REVIEW: 4 stars
Kristen Ashley writes highly immersive romantic fiction. The Gamble is the first of the Colorado Mountain series, and was the first Kristen Ashley book that I read after discovering her books through the Amazon romance forums, where she is very popular. In the last week, I have read all three of the Colorado Mountain series -- The Gamble, Sweet Dreams, and Lady Luck.
The upside: When I say that she writes immersive books, I really mean it. These books suck a reader in deep. In The Gamble, the main character, Nina, has traveled half-way around the world, from England, for a "timeout" from her English fiance. She arrives only to find her rental occupied by its owner, Max, immediately becomes extremely ill with the flu, and the story is off and running. Ms. Ashley packs her books full. There are a lot of characters, and there is a lot going on with all of the characters. The secondary characters are well-described and contain depth. I think that this is why her books are addictive -- Gnaw Bone, Colorado, (great name, by the way) feels very real. Everyone, from Nina and Max, to Mindy, Damon, and Bitsy, feels complete. Heck, even the dead guy has been more completely developed that the secondary characters in a lot of novels. I suspect that Ms. Ashley could answer any question, no matter how random, about just about any of her characters. These are tremendous strengths.
The downside: However, this strength, in some ways, also represents a weakness, because each of the three books that I read were bloated and badly in need of trimming. There are certain aspects to each of these backs that are downright irritating. In the Gamble, in particular, the descriptions of Nina's clothing just about killed me. If I had to read one more description relating to the neckline of Nina's sexy top, I thought that I might scream. Description can be good. It brings the reader into the writer's world. Ms. Ashley has taken this to an extreme. She describes clothing, hair, furniture, shoes, boots, shopping trips, landscapes, restaurant meals, and anything else that might be even remotely relevant, in excruciating detail. I got to the point that as soon as a paragraph relating to someone's attire began, I skimmed through it. This is not a good thing -- it pulled me out of the story. And it was a really great story.
The second complaint I have about The Gamble is that I really hated Nina's mother. She was intended to be quirky and fun, but, in the end, she was just extraordinarily annoying. Anyone with a mother that was that intrusive, that overdone, that flaky and irritating, would have been driven batty in short order.
From a technical perspective, Ms. Ashley also could really use the services of a good proofreader and editor. I am not especially sensitive to typographical errors, but this is a common complaint with respect to her books. However, I am sensitive to clunky language, and Ms. Ashley does have a problem with clunky language.
So, to sum up: the strengths of this book were in the plotting and the characterizations. The weaknesses were in the overblown descriptive detail and sometimes clunky language. This would be a stronger book if it were between 50 and 100 pages shorter, and if someone knowledgeable took an editor's pencil to it. Overall, though, I genuinely enjoyed it.
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