Dollycas's Thoughts
Marriage is work and when MJ Boudreaux sees her marriage starting to crumble she tries to bring them closer by learning more about her husband's love of poker. Instead of bringing them together she becomes almost addicted spending less and less time with her family. She even enters a tournament and wins a trip to Vegas where her whole life could change completely, but is that what she really wants.
The cover caught my attention and then I saw it was set in Wisconsin and written by a Wisconsin author so I was quickly all in.
While poker was never my game I had things in common with MJ. My parents owned a tavern and several "gents" arrived daily for their euchre games and men and woman came a few nights a week for euchre tournaments. As it was my parent's place I was tending bar and playing cards all through high school and college. MJ's story rang true with me.
Amy E. Reichert takes a very interesting look at love, luck, jealously and family life in this story. Any married couple will tell you keeping your marriage alive takes work and that there are ebbs and flows and how you handle those ebbs and flows makes all the difference. MJ and Chris were going through the motions but weren't communicating. MJ tried but both parties have to be trying.
The author shows things mostly from MJ's point of view of her family dynamics. A typical Midwest family with typical family problems. A daughter in her last year in high school in the college planning phase. A son involved in many extracurricular things and adjusting to his teenage years. Chris seemed to be absent a lot, leaving the household and kids to MJ. Although we learn he is the cook in the family. I really didn't like Chris and felt MJ's pain.
I enjoyed this book a great deal. It is a story many women will be able to relate to. It is not a romantic book, it is a story of family lives and making it work. There are obstacles along the way and we see how this family deals with them. It is a journey, an emotional journey.
Marriage is work and when MJ Boudreaux sees her marriage starting to crumble she tries to bring them closer by learning more about her husband's love of poker. Instead of bringing them together she becomes almost addicted spending less and less time with her family. She even enters a tournament and wins a trip to Vegas where her whole life could change completely, but is that what she really wants.
The cover caught my attention and then I saw it was set in Wisconsin and written by a Wisconsin author so I was quickly all in.
While poker was never my game I had things in common with MJ. My parents owned a tavern and several "gents" arrived daily for their euchre games and men and woman came a few nights a week for euchre tournaments. As it was my parent's place I was tending bar and playing cards all through high school and college. MJ's story rang true with me.
Amy E. Reichert takes a very interesting look at love, luck, jealously and family life in this story. Any married couple will tell you keeping your marriage alive takes work and that there are ebbs and flows and how you handle those ebbs and flows makes all the difference. MJ and Chris were going through the motions but weren't communicating. MJ tried but both parties have to be trying.
The author shows things mostly from MJ's point of view of her family dynamics. A typical Midwest family with typical family problems. A daughter in her last year in high school in the college planning phase. A son involved in many extracurricular things and adjusting to his teenage years. Chris seemed to be absent a lot, leaving the household and kids to MJ. Although we learn he is the cook in the family. I really didn't like Chris and felt MJ's pain.
I enjoyed this book a great deal. It is a story many women will be able to relate to. It is not a romantic book, it is a story of family lives and making it work. There are obstacles along the way and we see how this family deals with them. It is a journey, an emotional journey.
MJ Boudreaux begins to notice a distance growing between her and husband Chris. After their 20th anniversary, MJ decides to take up poker, Chris's favorite hobby, as a way of giving them a common activity. It launches her on a journey of self-discovery and finding a way to heal the distance and brokenness in her marriage. This was a fun, light read, but I found I had a hard time connecting with the gambling portion of the story.
