The Gamble
Colorado Mountain, Book #1
By Kristen Ashley
ISBN# 9781455599059
Author’s Website: http://www.kristenashley.net/
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi
Nina Sheridan feels stuck, after several bad boyfriends she’s finally with a good guy, Niles, and is even engaged to him! However, the relationship is rather stagnate and she’s not sure if he’s the guy she *should* be marrying. She’s decided to take a time-out from their relationship to try and figure out the right move for her.
She booked a beautiful A-Frame house in Colorado for two glorious weeks. But after flying half-way around the world and driving through a snowstorm to get there, she discovers the house is occupied when she arrives, by its very sexy and very arrogant owner, Max! He tells her that there was a mistake and that the house is not available and directs her to a nearby hotel. But on her way to the hotel she ends up in a snowy ditch, but wakes up sick as a dog in a bed in the A-Frame with the sexy mountain man taking care of her! And, when she tries to leave, he won’t let her, keeping her car keys in his pocket and blackballing her with the local taxi company to make sure she stays put!
Max sees a definite chemistry between Nina and himself and wants to see where it can all lead. But the small town of Gnaw Bone just keeps finding ways to make it to his house to interrupt him!
Meanwhile, one of Max’s enemies has been murdered and everyone is a suspect, including Max! And, before you know it Nina’s skills as a lawyer or being put to the test!
Can Max convince Nina that he’s the guy for her or will she go crawling back to her boring fiancé who obviously doesn’t deserve her? Only time will tell …
I have a lot to say about this book, but sadly none of it is positive. This is obviously me being my usual over-critical self, I think, as I have several friends that have read and loved this book and I’ve seen all positive reviews for it, but I really didn’t like it at all.
The main reason I detested this book is this couple is the exact kind of couple I hate in books. I found Max to be a domineering jerk and Nina to be the girl that makes excuses for his behavior and then starts questioning her own actions and how could she be so horrible to such an amazing guy. Barf! Let’s see … you come to rent this great house you booked online, you get there and the owner sends you away in a snowstorm! You then wreck your car, he finds you and takes you back to the house. He cares for you through your illness, which is nice (but seems highly unrealistic) except he uses this opportunity to see you practically naked and to cuddle with you in bed! After you start feeling better he basically holds you hostage, keeping you from any form of escape so that he can see where the chemistry leads and so he can get your underneath him in bed. He uses his brute strength to keep you right where he wants you, attached to his side with his arm around you until you sadly mistake his actions for love. Stockholm syndrome much? You then have to deal with his slutty ex and nosey townspeople and bitchy sister and he has to stake his claim to you publicly wherever you go. And whenever you ask a question that he doesn’t answer right away you quickly apologize and tell him not to answer. And, don’t even get me started on the things that make him unhappy …
Then we get to Anna, Max’s deceased wife. Once Nina finds out about her, not how she died, but that she ever existed at all, she gets upset that she’s not his true love and wants to try to leave. I’m all for her leaving because he’s a jerk, but not for such a stupid reason. Then, much later, when he finds out that Nina knows about her, Max has the audacity to get mad at Nina for not telling him she knows because he’s been so worried how to bring the topic up and how dare Nina not think about how that makes him feel. Really dude? You have got to be f’ing kidding me! And worse she agrees with him?? How could she be so selfish when he’s been nothing but good to her and he deserves better (her thoughts). I swear this relationship is like a really bad DOM/Submissive relationship, but without the BDSM and it just screams toxic to me!! So this, my friends, is why I couldn’t like this book because I hated the couple involved. And of course the book was super long for a book I hated …. Over 600 pages of this garbage. And, I’m also a “just one more chapter” person …. “Just one more chapter and I’ll go to bed” and these chapters are mega long…. “Just one more chapter” was 100 pages at one point! I think these chapters could have and should have been broken down smaller than that, much like the entire book!
I also found the many run-ins with one bad guy was overkill, then the big reveal at the end had another person responsible for way too much.
The one thing that makes me happy about this book is that I’m finally done reading it!!
And I must leave you with Brittany because you know this relationship is Toxic!
