Shoot the Moon

This was an interesting book. I learned a lot about poker. I'm happy to see how one could deal with their gambling issues. This was a very educational book.

Last year I read and loved the first book in this series, Seeking Mansfield, and I was so excited to find out there was a sequel. While Shoot the Moon was not quite the light and fluffy read I was expecting, I still really enjoyed it.

This books focuses on Tate, Oliver’s older brother. I loved how witty and sarcastic he was. He could also be kind of awful, but in a fun way. I loved watching his journey throughout the book. He had many ups and downs and by the end I felt like he was really heading in the right direction. I initially was excited in seeing Oliver and Finley again, but I felt disappointed in what we got from them. I don’t consider this a spoiler because we find out in the very first chapter (but skip ahead if you don’t want to be spoiled at all!) that Oliver and Finley have broken up! And then there’s a brief thing with Tate and Finley that had been hinted at in the previous book, but actually goes further. There’s a little more back and forth with Oliver and Finley, but they didn’t really play a big part in the overall story of this one.

One character I really didn’t care for at all was Tate’s new love interest, Alex. Though we know how insecure she really is, it still really frustrated me when she lashed out at Tate. She came across as very unkind and manipulative and I just couldn’t like her at all, though she did get a little better by the end of the book. Still, I do not think that she and Tate were a good match. I felt like if they wanted to be together they still had so much growing up to do and they weren’t there by the end of the book. For awhile I thought it was looking like Tate would end the book single and I was actually pretty excited about that, but I don’t think it’s a surprise to say that that didn’t happen.

There were a lot of poker terms included in this. There is a glossary of terms in the back of the book which I perused before I started reading, but I find it too difficult to go back and forth with e-books so I was often lost when there were passages with lots of poker terms. While I appreciate the authenticity Watson was going for in including them, I felt like it could have been edited down a lot. It’s one of those instances where it felt more like the author wanted to show how much research she had done, then it being really relevant to the progression of the story. There is also a lot of politics in the story. I thought it was a little heavy handed at times. Depending on your particular political bent you will either really enjoy it or be kind of annoyed by it.

Overall, while Shoot the Moon was not the follow-up to Seeking Mansfield I expected, I still enjoyed it. I really loved Tate. Even when the story lost my interest occasionally, Tate still made me want to keep reading. Though this isn’t the light read that the first book was, I would still definitely recommend it to fans of Seeking Mansfield. I am looking forward to reading more from Kate Watson.

Overall Rating (out of 5): 3.5 Stars

Shoot the Moon is a companion novel to Seeking Mansfield. It follows Tate Bertram, only a secondary character in book one, as he struggles with a gambling addiction, trying to keep his grades up at school, and interning on his aunt's political campaign. All that, plus the political competition might have ties to the mob! This book was so fun!

I really enjoyed this book - maybe even more than Seeking Mansfield! I enjoyed Tate's characters development, especially how Watson made sure that his gambling addiction wasn't just *poof* fixed, but that he had to struggle through it.

I also appreciate that she wrote about poker so much, but did so in a way that someone who knows nothing about poker (*ahem* me) wasn't completely lost or bored by it all.

I can't wait to see what Watson comes up with next!

Goodreads Synopsis:
Despite what his brother—and sponsor—thinks, nineteen year-old Tate Bertram isn’t an addict. He has the 30-day chip to prove it. But when his father learns Tate’s been running an illegal card room out of a friend’s dorm to pay off old gambling debts, Tate is cut off. With his family no longer talking to him, his aunt Nora offers him a chance to intern for her political campaign. Juggling school with the intense internship, Tate finds himself buying scratch-off lottery tickets to take the edge off.

Tate is surprised to find the beautiful and calculating Alex Wolf—his first crush and the girl who taught him how to gamble—volunteering with Nora’s campaign, too. Soon, Tate is more drawn to Alex than ever. Her mind games stick in his head, but her vulnerable, softer side gets into his heart. But as tensions rise along the campaign trail, Tate is forced to question whether he’s really addiction-free, after all.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS meets ROUNDERS in this high stakes tale of the cost of winning and the price of redemption.

My Review:
I received a copy of this from Netgalley in exchange for a review.

First off, let me say how much I love the characters. The main character in this book, Tate, has changed so much even through the first book. I'm really glad I got to know him in this way. The setting is a bit more plain that other books I've been reading lately, but it's exciting and really a breathe of fresh air. I absolutely loved this book.

Unlike "Seeking Mansfield", the main character is Tate, rather than switching viewpoints between his brother and adopted sister. As the eldest brother of the family, he struggles with life because of his full blown gambling addiction. He tends to stay away from anyone he cares about because he doesn't want to hurt them. It's not that he doesn't care about them, quite the opposite actually. He just feels it's safer for them if he keeps his distance, especially after his incident in the last book. I was sucked into the story from the very beginning and didn't want to put it down for a second, even after finishing the other book and immediately moving onto this one.

Although the two books aren't directly connected story wise, many characters from the other story are in this. It gives you a chance to get to know them from a different point of view and really just gives you more time to love them. They fight against themselves for various reasons every day and seem very realistic, although they've been through some tough times, seem to handle themselves pretty well. Tate is the one character I wished I got to know better, and this book gives you exactly that. He's a really cool person and uses a lot of the skills he learned from gambling in his everyday life, which gives him kind of a new outlook on things.

Although gambling makes him feel lighter than air, just being around the chips, the money, and the smell of the cards makes him feel good. He denies any help he can get although he knows he needs it. In the book he tries helping out his aunt Nora in her campaign, and meets some people he would rather stay away from, from his past. Honestly most of the book is Tate's downward spiral, but everything that happens just makes you want to read more into it, and you just know he'll figure everything out by the end.

Like I said earlier, I absolutely love this book and although I picked it mostly for the description and the amazing eye catching cover, I'm glad I got the chance to read it. You don't have to read "Seeking Mansfield", although this book is kind of a follow up, you wouldn't be lost just reading this book by itself. Definitely check it out if you get the chance!

Thanks for reading! Check out this review and more at my blog.
(Radioactivebookreviews.wordpress.com)

First, thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC.

Secondly, damn. I MEAN DAMN. Any writer who can take an unlikable douchebag character and humanize them, then make me actively root for them should get all the stars in the world for their books. In this case, this is worthy of five fist pumping stars.

I'm going to have to do a reread with this to pick up on all the poker details, especially after reading the glossary at the back. If you're only sort of acquainted with poker (in that I've watched many hours of the World Poker Tour with my dad but there was still SO MUCH I didn't know), read the glossary in the back first, as that will help you understand the dozens of terms thrown around.

Until I can reread the final product, I'm just going to say that I'm so happy this book exists, it definitely made me cry, and I need more Bertram stories in my life (hey Kate, a third one then...?)