BLURB
Las Vegas, 1966. There are parts of Sin City the neon lights don't reach, and only the desperate and dangerous venture into the city's seedy backstreets, where gangsters rule, the floating poker games never stop, and people disappear without a trace. Ruby Gordon is desperate. She has nowhere else to go when her brother opens his home to her. He runs an off-the-books juke joint, and she is fascinated by the most dangerous – and handsome – of his clientele. Tim Kelly is dangerous. His father never achieved notoriety with the Chicago Outfit, but Tim has aspirations to strike out on his own. He has plans, and they don't include a naive newcomer. Jake Wheeler is both. The Airman-turned-rodeo-rider is as gorgeous as he is foul-tempered, and he's Tim's not-so-friendly rival. When he notices Tim's interest in Ruby, he's determined to derail Tim's plans. The three of them are on a collision course, but there's only one rule in Vegas: The house always wins.
REVIEW
I want to thank Ms. Jennifer for giving me a copy of her book. And I apologize for taking this long reading and reviewing it. :D
Okay. I have this book in my TBR for a long while now but I manage to read and finish it just last night. I think I’m gonna start my review now.
Oh, kindly read the synopsis first before reading my review so you’ll have a little background about what I’m talking about.
First, I have no idea what the book’s genre is so I have no idea what I’m getting myself into. I thought about action or maybe erotica because it was entitled sin city but then it was romance and crime. On the first chapters of the book, honestly, it wasn’t a good beginning for me. It only got interested around the time Tim and Ruby started hanging out.
It was good, smooth sailing. I get to have a relaxing read with this book even though it has some fight scenes in it because it didn’t require complex thinking because there weren’t much mystery in the book. It just talks about the three main characters which are Tim Kelly, Ruby Gordon, and Jake Wheeler.
Even though this book seem to have a love triangle because it has a two boys, one girl main characters, I assure you it is not a love triangle at all. The real couple here is Tim and Ruby and then Jake is just someone who wants to ruin people’s lives because he likes it.
I like how Tim Kelly change after meeting Ruby. He changed a lot from really hard to somehow soft. Though it didn’t actually say in the book but you can feel while reading all throughout the book. I like his character though. I understand his feeling at the end of the book. I really do but I’m hoping he won’t totally close his heart after.
Ruby Gordon, man, what can I say about her. Her character in the beginning of the book is good. I kind of like her. She’s a brave girl. Despite hearing rumors and warnings about Tim Kelly, she didn’t judge him immediately and she get close to him before she evaluates whether Tim Kelly can be trusted. Turns out her decision it quite right at the moment. But I started hating her at the end of the book. I seriously do. I kind of understand that she’s scared and hurt and all but it was not enough reason to do what she did. She just… ugh! By the time I finish reading the book, I don’t know if I still like her of I just hated her beginning that moment.
And then Jake Wheeler. I seriously don’t know what his deal is. He’s a full-fledged denial and an ass****. Oops. That’s how I picture Jake is. Though at times I understand why he is the way he is, but there are also time that I just wanna whack him square in the head real hard. Just to get some sense into him. In the most parts of the book, Jake is brokenhearted. Then the other part, he’s proving a point that he could ruin someone else’s lives just for the fun of it. He’s the reason the smooth sailing relationship of Tim and Ruby suddenly got bumpy, actually it was worse.
I have no problem with the whole book except the ending. I seriously did not expect how the book ended. Like ugh! I kept grunting and huffing last night when I reached the end and I was like, “Wait. What? Wait. No. Huh? Ugh!” I honestly almost did not fell asleep because I can’t get my head grasp the ending of the book. I am so distracted by it that when I woke up early this morning and took a bath, I thought nothing but that ending. Yes. Book hangover right there. And just like last night, I still keep grunting and huffing though today, because everyone is awake and I have no people to disturb in their sleep, I’m also groaning and letting out small dinosaur voice asking “Whyyyyyyyyyyy?”
I felt so betrayed by the ending, honestly. I thought it could still be solved that is why I did not expect the ending. Especially that it has a bonus excerpt of the second book of the Sin City Series. Then I thought to myself, I really hope that Tim Kelly’s heart won’t turn to stone completely. He doesn’t have a stone heart but it was somehow close to it but I worry that after what happened to him it would totally turn into a cold stone. I don’t want that. Even though I hate Ruby, I still want them to have their happily ever after. They deserve that.
I hope I could get my hands on the second book in the future. I so want to know what happen to the two of them. I am hoping that Tim Kelly won’t find any other girl to love if it isn’t Ruby Gordon. I know that’s mean but really. I don’t want to see or read Tim Kelly’s story if his girl won’t Ruby Gordon. You hear, author? Please grant my wish.
If you are the kind of person who wants to read a romance book with a little touch of crime just to spice up the story, this book is perfect for you. Make sure to check it out, peeps! We all have different opinions on same things!
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About the Author...
Jennifer Samson is a Canadian author who enjoys sarcasm, classic rock, photography, adorable cats, fountain pens, notebooks and way too many criminal procedural television shows to name. Being Canadian, a love of hockey goes without saying.
Her work has appeared in the literary journals Thursday and The Lyre, as well as the BoldPrint book Friends. Her four-book YA/NA series Brookline University is available in print on Lulu and exclusively on Kindle. Her work has been featured in the Alpha Phi Quarterly, Brookline TAB, Toronto Star and Edmonton Sun.
She has written twenty-one original novels (two co-written), four fan fiction novels, and two screenplays. She is currently working on a contemporary crime/romance series, Sin City, set in 1960s Las Vegas.
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