Review of Beginner’s Bet by Fiona Riley

Since the start of this book series, I’ve been eager to read Ellison’s story who was always my favourite. She’s such an enigmatic character that I was looking forward to seeing her walls go down and let someone in her life.

Ellison Gamble is the owner of the most successful luxury real estate firm in Boston but despite all her money and success, she feels alone. Katie Crawford needs to sell her family’s dilapidated house to pay the increasing costs for her mother’s health care. When both women meet, an unlikely friendship starts and Ellison offers to help Katie sell her house but as an attraction grows, will they be willing to risk it all?

This is book 3 and last in the High Stakes series which started with Bet Against Me, followed by Bet the Farm. Even though this is a standalone novel, I recommend starting in book one as you’ll get a better idea of each character’s story and personality.

As I said before, Ellison is an intriguing character throughout the series and finally, the reader gets to know why. I’ll try to keep it vague to avoid spoilers but let me just say that apart from the romance, this book tells Ellison’s journey to motherhood. Ms. Riley tells in the acknowledgments how challenging was to write this story as Ellison’s desire to have a family overlapped with her own. As you can imagine, the character’s journey is emotional and taxing but brings new light to Ellison as a woman beyond her kickass business prowess. This book makes her more exposed, more vulnerable, more human. And it suits her completely.

This is an age gap, opposite attracts, coming out romance with a lot of heated moments, as it’s expected from Ms. Riley, aka “The Queen of Steam”. Apart from a considerable age difference, contrasting financial situations, sexual orientations at odds (Katie is allegedly straight), and disparate personalities, each character is in a completely different place in their lives with respect to relationships and family. I thought this was a smart plot choice as it sounded authentic and a potential source of conflict, as it would be in real life. Both leads embark on a journey of transformation in which they will be changed forever.

Beginner’s Bet is by far my favourite in this series, but the three books are equally worth a read. 4.5 stars.

ARC provided by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a wonderful book to read. The two mains Ellison and Katie fit together perfectly and the flow was excellent with funny and interesting dialogues. This is the third and last book in a series, but I only read this book and had no problems reading it. If you’ve read the other books in the series, this will be the cherry on the cake, as several of the mains from the first two books make an appearance.

When I heard that one of the main story lines was about a baby wish I honestly wasn’t sure if this would be the best fit for me as I don’t connect to that at all, but the romance was done so expertly and the parts about Ellison’s struggles in life in getting her family and
children were clearly written from the heart. And for those who enjoy tropes, there are plenty present; a poor-rich trope, an age-gap, and a toaster oven romance.

I wouldn’t describe Katie and Ellison as opposites since their personalities are not that different, they both possess good social skills and are caring people, but still they were quite different as they are at completely different phases in their life. Ellison is in her early forties and has a successful career and while things are not going the way she wanted them to in her personal life, she has structure and stability. Katie on the other hand is in her late twenties and due to her mother needing expensive care, she is financially and emotionally struggling. When they meet though, their relation develops in such a natural way, even though Katie has never been in a same sex relationship, it’s really sweet and they just match perfectly.

They were some small things that didn’t work too well for me that I want to mention though. There was a communication issue, which seemed so silly because they generally had a very open and honest communication going on, so it felt out of place. The other thing is the ex turned best friend with occasional benefits. Yes, others have mentioned this as well, so I knew it was coming, and I thought I would have no problems with that (well, at least not in a book;)). But, it turns out that this raised several red flags for me when reading. At the start of the book I felt that the friends with benefits thing may actually have been one-sided and that Ellison was in love with Faith. I had trouble letting this go at start of the relationship between Ellison and Katie. I kept thinking will Ellison keep pining over Faith (as she did during a previous marriage)? Also, the fact that she did not discuss being ridiculously in love with Katie with her so called best friend seemed a bit weird. That’s what best friends are for right? From this, I again got the impression Faith was not a best friend, but still more someone in the romance/sex buddy category. Maybe it’s me, but it felt off.

