Monday 28 July 2014

Book Review | Jamie's Gamble

Title: Jamie's Gamble

Author: Gregg Bell

Genre: Crime/ Contemporary

Pages: 242

Series: Stand alone

Rating: 3.5 stars




Jamie Thompson is the perfect person. Her CEO father has made sure of that. She has the perfect manners, a perfect tennis backhand and a perfect life. Jamie has a silver spoon in her mouth—and she’s gagging on it.
She has to get away.
She’s come up with the perfect plan. A friend in a west Texas border town has lined up an accounting job for her, but when Jamie gets there the job has fallen through. But there’s a waitress position open at a bar and grill. The one thing Jamie knows is she isn’t going back to her father, and so, broke, sixteen hundred miles from home and alone for the first time in her life, she goes for it.
What she finds is a world of gun-toting cowboys, Mexican drug gangs, the occult and a string of brutal rapes and murders. And Ricky Benson, a flame-throwing baseball pitcher, fallen from grace, who she falls head over heels in love with.
But the violence escalates. A fellow waitress is murdered, and Jamie feels like she might be next. Then Ricky Benson is accused of murder.
Jamie can make one phone call and her father will send the company jet for her—or she can stay and face the life that confronts her and fight for the man she loves.




Typically I would not find myself reading this type of book as I am more of a fantasy girl, however, I found myself rather gripped on the fast paced storyline and interesting characters.

What I really liked about this book was how the plot developed throughout. I loved how it started just focusing on the main character and gradually, more characters were focused on and the different stories, opinions and expressions which each character used made the plot a hell of a lot more enjoyable to read. I also found that it wasn't complex at all. Sometimes, I find that books like this can get a little confusing and I thought I might struggle to keep up with the fast pace. But I actually found I didn't struggle at all.

The writing in the book was really good and I loved the descriptions used for each character. However, I did find at times that the language could have been a little more complex with more variation in adjectives, but all in all it was great. 

One thing that really draws me in to any book is a character to which one can look up to or relate to. With the main character in this book Jamie, I found her attitude really inspiring and I also thought she was totally relatable, which is a bonus, I find in any book. Sometimes I find when men write about a female protagonist, they can sometimes get it a little wrong. Gregg Bell managed to get it oh so right and I felt that Jamie was a strong, independent woman who I could really look up to.

I love how the idea of ancient 'magic' and items such as D.U.M.E candles are threaded into the story and I think that these concepts were really effective. I must say that the thing that kept me happy in this book had to be how hooked I was. I think this had a lot to do with the fast pace of the book. A lot happened in a short space of time, yet I think that this really worked and made me crave more.

I gave this book 3.5 stars because a really liked it, yet I don't feel I can say it is one of my favourite ever books. The writing was good and I loved the characters, but I think that the book would have been even better if I had had more time to get to know the characters. I think if I had been more familiar with them, more emotion could have been drawn out of me. I know that this is such a hard thing to ask of a book and in no way do I want anyone thinking this is a bad book because it really was very good! 

I suggest you get reading people, because this is a book that deserves a shed load of hype!

Hebe x

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