Rating: 3🌈
Reckless Roulette is Alice Winters offering in the multi author series, The Elite. Per the series description:
“What links these books together is The Anonymous, a club beneath the gritty city where only the elite are welcome.”
Nebulous enough, the characters met briefly in the club here seem nasty, entitled, and of a semi lawful nature. So the books could have a wide range of themes.
Here it’s Kade, a casino owner being threatened by a brutal thug. The thug wants everything Kade has, starting with the casino, and there’s a timeline to turn it over before everyone dies. Including Kade.
The reader should immediately feel sympathetic, right? Be on Kade’s side?
And that’s one issue for me. Alice Winters can create snarky, sometimes sarcastic, self indulgent characters and still make them endearing or connectable. See her Hitman series for starters.
But here? The minute we enter the ugly life and identical mind of casino Kade, it’s an unpleasant, unending cesspool of selfishness, rage, and arrogance. A mind unmarred by thoughts of any kind of concern for others or even the most minuscule of ripples that he’s responsible for his actions and their consequences/impacts on others. Kade is completely contemptible, so spending pages with him becomes almost impossible.
Len, the hitman, a gamer, with a hoodie and a attitude is a better character but given the personality he’s to play off of and the short time in which to make his redemption believable, it just never feels right.
It’s a short story to begin with, with problematic characters, a lot of twisted emotions and dark reveals that needs a larger narrative to get the depth to handle the themes here.
That HFN ending, the irredeemable, contemptible person now so loving and happily generous to one and all? I just felt Winters never sealed her plot development along with the character growth.
It’s interesting, has promise. But in the end just didn’t deliver.
If you’re a fan of this author, or love to read entire series, then you might want to check out this book. Otherwise, I’d recommend Winter’s’ Hitman series where I feel this type of character was given a far better treatment.
The Elite Multi-Author series (9 Books):
✓ Reckless Roulette by Alice Winters
◦ Leave No Trace by Michelle Frost
◦ Ace of Maids by K.L. Hiers
◦ Poison Hearts by Jennifer Cody
◦ Liar’s Gambit by Kelly Fox
◦ Dealer of Secrets by Davidson King
◦ Bullets & Butterflies by Maz Maddox
◦ Love for the Reaper by Charlie Cochet
◦ Chance Encounter by Luna David
Buy Link:
Reckless Roulette (The Elite Book 1)
Description:
Seven days until game over.
Len
Kade has seven days left to live… unless I do something about it. I am one of the best assassins around, after all. But… I’m not sure I exactly care what happens to Kade. He’s rude, only cares about himself and his casino, and did I mention he doesn’t know a single thing about video games?
Okay, okay. Maybe that’s not enough of a reason to watch him dash headlong into danger while I kick back and enjoy the show.
It’s kind of fun though.
Now I know what you’re thinking… doesn’t that make me the selfish one? See, I don’t mind helping people—it’s kind of my thing. But the ones I help aren’t anything like Kade.
They’re people who have nothing left who are willing to go to great lengths to save those they love, even at the cost of losing themselves. Still, maybe Kade can show me that beneath his icy exterior is a man worth saving. A man worth loving. And maybe even a man worth risking everything for.
Issue is… he only has seven days to do it.
Reckless Roulette is a part of the multi-author series The Elite. Each book can be read as a standalone and in any order. What links these books together is The Anonymous, a club beneath the gritty city where only the elite are welcome.
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 