This book deals with some difficult topics, but still felt relatively light and low on angst and I easily recommend this if you’re looking for a sweet romance.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

And you win, a toaster oven. What a fun contemporary romance. Two vibrant and very likeable main characters that have definite chemistry that grows as they interact with each other. There is an age gap and a financial disparity that causes some conflict. The sex scenes are hot. Since all three novels are set around the real estate agency, the reader reconnects with Jax, Trina, and Lauren. I also appreciated Katie's friend Shaina. What an awesome group of friends. Ellison is a wonderful boss, friend and partner. Katie is dealing with the changes in her life and for the most part, navigates them well. After this read, I think about identity, relationships, and going after what you want.

3.75 stars

This is the third book in the high stakes series, and although I didn't love it as much as Bet the Farm it is still well worth the read.

To be honest, although there is mention of becoming a parent and surrogacy - Due to the foreword, I expected more on that front. I was totally pumped and ready for it. That plot line is there, just not as deep as expected.

Katie and the story of her mum stole my heart. Ellison I was less keen on. With that said, this story has all the elements I adore in a lesbian romance.

This was a great beach read to get lost in for the day.

The chemistry between Ellison and Katie was endearing and I’m a sucker for the match that makes perfect sense and no sense at all at.

Ellison is a self made successful woman that is vulnerable in a lot of ways. I loved her outward confidence and her quiet integrity.

Katie is at a place in her life where she can’t really think of anything ahead of the curveballs that life keeps throwing at her.

There is clearly a difference in wealth on the surface but they come together and lift each other up and fulfill each other’s lives; with some good friends for supporting cast, a few steamy scenes, and some insecurities to hurdle through thrown in to give us that happily ever after.

4.5 Stars

“Beginner’s Bet” is the third book in the High Stakes series. It’s also easily my favorite. It’s a rich girl/poor girl, age-gap toaster oven romance that is sweet but with a lot of heart and substance.

Ellison Gamble is the owner of luxury real estate firm. Katie Crawford is a massage therapist in a spa that’s next to Ellison’s realty firm. They meet after a mix-up at the spa and form a quick and sweet friendship.

Ellison was introduced in the previous two books, “Bet Against Me” and “Bet the Farm.” She was my favorite in those so I was very happy to get to her story and for her to find her happy ending. She’s busy with her realty group and secretly trying to have a baby when she meets Katie. Katie is working as much as she can to pay for her mom’s care home. Her mother has recently had a debilitating stroke and needs constant care. It has taken all of Katie’s savings and she’s worried she only has a couple months left. Ellison comes up with a plan and over the course of the summer, the two grow close.

What I really loved was the budding relationship between the two of them. They got to know each other as friends and while it became more for Ellison, it wasn’t as straight forward for Katie. Katie has never been in a same sex relationship and can’t decide if Ellison is actually flirting with her or if she’s just a very nice woman. Spoiler alert, the answer is both. I liked how Riley took the time for them to get to know one another before things changed. That was something that was missing in the other two books so I liked that I really felt their emotional connection here.

My only complaint is the 85% dark moment. It really seemed to come out of nowhere and didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Especially considering that all of the issues would be worked out soon enough or maybe if the two sat down and talked about the issue. Also, that Ellison might’ve been too nice and generous and patient. She is basically the perfect person with no flaws, but that’s me just nitpicking but she was literally flawless!

Otherwise, I absolutely loved this and highly recommend it!

I received an ARC from Bold Strokes Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Another great book from Fiona Riley. This is the 3rd book in the High Stakes Romance series. I would suggest reading the previous two books first, Bet Against Me and Bet The Farm. I’m a sucker for a good romance and Riley has been wonderfully consistent in all 3 books.

