DOUBLE DOWN

Author: Tess Hudson ISBN: 0778321789 5/2005 CHICK LIT Publisher: MIRA

High roller Skye McNally can't seem to go straight. She wants a thirty-day coin from her Gamblers Anonymous group, but the odds have always been against her. Her father is one of New York's biggest bookies and she's spent most of her life betting the over-under, and learning how to double down. Vegas may not be the best place for a gambling addict trying to make sense of her life-so Skye escapes to the Nevada desert. There she has a chance encounter with Mark Shannon, a star quarterback who's made headlines by disappearing weeks before the Super Bowl. For the first time in her life, Skye discovers that there are some things more intoxicating than the rush of numbers.... But the people invested in Mark's career aren't about to lose their golden boy to a bookie's daughter with a checkered past-and they're willing to play hardball. But don't bet against Skye. She's always been a woman who knows how to play the long odds...and win.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Skye McNally will bet on the weather, a football game, the ponies, and every sport in town. Poker games are nothing to her and a $5,000 loss is just a dribble from her trust fund left to her when her mother died in a plane crash. But the really interesting thing about Skye, is that she's trying to quit gambling in spite of fighting the Twelve-Step Program every step of the way.

She's sassy, spunky, sexy, and a real bad girl. That's why I loved her so much. She has a rotten childhood behind her so you can't help but feel sorry for her and admire her for trying to over come her addiction. She has three men in love with her and that was about the only bet she didn't make in the book—which one will I end up with? My sponsor? My ex-husband again? Or the hunky hero? Nope, no bets were taken there.

When she finds hero quarterback Mark Shannon hiding out in the Nevada desert she has the quick presence of mind to whip him back to her condo—because that's the kind of girl Skye is—a shaker and mover “in your face” heroine who knows what she wants. Until her two other males rattle her chain and get things worked up.

What follows is better than any Texas Hold’em poker game, and that's why it's a Keeper for me. Skye may shock you but she'll never bore you; she'll fall but she'll always get up. Skye is the stuff that more heroines should be made of—true grit with the honesty to match. Don't miss this for your best summer chick lit read!

Laurie Wood