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    The Gamble
    The Gamble
    The Gamble
    Ebook346 pages5 hours

    The Gamble

    By Maree Bishop

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Buzzards hovering overhead attest to the many shallow graves they've left behind. Months after they walked off their land and left the midwest in search of water, preacher Joshua Hardy is in deep despair. Has his God abandoned him? Is he partially responsible because of his obsession with Lynora, the beautiful wife of his good friend Doctor Culpepper? When it seems those remaining will also perish, they encounter Thisbe, a soothsayer. Thisbe has forseen their future. They will be saved. But, she warns, there will be a price to pay. When they arrive in this perceived paradise, the landowner one Elijah Toomey, sets his price. Agree or starve. What follows will test Joshua as never before. Has the gamble been worth the pain.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMaree Bishop
    Release dateOct 24, 2011
    ISBN9781466149847
    The Gamble
    Author

    Maree Bishop

    Although I was born in New Zealand, I spent several years living in Boston and San Francisco where two of my children were born.I have been writing forever, but, only seriously for the past 10 years. I am fortunate to live on the beautiful Hibiscus Coast surrounded by sea. My very supportive other half is a six foot eight inch sports-mad ex Londoner. I hope you enjoy reading my stories as much as I do.

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    Reviews for The Gamble

    4/5

    219 ratings25 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Easy Read. Basically a love story with lots of other events thrown all in. Got too busy and pretty fantastical for all the events to unfold within a week or so.. The male lead was lovely at the mid point of the book but became too controlling and he started to annoy me. The female lead character became annoying too. That saying... was a quick ready and I didn't hate it!
    • 4/5
      I tried to read a different Kristen Ashley book several months ago because I had so many recommendations for her books. I will not name that book, but I hated it. I decided to try again with a different series after continuing to be told that her books were so good. I have to say, I liked The Gamble much better. There are many incidents that happen to the main characters within a very short period of time. I found this pretty unrealistic, but I liked the characters well enough to overlook the timeline and just follow the story. I liked the relationships that developed between the characters and their families/friends. They didn't remind me of every other romance that I have read. Even though some parts of the story line were not unique, the characters were. That said, I was not able to give 5 stars mainly because I felt that the book was too long. I thought there was a lot of extra padding that was really not needed. There were a lot of long awkward sentences that I needed to read twice. If the book had been tightened up some, I would have easily given it 5 stars. I will be able to recommend this book and may even need to try the second book in this series.
    • 5/5
      I liked this romantic murder mystery. I was given this book for free and voluntarily chose to review it. I've given this a 4.2* rating.This story pulled me in pretty fast but at 629 pages it took me days to read. Because of large amounts of sexual content and foul language, this is not for the under 18 readers. Which brings me to what I didn't like about this. If you do not like detailed sexual content or foul language, this book is not for you because this book is full of it. I tend to skip over a lot of it and hopefully don't miss something important in the story. I did like the story content and it had a real nice ending. I didn't really care a lot for the bossy hero, but that's just my preference.
    • 4/5
      I ordered this on my kindle because so many people were raving about it on gr. I'm so glad I did. I loved the humor and the intense feeling of family and togetherness that pervades the story. And I especially loved the epilogue to the story, it was so wonderful to get such a great conclusion to Max and Nina's love story. Great job.
    • 4/5
      Um... WOW. Just Wow. This was an involved one. Murder, rape, suicide/suicide attempt, male on female violence. If you're looking for "Rock Chick" on the mountain, this isn't it. If you're looking for a book where you can really get "into" some heavy issues with characters, this IS it.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this (although I thought it was too long), but I can't wait to catch up on the series. Nina arrives at her rented Rocky Mountain Cabin, expecting to take a two week "time out" from her fiance, who has neglected her so badly he doesn't even know how she takes her coffee. A booking error has been made and the owner, Max, is home, making the cabin unavailable. He doesn't see this as a problem and invites her to stay...with him. Nina doesn't like this idea, but fate steps in every time she tries to get away from Max. Eight days later, one murder, and lots of drama later, she's needing a time-out from her two-week time out.

