, who didn’t treat Bailey like he should’ve and HAS NOT redeemed himself in my eyes. But he was AN ANGEL compared to the sorry excuse of a best friend that was Nekesa.Finally, I felt like most of the issues and problems the characters faced were not realistic and exaggerated just for the sake of furthering the plot, somehow.I’m still going to read the next YA novel from Lynn Painter cause I feel like 2 out of 3 five stars are a good record (and I hope she’ll calm down with the Taylor Swift and pop culture references), but I will not recommend this one in particular.