REVIEW: Winner Takes All by Emily Martin
When two rival music executives wake up married in Las Vegas with no memory of tying the knot, they have to recreate their night together while competing to sign the band of their dreams in this smart and sexy rom-com that combines Book Lovers withThe Hangover.
Talent scout Eleanor Thompson arrives in Las Vegas with one goal: sign the popular alt-rock group Dempsey to her record label and subsequently save her job. Unfortunately for her, Adam Shaw—former colleague and the man who recently poached the top performing artist from Eleanor’s roster—has the same idea. When Adam crashes Eleanor’s dinner meeting with the band, it sets them off on a night of shot-fueled one-upmanship that ends with matching wedding rings. Some people might be able to laugh off a drunken Vegas marriage, but Eleanor and Adam are not some people.
They soon realize annulments are a lot easier to get on TV, especially when you factor in a missing ID, a run-in with casino security, and a band still expecting to be wooed before hitting the stage for the final show of their national tour.
With only a few hours until the party where Dempsey plans to announce their new record label, Eleanor and Adam embark on a wild dash around Vegas to fix the previous night’s mistakes. Between meeting an attorney in the back of a strip club, getting blackmailed into playing the newlywed game, and a surprisingly deep moment outside a karaoke bar, Eleanor and Adam begin to fall for one another. Do they dare place a bet on love? Or will they keep their cards close?
Dear Ms. Martin,
This looked like fun and since I love The Hangover, I was all in to request it. What starts as a “wake up married in Vegas” story morphs into something more, something a bit deeper than I was expecting.
Eleanor and Adam started at the same business in their industry but Things happened and Eleanor left to make her own way. But she’s got a reputation to live down now because of course the woman is the one who gets tarred. Adam’s father’s massive music success has people envious of Adam’s higher rung on the work ladder but few people know how little the old man was in Adam’s life or that Adam would rather not mention his father at all. Adam’s friendship with his father’s manager is problematic as well since Billy is rudely outspoken at times. Now after the same band and waking up after who knows what last night, can Eleanor and Adam get everything sorted and go their separate ways?
This is a fast read. Dare I say fast beach read? Yes, I dare. Most of it takes place over twenty four hours and it is a sprint around Vegas to not only find out what they did but to scrounge up enough money to fix some of it.
At first I wasn’t too sure how things were playing out. There’s humor in that Eleanor knows a college classmate now turned lawyer who works out of a strip club – but he’s sex positive and defends the working girls. But suddenly Eleanor and Adam are spilling deep secrets about themselves. It’s not that I’m not happy that they do talk, it just seemed way too early in their ‘getting to know each other’ time to be opening up about all this stuff.
These two cut a swathe across Vegas and following where Adam left his ID – and how much they owe at that bar before it will be handed over – and then trying to get a hotel events manager to take down the pic of them crashing someone else’s wedding as well as having a chance for Adam to buy some new shoes after wearing hotel slippers all day is funny but also allows these two to see each other better and debate what they think of the other. Why did she date such an asshole and why does he stay friends with someone with such a terrible reputation in the industry?
By the end though, I could understand why Eleanor is so willing to be gung-ho in going after acts – it’s how she was taught by Someone. Adam has thought that he’d separated his friendship with Billy from his professional life but perhaps he needs to rethink that and make new business friends. There are reasonable reasons why they’ve settled into their work modes but they’re also willing to listen about changing these and changing themselves. Yay, that the epilogue has them waiting some time before revisiting the wedding chapel (though it doesn’t have an Elvis). Wait for the Golden Girls Eleanor talks to who are fantastic. B
~Jayne
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Thanks for the review. I don’t think I would have noticed it otherwise, and I look forward to reading it.
@LML: I’ve never read anything by Emily Martin but this looked cute and I couldn’t resist the set-up.