Author: Carolyn Brown
Publisher: Montlake
Genre: Romance; Women’s Fiction
Date of Publication: December 9, 2025
My Rating: 4 Stars
DESCRIPTION:
When Lady Luck deals her a roadside diner in small-town Texas, a professional poker player discovers home may be the best win of all in this heartfelt romance by New York Times bestselling author Carolyn Brown.
Professional poker player Carla Wilson’s luck runs dry in Tucson, leaving her with nothing but an SUV running on fumes and a deed to the Tumbleweed Bus Stop and Diner in small-town Texas. Her plan to sell the café and move on seems simple enough—until she meets the motherly cook who rules the kitchen with an iron skillet and the sunny waitress who treats her like a sister.
Then there’s Jackson Armstrong. The ex-military heir of a wealthy oil family has green eyes that make Carla forget her cards and a smile that suggests he’s playing for keeps. With a pair of matchmaking senior citizens and the café’s morning regulars cheering from the sidelines, Carla’s wandering soul begins to feel at home.
Now she’s discovering everything she never knew she needed—true friendship, a place to belong, and a love worth going all in for. Maybe Lady Luck knew exactly what she was doing from the start.
MY THOUGHTS:
Carla Wilson is now the owner of a diner right in the middle of a nowhere town in Texas. Her SUV is on its last legs, and she barely makes it to the diner. Has Lady Luck shone of the professional poker player, or has she been really dealt a bad hand? Well, winning the on in a poker game holds the answer to that question. She has barely made it from Arizona to Texas, and driving through a town full of tumbleweeds definitely gives her pause. The only thing that Carla is sure of at this point is the name of the diner, The Tumbleweed Bus Stop.
There are only two employees at the diner, a strong-willed cook and a very pleasant waitress. The diner has its busy hours, and that is when tour buses stop as they are driving through town. So, Carla is not just the new owner, but she is learning several new aspects of the restaurant business. An instant trial by fire.
Staying in one place hasn’t been Carla‘s go to, but things certainly might change now. Not only is the diner a much warmer place since she could have imagined, her relationship with both Rosalie and Scarlett at the diner really surprises her. Carla grew up in a very untraditional life. Her father was a gambler and gambling is all she knows. In fact, it had been a place of great pain for her at certain times in her life. Another thing that affects Carla is that romantic relationships were ones that she couldn’t have in her life because she was always on the move. Perhaps that just might change as well now that has met Jackson.
I really enjoyed The Wild Card because our gambler is a woman. I wasn’t expecting that when I saw the cover. Also, found family and faith make up a lot of this story. Then there were some emotional tugs when it came to Carla’s past. Overall a very good read.
Many thanks to Montlake and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
A plaque hangs on her office wall that says I know the voices are not real but they have such great ideas. That is her motto and muse as she goes through the days with quirky characters in her head, telling their stories, one by one, and loving her job.
She has been married almost half a century to a retired English teacher that she calls Mr. B and he does not read her books before they are published because she cannot afford a divorce. They have three grown children.—and enough grandchildren to keep them busy and young.
When Carolyn is not writing she likes to sit in the back yard and watch the two tom cats protect the yard from all kinds of wicked varmints like crickets, other cats, spiders and blue jays.
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