Lilopinions

Bet in the Dark is the story of Ellie Harris, the one girl among four brothers. Desperate to get away from her over-protective family, she follows her boyfriend to college, only to get dumped, and left in a college in which two of her brothers still go. Not long after she comes back to her apartment with all the furniture missing and a rather angry looking person demanding seven thousand dollars lost from gambling. The only thing is, she never gambled it away, and is forced closer and closer to Fin Hunter, a guy she only knew by rumors. Even worst, she is falling for him.

This book was kind of long. I didn't really like Ellie that much, mainly because she seemed to whine a lot and kept pushing her family away. I'm sorry, I understand some independence, but it only goes so far. She also makes some really questionable choices throughout the book, and then over-thinks and complains about it later. I ended up scanning a lot during the middle of the book because she was always worrying about the debt and her family, and it got super repetitive.

Fin really wasn't all that great either. For one thing, he is supposed to be a "bad boy." To me, he isn't bad at all, and quiet frankly fell for Ellie a little fast for my tastes. He's also pursuing Ellie, but had a reputation for being with a lot of girls, and as soon as Ellie come around, he abruptly just stops all of that? I'm sorry, if someone owed me seven thousand dollars and was constantly pushing me away, I'm not sure how long I would try. Plus, it seemed like he was stalking Ellie, and often got some of his friends to keep tabs on her. Creepy much?

The perks of this book as far as characters go, is most of the characters I liked, or at least liked some of their quirks. Ellie's best friend I liked a lot, as well as her oldest brother. It seemed some of the side characters were extremely similar, especially Ellie's brothers, and Fin's friends.

The end was sweet, though it took a lot to get there. Some of the book felt like it just didn't need to be there, but I don't regret reading it. For a young adult romance, this was a pretty good one. Maybe in a different frame of mind I would have liked it more.