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| RAY AND I ENJOYING A DAY OFF IN THE CARIBBEAN |
I love reality
shows like 90 Day Fiancé, Love Is Blind and my all-time favorite, Married
at First Sight. I will watch anything if the goal of the show is a good
relationship, love or marriage. I call myself The Hopeful Romantic, because I met Ray and married him four months later. We could have qualified for
90 Day Fiancé because he was from Scotland. So, I hold these shows close to
my heart.
On Married at Frist Sight couples meet at the altar. They have never seen their person before and don’t know anything about them except for the fact that they have been matched by experts. If one of the partners doesn’t like the looks of the other one there is almost no chance that the marriage will survive. Chemistry can make or break the relationship. In Nashville when Gina told Clint that she didn’t like gingers my heart broke for him. I thought he was really cute. Then the next day he said she wasn't as slender as the girls he usually dated. I see divorce in their future. The dynamics of how couples do or don’t make things work fascinates me. Especially if I can watch their stories safely from the comfort of my living room.
The show brings back that terrifying time after college when life was full of possibilities and fraught with loose connections. I dated guys when I didn't know if they were my boyfriend or not, but I was too afraid to ask. I also dated guys who I promptly dumped because they were too nice. Sometimes a bad haircut was all it would take and once a guy got dumped for bringing me a single rose, a very nice gesture. I would have happily signed up for the show because my picker was definitely broken. The experts had to do a better job than me.
In my twenties I was teaching high school and though I loved my students, why wouldn't I, we were about the same age! But the thought of staying in my hometown and teaching for the next forty years filled me with torschlusskpanik, the German word for the fear of missing the boat. I left for California, got a job dealing in a casino and never looked back. My job was sorted out but I still kept dating the bad boy, the elusive, uncommitted one I was going to make fall in love with me.
It took me a long time to sort myself out get married and live happily ever after, but I finally met my Mr. Right, while working on a cruise ship. We decided to tell our story in Cruise Quarters - A Novel About Casinos and Cruise Ships. Stand behind a blackjack table for years, deal to thousands of couples and you learn a thing or two about people. Gamblers know that to win at blackjack you have to play basic strategy. In our novel Sarah (my alter-ego) learns from her past mistakes to write her own basic strategy of love. Maybe hers can help you take some shortcuts, but probably not, we all have to suffer our own heart breaks. Everyone needs to throw away the self-help book they are reading and write their own.
Below is Sarah's, if you come up with a new strategy leave a comment here or e-mail me at carabertoia@yahoo.com. I have put Cruise Quarters on sale for $.99 this week (Feb 10 to 17) to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
9. In love as in cards, it's hard to walk away from a winning streak, even harder to leave the table when you're on a losing one. Always know when to give up the dream and walk away.
Cara Bertoia is the author of Cruise Quarters - A Novel About Casinos and Cruise Ships. Her novel is really a travelogue, a narrative, a romance, a self-help manual for gambling and cruising, and a real-life story all rolled into one funny, obsessive, and entertaining story of two people whose separate life journeys meet at a crossroads. Kindle Fire Dept. says, "This novel is a gem that is nothing short of a vacation in a book!" She would be happy to do an online chat with any book club reading her novels. Contact her at carabertoia@yahoo.com
Below is the links to Cruise Quarters - A Novel About Casinos and Cruise Ships
Her second novel, Casino Queen is based on the many true stories she lived through in her many years in the casino industry, although the names have been changed to protect the guilty.
Caroline Popov, alone, heartbroken, and deeply in debt ends up in glamorous Palm Springs, California where Native casinos have just opened, offering employment to thousands. She lands a job at the Palm Oasis Casino and is mentored by the charismatic tribal chairman, John Tovar.
Embraced by casino culture, Caroline works her way up to casino manager of the Night Hawk, in the High Desert town of Joshua Tree. There, she is responsible for managing multicultural team members, satisfying the demands of challenging guests, growing revenue while rooting out corruption.
In the process of rediscovering her inner strength. With her life on the line can she pull out a win?
Click the link below to order at Amazon
Casino Queen by Cara Bertoia | NOOK Book (eBook) | Barnes & Noble®
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