Gwen Chastain loves her grandfather's stamp store and is thrilled when he leaves on a cruise to try-out retirement. Gwen has always been the serious one in her family for as long as she can remember. While her sister, Joss always loved the attention living in Africa garnered them, Gwen just wanted to be normal. When $4.5 million in rare stamps go missing, along with a new employee, Gwen knows that she has to get them back before her grandfather's clients find out and before he returns. She tracks the thief to Las Vegas and a high stakes Texas Hold'em tournament. Gwen can't chance being recognized and becomes Nina, a sultry blonde up for anything. Meeting sports writer, Del Redmond is both distracting and exciting. But when everything is said and done, has Del fallen for the outrageous Nina or conservative Gwen? I thoroughly enjoyed this story by Kristin Hardy. Gwen's transformation into Nina is fun, even if Gwen's pep talks to her self become tedious at times. I enjoyed the world of stamp collecting and poker playing. Ms. Hardy gives enough details to be authentic, but not too much that you feel you're studying a text book. The dialogue is snappy and at times, laugh-out-loud funny. Del and Gwen are a wonderful match and the scrapes they find themselves in is great and the bedrooms scenes are hot, hot, hot! I can't wait for Joss' story, U.S. Male, to hit the stands in August. This is a must read for the summer! ***Please check out www.allromancewriters.com for more reviews!
fine action-packed romance
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 19 years ago
In San Francisco, someone steals valuable stamps from her grandfather's business while Gwen Chastain was on watch. Feeling guilty that she devastated the family business and needing to make amends, Gwen follows the thief to Las Vegas. There she disguises herself as Nina, a gambler, in an effort to recover what was lost. San Francisco sportswriter Del Redmond is in Vegas covering the World Series of Poker. When he meets Gwen, he can immediately tell she is not a cark shark. Curious over the masquerade and liking her he feels he pulled the ace of spades to complete a royal straight flush, but also wants to know what she is hiding from him. Poker will never look the same after reading this heated contemporary romance. The story line is fun to follow as Gwen tries to stay in sexy card sharp character (when she is more a homebody) to catch a thief while Del wants her in the buff not bluffing so he raises the ante with their relationship being the stakes. Though grandpa's investment reputation being shattered and distrusted as reasons to not call the cops seems wrong (maybe that is my ignorance) CERTIFIED MALE is a fine action-packed romance. Harriet Klausner
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