All In by Nell Stark

All In
by Nell Stark
Pages: 264
Date: June 14 2014
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: None

Review
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0
Read: June 27 to 28 2016

The player and the ice queen meet. Though neither are typical for those roles. One is gracious and outwardly open, and happy, and everything that goes against the idea of ‘ice queen’. But that’s outwardly. She works as a host – the gracious host. It’s her job. Romantically? Relationships? She barely has any friends, and she just doesn’t date. At all. Not since she was 16. That would be Vesper. Casino host in Las Vegas.

The player? Not the typical player. Atypical. I’ve run across a few atypical ones in my reads. There was that one in Brayden’s universe who more used that player reputation as a shield; the one in Galli’s universe who got a player reputation because she, almost nightly, went home with a different woman – but she was helping them, the drunk women, get home, not helping them to her or their bed for sex (why she didn’t fight the ‘reputation’ is something I didn’t understand at the time, nor now); then there’s the one oh, darn. That is also Galli universe. The Virginia clan one was in fact a player, but had decided to not be anymore, kind of bored with it, but hadn’t gotten around to letting everyone know. The ‘took women home nightly’ was in Galli’s most recent book (Clichéd Love, I think it was called). Here? Nova is, in fact, something of a player. Though . . . not. She has no trouble sleeping with women and putting the moves on women, but she kind of fell into being a player by accident.

Nova arrived on a college campus, back in the day, and got talked into someone’s bed, and – once the women of the campus realized there was ‘new meat’, they all sampled her. And she was quite up for that. Then she fell into a situation wherein she lived with . . um . 4? Other women in a group home type situation. And they kind of fell into and out of each others beds. So while she is a player, she’s an accidental player. She doesn’t really have much ‘game’ – she just happened to fall into situations wherein a lot of women wanted her, and she was okay with that. As opposed to her seeking out women to charm, hump, discard.

So, those are the two main characters. Vesper is working hard to advance herself and always believes someone wants something from her, a quid pro quo. Nova is a very talented math genius who is super good with poker. Made millions through her abilities. Is just about to buy her dream home. Except . . . her money was made illegally – through online gambling (online poker). That's the set up at the start of the book.

Now Nova is in Las Vegas, attempting to make some money through live poker but she is very much not 'built' for live poker. Antsy, needing to constantly move. No ability to ‘school’ her features, to assume a poker face. Very good at reading people on line – seeing patterns, very bad at reading people in person, reading tics, movements, bluffs. She is doomed for failure, but she’s still trying.

So – the book follows Vesper as she ‘hosts’ people at her casino (one of whom turns out to be Nova, though that’s more of a favor to an online gambling place); while Nova strives to learn live poker by playing little games before the world series of poker. Romantically the two circle each other. Vesper is very much opposed to relationships. Nova wants to hump Vesper, and maybe have something more – though that more part confuses her.

I liked the book, enjoyed it even. There was just a small undefined 'something' missing though that keeps me from rating this 5 stars. That undefined something, plus the ending kind of felt a little rushed, and there were a few plot lines left dangling (like how Jeremy did in the tournament. He was still in it but . . . book didn't say how he did. And it's not like the book ended before the tournament ended. The book ended . . . what, months later? Days? An hour after Vesper got the hotel job offer? Hmm. Hadn't noticed before that I've no clue how much time passed between Vesper got the job offer, she took it, then she ended up in Los Angeles at a specific party. But still, how ever much time passed, it was after the poker tournament was over, yet no idea how Jeremy did (unless I just completely missed seeing it, which is possible).

June 28 2016

Up The Ante by P.J. Trebelhorn

Up The Ante
by P.J. Trebelhorn
Pages: 264
Date: January 19 2015
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: None

Review
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0
Read: June 22 to 24 2016

This is the first book I’ve read by this author. I randomly found the book when I was wandering the profiles of various friends looking at their favorited authors (actually, I’ve said that before in a thread, but I just realized that I might have found the author by looking at random people’s favorited authors, as long as they had also favorited Lea Santos).

