Fiona Riley

In the high stakes luxury real estate market, everything has a price, and as rival Realtors Trina Lee and Kendall Yates find out, that means their hearts and souls, too.

Bet Against Me

KADY BURNS

I read a lot of books from this publisher and they all follow the sameish format. Will they or won't they and then they do. Some bit of conflict leads to separation and then the happily ever after. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, in fact about 90 percent of what I read these days is that format. It is my bowl of chilli on a cold day, just so much comfort and steam :) This book is exactly that.

Jude Silberfeld

Edit: October 19th, 2020

As I’ve said before, my friends and I have these book club chats once in a while, and this time we had chosen Fiona Riley’s latest book, Bet Against Me (the time before was Finding Jessica Lambert by Clare Ashton). Having read the book a few weeks ago and not trusting my memory to do it justice, I decided to listen to the audiobook version, narrated by Melissa Sternenberg.

First of all, I was surprised to realise I hadn’t forgotten that much about the book. And while I had a really hard time warming up to Trina when I first read it, the initial nastiness between her and Kendall seemed more balanced in audio.

Melissa Sternenberg’s narration – my first by her, I think – is pretty good, even if I didn’t find her voices distinctive enough. It didn’t bother me too much, however. And I enjoyed the story just as much as the first time. Once again, I probably overrated it a tad in my first review, and objectively it’s probably more a 4.5* or even a 4*, but as I’ve said time and again, my ratings reflect the feelings and emotions a book invokes in me. And I’m still as impressed as I was the first time with the fact that the author managed to make me love Trina by the end. So I’m happy with my 5*. And even more impatient for book 2, Bet the Farm (Lauren’s story, yay!), coming out next May, and book 3, which will focus on Ellison (double yay!). Which reminds me, that comment above about the voices in the audiobook not being distinctive enough? It doesn’t apply to Ellison’s, which totally made me swoon.

And I want to thank Fiona Riley again for making time to answer our questions.

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I loved this book. I need to start with that because my journey to get there was rather circumvoluted.

Trina Lee is about to reach her goal as Realtor of the Year. She has the best boss and the best team. Her mother, the head of her Vietnamese-Chinese family, might compare selling luxury real estate to selling yourself, Trina is more than proud of her accomplishments. When the title eludes her, she feels cheated, all the more so as the award goes to Kendall Yates, daughter of the infamous real estate magnate Dick Yates. Trina hates the idea that her hard work didn’t prevail over nepotism. When Trina and Kendall’s bosses come up with the idea of a challenge between the two women, Trina can’t wait to show her rival what a really and truly good agent is.

I didn’t check the blurb before opening Bet Against Me. I only read blurbs for authors I don’t know yet or those I’ve had a bumpy experience with. Fiona Riley isn’t one of them so I didn’t. A few pages in, I was almost regretting it. Not for me, for the author. I don’t want to not like a book because I made the wrong decision reading it. It’s not the author’s fault when I don’t care for a storyline that’s clearly outlined in the blurb. This novel had everything stacked against it at first: I don’t find real estate an exciting environment and I thought the main characters most unlikable, especially Trina and her terrifyingly sharp tongue. While I didn’t change my mind about the first point, I came to realise the characters really showed themselves in their worst light in those first chapters and they were a whole lot more interesting and complex than they seemed. I felt sad for Kendall and was glad she had best friend Margo Channing (yes, Riley went there) by her side, and I loved Trina with her loved ones, from her friends and colleagues to her brother and his kids. She’s also much more considerate with everyone she meets than she first lets on. I really had a hard time warming up to her and I love that Riley managed to make me like her a lot in the end, after I was so worried that no one could get over the awfully hurtful stuff she flung at Kendall when they first met. Fiona Riley made it believable and that was no mean feat.

And the chemistry, wow… Honestly, that first kiss is a beauty. I won’t even comment on how hot the sex is because, you know, Fiona Riley.

With Kendall’s father as some sort of MacGuffin, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. And when it did, boy did it hurt! Then, fortunately, everything got better, since it’s a romance novel, and an excellent one at that. Fiona Riley plays with her characters’ and her readers’ feelings and emotions with obvious glee and the result is delightfully sweet and sexy, with hints of tenderness mixed in with the sassy – and at times snarky – banter.

I received a copy from the publisher and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

Bet Against Me

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