I Bet You

Something you should know about me. I have read EVERYTHING that Ilsa Madden-Mills has written to date. She tends to write contemporary romance with a little dirty in it. Her writing superpower is creating characters and relationships that seem to exist in the real world. When I read her books, there is a part of me that believes I could be friends with the characters she creates. They are visceral in the way she creates them. Now, after an Amazon struggle the past couple of days, her readers are finally able to get our hands on I Bet You, the next book in a series of football romance stories set in Magnolia, Mississippi at a fictional university, Waylon University. The first book, I Dare You, released earlier in the year. I Bet You tells the story of Ryker, the star quarterback of the Waylon U football team, and Penelope, a fellow student. Penelope and Ryker are seemingly two very different people. Ryker is the sexy, attractive BMOC, wildly popular among the students, while Penelope is a beautiful nerdy romance-loving writer. Even through Penelope is attracted to Ryker, given her past, Penelope has made the rule: no football players. However, a quick bet, a plan to help Penelope attract Connor, and a lot of time spent together, leads them to the impossible. Characters: One of the strengths of Madden-Millss romances is her characters. As I mentioned at the beginning of the blog post, her characters could be real people, people that you and I would consider personal friends. In this book, Ryker and Penelope are everything. In I Dare You, Ryker is Mavericks player roommate. There isnt a woman that Ryker doesnt like. However, even with that flaw, he is loyal. As Maverick makes some unwise decisions, Ryker continues to support him, even to his own detriment. In I Bet You, Ryker continues his loyalty, this time to Penelope. We realize early on that the two are seriously attracted to each other. This attraction to Penelope leads him to show his loyalty by helping her connect with Connor, the boy she believes is a better match. Ryker readily forgoes his attraction to her to maintain his loyalty to their burgeoning friendship. As of late, authors such as Kandi Steiner with The Wrong Game and Meghan March with The Sin Trilogy have created the penultimate book boyfriends. They are sensitive, caring, willing to sacrifice their reputations for the heroines, sexy, and handsome. Whether you read Zach or Lincoln and now, Ryker, you cannot help but wish there were more men like them in the real world. Like Steiners Zach and Marchs Lincoln, Rykers sensitivity to the Penelope makes him irresistible to the reader. This trend leads the reader feel strongly for the actions of the hero. You cannot help but root for Ryker because his clearly knows that Penelope is it for him: I feel like Im in a dream. And heres the thingIve had some kickass moments in my life, the time I won a state championship, the day I got my scholarship from Waylon, but nothing nothing beats having her. Now, Penelope embodies the woman who knows herself, and she does not care about others thoughts about her. She tells us early on that she forgives easily. She loves her historical romance, Twilight, vampires, and statement tees. She doesnt feel the need to meet some societal expectations. Instead, she is simply who she is, and it is perfect for Ryker. She brings out the best in him, and she knows him better than other woman could ever know him: The Ryker of my heart would never participate in a bet that involved me. And I didnt need Margo to tell me that. Or Charisma to explain about how sometimes we say things we dont mean. I know him. I think maybe Ive known him for a long time, or my soul has. Since the moment I researched and wrote the article about him, he carved out a place in my brain, and now he owns my heart. I love these two together. Story: I have to admit that I did see the conflict coming from afar. When the focus of the book is betting, it is obvious that a bet would cause problems for Ryker and Penelope. And that is the case with this story. What I love about the story, though, is the redemption of Ryker in the end and Penelopes ability to finally move past her anger and disappointment with her father. This can only occur when she faces the difficulty with Ryker. Characters overcoming their pasts always makes for a strong romantic trope. Even more, together, Ryker and Penelope are funny and charming and compelling to read. Focusing on their relationship would be enough for the story, but Madden-Mills also gives us more with Penelopes daddy issues and Rykers sensitivity to perfectionism. These are common issues and readers can relate to them. Sexiness Quotient: Madden-Mills always gives us enough sex in her books. We get enough to underscore the characters relationship. It adds another dimension to their love, but the sex does not overpower the relationship. The way in which they connect on a spiritual or emotional level is the most important, and sex simply adds a bit more to those levels. This is truly the case in I Bet You. Ryker and Penelope seriously want each other, and their bodies show this, but Madden-Mills does not give us all the raunchy details. She gives us enough physical to enhance the emotional and spiritual. Overall: (5 Stars) I will always read anything from Ilsa Madden-Mills. I find myself in her stories. They are real and relational and readable. I Bet You took a bit to get to Amazon, but it is definitely worth the wait. Ryker and Penelope will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you love a little bit deeper.

