A Winning Betrayal by Louise Guy

SYNOPSIS

When an unexpected windfall brings together strangers Shauna and Frankie, one woman is popping champagne corks - but the other just wants to cry.

For her part, Shauna is pouring celebratory drinks. Since her heart was broken and her dreams shattered, she's been ready for a fresh start. Surely she deserves some good luck at last?

But Frankie knows what can happen to families when money moves in and is allowed to take over. Fearing she'll lose the contented - if cash-strapped- life she has built with her husband and their two daughters, she wants to be in control this time.

But as money rewrites their life stories and truths emerge among the treasure, both are forced to wonder if their good fortunes is just bad luck in disguise...

REVIEW

The Lottery is a fantastic idea for so many, and there are so many out there who have daydreams about winning it and what they would spend it on. But what is the reality behind all of it? Is it really a blessing or a curse? For both characters, Shauna and Frankie their big wins are life-changing, but this doesn't negate the fact that some things don't always appear as it seems. Even though they no longer have the stress of worrying about day-to-day expenses, not everything is stress-free. Rather, it has added more stresses of various quantities to the pot.

Compared to other books that I have read in the past, this is simply one which is able to delve a little bit into a fantasy that most of us would never get, in the most easy and light-weighted writing possible. However, I have found that in some ways, this comes at a price. From the beginning of the story, the foreshadowing was very strong, too strong. In fact, if I was able to pinpoint what might happen before I read it, I think that it would have been eerily similar to what actually did happen. But in my opinion, it seems like nothing can really trump the ending. How quickly it seemed on a timescale from going from point A to point B. Plus, why choose an ending like that? I don't know, it kind of felt a little forced and maybe overdone.

However, this does not mean that everything was completely alike to what I thought would happen. There was one particular twist that I did not see coming at all and I was very glad of it, because I do believe that it gave one of the characters a lot more heart. It was nice to see an expansion of what good winning money could do to your overall happiness, rather than just the security of not worrying about bills anymore.

Even though I thought that there were some disadvantages to this book, or certain topics that I feel were glossed over, which should have been more of a conversation, I did enjoy it. I actually put all my other TBR reads to the side just to finish it. If that is not a testament to Guy's writing, then I don't know what is.

RATING: ***1/2 (THREE AND A HALF STARS)

BUY LINKS

Amazon: A Winning Betrayal eBook: Guy, Louise: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Bookshop.org: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/3917/9781542016018

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