A Game of Chance

Rating:
Summary: Recommended
Review: For those of you who aren't familiar witn Linda Howard, know that A Game of Chance is part of a series. I was unaware of this when I purchased the book, and was having a hard time keeping up with everything because I hadn't known that there were books before this, and I hadn't known any of the characters.

Aside from that, A Game of Chance was a great book. I assume it would have been a lot better had I read the books following up to this, but nonetheless a great read.

In my honest opinion, I think that the book ended too quick. I think LH spent so much time with the rest of the story and then hurried to finish it up. Maybe it's because there's going to be a book following it, maybe not - either way, I wasn't ready for it to end. I felt like I needed more explanation from both Chance and Sunny.

Despite everything else, I really enjoyed this novel. Linda Howard is quickly becoming my favorite author, and I think it's safe to assume that she can't write a bad book. It always works out to her advantage in the end.

Rating:
Summary: A hero you love to hate!
Review: A Game of Chance is one of my favorite Howard books and is the last in her MacKenzie series. I have read them all and they are all great fun and all of the heroes are irresistible alpha males. They all tend to some orneriness and certainly believe the notion that love is not around the corner. Some of the MacKenzie men are bigger stinkers than others. I think we have the biggest stinker of them all with Chance MacKenzie from A Game of Chance.

Chance MacKenzie is some sort of super government agent, highly trained for underground missions. He relishes his job and prefers to act alone despite the level of danger. He is a typical Linda Howard hero - dominant big-time, handsome, smart, and has a big problem hidden from everyone. This shameful problem is key to his lack of desire for a committed love relationship. He doesn't seem to hold women in very high regard and has a ruthless personality. Basically, he doesn't treat women very well and laughs at the thought of being close to one.

Sunny Miller is the daughter of a terrorist Chance is working hard to bring down. He decides to use Sunny to bring her father out of hiding. He suspects that Sunny is working for her father and that causes him to see her in even a more negative light than most women. He manipulates Sunny's situation until she is in need of a private plane to reach her destination in time and Chance steps in to provide her with the plane and him, as the pilot.

Sunny is a kind, beautiful, and gracious heroine. She has a job as a delivery agent, flying all over the United States and the world delivering highly sensitive material. Sunny doesn't live anywhere really because she is always attempting to hide her whereabouts from her father. She greatly fears her father and has been hiding from him for years by constantly working her delivery service. She is never in one place for very long.

When transporting Sunny to her next location, Chance deliberately crashes their plane on a remote island and they must wait for someone to discover their crash site since all forms of communication were destroyed in the crash. Chance plans on getting to know Sunny very well during their wait and find out her father's location. He really pours on the charm and romances Sunny. He wants to make her love him, trust him and share her secrets with him. Now understand, Chance does all of this with no intentions whatsoever to love her in return or even see her beyond their island experience. He is so heartless in his further manipulation of Sunny. Never mind that she is almost mortally wounded in the plane crash. Disregard the fear and worry that encompassed her as she wondered if they would be rescued. Leave it to Chance that he would never disclose to her that he actually had a communication device and was constantly in touch with his contact on this operative. Chance even controlled their rescue. Once he had the information that he needed from Sunny, he would order their rescue.

As Chance uses Sunny as bait for her father he risks her life yet again. He quickly pushes a physical relationship between them and he takes her again and again. Of course, Sunny believes that this physical relationship with Chance is more than just physical. She is strongly drawn to him and, after all, he has told her that he loved her. All the while, we as readers know that Chance is only using her and we can't believe what a low life jerk he is. A lot of the pleasure in this books comes from the anticipation of Chance receiving his comeuppance. You can't wait for Sunny to strike back and give Chance some of his own medicine. Chance truly seems a cold-blooded male and does not stoop to being kind to Sunny. His mission is always utmost in his mind even when he begins to suspect that Sunny is not guilty of complicity with her father and discovers that she is running from him as well.

So - if I am so aggravated with Chance - why a five star rating? It is because of Sunny. She interacts so well with Chance and we discover that she is no weak character. The dialogue between the leads is great and had me laughing many times. Sunny showed up Chance in more ways than one. She is a survivalist and Chance finds himself impressed with these skills. After all, she has a lot of experience with living on the run. But somehow, Chance's heartlessness, accompanied with Sunny's great heart, made this book a very good and engrossing read. Once again, we are so eager to see Chance brought down.

The sensual scenes are frequent and rate a 4.0 out of 5.0 (see More About Me for rating guidelines). This is one of Howard's best writing of such scenes. I don't relish sensual scenes in which there is no commitment but these were much different. Sunny is committed to Chance and she believes he loves her. And although Chance knows he is just pretending to love Sunny, we as the readers see him gradually, little by little, falling for her (hee! hee!) and know he will not be able to resist her in the end.

The order of the MacKenzie series is as follows: MacKenzie's Mountain, MacKenzie's Mission, MacKenzie's Pleasure, MacKenzie's Magic, and A Game of Chance. I did not read these in series order and still enjoyed them immensely. It would benefit you to know some of the characters in other books as you read each one, but it is not necessary. These stories are scrumptious - no matter what.

I highly recommend A Game of Chance. I really loved this book. It is just down right fun!

Rating:
Summary: This is the reason I read....
Review: I have to say that this book was simply great- it's the reason I read romance with action & adventure in them. It moved non-stop from beginning to end & had a great romance also! Although Chance & Sunny did fall in love a little fast, LH did give them both personalities that deserved it..... I had no problem understanding why they would fall in love with each other. Sunny was very spirited, brave & determined - she also showed intelligence (not the nitwit characteristics that too many authors use for lead female characters).... & she was great fun (which was amazing due to the life she had led). Chance was definitely your hardcore type hero, but also sexy as they come & had a great sense of humor (which is not common enough in lead male characters). Now personally, I wouldn't have minded Sunny making him sweat a little more after she found out his secret.... but, oh well, he's worth it! lol The witty dialogue & the teasing by both Sunny & Chance kept me totally amused & the sexual tension was intense without taking up too much of the story. There was a lot more to the story than just that.
I think that maybe the ending was just a tad rushed, but not enough to ruin the book for me. I can't believe that there's a whole series of McKenzie books that I've been missing! Now I can't wait to get to the book store!