      As Nina is introduced to the town of Gnaw Bone, we are treated to many laugh-out-loud (and tear-jerking/heart-wrenching) moments. I teared up several times as we learned about the character's past heartaches and trials. I thought the way Nina addressed Mindy's crisis was very touching and loved the quick bond that formed between the women. Grab your box of kleenex, especially for that last chapter!

      Max was definitely hot, a bit overbearing, but super-gallant and fought for "his" woman. I liked Nina, but her behavior seemed inconsistent to me, especially in the beginning. For an attorney to act like such a doormat in some situations, but turn into a she-wolf in others didn't always set right with me, but I got over it. The big story here was Nina's emotional/mental transformation and how she let go of her old way of thinking, not so much the whodunit murder mystery.

      There were many section of writing that I felt should've been edited out to shorten the length. I don't need to know the play by play of how Nina makes coffee, or everything she ate for breakfast, or how Max helped her into her coat. It adds nothing to the plot and just came out wordy. I took away a star for this reason. Otherwise, it was a very good book.
    • 4/5
      Nina has booked a two-week stay in a rented house in the Colorado mountains as a break from her fiance to sort out her changing feelings for him. When she arrives, the owner of the house is in residence, the caretaker having messed up with the dates. Nina prepares to find a hotel in town, but a snow storm is rapidly brewing and Nina is rapidly succumbing to the flu. The owner of the house, Max, who is, as I'm sure you've guessed by now, gorgeous and muscular, insists that she's in no condition to go anywhere or, probably, to be left alone. Nina ends up staying (mostly essentially unconscious), and Max cares for her. When she gets over the flu, they start to get to know each and fall in love. Et cetera. I almost quit reading this early on for a couple of reasons. First, the book is not quite aware enough of how terrifying Nina's situation should be. She's stuck in an isolated house in a strange town while travel becomes dangerous and her wits leave her. It turns out that Max is an upstanding guy (and I suspect a lot of guys would be), but Nina takes the whole thing a little too in stride. Second was the writing style. I think this story first existed on the internet or as a self-published book and was subsequently picked up by a publisher. I have no problem with that at all, except that it often seems to be the case that such works don't get the editorial attention they should before being published by a house. This one feels like it was never line edited. Awkward phrasing abounds. Ultimately I'm glad I read the whole thing, as by the mid-way point I was pretty in love with the book. It is long and gives lots of space to developing the community Max is a part of (and which Nina starts to be a part of too), and that was a large part of what was so fun about the book. It has an atmosphere that was lovely to sink into and the book was long enough that I felt like I could get lost in it. And some of that awkward phrasing started to grow on me. Most of it is an attempt at replicating particular speech and thought patterns and while the editor in me probably would have excised most of it, I think a lot of it actually mostly works once you get into the flow of it. Recommended reservedly.
    • 5/5
      Read for Fun (Library Book)Overall Rating: 5.00Story Rating: 5.00Character Rating: 5.00First Thought when Finished: The Gamble by Kristen Ashley was hands down my favorite book by the author. So good from beginning to end!Quick Thoughts: Honestly y'all this rabbit hole reading of Kristen Ashley has gotten out of hand. Since May I have read all of Chaos (what is out), Mystery Men, Rock Chicks (1 to 5), Crazy Men aka whatever Knight's series is, and now this. This was my favorite book to date and while my road with Kristen has been rocky--this is everything I love about her storytelling. Alpha Male (boy was Max alpha--my stepmom is not a fan of him but I love him), Strong Female (Nina was toe-to-toe with everyone not just Max), and emotional gut wrenching (yes at times over the top) storytelling that just made me not want to put down this tome of a book (we are talking The North and The South or Gone with the Wind size proportions). Further down the rabbit hole I go where I know sometimes I will love the characters and other times want to hire Hawk to string them up by their toes.Part of my Read It, Rate It, File It, DONE! Reviews
    • 5/5
      4.5 stars
      Aside from the town being full of a bunch of loonies, I enjoyed it. A good diversion after the heavy emotional stuff. I think I'll be spending a lot more time in Kristen Ashley Land in the future.
    • 4/5
      I can't say The Gamble is one of my favourite, but sure thing, this one is another beautiful reading by Kristen Ashley.
      And, I have to say, I really love the way she ends her novels. ;)
    • 5/5
      This book is amazing. It's long, 445 pages, but well written with amazing, lovable characters. You really believe you are part of this town, Gnaw Bone Colorado. You believe these characters are your friends and family.

