Book Review – The Gamble (Colorado Mountain #1) by Kristen Ashley

 “In my life, I’ve learned when to let shit go and when to fight for it. This, babe, what we got, I’ll fight for.”

• Buy THE GAMBLE (Kindle)
• Buy THE GAMBLE (Old Paperback)
• Buy THE GAMBLE (New Paperback)

5 stars!

What is it about Kristen Ashley’s books that just leaves you with the warmest, fuzziest feelings ever ?

They just reach right into your heart and connect you so deeply with each of the characters *big smile*. Absolutely LOVE her writing!! and I’m officially in love with Macho Mountain Max!!

Tired of her boring life with her bland and clueless fiance, Nina decides she needs a timeout to rethink what she wants out of life and so she books an idealic 2-week stay in a gorgeous mountain house in Colorado. But things don’t quite go according to plan. She arrives in the middle of a bad storm, late, exhausted, coming down with a bad cold, only to find that there was a mix-up with the house and that the owner, swoony-gorgeous-Alpha-hot-Macho-mountain-man Max, is occupying it. At first, he wants nothing to do with her and tried to send her back to town to stay at a hotel. Frustrated by this huge wrench in her plans, Nina leaves in a huff only to end up in a ditch on the side of the road. Utterly depressed over her ruined timeout vacation plans, she bursts into tears and promptly falls asleep. When she wakes up some time later, she’s in a warm, fluffy bed back at Max’s house, and is changed, cleaned up and sick as a dog. And over the next several days, Max continues to look after her and nurse her back to health.

Right from the start, they have grin-enducing banter and Max just swoonily slips into her life. And, unphased by her many ruffled feathers, he starts convincing her to stay a while longer.. and take a gamble on him.

“You’re half a world away, Duchess, you been sick as a dog and your man doesn’t contact you?”…
“Niles is reserved,” I whispered.
“Niles is an ass,” He returned…
“You don’t know him.”…
“I’ve seen you naked, I’ve seen you sweet, I’ve seen you unsure and I’ve seen you riled and, seein’ all that ,I know, you were half a world away from me, I’d fuckin’ phone.”

Then, to add a little spice to the story, a local man is murdered, and, as with many KA books, there is a healthy dose of kidnappings, death threats, swoony seductions, second chances, brawls, shebitchesfromhell, healing, rape (happened to one of the side characters prior to the story), beautiful family moments, squee-worthy showdowns, plot twists…. oh, and did I mention the Macho Mountain Man?! 😀

Oh, Max! Holden Maxwell. LOVED him! I loved how affectionate he was – both physically and verbally. He was always doing something sweet, calling her affectionate names, looking out for her, paying attention to the small stuff. I love that he just never let their relationship slide into the “stupid zone.” He was laid back, but at the same time deeply possessive and totally Alpha.

 “Found somethin’ I want, don’t tend to fuck around when that happens, Duchess. Ever.”

Its kinda hard not to love a man who calls his woman ‘babe’, ‘darlin’ , ‘honey, baby and Duchess… and all in a sexy-as-all-hell gravelly voice… *swoooooon*

“Learned some things in my life, Duchess, one of the most important, you find a good woman, you take care of her.”
“Please.”
“This happens between us, I’d take care of you.”
“Don’t.”
“Die doin’ it,” he vowed.“

Nina was also a surprisingly fun heroine. Sure, she fought his affections a little at first, but only to the extent that it was cute, not annoying. She could be soft and sweet at times, but had a totally tough-as-nails side and would take no shit from anyone or let anyone walk all over her or her friends. She was loyal, and I loved how she just ‘got’ some things – there were some characters with some serious hurt and trauma in this book, and she just totally knew how to handle it.

There’s a whole slew of side characters that we meet who become integral parts of the story. There is something just so deep about many of KA’s characters – little gestures and actions that convey a world of understanding or tell you so much about a character. I just love it! It connects you so strongly to the story.

The pacing of the book just never lets up – you go from funny to swoony to action-packed to oh-my-god to *squeeeee* to fanning yourself to heart in your throat – its just non-stop and keeps you flipping the pages!

It had me smiling right from the beginning! KA’s writing style is so effortless and easy to connect to – I could literally just see the story enfold in front of me as though I were watching a movie. My first sitting reading this book, it kept me riveted to the story until 5am!

This book was not quite as light-hearted as the Rock Chick series and not quite as badass as the Dream Man series. It was just about a real life, super-swoony Alpha guy finding his woman and I loved every minute of it. It’s the perfect kind of story you can just loose yourself in 🙂

“I’m not making out with you in a bar.”
“Why not?”
“Why?”
His face dipped closer. “Because, first, I want you to. And second… guys are checkin’ you out and that’d be me stakin’ my claim.”
“Staking your claim?”
“Its a guy thing.”
“Its a Macho Mountain Man thing.”
“Same thing.”
“You’re impossible.”
“You gonna kiss me or what?”
“If I don’t, you’re just going to kiss me anyways, aren’t you?”
Again, he gave me a grin. “You finally got that?”
“Impossible,” I muttered.
“Kiss me, Duchess.” 

C’mon, doesn’t that make you smile?!

And I have to just say that Kristen Ashley writes the. BEST. epilogues. EVER!!!! The HEA was perfect and beautiful and I ended the book wiping my happy tears <3

I don’t think I’ll be able to stop myself from going straight to book 2 of this series…

• Buy THE GAMBLE (Kindle)
• Buy THE GAMBLE (Old Paperback)
• Buy THE GAMBLE (New Paperback)

** COLORADO MOUNTAIN SERIES **

Note that the series is in the process of being traditionally published so the covers are still switching over.

    

Book #1 — THE GAMBLE (Max & Nina)
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review

Book #2 — SWEET DREAMS (Tate & Laurie)
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review

Book #3 — LADY LUCK (Ty & Lexie)
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review

Book #4 — BREATHE (Chase & Faye)
Buy for Kindle | Buy  in Paperback | Read my Review

Book #5 — JAGGED (Ham & Zara)
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback

Book #6 — KALEIDOSCOPE (Deck & Emme)
Buy for Kindle