Throughout the series you get to know each character and Riley ties them all together so well. The 3rd book, Beginner’s Bet, is focused on Ellison's a rich, successful, badass bitch with a really big heart. She meets Katie, a masseuse who works at the spa next door. Katie is overwhelmed with life, caring for her ill mother and barely holding her head above water financially. Ellison is wealthy with a successful business and at a point in her life where she wants to settle down. Katie feels like she can barely take care of herself, never mind a family. It was fun to watch this relationship blossom. Ellison has the upper hand financially but Katie holds her own, with her funny, cute, personality. It's a really sweet and sexy, age-gap romance.

Definitely worth the read. All of the books in this series are the full package, sexy, sweet, and funny. The friendships between all of Riley’s characters are believable and entertaining.

Giving this 4 stars. A sweet, feel-good book that I’d definitely read again.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley.com and voluntarily chose to review it.

I’m on a bit of a roll with sweet, lovely romances at the moment.

This is the third and final book in the ‘Bet’ series and features my already favourite character from the previous two books. While I enjoyed the first two, this was by far my favourite.

The MCs here are Ellison, head of Gamble Realty and boss of Trina and Lauren from books 1 and 2. Ellison is about to turn 43 and desperately wants to be a mother. She’s also enjoying a friends with benefits thing with her long time BFF, Faith. The other MC is Katie, a massage therapist who works at the spa located next to Ellison’s realestate office, and who has just had to move her mother into assisted care. The two meet due to a work mishap at the spa and form a sweet friendship.

They are both drawn to each other in a variety of ways, and the dialogue (and chemistry) between them sparkles. I loved all of their conversations and how they got to know each other. There’s also a bunch of great supporting characters, including Trina, Lauren and Jax from the previous books, as well as Faith and her niece Talia and Katie’s mother and BFF Shania. These characters are also delightfully diverse.

Ellison and Katie’s relationship unfolds over time, they talk to each other, and not just about superficial stuff, and I loved that although Katie had never been with a woman, or seemingly thought about it, there was no panic about it, she just recognised what she wanted and needed was what Ellison gave her and went with it (for the most part).

While I loved all of the different character interactions, the sweetness of the romance, and the overall tone, there were some flaws. This suffers from the ‘all things can be fixed by the rich MC or her vast array of friends’ trope. Katie is really struggling financially but luckily Ellison is able to offer a suggestion that will more than fix this. Ellison is also a near perfect saint who is beyond generous, so everything Katie needs at any point Ellison can provide. <spoiler> Though at the start of the book I was kind of expecting that Katie’s money issues would be at least partially solved by her being Ellison’s surrogate<\spoiler> Both characters (actually pretty much all of the characters) are also supermodel gorgeous. There’s also manufactured drama at the 85% mark that came out of nowhere and was a little too contrived, but thankfully was also resolved fairly quickly.

Still, none of that was enough to detract from how delightful these characters were separately and together or how much I enjoyed their HEA. Fans of Riley will no doubt love this, and anyone who enjoys a good romance will be happy with what they find here. 4 stars.

The High Stakes Romances have been such a fun series, and what a way to finish it off! This is an age gap, rich/poor romance with two extremely compelling characters. Even though it was a fairly long book, I could barely put it down; I was that invested especially in Ellison.

In addition to being a great story overall, this is Fiona Riley's best work as an author. The dialogue was perfectly appropriate without being cutesy. One of my pet peeves as a reader is when the dialogue feels like a Friends script. This is not that. It was clever and fun without being over the top.

I concur with every reader who says this will be among the favorite books of 2021.

Excellent. I throughly enjoyed reading this book. The banter between the two leads is so good it made me smile. It was full of fun flirting. The description of the house was very evocative; who wouldn’t want to buy it? I do think they could have kept a few roosters in the decor though. The designer clothes sound amazing. Plus the secondary characters were great. It’s a real ensemble cast, who are part of a series, so they are written as complete people rather than add on supports. Highly recommended.

