Winner Take All

Margaret Watson, called Maggie, just wants to be left alone to tend bar in the Silver Spur Saloon, but she’s forced to fend off the attentions of the boss’ son. For some reason, Billy Madison thinks he has a claim on Maggie’s affections.

When Dylan Coulter rides into Sparkling Springs, Colorado, he doesn’t plan on coming to the rescue of a woman, or being involved at all. He wants to gamble, and that is all. But Billy’s continued harassment of Maggie is intolerable; Billy ambushes Dylan and a gunfight ensues. When Dylan turns up shot and hounded by a mob, Maggie has to help him, and as a result, she is viewed by her boss with suspicion. They are gambling with their very lives, as a bounty is leveled on Dylan’s head and they flee.

Denyse Bridger’s Winner Take All is an unvarnished look at the “live by the gun, die by the gun” mentality of the Old West. Maggie is content in her career as a bartender, but when Dylan needs her, she gives up everything to help him out. She’s my favorite kind of heroine - spirited, sassy, and independent. Dylan is a guy in simply the wrong place at the wrong time, but comes to realize that he wants Maggie for more than the short term. Find out if Maggie feels the same way about him when you read Winner Take All, a wonderful novella by Denyse Bridger.

Reviewed by: Michelle