The Gamble by Kristen Ashley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
4 Please stop saying you’re sorry before I hit you stars
“You lose anyone, there’s no replacing them. What you need to get is that’s precious. You get to keep that. You don’t want to replace it. That doesn’t mean you can’t find something else just as good.”
Welcome to Gnaw Bone, Colorado.
I’m not sure why I spent my time searching through pictures to find my perfect Max and Nina, where really, I could have just gone with
(Did I just age myself?)
I love, and I mean LOVE Kristen Ashley books. I have no idea how I managed to read every book in the Colorado Man series BUT this one. Really. I’m still trying to figure that out. Obviously I’ve been a bad bad girl, and Max need to punish me…thoroughly…
But I digress. After reading a few of KA’s recent books, my first thought when I started reading The Gamble? THIS! This is KA at her finest. Damn but I missed her. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed her recent books, but it always felt a little off. So it was so great to get my KA fix with Max and Nina. What did I love the most about The Gamble?
Max
The man was perfect! No seriously friggin perfect! He said things like this
Learned some things in my life, Duchess, one of the most important, you find a good woman, you take care of her.”
“Please.”
“This happens between us, Duchess, I’d take care of you.”
“Don’t.”
“Die doin’ it,” he vowed.
He was growly and possessive and I just wanted to lick him! What? It’s this thing I get with growly and possessive heroes. You don’t? Huh. But then there was Nina
Now I know I tend to have a short fuse when it comes to irritating heroines…but FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT’S HOLY she worked my last damn nerve. Here we have a 36 year old woman, a professional lawyer, and most of the time she acts like a teenager. Yes she was sassy when it came to standing up for herself and I liked that. But when it came to Max? GAH!
I mean here we have a situation that can easily be resolved by talking it through. Max is willing to talk it out with her. Max even pretty much begs to talk things out with her. Yet every single time instead of talking it out, she just jumps to her own stupid conclusions. The other times she stews on it, gets mad and takes it out on Max, or just runs.
Here you have this amazing, sexy, growling man that for some god unknown reason wants your crazy ass. Yet all you do is give him shit, more shit, and then dish up shit some more. I ask you
Though to be fair, I would have been fine with all that. If I could give Nina just one handy dandy little thing.
Please, for the sake of my sanity, Nina, look up the word “sorry”. I’m sure there will be something in there. It felt like most of her vocabularly when it came to Max consisted of: “I’m sorry”, “Um”, and “Uh”. GAH!
The story itself was fantastic. I loved the mystery, suspense, and full out drama. All the side characters and their stories were great too. I love how KA can include a few side character plots without it getting muddy or confusing. The who-done-it ending caught me by complete and utter surprise. I did not see it coming at all.
Then there was the epilogue. *GUSHING* No one and I mean NO ONE can write an epilogue quite like KA. And this one was no exception. Nina was definitely not a favorite heroine of mine, but luckily the book was still THAT good that I was able to more or less tolerate her. So that is all the heroine bashing you will be getting from me. And I thank you
Though now I’m feeling the sudden urge to re-read this entire amazing series. *dreamy sigh*
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