Fiona Riley strikes again! Such a heartwarming story. And so happy that Ellison finally got her happy ending. This book has it all, it’s charming, sweet, sexy, funny and I could not put it down. Must admit I have a little tiny crush on Ellison and I wish we could have a sequel to see where Ellison and Katie are in another 5 years. All in all a well rounded story and a perfect book, wish I could give it more than 5 stars.

Katie Crawford is at the breaking point and if something doesn’t give soon she’s afraid she’ll have no place for her mother. She’s just put her mother into residential care because of her health issues. She doesn’t make that much money as a massage therapist and she has to find a way to pay for her mother's care. She has the family house where she lives but it’s in such bad shape she doesn’t know how she will ever come up with the money required to fix it up.
Ellison Gamble’s got one of the best luxury real estate firms in Boston. But she never takes the time to look after herself so her employees decide she needs a massage to ease some of the stress. Not so much the business side of her life but the personal side, where she wants to add motherhood is a whole matter. Unable to carry the baby herself she’s booking for a surrogate to carry her baby for her. She only has two eggs to play with so she has to make the right decision for herself and her unborn baby.
When she goes for her massage she meets Katie and can’t help but like her. On the other hand when Katie meets Ellison she, for the first time ever finds herself attracted to another woman. Not just any woman but the very person who will hopefully help Katie raise enough money to keep her mother in care. Ellison feels she’s too old for Katie but that’s not what Katie feels. Ellison seems to be the perfect person for her.
Very enjoyable read. Had a hard time putting this one down.
ARC via NetGalley/ Bold Stroke Books

The publisher and netgalley kindly provided me with an e-arc..

This was a lovely slow burn f/f romance. I enjoyed the characters, the story and the pacing. I learned this was part 3 of s series which can be read as standalones. So I might have to check the other parts out. Definitely recommend this if you want a quick, easy to read f/f story.

It was great to see Ellison finally get her story told. Ellison and Katie had great chemistry and were so sweet together - I loved the banter between them and how their relationship developed so naturally, as well as how they dealt with Ellison's journey to motherhood, which was an interesting storyline that's not often covered in this genre. A very well-written holiday read with some great characters and a lot of chemistry.

Beginners Bet is the third book in the “High Stakes Series” by Fiona Riley. However you do not need to read the other two books before this one because Riley does a great job on introducing the characters and giving little snippets of their backstories. The stories themselves are set along a real estate dealing / wheeling background and this book is similar to that extent.
This book is all about Ellison the “Boss” and Katie. Ellison has to be one of my favorite characters for 2021. Absolutely the Boss in all things work, kindness, warm-hearted, understanding, funny - yeah the adjectives could go on and on. In fact Ellison will capture your heart and is the soul of this book.
The book introduces us to both characters meeting up on one of their worst days. They bond over their vulnerabilities and build a friendship that soon translates into something more.
Riley does a great job keeping the reader engaged in the story and it’s really sweet to see how the characters and the relationship develops over time. The side characters are great and will have you smiling at their antics - I mean come on - who wouldn’t want to work at that office!
My only gripe and its a small one - the requisite angst portion of the story comes at the far end and the resolution of conflict does feel a little rushed (I still think Katie should have groveled a little more ;-) )
All in all 5 stars and yet another hit for Fiona Riley. I’d highly recommend reading this book and will probably pick up the other books in the series as well!

I really enjoyed this book. I didn't realise at the time it was part of a series having never read anything by this author.

I feel the story of Ellison was aimed at her own personal life after reading more about the author.

It was a lovely story that actually covered some really subjects which made it feel very real. Thank you.

This is the third book in the High Stakes Romance series.
The story focuses on Ellison the owner of a Real Estate Company who's trying to start a family of her own. She meets Kate a massage therapist who is straight.
Ellison is very powerful, compassionate, loving, secured and confident. Kate on the other hand is not as confident and secure around Ellison's friends because she lacks wealth and has some family issues. It was a great read and I enjoyed seeing Ellison playful side and the way she communicates and treats Kate.
I recommend 5 stars. I cant wait for the next boo in the series, I hope its about Jax.