Like others, I nearly DNF\’d. Penelope was the worst virgin nymphomaniac I have ever read, she\’s was disturbingly obsessed with daydreams of sex. And ladies, it\’s embarrassing to like Twilight past the age of 15. Ryker was definitely changed from book one. But I could not understand his attraction to Red. The bird, and the dive into historical fiction scenes were random and odd.

\’m going to forego much of a review on this one. Partially because I let time slide and partially because I think I let that time slide because this one just didn\’t get to me enough to make me want to get right to it. Let me just say, as a whole, I have LOVED this series. Maverick, man, I\’ll always be sold on him and Blaize, I just wanted to take him under my wing and tell him what he was worth. But then there was this one in between, Ryker\’s story. The star quarterback of the team with big NFL dreams and whilst a manwhore in the first book, a truly loyal to the end friend to Maverick with some sage advice in that book. So needless to say, I was excited to get to this one. But it just didn\’t pan out for me. I know they\’re all separate books for each couple and separate characters but he never tugged me in and he never had to contend with the type of stakes the other guys in \’I Dare You\’ and \’I Bet You\’ had to. My other place where I couldn\’t quite connect with him was his reason for \’hating\’ Penelope – a college news story from the year before that should be a blip on the screen as it had already been national news across America. And yet he\’s going to hate on her tiny little piece that barely registered? Then there was Penelope, she was an okay nerd girl but she just didn\’t have the moxie nor the \’rock your inner nerd\’ like Delaney did in book 1. I also found her a bit flimsy with her ambitions to be a romance writer and the truly cheesy awful excerpts that she wrote. Kinda took my suspension of disbelief away that she could have a successful career with her writing abilities. Then there\’s also the much used trope of the virgin and the quarterback and since I\’ve read that one so many times I guess this got knocked down a peg for me as I\’ve seen way better. In the end, this one just didn\’t have the elements needed for me to feel the magic and although I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED that damn parrot, Vampire Bill and his word a day there just wasn\’t enough for this to be a hit with me. Not sorry I read it as each book really enriches the next and this one did especially so for Blaze and Charisma\’s book but this was still basically a miss for me. Great series, just a case of YMMV and maybe it\’s a \’me, not you\’. 3*** for crass grey African parrots, great secondary characters and the overall series.

I Bet You by Ilsa Madden-Mills is the second book in the Hook Up series. This book CAN be read as a stand alone but they\’re both so good, i can highly recommend both! Sexy, funny, with a little dash of angst thrown in! This story is about Ryker the best friend of Maverick who we met in I Dare You, and the girl who wrote an expos on him Penelope. A self professed nerd-girl, she is clever, sassy, and I can see why Ryker was so utterly intrigued with her from the very start. Also she doesn\’t fall at his feet like the \”jersey chasers\” do. Ryker keeps trying to get closer to Penelope but every time he does he seems to make her madder with him, but he doesn\’t mean to. It\’s just that he\’ll do almost anything to get closer to her. He\’ll do whatever it takes, be it suffering through sparkling vampire movies or helping her date the guy she is crushing on who is the complete opposite from Ryker!! But is it really Ryker she doesn\’t want, or just in denial and frightened of being hurt!! I loved this enemies to lovers college sports romance! It has hilarious banter, fabulous characters, insane chemistry, and delicious football players. I couldnt put this book down, and was completely consumed from start to finish!

I have had this on my Kindle since release day and have finally managed to read it, yay. It was funny, sweet and sexy too with vampire Bill supplying lots of light relief. Honestly I adored everything about this story. Penelope is a quirky character that I could just not love from the minute you meet her, she is working part time in a diner and trying to rebuild a relationship with her father after losing her mother suddenly. Sharing her house with her best friend Charisma and her African grey parrot Vampire Bill her life is full. Although she never knows how to act around guys especially one like Ryker Voss, the star Quarterback the one that girls flock to. He starts to show interest in her and as much as she doesnt want to admit she enjoys his attention and before long she finds herself falling for the man and not the persona that everyone else gets. Could he really want to be with her or does he have ulterior motives? Ryker Voss is used to attention from girls but Penelope doesnt care who he is or have stars in her eyes when she looks at him and that for once is refreshing with all the pressure surrounding the team at the moment and scandals from the previous season still rocking the foundation of the team the last thing he was expecting was to feel anything for the quirky Penelope. Things become complicated when his team mates decide to make her a bet. Can he show her how he really feels or will the stakes be too high? The chemistry and the banter within this couple was great both are the opposite of what they would usually go for and the secondary characters also are fun to read about. Highly enjoyable read and cant wait for more in this series. Solid five stars and loved the epilogue.

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