COVERS WEEK REVIEW: “Gambling Men” by Amy Lane
“(Don’t?) Judge A Book By Its Cover” Week
Susan votes THUMBS DOWN on the cover of “Gambling Men”. Let’s see how the book itself fared…
ABOUT:
Quent Jackson has followed Jason Spade’s every move in business and in poker since their first day as college freshmen. Eight years later, when Jace finally decides Quent is the one man he can’t live without, he sees no reason for that to change.
But as much as Jace believes that poker is life, no one gave Quent the same playbook. After their first passionate night, the real game of love and trust begins, and Jace has been playing alone too long to make teaching the rules easy. Jace only speaks two languages: one of them is sex, and the other one is poker. Between the two, he needs to find a way to convince himself to take a chance on love—and Quent to take a chance on him. It’s a lucky thing they’re good at reading the odds, because they’re playing for keeps, and this is one high-stakes relationship that’s definitely worth the gamble.
REVIEW:
Cover thoughts: I originally saw this cover and thought this grown man was wearing a diaper. I think it’s just ill-fitted boxer briefs. But then his feet looked disfigured to me for some reason. And just the pose was so…odd. Throw in some playing cards (it’s called GAMBLING MEN…get it? Cards? Gambling? Yes…literal cover…I get it…)
Ok, the book…
What I liked about this book: friends-to-lovers, out-for-you, really really hot smexy times.
What I didn’t like about this book: all the rest.
I’m really surprised by how hard I struggled to get through this book. I wanted to like these 2 best friends, Jace and Quent…and for awhile I was kinda getting into it. But, what was a promising beginning plummeted fairly quickly.
- Repetitive.
- Disorganized.
- So much telling…and needless, extraneous information.
- Are “vodka blue eyes” a thing? It’s used as a description time & again. I’ve never seen blue vodka.
- One-dimensional characters.
- So much skimming
- Almost…too much sex? Their whole relationships was sex and jibber jabber.
- The puns & analogies were SO overdone.
- And lastly…the poker was ALL. WRONG. Sorry, it just…was.
After a rocky start with Amy Lane books, I had recently jumped on the band wagon with a few I really enjoyed (Clear Water being the latest one). This actually felt like a entirely different author. It was missing…something…and ultimately I just couldn’t get into, no matter how much I wanted to. I was thinking 2 stars, but there were some really hot scenes that kept me mildly entertained…so I’ll bump it a bit…
RATING: 2.5 STARS
BOOK INFO:
Title: Gambling Men
Author: Amy Lane
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Pages: 220
Release Date: May 7, 2012
Purchase Links: Dreamspinner, Amazon, ARe