The book description on GoodReads gives a good little synopsis. Woman, Jordan Stryker, gets diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Leaves the FBI. Heads to Los Vegas to see if she can make a go at playing poker professionally. While in Vegas bumps into the woman she loved and had a relationship with 15 years ago. More specifically, that woman is the only woman that she has loved – the woman she judges all others against. The woman who told her to leave and never contact her after Jordan told her that she loved her.

That other woman being Ashley Noble, though she was Ashley Green when Jordan and Ashley had their thing. I would have said ‘relationship’, the relationship word works, but using it might imply things. See, 15 years ago, Ashley Green was a police officer in LA, with the LAPD. She was married to some guy whose first name doesn’t matter, but whose last name is Green. Until bumping into Jordan because of business, she never even considered being attracted to women (I believe that was expressed once or twice, though also the concept that she was in fact attracted to other women before Jordan, but never thought of it as a romantic attraction . . . or something like that). By ‘business’, I mean, Jordan Stryker was on a task force with the FBI in LA tracking a killer. She worked with Ashley. The husband was also a cop, but an undercover one. While the husband was out on assignments, Ashley would meet up with Jordan at Jordan’s hotel and they’d hump. They both knew from the beginning that (1) Ashley was married; (2) she had no plans to leave her husband – in fact they were trying for a child; (3) Ashley claimed to not be a lesbian; (4) this was just a fling.

Near the end of the assignment, Jordan and Ashley were in Ashley’s hotel room. Jordan couldn’t stop herself from blurting out an ‘I love you.’ To which proclamation, Ashley turned and told Jordan to get out and never contact her again.

They had neither seen nor contacted the other before the start of this book. Jordan does not know that Ashley is now Ashley Noble, or that she is the head of security at a specific hotel in Las Vegas. The same hotel that Jordan is staying in. She’s there in that specific hotel because that’s where a poker tournament is occurring (actually several, some low level ones, then a world series of poker tournament). For her part, Ashley did know Jordan was going to be there – because one of her friends who knew of the Ashley-Jordan affair (and yes, that is the type of relationship they had had, an affair), saw Jordan’s name on the poker tournament list of attendees, and brought this to Ashley’s attention. Ashley immediately changed the work schedules so that she would lessen the chance that she would bump into Jordan. Ashley’s plan was to never see Jordan while she was there.

The first night (day?) in Vegas, Jordan plays a warm up game of Poker. She wins. Is flirted with by a woman. A rather attractive woman – whose name doesn’t matter. While cashing out her chips – and on her way to ‘have coffee’ with the gorgeous woman, Jordan spots a specific woman on the other side of the money cage. In the cage. They both see each other. Ashley flees. Jordan is stunned. Confused. Continues her date with the gorgeous woman (less of a date than a pick up). They go back to her hotel room. Knocking on the door – there’s Ashley. She needs to explain what happened 15 years ago.

And so the two meet again. The feelings both had resurface, though they didn’t have to come that far from inside – as both strongly feels for the other.

This is the second lesbian fiction book that I’ve read that involved a woman with multiple sclerosis. There were some similarities and some differences. The ‘don’t want to be a burden’ was similar. The ‘meet someone again after a long absence’ was different – and an important plot point (since, having it here, allows one or the other to think about and/or bring up the concept of – ‘if we had been dating/in a serious relationship, when you were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, do you think I would have left? And/or felt ‘obligated’ to stay?’). Both the woman in this book and the woman in Jae’s Just Physical feel, to a certain extent, to be ‘undeserving’ of being a ‘burden’. And they both want others to find a true love that would be fully capable of all physical activities. By no means are they the same book, though. Heck, one involves a Hollywood actress hooking up with a new acquaintance – a stunt woman – both in their 20s. The other involves a woman hooking up with an old acquaintance and two women older than their 20s; it isn’t specifically stated, but based on the 15 year gap in the relationship, and their work positions when they did know each other, they are both probably in their 40s, possibly 50s but certain ‘things’ seem to indicate that isn’t the case – the age in the 50s part (the closest I recall to overt confirmation of age, is a ‘grandmother’ who is ‘only’ 11 years older than Jordan – and who became a grandmother when she was 32 – but no mention is made as to how old the grandmother is now, so I can’t subtract 11 years from the age to get Jordan’s current age; she’s a grandmother to someone who is, at least, in their 20s – adding ~25 to 32 to get 57, removing 11 to get 46 – so Jordan might be somewhere around 46 years of age).

