Diane Amos Winner Takes All

Winner Takes All

Diane Amos

Five Star, Jul 2005, $26.95, 263 pp.

ISBN: 1594143668

In New England, Floyd's RV holds a raffle with the winner receiving a brand new Winnebago. However, due to a computer virus causing a glitch, tickets with the same number were sold. Thus, when Floyd called out 12, 7, 6, 8, 4, & 15, O'Leary Construction Company owner Thomas O'Leary and People's Bank official Karen Ann Brown claimed the prize.

Floyd offers a contest between the two stubborn rivals. They will share the Winnebago for one month on a tour of Maine with the one who brings in the most publicity to his financially troubled dealership winning the vehicle. Thomas brings along his Labrador Bear while Karen Ann brings her cat Luce and the seven year old and his two younger brothers of her hospitalized friend, a single mom. With Peter, Charles and infant Byron as chaperones and Floyd pulling stunts so both will lose, Karen Ann and Thomas fall in love, but both fears what will happen after the chaotic contest ceases.

Readers will win with this amusing romantic road show as Diane Amos shows her talent by providing a fine love story with children, pets and unscrupulous Floyd dampening the heat between the lead couple. Karen Ann is a solid lead protagonist needing to be loved as her parents are aloof towards her; Thomas, showered with sibling love, needs space after raising his brothers and sisters following the deaths of their parents in a car accident. The kids, dog, and cat provide comic chaos while Floyd is someone readers will not want to buy a used car from. WINNER TAKE ALL is a fun contemporary.

Harriet Klausner