A review by poisonivy70
One Night Gamble by Katherine Garbera

2.0

The Good
The series setup is intriguing. I like the idea of taking a card shark, a daredevil and an illusionist, set their romances against the backdrop of Las Vegas and all that glitters, then give them some solid tropey goodness, like boss-employee mixed with some ONS awkwardness. The blurb promised some hilarity with their first meet, and I was all on board for it. And then….

The Bad
Alot of telling, not show drags down the romance, as well as the story in general. When your story is contingent on instant heat between the hero and heroine, I need you to bring the HEAT. Especially if the blurb promises some quirky, but quick connection between your characters. From their first meeting, Casey and Talia should have been a chemical fire, but they just fizzled. Instead, the reader is told that Talia’s upbringing really did a number on her. We are told that she has big trust issues. We’re told that the feelings between Casey and Talia go beyond just chemistry (of which there is none). We are told alot of things, but I would have preferred to focus on dialogue that showed it and scenes that really conveyed those feelings beyond being told about them. . I would have loved to have character scenes where they’re interacting and the dialogue is not broken up by so much internal monologuing that’s telling me the same thing the dialogue is telling me. It made scenes feel redundant, and I was barely into the first half of the story.

Once I struggled to connect with the characters, all the little details in the story that didn’t mesh (for example, her father died of lung cancer one page, then died of a heart attack the next time it’s referenced) began to stick out even more. It was a snowball effect that jarred me out of the story, time and again.

Everything in Between
Meh. Sums up how I felt about everything else in this tale.



Unfortunately, this was only an ok read, at best. I wanted to like it, but there was no inherent chemistry between Casey and Talia and while there are small moments of promise, the Firsts (meet/kiss/love scene) happen very quickly, they didn’t wow me and it set the tone for the entire tale. It my first Garbera read, and perhaps it’s a case of her writing style just not being my particular cuppa. I’m not sure I’d rush out and read the next.


**ARC provided by publisher via netgalley for review**


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