‘Poker Diaries’ a red hot read

By Sadi Phillips
Hurricane High School

“The Poker Diaries” by Liza Conrad cannot be judged by its cover no matter how cliché that sounds. At first glance, one might think the book is just another average teen book, and while “The Poker Diaries” does have the factors that make it that, it also has an edge and flare that make it memorable.

Sixteen-year-old Lulu King is not only fighting the fight of divorced parents, which many teens can relate to, but also the fight of polar opposite lives. Her mother lives in a world where Botox is a daily occurrence and the richer you are the better. In fact, her mom is even dating the mayor of New York. Her dad, on the other hand, has a criminal record and participates in illegal poker games at her grandfather’s bar.

Lulu is made to attend a private school with the rest of New York’s richest sons and daughters, all of whom are stuck-up seconds and thirds with three sophisticated middle names. Her savior from insanity is dealing out cards every other weekend with her dad — who probably trained her to play cards before he potty trained her.

Lulu plays well, particularly because her opponents don’t see her as a threat. To them, she’s just a girl. But even if her young face doesn’t fool them, her poker face surely will.

But even with all of this chaos that Lulu must deal with, “The Poker Diaries” wouldn’t be a true teen book without at least one sexy heartthrob in the story. To make it even more interesting, this arm candy is a bad boy that Lulu can’t take home to Mom - or in this case, Dad. Her Mark is fully loaded with a tattoo, silver earring, bad grades and an eye for poker (not to mention Lulu).

Being torn between two worlds, two parents, a bad boy boyfriend and a possible new stepfather would seem like a lot of trouble, but nothing compares to what Lulu gets herself into in the book’s juicy ending. All bets are off when Lulu gets caught up in scandals with high stakes, blackmail and so much more.

Liza Conrad has upped the ante for chick lit with “The Poker Diaries,” and the only way to find out what scrumptious things happen is to check out the book yourself. I say glue it to your hand, though, because you won’t want to put this book down!