🎰🎲🃏 All In 🃏 🎲🎰 (2019) - Book Review





MY REVIEW


Paperback: 282 pages
Publisher: Morgan James Fiction (August 27,2019)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1642792918
ISBN-13: 978-1642492911
Click Picture for Purchase Information


A woman’s empty pursuit of happiness leads to a crisis before finding redemption in the Lord in this challenging and gritty Christian novel.

Twenty-nine-year-old novelist and blackjack dealer Cami Taylor seems to have it all–but just underneath her confident exterior and newfound celebrity is a young woman in trouble. Cami’s boyfriend, Joel, wants to get married, buy a house on Long Island, and raise a family–a life that’s a million miles from Cami’s idea of happiness. Her therapist suggests compromise and trust, but Cami would rather bolt like a deer.


Breaking things off with Joel, Cami launches herself on a new quest for happiness. But her pursuit of pleasure only takes her further from herself–and toward a harrowing new reality unlike anything she’s faced before. What follows for Cami is a fight to the death that can only be waged with God’s love.”

Thank you in advance to Book Crash and the author (LK Simonds) for sending me a complimentary copy to review. A positive review was not requested nor required, and all words are my own.


["All In" - Novel by LK Simonds]

As of this year, I discovered the “Christian Fiction” genre (Fiction, Romance, Suspense), so I was eager to read this novel, especially after this tag line:

Cami Taylor – former blackjack dealer, writer, and fraud

The cover also stood out for me, especially since I was raised in Las Vegas. Gambling occupies almost every aspect of the city, and I thought this had a “gambling” theme to it. That was a very small portion of the back story, actually a minor part.

All In” centers on Cami Taylor; formerly Leona Camille Lingo; who was a blackjack dealer at the River Bend Casino in Arizona. It is there that she created the protagonist Jackie for the novel “Double Down Blues”. Jackie, a blackjack dealer herself, was everything “Leona” wasn’t and Leona wanted to be.

After the book becomes a best seller – Leona Camille Lingo vanishes and in her place emerges Cami Taylor. Cami sheds the former image of her self – an overweight bookworm. What she has become is cynical and stubborn with a string of bad decisions in her personal life and no remorse for the choices.

Living in New York, with her boyfriend Joel (of 18 months), she’s living the life that she wants, or thinks that she wants. Joel has other ideas: house, family, kids. After realizing what Joel is after, Cami breaks off the relationship to find her own happiness, even seeking the help of a therapist to no avail.

And, what she finds is anything but happiness. Her past comes to confront her in a seemingly deadly way.

I thought this might be a tale of gambling addiction with a suspense element. I certainly didn’t envision what I did.

From the outside, this seemed like an interesting premise. Given the content contained, it is FAR different than the Christian novels I’ve read from Bethany House, Thomas Nelson, and Revell. “All In” is definitely NOT a “feel-good” type of read. It is uncomfortable, it is gritty, and more graphic than the usual
Christian reads. That didn’t bother me though; I still kept an open mind. But, I do caution other reads to not view “Christian Fiction” solely upon this one novel. There are other great books from the publishers I’ve mentioned.

Cami was entirely dislikeable up until the end. She had no redeeming qualities about her. I found her character shallow and empty. The dialogue, for a character of her age, was quite realistic compared to that age range. Sadly, I couldn’t identify with her character at all, even at that age. She seemed to use her upbringing as an excuse to do what she was doing. With respect to that, there are others who have had a worse childhood and turned out better.

One interesting part of the story was a distant family member’s introduction. This person, despite Cami’s unlikeable behaviors, is there solely as a friend – nothing more. Cami wonders what the person wants. All Kate wants to do is “help” Cami. It was, to me, awkward.

Some readers of this genre might take issue with the pre-marital sex, smoking, and heavy alcohol use. The character also discusses her life with no remorse for her actions.

Cami’s “epiphany” comes in the form of a cliché with a medical issue, and a slightly unrealistic redemption. However, it does demonstrate the power of prayer and what God is willing to do for us if we give him the chance. It also shows that while we have free will, we don’t escape consequences. 



2 ⭐⭐/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – Goodreads (“It Was OK”)
3 ⭐⭐⭐/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – Bookbub (“OKAY”)



ABOUT THE AUTHOR


 


L. K. Simonds is a Fort Worth local. She has worked as a waitress, KFC hostess, telephone marketer, assembly-line worker, nanny, hospital lab technician, and air traffic controller. She’s an instrument-rated pilot and an alumna of Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas.


All In is her first novel.

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