Winner Takes All

The story of Storm and Colleen - once close when they were at school together now they are enemies. Both taking part in a televised scavenger hunt, will they team up to help each other and what will happen when only one of them can win the prize?

Looking forward to reading more from this author

I was in desperate need of a good book to take me out of a weeks-long reading funk. Of the nine books I’ve read so far this year, three of the last four were 2 stars for me, and that fourth was a DNF. I had my fingers crossed that Laurie Winter and her fourth Warriors of the Heart book would give me some relief from the dread reading has caused me the past couple of weeks.

Thankfully, Ms. Winter pulled through! Winner Takes All was a sweet, fun, whirlwind adventure of a story with a truly unique plot.

Colleen Gardner grew up as the mean girl of Liberty Ridge, a small town in Texas. Often times, the object of her cruel treatment was Storm Thompson, the son of a single, hippy mom who lived on a commune. But now it’s over ten years later, and Colleen has done a lot to set things right with many of the people she wronged in school.

One person she hadn’t had a chance to apologize to was Storm Thompson, who left the day before their high school graduation and never returned. When Storm moves back to Liberty Ridge to care for his mentally unstable mother, he’s not pleased to discover his high school nemesis lives there as well. Not only that, but everyone in town seems to love Colleen now, leaving him to wonder how they all have such a short memory of the terror she inflicted on so many. He has no choice but to give her a wide berth and keep his head down, working towards his goal of purchasing land so he can get custody of his young daughter and start an organic farm. When Storm is selected for a television reality show/scavenger hunt with a prize of $1 million, he finally has a way to make his dreams come true.

The only problem is that Colleen is also selected as a contestant on the same show, competing for the same $1 million. She’s spent the past several years slowly raising money - through bake sales and raffles - to open a retreat/treatment center for veterans with PTSD.

Both worthy causes. But only one can win.

The great thing about this book is that I almost felt like I was on a trip across the country with Storm and Colleen. As they raced from Washington DC, all the way to San Diego, it was fun to envision them racing from one landmark to the next, completing all their tasks.

And it was sweet to see Colleen and Storm's relationship develop.

Colleen desperately wants to earn Storm’s forgiveness. Even though she’s come to terms with her past, she still wants approval and love. She just doesn’t know if she can trust Storm right now. Are his kinds words and actions because he’s forgiving her, or is he using her to win the money? Storm, even though he’s come a long way, still harbors anger and many of the insecurities from his childhood. Trust isn’t something that comes easyily to him, especially where Colleen is concerned.

As they race across the country, they form a tenuous alliance to beat the other contestants, and both start to believe that maybe something deeper and lasting is forming, something that could continue after the winner has been declared.

Truth be told...I had a really hard time deciding who I wanted to win the money! I was anxious to find out who would win, and if they would be able to work through the fallout of one of them having to give up their dreams.

I’m not one who usually enjoys the enemies-to-lovers trope, but this one really worked for me. The characters are compelling and the plot is unique. And I LOVE that they despise each other, and act like it. Well, I don't like that they despise each other, but usually we get this whole "I hate him, but he's so hawt he makes all my girly parts tingle" malarky and there's NONE OF THAT thank goodness!!! The storytelling didn’t get completely bogged down in repetitive thoughts about the past, about how good looking the other was, or whether or not they could be together once the competition was over. But it sometimes got close… I was sitting on the proverbial edge of my seat, wanting to know what challenges they’d experience during their journey, who would win, and how they would get their happily ever after.

I can’t decide how I feel about the ending, though. Part of me thinks things ended a little abruptly, a little simply. Was all forgiven too easily, on both sides? The other part of me wants to stop analyzing it and just be thankful Winner Takes All was such an entertaining, moving story. FINALLY!

I’ve enjoyed this series, and I’ll be looking forward to the final book in this series. Actually, I’ll be looking forward to all of Ms. Winter’s future books. She’s proven herself to tell great stories without falling into some of the traps many current writers use - like having her heroines wax poetic about how hawt the hero is, and having repetitive inner monologues by both hero and heroine. I’m so glad this author didn’t let me down and was able to get me out of my reading slump!

* thank you to NetGalley and The Wild Rose Press, Inc for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Thank you to NetGallery, the publisher and author, Laurie Winter, for the opportunity to read and review the arc of “Winner Takes All,”. This is my honest and true review.
Really enjoyed the trip across the United States with Colleen and Storm as they vied to win $1 million. Each has their personal reasoning for wanting to be the final winner. I had a hard time deciding who I wanted to win! Though I do think the ending seemed quite abrupt... I wanted more to it.
Very sweet, full of action, romance and just a very sweet read.

4.5 stars.
I was immediately pulled into this story which kept me absorbed until the end, captivated by Laurie Winter’s writing style and narration – what a lovely way to enjoy my leisure time.
Storm and Colleen are great characters, full of flaws and imperfections, but trying to do the best they can.
Storm is such a stubborn man, a bit imperceptive where Colleen is concerned, but that is understandable because of their troubled past. I loved how Laurie Winter wrote this hero full of contradictions: a loving and tender father and son, but so suspicious of the heroine and often acting like a “world-class jerk”, that sometimes I wanted to shake him.
Colleen is a wonderful heroine too, strong and smart, with her own vulnerabilities though.
I also loved how the author interwove the childhood crush and longing with the present, rewriting the characters’ history and ties and building a heartfelt romance.
I enjoyed the travelling, the competition and the realistic balance between both MC’s goals and dilemmas while competing against one another.

I liked that the author used an adventure reality show as a premise for Colleen and Storm's story. It made the story fun and thrilling in anticipation of who was going to win the big price. Both Storm and Collen have compelling reasons to want the money and I was routing for both. Colleen raising funds to build a retreat resort for veterans suffering from PTSD. She joins the contest in the hopes of winning the 1 million so she can realize her dream but doesn't count on her mixed feelings for Storm, a boy she helped bully as a kid. Storm resents Colleen for using his crush on her to torment him but once the race is on he discovers he never stopped loving her.
I enjoyed reading their banter and seeing their feelings turn from hate to love. I still felt Storm went from totally hating Colleen to loving her a bit too abruptly. We could have benefited from more gradual scenes. Even so it was an enjoyable, clean romance.
Thank you Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first book by the author. It is a unique story between Storm and his high school tormenter and hometown riches girl Liberty. They meet again both grown-ups both changed especially Liberty who deeply regrets her behavior from the past but Storm is still full of a grudge. They both have big dreams but in a need of money and they both applay to a reality show. It was a lovely written story I just didn't get whole reality because the cameras were not 24/7 on the contesters. Both Storm and Liberty were great characters especially Liberty and we see how big was her heart at the end. Their HEA is very heartwarming.
I volunteered to review an ARC of this book for Netgelly