      While Nina needs to learn that sometimes taking a gamble can pay off, she meets the townspeople of Gnaw Bone Colorado. In doing so, she meets and falls in love with hot mountain man, Max. A man who had loved and lost before.

      Max needed to learn that love can come more than once in a lifetime and when it comes into your life again, you need to grab it and hang on.

      Do yourself a favor and read this book.
    • 4/5
      I loved Max and Nina. I started this series with Sweet Dreams, which is my all time favorite of KA's books. You see some of Nina (very briefly) in Sweet Dreams but it wasn't enough to make me want to read it, and the blurb didn't make me want to read it either, that being said, I'm glad I read it! I loved how Max called her Duchess, and all the secondary plots and characters were very engaging, as always. There was point where they were discussing the unknown bad guy and I thought "oh, I bet it's so and so" but then had to decide that no, how would they swing that, it didn't make sense, but oh boy was I wrong! I love when that happens, I definitely didn't see the ending coming, the bad guys plot was so involved and in depth that there was just no way to see it coming.

      Nina was a fantastic heroine, I loved her quirky thoughts and how she was about her clothes, I also loved how she insisted she didn't have an accent. She was a lot of fun to read about. Sweet and funny, but also tough as nails. Max was the typical KA hero, and yet wasn't he had hidden depths and hidden tragedies. The interpersonal connections in this book were very , very complicated, but it worked.
    • 3/5
      8/15/13 reread: I didnt love this as much upon this re-read. The busy plot and lack of editing wore on me more than the previous reads. I still enjoyed the base story, but I didn't love it as much as I did before.

      Original review 11/20/12:

      I really liked this book, despite the lack of editing. And trust me, that's a huge thing considering the lack of editing is really noticeable. First, this book showed up as over 1400 pages on my Nook. I'm pretty sure that was a formatting error, but I wouldn't be surprised if that really was the right number. These books seems to drag on forever. Especially the 300 page epilogues. Cripes.

      Aside from that, I really liked both main characters and the town of Gnaw Bone, CO. Nina and Max had major chemistry and their banter was fun and witty. I enjoyed Nina's personal journey as well as the romance between the two.

      The mystery plot was pretty meh. I'm not sure why Ashley includes them. The story would have been much better (and SHORTER!) without.

      Skipping those parts, this is a story I'll re-read again and again.
    • 4/5
      I really liked this book, I stayed up all night reading it. It was a good solid read, especially for a romance novel.
    • 4/5
      I gave it a four star rating, but it was actually a four and a half star. The beginning of the book was a little too slow for me and I thought Nina just gave in to the whole Mountain Man thing way too fast, but gladly the final couple of hundred pages REALLY paid off. I cried, I swooned with the beauty that is Max, I laughed with Nina's mom and me also being a Nina thought this one gave our name a good twist. Loved the lovely ending with that sweet epilogue. Great read and once more Kristen Ashley takes the prize. :)
    • 4/5
      The Gamble
      4.5 Stars

      In desperate need of distance from her inattentive fiancé, Nina Sheridan flies halfway across the world to rethink her engagement in the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Unfortunately, Nina’s vacation in the cabin of her dreams is cut short when the owner, Holden ‘Max’ Maxwell, refuses her entry and she ends up in a ditch cold and sick. Nursing a broken heart, Max has no intention of allowing Nina into his life, but finds himself inexplicably drawn to her nonetheless. However, just as these two wounded souls take the first steps toward love and trust, secrets and lies emerge to threaten their fragile romance.

      Kristen Ashley is one of those writers that a reader either loves to distraction or hates with every fiber of their being. The reasons for these divergent attitudes are usually the same, however. Obnoxious and domineering alpha male heroes; Mary Sue type heroines who are snarky yet sweet and a writing style that either appeals or repels.

      One would think given my aversion to excessive repetition, insensitive heroes and nitwit heroines, that these books would be a huge turn-off. Interestingly enough, the opposite is true as Ashley consistently manages to captivate me with her charming characters and steamy romance. Nina and Max’s story is no exception.