All that work to attempt to pinpoint ages. Mmphs. ‘Her father died from a self-inflicted gunshot would seven years ago, when Jordan was thirty-six.’ Jordan is 43. ‘I’m forty-three years old.’ Bah. I didn’t need to look for hints. Or even do the simple math of adding seven to thirty-six. Mmphs. I do not know what Ashley’s age is, but the same woman that Ashley says is ’11 years older than Jordan’ is also ’14 years older than her’ – so I’m going to assume that means that Ashley is 40. And that Sherry, this grandmother I’ve been referencing, is 54 (I was off by 3 years).

Well, I just spent way too much time distracting myself with dates and ages. Mmphs. So I’ll cut this short.

1) I liked this book, it was entertaining. I’d rate it somewhere around 4.5 stars if I could. Since I can’t on Goodreads, I’ll give it 4.
2) There is graphic sex in this book.
3) There are certain cliché’s that pop up, re: someone with MS; and it is certainly ‘convenient’ that Ashley’s next door neighbor just happens to also have MS.
4) I plan to read another book by this author.

June 24 2016

Descended from Dragons by Tricia Owens

Descended from Dragons
by Tricia Owens
Pages: 218
Date: May 12 2016
Publisher: Self
Series: Moonlight Dragon (1st in series)

Review
Rating: 3.66 out of 5.0
Read: May 19 to 20 2016

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and the Romance Beckons Cooperative for an honest review.

Anne Moody lives and works in Las Vegas. Specifically inside a 'cursed' pawn shop. I'm not sure why I put cursed in scare quotes. I mean cursed as in literally cursed. The kind of place that Anne can't really up and leave - filled with things that are cursed, some of which talk to Anne in a way only Anne can hear (in a 'you are going to die; you will meet the love of your life and he will kill you; etc.' kind of way), plus random non-cursed items.

Anne is the descendant of dragons. I'm not exactly sure what that means, though there is reference to dragon in her blood, and, separately, reference to the Chinese being descendant's of dragons. Even saying that I still don't know what that means exactly.

As far as this story is concerned - Anne Moody is a powerful dragon sorcerous (sp?) who has a dragon familiar, and she herself has 'dragon' in her. In that, if she isn't careful, she'll literally turn into a dragon and run around killing and destroying, and being a big badass predator. Supposedly. Anne's been kind of trying to fly under the radar because Las Vegas has these 'Oddsmakers' who keep an eye on things and anyone who gets too public, or shows too much power, is taken out. Whatever that means. Since she is flying under the radar, her true power level is unknown.

Also because she is flying under the radar, most do not know who and/or what she is. Even her friends are in the dark. And her family is either dead or missing.

The story involves a powerful unknown entity who wishes to gain access/control over a demon and use their power and minions to take over Las Vegas. If they succeed they will get lots of power.

Anne kind of backs into the story by having someone drop off a gargoyle statue which is less a statue and more of an actual gargoyle. One that is cursed - what with having a demon pushed into it. This leads to Anne learning of the evil dude's activities, and directly/indirectly causing that evil dude some 'issues' and putting some roadblocks in front of that guy on his quest for success.

Interesting enough story though I had certain 'issues'. She is super powerful but makes comments indicating a lack of desire or interest in 'learning' the thing she needs to know (see, for example: comments made when she mentioned dropping out of college). Certain comments are made that are on the edge of ... not exactly sure how to word this issue - lack of awareness of a LGBT world (see: 'of course she didn't fall under the succubus power because wrong gender - there is a 90% chance I am reading that wrong).

Not exactly sure about rating. Something around 3.5 to 3.7.

May 22 2016