Thank you Bold Stokes Books and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for her honest review.

Fiona Riley’s High Stakes Romance series is lovely and I am very happy we finally got to read Ellison’s story!

Ellison is the owner of the company all the other mains from the series work for and she is just a caring and cool character. As Riley said in the acknowledgments this is a bit more of a personal story as Ellison’s story resembles her struggles to become a mother and I think it shows that this is a more personal storyline. When Ellison first meets Katie she can't help but flirt but Karie is a tad unaware or even oblivious to the possibility of this awesome woman showing any interest in her. Not that she has any interest because for all she knows she's straight. It's cute how their relationship grows from some chance encounters where Ellison is so friendly and caring how can one not fall for her? And her boss bitch vibe? Makes it even better. Katie is equally caring but a bit lost with all that is going on in her life. That is until she has her self-professed gay awakening. All seems to be so nice and perfect.

I do understand some of Katie’s insecurities and general feelings of not belonging in Ellison’s world. And her slight jealousy towards Faith, I'm there 100%. I wouldn't say I'm a jealous person but that wouldn't be good for my mental state. My girlfriend being best friends with occasional benefits with her ex, that’s a lot...

Overall I'm glad Ellison got her sweet romance because she is the best character and I enjoy the doses we get of Trina, Lauren and Jax, it's an amazing team of friends and colleagues.

For me, it's a toss-up between this book and Bet Against Me for best in the series and I think Bet Against Me wins out for me because there is more banter and no kid focus. I understand that for some this might be a storyline they enjoy and identify with, but for someone like me with 0 interest in raising tiny humans, it isn't as interesting. I do still love this book and the characters, enjoy the banter, it's fun but has storyline I don't necessarily connect with.

This is Book 3 of The High Stakes Romance series by this author and she left the best til last.

Ellison is the owner of the Real Estate Company and more than anything, she would love to have a child of her own and Katie, who works at a Spa as a massage therapist, is struggling with juggling between work and having to put her mother in a care facility after she has a stroke, to having to sell her childhood home.

These two are great characters. Ellison, I have loved from the beginning of the series and Katie is a loveable down to earth character. When these two meet, you can feel the chemistry straight away and they just click. It is well written (like all of her books are), some drama, hot sex scenes, low angst and it was also great to catch up with the other characters from the previous books. When they all get together I love the banter between all of them. One of the secondary characters that I would love to read more about is Jax.

I received an ARC copy of the book from the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.

Being a big fan of the High Stakes series, I was very excited to see this third one come up. This one picks up with Ellison, the boss that is touched on in the other books. I loved seeing Ellison being explored in depth and I really enjoyed that she is a bit older (40s), so we have a more experienced character to unravel.

I read this book in one sitting (stayed up to late, but worth it) and at times I laughed, cried, and just wanted to rush to the end to make sure she got her HEA. We have reoccurrences of past characters, Trina, Lauren and Jax so we have the fun snark and teasing we are used to from them but Ellison is for sure the MC in this story. We are introduced to Katie, the other main character. that the meet of these 2 was just clever! There is a lot of dialog, which I just absolutely love in a book, and the story-line moves along at a very nice pace, with a bit of a different path I first thought it was headed.

The characters are just down to earth and both have had hard times in life-which if you read the authors acknowledgements, I feel like what the author went through was weaved into the struggles of life these characters went and are going through, extremely heart-felt and made me love these characters even more.

In my opinion you don't have to read the prior 2 books to follow along with this story-line, but I HIGHLY recommend you pick up those books just to see explore Trina and Lauren more (they are a fun bunch). I do wonder if Jax might have a story to tell also, but for now, they are a great sub-character in all 3 books that you just want to hug them.

Once again Ms. Riley has brought to us a wonderful bunch of friends and love for the family we create.

I received an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, but would have written the same opinion if I had come across this author on my own.

To see my Amazon review, it is under CC-Great Continuation of High Stakes