The Gamble

by Pat Tucker

Love has always been a frightening gamble for beautiful Chrislyn Davidson. Chrislyn is most unlucky when it came to matters of the heart, that is, until she meets Michael. Initially, he’s everything she’s ever wanted in a man. But looks are often deceiving, and slowly, Michael’s darker side begins to emerge. Before long, the curse that has been Chrislyn’s love life comes to fruition yet again. This time, it leaves behind paranoia, distrust and a broken woman. Gary Bissett would be the first to admit he falls hard and fast for a pretty face. Despite the fact that Ashley’s beauty is only skin deep, it’s enough for Gary to get hooked. It doesn’t take long for Ashley’s ugly ways to get the best of their volatile relationship leaving Gary saddled with tons of emotional baggage. By the time Chrislyn and Gary met their relationship was already destined to fail. Having both survived relationships with people who were unstable and paranoid when it came to love, each hung on to excess baggage from the past. Will these two allow ghosts from relationships past to get the best of them, or will they take a chance on each other and on real love?

185 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 6, 2012

Reviews

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading the prologue of the book it seemed like this would be an interesting read, but it just fizzled from there. Chrislyn & Gary's brief appearance together in the prologue had me wanting to read more about them, but after reading the back and forth of Chrislyn's relationship with Michael, and Gary's relationship with Ashley, the book just because uninteresting. The back and forth was literally back and forth; one chapter Chrislyn's story, the next Gary's. Reading about two sane people (Chrislyn & Gary's) each dating a crazy person(Michael & Ashley) the book just lost all appeal for me. It was as if the dating a crazy person storyline was just told from both the male and female perspective, and it just went on for far too long. We don't get to see Chrislyn & Gary interact again until the last chapter of the book, it was just a little too late for me.

[Nardsbaby Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

Missing the Essentials

I picked THE GAMBLE purely based on its title. I don’t know how the title relates to the story, as I didn’t read the synopsis. However, it became apparent rather quickly that Pat Tucker’s eBook lacked the assistance of an editor.

The story opens on Valentine’s Day. Gary is desperately trying to catch a flight to spend the holiday with his girlfriend Chrislyn. After going to the wrong city, Gary makes it to Memphis and Chrislyn seems less than enthused about his appearance. Readers find themselves caught in some unknown relationship issues, but in the chapters to come, Gary and Chrislyn are reliving past relationships. Clearly they both are in abusive relationships. You hope that there is some relevance to the flashbacks.

I got to 48% before I decided to pull the plug. THE GAMBLE, like many other eBooks, lacks grammatical and developmental editing. I usually find myself tracking errors in the books I’m reading. Since this was an eBook, I used a sheet of paper, once full, I decided to stop! There are missing words, wrong word usage, and misspelled words. At one point, characters end the evening in a hotel; when they awake, they are at the characters’ home.


Although I did not complete the read, after reading the two posted reviews, only one of which I agree with, I wanted to be certain that others searching for this eBook understood what a challenge the editing was.

[Shone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good story, poor editing on this Kindle Ed. I love Ms Tuckers voice , will continue to read her books. This was a re-read.