      Like every other Ashley hero, Max is seriously sexy and his initially cantankerous nature rapidly gives way to reveal a man who cares deeply about the people in his life. Nina is simply adorable with her cute English accent and quirky mannerisms. While there are moments when their flaws and insecurities grate on the nerves, it all makes sense in the long run and only adds to the charm of the story.

      The minor mystery plot surrounding the death of one of Max’s neighbors is an additional bonus and it has some compelling twists and turns that fulfill my need for tension and suspense.

      In sum, Ashley’s writing may not be for everyone, but I’m looking forward to getting to her entire backlist.
    • 5/5
      Why do I love KA's Men so much . Why is it everytime I read one of her books I feel like I am right there in the middle and playing the part of the woman in the book ....

      This is another great writing from KA .

      Highlight of the book

      Nina Sheridan’s on a timeout adventure in the Colorado Mountains. She needs distance from her clueless fiancé, distance to decide whether she wants to spend the rest of her life with a man who doesn’t care enough to learn how she takes her coffee.

      Arriving in a blinding snowstorm at the A-Frame she rented, she comes face to face with the most amazing man she’s ever seen. Minutes later, when he kicks her out of his house, she goes head to head with him.

      Beyond angry because she’s flown half a world away to start her timeout adventure, not to mention her sinuses hurt, she heads back down the mountain and ends up in a ditch. Unable to extricate herself, she gives up, hopes for rescue and falls asleep in the backseat.

      The next morning she wakes up in the amazing man’s bed and she’s sick as a dog.

      Holden Maxwell spends days nursing her back to health and then he spends the next two weeks trying to convince her to take her Colorado adventure further, in other words, make it permanent and take a gamble on him.

      Nina has a tough time fighting her attraction to Max, especially when it seems all Max’s friends, her mother and stepdad and the whole town want them together and both she and Max get embroiled in the murder of Max’s ex-friend and the town of Gnaw Bone’s most detested resident – a man everyone has motive to kill, especially Max


      Max is an amazing Macho mountain man who does not like to take no for an answer and has A Heart made of gold . He chooses to take in Nina from the cold and get her back to health from the flu . He spends 2 days taking complete care of a woman he has no idea who she is ...( Melted my heart Right there )

      Once she is better he decides he is not letting her leave and he does everything in his power to keep her there . They start to get into it about her so called fiance Niles and Max tells her


      “You’re half a world away, Duchess, you been sick as a dog and your man doesn’t contact you?”…
      “Niles is reserved,” I whispered.
      “Niles is an ass,” He returned…
      “You don’t know him.”…
      “I’ve seen you naked, I’ve seen you sweet, I’ve seen you unsure and I’ve seen you riled and, seein’ all that ,I know, you were half a world away from me, I’d fuckin’ phone.”

      Swoooooonnnnn ,..... Holy Hell

      Nina is fisty , does not hold nothing back when in a spat with him at all and she tells it like it is. She held back in the beginning about ehr feelings for Max , but she did it in a cute way . Nina having Charlie talk to her off and on through the whole book , made me shed some tears . He guided her down the path she needed to go and that was amazing .

      The end of this one just made me cry so much when Max had Anna telling him to live a happy life and she was taking Charlie with her , melted my heart , shed a tear , it was amazing .....








    • 1/5
      Me thinks everyone and their grandmother loves Kristen Ashley’s The Gamble, except yours truly and a handful of other readers on Goodreads. Personally, I enjoyed the first part of the story, as I immensely liked the premises and set up of the book and took quite a liking to the hero. After about 40% through, however, my mind started wandering in earnest, and it was rather difficult to keep myself from falling asleep.

      As far as my opinion is concerned, The Gamble needs some serious editing. It is, roughly estimated by Amazon, over 600 pages long, with way too little plot development in the middle. And I am not only talking length here but also phrasing and writing style. Sometimes the hero's name, Max, can be read up to three times in a rather convoluted sentence. And the heroine starts her sentences so often with Max, but can't continue them because he interrupts or distracts her, that I wanted to pull my hair out. It's Max, Max, Max all the time, and not in a particularly sexy way.

