Chick lit. Don't bother with another of her books.

I got this after enjoying What a Girl Wants and Adventures of an Ice Princess.

Best friends Marianne and Bijoux are looking for something more. Ex-heiress Bijoux wants a man who'll keep her in the style to which she used to be accustomed, and Marianne wants to find someone permanent and to quit falling back on longtime friend and sometime lover Donny.

When they ask where all the men are, it comes to them: they're playing poker. So Marianne and Bijoux decide to learn to play poker to meet men. Only it turns out that Marianne is very, very good at it. So good, that she ends up in Vegas at the World Series of Poker, accompanied by Bijoux, Danny, and Bijoux's reporter friend Peter.

The romance in this story (no, I'm not going to tell you who ends up together) was sweet, if tepid. The poker started out mildly interesting, but got boring in a hurry. I think I'd have liked this story more if I cared at all about poker. The tournament itself was a little fun, but I kept thinking of the tournament in Maverick, and this one was just not quite as exciting. (not fair, I know--Marianne can't compete with the sparks flying between Mel Gibson & Jodie Foster)

Mostly, I think it's just that other than a slight detour on the road to love, there wasn't any big change in Marianne. Sure, she learns she's good at poker, but that's not the only thing she's ever been good at--it's not like discovering a talent gave her faith in herself that she'd been lacking before. And that character growth is what I tend to look for in chick lit. The friends started out the book bored, and unfortunately, it proved to be contagious.
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