SHUFFLE UP AND DEAL

A poker-playing travel writer meets her celebrity crush in DiPlacido’s romance novel.

The book opens with a sex scene—the first of many—and with Izzy Santillo’s first mention of famous card shark Nick Nolan. Nick isn’t the man in bed with her, but she’s fantasizing about him and calling out his name. Izzy has never even met Nick, but that changes soon enough, as Izzy, a travel writer and poker hobbyist, heads from her home in Pittsburgh to Las Vegas to play in a poker tournament and write a travel article. There, she meets Nick, literally falling for him: “I stumble, I bump into Nick, jostling me the other way, stumble again, and this time my heel slides on the smooth floor and I go down, yelping again.” The two hit it off, and romance blossoms as Nick, a popular and handsome poker champion, begins to help Izzy with her card playing. The book immerses the reader in the world of high-stakes poker, with all of its glitz and glamour. The narrative focuses on romance, sex, and, of course, poker as Izzy begins to work her way up the ladder in the card-playing world. Though there’s a lot of poker talk, nonaficionados will be able to figure out the ins and outs, while players will appreciate the attention to detail. The novel is likable and can be laugh-out-loud funny. Nick is handsome and cocky in a charming sort of way, and though his relationship with Izzy has its requisite ups and downs, it’s one that readers will root for. But there are a few problems: The author tells the story from both Izzy’s and Nick’s points of view, which adds a layer of confusion, and some of the characters, particularly Jennifer, Izzy’s father’s trophy wife, are both one-dimensional and annoying. The novel works best when it sticks to the world of poker and the steamy romance between Izzy and Nick.

A sexy romantic comedy that occasionally goes off course when focusing on secondary characters and storylines.