Susan DiPlacido Reviews

Added March 30, 2006

24/7

Author: Susan DiPlacido
Publisher: Zumaya Publications
Available At: www.zumayapublications.com
Publishing Date: February 2005
Genre: Fiction: Women's/Romance
Format: Trade Paperback, Ebook download in PDF/HTML/LIT
Price: $17.99, $7.99
ISBN: 1-55410-217-0 paperback, 1-55410-218-9 ebook
Author Email/Website: http://www.susandiplacido.com/
Reviewer: Summer Lasaire
Rating: 8 Gargoyles

The money is the magic lure she offers in return for our attention. But she's greedy about everything. She won't just hand it out. Instead, she has an ironic sense of humor, crisply dark and shaded. The money is a lure, but she reaps that too. And she bases it all on the same thing she operates on. Greed. Greed governed by numbers. But just like the American Dream, she's not stealing from us. Vegas isn't taking and sucking endlessly, pulling everything without giving in return. She gives us the cheap tricks and illusions, the entertainment and the vices.

Marina Martino works in an office in New Jersey, taking a smaller wage than she should because of a deal she made with her manager. All the time off she wants, unpaid of course, for working for much less than her time is worth. Single at thirty, Marina is a nice girl that everyone counts on for help and she never lets them down. She loves to gamble and flies into Las Vegas every couple of weeks or months depending on when she gets the itch to go. Martino hasn't been with a man in a while, three years and counting. Never having had a boyfriend, she believes that she hasn't got what it takes to get one.

Miguel Rodriguez left Jersey for something different. Heavy into drugs and dealing, Miguel decided a move to someplace better. After going to Vegas for a vacation, he decides he likes it there and moves, digging himself deep into the world of drugs. After ending up in a few unforeseen...situations, getting out of trafficking seemed a good way to stay alive. Taking up boxing he met Marion, a Vegas cop. Getting out was a bit easier now with Marion's help, but after dumping a kilo of drugs into a fountain to avoid getting nailed with it on him, he now owes Blue Lou sixty thousand dollars.

Staying at Cesar's Palace as usual, Marina cruises the strip and ends up at the Bellagio. A gorgeous dealer catches her eye and she's pretty much hooked when he lets her know he wants her. Miguel sees the cute tattooed brunette at the bar and watches her cross to his table. Slowly he gains her attention and lets her know he's interested.

Marina is scared to death when Miguel starts to matter to her. She doesn't know how to handle emotional attachment, as she's never experienced it before. Miguel is in debt for over a hundred thousand dollars to Blue Lou and doesn't want Marina to find out. This is taken out of his hands when a few of Lou's boys try to rough him up with Marina there. There's no way she'll be able to handle this he thinks. He figures she'll leave him like everyone else.

24/7 is an incredible ride from first page to last. Las Vegas is another world and Susan DiPlacido brings it to full and blazing life. The relationship between Marina and Miguel is so real that you experience every one of their trials and tribulations. 24/7 is by no means a quick read at 441 pages, but it pulls you in so completely that you don't even notice time going by. This story has it all, excitement, romance, hot sex and characters so real, that by the end of the book you know them almost better than you do yourself. I totally enjoyed this book.

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