Book Review: Bet the Farm by Staci Hart

Bet The Farm by Staci Hart

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

A Swoony Slow Burn Romance

4.5 Stars

In “Bet the Farm”, Staci Hart has, once again, crafted a romantic comedy written with frankly exquisite language which features a swoony romance with a tiny lactose intolerant heroine, a broody grump hero, goats in pajamas, and a mystery that will keep you guessing until the very end.

What you need to know about “Bet the Farm”:
✔ Enemies to Lovers
✔ Broody farmhand
✔ Lactose intolerant city girl
✔ Baby cows
✔ Hayloft kisses
✔ Goats in pajamas
✔ Second Chance romance
✔ Sweet, sweet heat

Olivia Brent returns to her grandfather’s California farm from New York City after he passes away. She’s been gone for several years and Jake Milovic, his right-hand man and surrogate son, feels bitter about her previous abandonment of the farm and Pop for the big city. Jake and Olivia shared a single kiss once when they were sixteen but now they stand as opposing forces.

After they get through the turmoil of Pop’s funeral, they find out that they’ve each been left fifty percent of the farm. The farm is in deep debt and their ways of saving the farm are diametrically opposed to one another. Olivia wants to open the farm up to tours and use the power of social media while Jake wants to preserve all the old traditions of Pop. They really know how to push each other’s buttons and so they bet each other that they will each succeed in saving the farm over the summer. Winner gets controlling interest in the farm.

After more than enough of Jake’s grumpiness, he gets a talking to by Kit, the farm’s cook and one of the delightful cast of small town characters. Jake starts to see that Olivia’s ways might have some merit. He’s still not happy about it though. (Release the brooding!)

They’ve got an even bigger enemy to deal with as the Brents have been feuding with the powerful Pattons for 125 years and they want to buy the farm. Neither Jake nor Olivia are willing to sell to them even though they seem to have deployed handsome Chase Patton to convince Olivia.

Soon, however, no matter what they do, there is something nefarious at work. Someone is sabotaging the farm. Will they catch whoever is sabotaging them? Can they save the farm? Can Jake and Olivia keep their hands off each other? Will Olivia be able to stop swooning every time Jake takes off his shirt? Which is all. the. time.

I love the way Staci Hart writes. (Pride & Papercuts review, Well Suited review) She has such an impressively distinct authorial voice. She frames scenes like an artist paints a picture; she captures the dew on the grass, the light in the sky, the textures and sounds of a particular scene in minute and glorious detail. This is all evident in Bet the Farm but it doesn’t overload the romantic comedy or the mystery surrounding the sabotage. The romance is a slow burn, not gaining steam until the latter half of the book and then really bursting into something that is just so, so romantic. (And I’m pretty sure she got in a quote from the Big Lebowski early on) She captures the pain both characters feel over the loss of a loved one and the hurt it causes them for those wounds to rub up against one another.

Jake feels a deep responsibility for the situation the farm finds itself in while Olivia bulldozes her way in and wants to fix everything in only the most full-hearted way. But even though they both want the same end result they can’t seem to understand one another’s means of making it happen and they keep butting heads. In the meantime, though the connection between them is fraught, it is there.

“He looked up at me, our eyes locking, the connection tangible. It lived in the tingling of my hand over his, in the beat of my heart, in the air between us, in the depth of his eyes.”

I can’t recommend this book enough. I know there are a lot of choices coming at you on this date but Bet the Farm is at the top of my list.

WRITING STYLE: 5/5
PLOT: 4.5/5
WORLD-BUILDING: 5/5
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: 5/5
ROMANCE: 5/5
HEAT: 5/5

View all my review