Card Sharks

by Liz Maverick

Where are all the good men? Marianne and her best friend, Bijoux, are dying to know. Turns out they've been holed up around card tables, playing Texas Hold 'em. So Marianne and Bijoux decide it's time to up the ante and get in on the action. But they never imagined that Marianne would have a seriously talented poker player lurking inside her. And everyone knows what they say about lucky in cards...

Genres: Fiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published November 14, 2005

About the author

Bestselling, award-winning author Liz Maverick is a novelist, adventurer and odd jobs specialist whose contract assignments have taken her from driving trucks in Antarctica to working behind the scenes on reality TV shows in Hollywood.

Liz is known for writing out-of-the-box romance novels with fast-paced, unique plots and lots of kick-butt action. Her previous works include Cosmopolitan Magazine Book Club Pick What a Girl Wants, PRISM/Daphne finalist The Shadow Runners, Golden Leaf winner Crimson Rogue, and Waldenbooks/B&N bestseller Crimson City, the first book in the multi-author continuity series she created.

Liz and her books have been featured on Fox's Geraldo at Large and in USA Today, Cosmopolitan Magazine, San Francisco Magazine, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Toronto Star, and more.

https://www.facebook.com/LizMaverickC...

Reviews

[September · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. I really did. As a female and a serious poker player, I thought the premise sounded intriguing.

I was sorely disappointed in the writing. For example:

On page 76... "Bijoux shrugged and began picking her steps carefully up the stone walkway toward the front door." Then, not a paragraph later... "Bijoux picked her steps carefully up the stone walkway to the door." Same walkway, same front door.

Later in the book, the author describes a scene at a table in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) main event. She explains that a man in a green tracksuit is sitting so many seats to the character's right. Only, a few sentences later, he's suddenly sitting to the character's left.

In another spot, Marianne is sitting in the small blind holding two cards. Supposedly the next hand, she's holding two different cards, but she's still in the small blind. So not right.

Half the time the names of professional poker players were spelled incorrectly.

That's not to mention just the general typos. Hello?! Where was the editor?

With respect to the author's research? Well, some things were so bang on it was down right weird, because so much of it was so completely off. She had obviously never been to the WSOP, let alone the main event, and she'd obviously never been to the Rio hotel & casino. (I've been to both & played in the main event.)

The ending... was too easily wrapped up, IMO.

Needless to say, the book was a let down. I only wish it were that easy to progress and so successfully achieve what Marianne did.

[Renee Barrette · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all, you have to know poker to read this book, otherwise you'll be completely lost! The accuracy of the game was very well done and it was a good read altogether. I enjoyed the characters very much in this book. They were very easy to relate to and bring to life through your imagination. The idea of having the main character be a female poker player is good in and of itself, and the rest of the book makes up for any possible shortcomings. Great read!