Review: Shoot the Moon by Kate Watson

Hi Munchworms!

A while back I reviewed Seeking Mansfield by Kate Watson, a novel that’s pretty much a retelling of Mansfield Park by Jane Austen with some Cinderella-elements added to it.
You might recall that I absolutely loved, adored and worshiped this book! If not, read my review here!

That I got to read an eARC of the sequel? Even better!! Although Shoot the Moon is a bit different than Seeking Mansfield, I still enjoyed it.

Despite what his brother–and sponsor–thinks, Tate isn’t an addict. He has the 30-day chip to prove it. But when his father learns Tate’s been running an illegal card room out of a friend’s dorm to pay off old gambling debts, Tate is cut off. With his family no longer talking to him, his aunt Nora offers him a chance to intern for her political campaign. Juggling school with the intense internship, Tate finds himself buying scratch-off lottery tickets to take the edge off. Tate is surprised to find the beautiful and calculating Etta Wolf–his first crush and the girl who taught him how to gamble–volunteering with Nora’s campaign, too. Soon, Tate is more drawn to Etta than ever. Her mind games stick in his head, but her vulnerable, softer side gets into his heart.But as tensions rise along the campaign trail, Tate is forced to question whether he’s really addiction-free, after all.

Again, Kate Watson’s writing showed to be very fluent. If there’s one thing that immediately pops up when I see her name somewhere it’s “Darn, her books read fast!” without a doubt. It didn’t take me long at all to finish Shoot the Moon and I honestly love it when I can read a book at such a fast pace.

I’ve said it already but it has to be stressed that this book isn’t like Seeking Mansfield. While that was a book that made you fall in love with the MC, this novel is completely different. I’ve never been so frustrated with a main character in my life!
Tate is an addict, a gambling addict to be precise. The only problem? He doesn’t realize it, won’t admit it and keeps messing everything up. Not only for himself, but for everyone around him as well. If there’s one word to describe him, self-destructive would be the perfect match. That being said, you might imagine that I sometimes had the urge to pull my hair when he caused trouble for himself and others again.
Although this might cause others do stop reading, do dislike the whole novel, I didn’t have the same reaction. On the contrary. It pulled me in even more. I got intrigued to find out how everything would turn out. Would Tate realize his problem? Admit to it? Or would he be stuck in his bubble forever and, with that, throw his life away?

Apart from Tate, we have Alex, the niece of his aunt who introduced Tate to card games when they were thirteen. It was clear that she had her problems as well since she had a hard time showing her true feelings and kept playing with everything and everyone around her. 
Both being part of their aunt’s political campaign, they have to find a way to cope with each other and their problems. But there’s more going on. Aunt Nora’s opponent – Alex’ father – isn’t the good family man he appears to be and Tate is on a mission to find out what he’s hiding. Doing his research, trying to nurse his gambling addiction and juggling school it’s only a matter of time before everything starts falling apart around him.

Tate’s gambling addiction, specifically poker, pops up quite a bit. There are more than just a few games being played throughout this novel and it went way above my head at times. I don’t know all the poker terms, the rules and the what’s what of poker. Unfortunately that made me skim some of the novel, simply because I didn’t feel like trying to understand what was going on when Tate was playing poker..

It honestly did make me enjoy the novel a bit less, but I still enjoyed it. I loved Seeking Mansfield, I quite liked Shoot the Moon. Now that I had both Oliver’s and Tate’s story, I’m definitely curious to see what Kate Watson will bring us next!

Four cupcakes for Shoot the Moon!

As for the munches, let’s go with a huge slice of pizza. Just be careful that the toppings don’t slide off when you try to eat it!
This is pretty much my favorite Pizza Hut-pizza. Sweet chicken curry!

 

 

 

I received an eARC of this novel through NetGalley. All opinions are entirely my own. I’m not being compensated in any way.

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