Review: Epic Game by William Kowalski

 

Read: March 24-26, 2016
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Pages: 144
Genres: realistic fiction

Blurb from Goodreads:

"Kat is a tough, independent woman who makes her living as a professional poker player. She is single, childless and happy about it. But when her best friend, Josie, commits suicide, she names Kat as the temporary guardian of her ten-year-old son, David, until his father can come for him. In the few weeks that David is with her, Kat finds herself changed in ways she had never thought imaginable. With the old poker adage "bet with your head, not your heart" ringing in her head like a warning bell, Kat nevertheless finds that all the money and success in the world don't mean a thing unless you have someone to share it with...and that maybe there is more to life than winning after all."


This...was surprisingly good.



I received this book awhile ago...but I put it on hold since I had other books I was in the middle of...and honestly, the blurb on the back didn't sound all that interesting...BUT, as I started reading the first chapter, I found it very easy to get into.

Yes, the book was short and the font was...bigger than what I was used to, but that just made the book go back that much quicker! Also, it was a nice break from reading books where I had to analyze every sentence for double meanings or had to keep track of different characters and their hidden agendas.

DAVID. The poor kid that lost his mom....THIS kid annoyed me. Incredibly so. In the beginning, he was...cocky, and rude, and completely unlikeable...except his dry sense of humour was an unexpected bonus...BUT as the novel unfolded, I DID get attached to him (thank goodness), and dang it, it just made it that much harder for me to read the part when he.......ah wells.

Poker.
My...poker skills, or rather my LACK of poker skills and accompanying knowledge may have hindered my enjoyment of this book slightly, but nowhere near enough to make me seriously consider it as a downside...in fact...I want to learn how to play poker now, it sounds FUN.

I would never have picked up a book like this on my own, so I am incredibly thankful I had it sent to me...which made me feel like I had an obligation to read it...this is actually the first book I read where a person was given responsibility over a child because of parent issues. I usually see this kind of setup in romance novels...you know...where one parent is stuck with a kid and somehow, meets another person...and falls in love, thereby, joining the family...I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with this....

Anyhoos...this was so much fun to read! I would suggest this book to anyone who wants a break from long, intricate books with complex plots they have to over analyse. This book has none of that. It was just pure...fun.

Who know how to play poker?  

When and how did you learn to play?  

Is it as exciting as it sounds?  

Do you need to be shrewd and extremely skillful, too?

Poker face, anyone?