On the HahaFiction shelf
Betting on You
Audiobook available
Seventeen-year-old Bailey gets a second encounter with Charlie when they become coworkers at a hotel waterpark. Their first meeting at an airport gave her little reason to like him. At work they begin betting on other people’s relationships, then complicate their own with fake dating and an attraction that does not fit their theories.
From the publisher’s blurb
“If I were a betting person, I’d say zero.”Read the full description at Lynn Painter, Betting on You, opening excerpt provided by Simon & Schuster
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What makes it funny?
Bailey describes a couple blocking airport security with their kissing as though they are eating each other’s faces. She wants people to follow the procedure and keep moving; Charlie discovers how easily he can provoke her.
The comedy at work
Bailey’s anxious attention to rules makes a minor airport obstruction feel momentous. Later, assessing everyone else’s love life gives her and Charlie the confidence of outside observers, even as their own feelings make that confidence increasingly suspect.
Try this if…
A waterpark workplace romance for readers who enjoy teenage leads arguing their way toward attraction. Bets and fake dating give their teasing consequences beyond passing the time between shifts.
Good to know
Parental divorce and a mother’s new relationship are part of the story. Bailey and Charlie alternate viewpoints, and the opening excerpt includes profanity.
A few distinguishing details
- Hotel-waterpark coworkers betting on romance
- A rule-conscious heroine easily provoked at the airport
- Fake dating unsettles two confident relationship observers
More funny contemporary romance
Sources & further reading
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