A Slot Machine Ate My Midlife Crisis by Irene Woodbury

A Slot Machine Ate My Midlife Crisis by Irene Woodbury

Published by SynergEbooks

eBook Release Date: August 16, 2011

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services

ASIN: B005HZK4VS

Genre: Chick Lit / Contemporary Women's Fiction

About The Author:

A Slot Machine Ate My Midlife Crisis, Irene Woodbury's first novel, was inspired by her love of travel writing. Between 2000 and 2006, her stories appeared in many newspapers, including the Washington Post, London Daily Telegraph, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Toronto Star, and Nevada and The Affluent Traveler magazines.

One of the author's favorite destinations was Las Vegas; she always believed Sin City would be the perfect setting for a novel. In 2006, she came up with the idea for Slot, and, four-and-a-half years, and many visits later, it was finished.

Irene is convinced her book wouldn't work nearly as well in any other city. "Las Vegas has a frenetic energy to it," she says, "and there's plenty of chaos and confusion to go around. Is there a better place for a midlife crisis? I don't think so."

The author has lived in two of the locations featured in her novel: Los Angeles, where she worked at the Los Angeles Times, IBM, and Time Magazine, and Houston, where she graduated from the University of Houston in 1993. She also got married in Houston. (Yes, like Wendy, her lead character, but Irene insists the similarities end there!) Her husband, Richard, a retired Time Magazine correspondent, edited her novel.

Since 1994, the couple have called Denver home. As for midlife crises - his, hers, yours, mine - Irene believes it's a time for asking questions. "Where am I? Where have I been? Where am I going? That's it in a nutshell," she says. "Writing this novel has been my midlife crisis. And it's not over yet!"

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Disclaimer: At the request of the author, a Kindle eBook edition of this book was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest review.


Virtual Book Tour Event: On Saturday, November 26, 2011, in association with Chick Lit Plus (CLP), Irene Woodbury participated in a virtual book tour event with an Author Guest Post on Jersey Girl Book Reviews. http://jerseygirlbookreviews.blogspot.com/2011/11/author-guest-post-irene-woodbury-author.html


Win a $10 Amazon.com Gift Card: Virtual Book Tour Giveaway: November 14 - December 4, 2011


Amazon.com Book Description:


This darkly funny novel describes Wendy Sinclair's spin-crazy life in Las Vegas after she impulsively decides to not return to Houston following a bizarre girl's weekend in 2005.

The confused, unhappy 45-year-old newlywed soon rents a ramshackle apartment in a building filled with misfits; wallows in a blur of spas, malls and buffets, and, ultimately, becomes a designer of cocktail waitress uniforms and an Ann-Margaret impersonator in a casino show with Elvis.

She also hangs with some pretty colorful characters. Paula's her bold, brassy glamazon BFF who's looser than a Casino Royale slot. Maxine's her saucy former-Tropicana-showgirl boss. Paige and Serena are two twenty-something blackjack dealers she shops, gambles, and clubs up a storm with. Major crushes on a hunky pilot and sexy former rock star are also part of the mix.

And then there are the phone fights with Roger, Wendy's workaholic husband waiting impatiently in Houston. Their clashes are louder and more raucous than a hot craps table at Caesar's! Does she go back to him, or does her midlife crisis become a midlife makeover?


My Book Review:


45 year old Wendy Sinclair has been on a  roller coaster ride for three and half months ... moving from LA to Houston; an impulsive wedding to Roger, her boyfriend of 7 years; the loss of her job; new homeowner issues and the attitudes from her new hubby's bosses' society snob wives ... has her looking for an escape route. That escape route comes in the form of an invitation from her BFF, Paula, to meet her in Las Vegas for a girls' weekend ... this is one invitation that Wendy isn't going to turn down! The girls' weekend in Sin City turns into an open ended extended stay for Wendy. As she gets ready to board the plane back to Houston, she realizes that she just can't go home ... well not right now ... and so begins Wendy's 2-year odyssey to discover who she is and what she wants to do with her life. Is this a midlife crisis or a journey of self-discovery? Read Wendy's story in A Slot Machine Ate My Midlife Crisis ... and find out what she discovers about herself!

A Slot Machine Ate My Midlife Crisis is a fun read that will have you laughing all the way through the book. Wendy and a cast of crazy characters take on Sin City like gang busters ... ssshhh .... you know the famous saying ... "What Happens In Vegas, Stays In Vegas!"

While I loved the book's description of the storyline, I thought that the story got lost in the overwhelming, yet incredible history and travel guide description of everything Las Vegas. I sometimes wondered to myself, is there really a story in this book, or am I being sold on a trip to Las Vegas? In a lot of ways, the description of everything Las Vegas became repetitious, and I found myself glossing over it while trying to find where the story picked up. Nonetheless, I did enjoy reading about Wendy's midlife crisis or journey of self-discovery, even though it was a bit stretched out over 2 years. The various characters that are in this book are funny and realistic, their own crazy lives add that much more humor to the story. For any woman that finds herself in her mid-forties, this book is a must read ... face it ... we may all have a bit of a midlife crisis in our lives at that age too!


RATING: 3 STARS ***   (Jersey Girl Book Reviews, Goodreads & Shelfari Rating)
                4 STARS **** (Amazon Rating)