      Halfway through, I also really started to have problems with the heroine. At thirty six she can look back at a string of very bad relationships, having been confronted with cheating, beating, lying and, to top it off in the end, neglecting boyfriends. She also is having a father issue, which, too, is largely responsible for the armour she has built up. But sometimes I just wanted to shake her and say "Honey, I get it, you dated some real bastards. But don't you think, there might be a teeny tiny pattern here, seeing you having eight asshole boyfriends in a row. Don't you think maybe some counselling would be advisable?"

      Furthermore, she often jumps to conclusion in a very young adult, childish way. And, to top it off, they haven't even yet had sex together, Max starts talking about her moving together with him and giving up everything she has built up so far in England. Arggg.

      And last but not least, the plot made me crazy, too. As Nina and Max rarely get the chance to spend some quality time together. There's always someone interrupting them, be it neighbours, family, Nina's mother and husband, Nina's father and various town people.

      In the beginning there really was a time when I felt some serious author glomming coming on, but it vaporised into thin air after passing the middle part of The Gamble. DNF
    • 3/5
      hmm.. I'm thinking about this one. I love Kristen Ashley but this one just seemed a bit 'crazy' for me. There was a lot of 'strong male' but there was just that touch too much of 'non-communication' along with it. Now yes she had been in 'non-premium' relationship but I would have expected to have shown a bit more backbone at the beginning. She made up for it later when things clicked into place for her and she definitely turned out a damn fine woman, fully fit to be the partner of someone like Max.

      I'll confess that I definitely didn't see the bad guys coming with this. A complete surprise. Fortunately I'm not one who insists on having hints dropped prior to the revelation so I didn't mind it at all.

      I'm thinking that I like how each one of Kristen Ashley's series has a different 'flavour'. I may not like all of her series equally but from reading the first book in each I can get a feel of what mood would most match to enhance my enjoyment in them.
    • 4/5
      Wow, Nina is the heroine who takes a licking and keeps on ticking!
    • 4/5
      Another winner by Ashley. Max is your hunky, strongly principled mountain man and Nina is flighty, high maintance, big hearted totally loveable English backgrounded lawyer.

      A high interest who done it story with red herrings, hot love scenes and alpha male lines that will curl your toes and have you panting.

    • 4/5
      Um... WOW. Just Wow. This was an involved one. Murder, rape, suicide/suicide attempt, male on female violence. If you're looking for "Rock Chick" on the mountain, this isn't it. If you're looking for a book where you can really get "into" some heavy issues with characters, this IS it.
    • 2/5
      I've, mostly, given up on Ashley as her writing style/voice more often than not, constantly draws me in with promise but never delivers. This was a Kindle Freebie and Random Number Generator picked it out of the abyss.

      This story:



      An Ashley hero calling the heroine "babe" and/or "baby"? NEVER. (She has an English accent so he also calls her Duchess)



      "Executed a perfect 3 point turn". Why did I read this sentence over and over again? Was Ashley a driver instructor in a former life??


      Sandwiched between the "babe" calling, three-point turning, and drama ending was some honest to god deep emotional issues (domestic violence, rape, disabilities) that get broached but never fully developed. Ashley's ability to incorporate these issues and emotions are what tempt me to keep reading her (the promise I was talking about) but ugh, no development. These issues almost start to seem sensationalized and click-bait reading because Ashley doesn't develop the issues and characters.



      The ending, my god, the ending. Drama after sensationalized drama. The repeat situations our heroine found herself in got to be tedious and one of the villains ended up being portrayed cartoonish.


      I can see why Ashley is popular and I can see why she in not popular. All I know is, my kingdom for an Ashley hero to speak in full coherent sentences.
    • 4/5
      Both funnier and sweeter than I expected. Max was an adorable jackass with a surprising amount of emotional maturity. Nina was fierce, intelligent, loyal and adorably neurotic. Their pairing made a lot of sense to me, even if the set-up was a bit incredible.I didn't love the end. The Damon storyline (after the first few scenes) was possibly even weirder than the reveal of the murderer.Overall though, I liked the story a lot and look forward to reading more by Ms. Ashley.
    • 4/5
      I'm finally catching up on the Mountain men. I always love KA's books. This is another of her sexy alpha males. This book also has some scary drama mystery going on. This book has lots of great points.

    Book preview

    The Gamble - Maree Bishop

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