An historical novel based on the true life of Simone Jules, a woman who lived in the 1850 and reinvented herself in the booming gold rush camps and towns in the west as a croupier of Black Jack. This is a fascinating first person narrative, well written and held my interest to the end. What makes it even more compelling is that, although much is imaginative, the basic outline is based on factual events. The characters are compelling and complex. I especially enjoyed this insight into what it was like to live in these gold rush communities. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed biographies, historical novels and women’s fiction, giving this 4.5 of 5 stars.

Far Fetched, with a strong woman protagonist
Good Story Line and Entertain-able.

Not Really My cup of tea, I wanted more believable story.

The story of Simone Jule, aka Eleanor Dumas has a lot of heart. A Betting Woman tells the story of a life full of loss and how to find yourself through that loss.

Simone had everything she needed in her life. She had many friends, a twin sister and parents who loved her, and a fiancé she loved. When tragedy strikes, Simone runs away, and though she tries not to look back, the ghosts follow her throughout her lifetime.

I mourned Simone’s losses, especially her twin and her forbidden love. I cheered Simone’s triumphs in being the woman who introduced the game of vengt et un, commonly known today as Blackjack, to the masses of the wild west.

Simone was a strong woman with high ideals and a great attitude. Though, I feel her life was lonely and full of more sadness than she ever let on. When Simone reinvented herself as Eleanor, my fingers bled with hers as she made her way through the world.

The novel's history fascinated me, as strong women of history do, but there were times when the book dragged a bit. I admire the author’s ability to locate as much information as she did about Simone, but I would have loved a little more story.

For that reason, I award A Betting Woman 4 out of 5 stars.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book as well as meeting the author. Looking forward to reading more from her.

The author of Becoming Bonnie has penned a tale of another infamous woman, Eleanor Dumont, known as Madame Moustache! Madame Moustache is known as the first female blackjack dealer. When Simone’s family dies in a fire, she flees to San Francisco. Harsh circumstances force Simone to play what is known as blackjack. Simone re-invents herself as Eleanor Dumont to open her own gambling parlor. Thus, Simone has to navigate herself through a male dominated game to become successful in the field of blackjack.

I had never heard of Madame Moustache previously, so this novel was really enlightening. I found it interesting that she got her nickname because she had a hairline on her upper lip. I found Simone Jules to be a survivor. She went through many tragedies but endured. She started out being very naive, but gradually became wiser. There were a few of her actions that I thought were a bit shady, and some of her decisions I did not agree with. Thus, Simone was a very complex character. She used her intelligence, ambition, and ruthlessness to become successful.

Overall, this novel is an in-depth psyche of a larger than life woman. Besides Simone, I thought the other characters were not developed enough. The story is told at an even pace. However, the novel became repetitive. The romance was not my favorite because it was not developed enough, and I found it to be unnecessary. Still, I like how the author showed us the gritty San Francisco underbelly during the Gold Rush. A Betting Woman does a fascinating job in portraying the struggles of a woman in a male dominated society. I recommend this for fans of Gold Digger: The Remarkable Life of Baby Doe Tabor, Crown of Dust, and Daughter of Joy!

Follow this woman's story,The Betting Woman, the story of a girl who wanted so much more for herself and did it the hard way.. Follow this true to life character as you read she becomes alive for you and the travels and other characters she mets along !! Eleanor Dumont, follow her true to life story as she becomes her own person in her own right but how much will she have to give up to get it??Opening a gambling house as a woman isn't that easy with the crude customers that sit at the tables to gamble but she knows how to use her beauty to get what she wants!! Fantastic story to read and she comes alive for you and by the time your done you will know this lady!! Received off of Net Gallery!

A story of reinvention. In very much a man's world, Simone Jules, reinvents herself as Eleanor Dumont and much to her horror Madame Moustashe. 

Family tragedy causes Simone to run away to San Francisco and ultimately who knows where, leaving behind a confused fiancee.  Luckily Simone does have a talent she can earn money with, harking back to her family card games. Simone brings her new future to life dealing vingt-et-un (literally 21) or our modern day blackjack. A topsy turvy world of working nights and sleeping days, with sparse female friendship and only the one true love Arthur.

The time is that of turmoil in USA, as black slaves are trying to become free and the North and South were taking sides. Eleanor travels alot..from mining town to mining town, packing up each time, when things go bust and reinventing her livelihood and even her name, in the next gold boom town. Here she builds her own emporium and attracts miners, dreamers and fortune seekers to sit at her table, as she deals and plays the role of Madame Dumont, furnishing her speech with french phrases and accent...reminiscent of her old home town New Orleans.

I found Simone bold, intriguing, entrepeneurial and most of all pioneering...being the first woman croupier. I seem to be drawn to books with a strong female protagonist and set in a histical setting, all the better. A true history lesson, of which Jenni has been a good student. Rich settings of pop up towns, serving the needs of gold lusty hunters in dusty saloons where the language was rough and testosterone heavy in the air.

A woman with panache and little fear, I was eager to read more about Eleanor. And had to laugh at the gentleman's (or not so gentlemany) nick name for her ......beauty products for erasing a woman's moustache of course didn't exist.....even hair dye sounded pretty precarious. A reminder for all of woman, that you are your values and resilience....not the stray hairs on your chin.

You can have many lives within your life.

Thanks to NetGalley, Wyatt-Mackenzie publishing and Jenni L Walsh for my copy.

The fact it is based on a true story makes this book even more incredible than one could think it is. Madame Dumon't story is set in the Wild West U.S, which can be really entertaining. And it was!

Simone Jules, who goes on to become Eleanor Dumont is at the heart of this novel. After her (upper class) family perishes in a fire, she leaves her old life behind, inheritance, fiance and all, and creates a new life for herself elsewhere, to make sure no one ever finds her. Penniless, she starts doing little jobs, until one day, she introduces a new card game to the local folks : vingt-et-un. Quickly, everyone loves the game, and this strong French-speaking woman who deals the cards.

From then on, the story is so rich! There is always action around Madame Dumont. From bar to bar, to travelling a lot, to owning her own establishement, her life certainly hasn't been dull. I thought it was a great way to write a bout how one can easily lose everything, and start over again, over and over again. It's a show of resilience, that you can always get back up. Honestly, that topic is still relevant today, and it resonated in me a lot! Many of us struggle with jobs, not really knowing what we want to do with our lives. But as long as you care about something, there will be a way to keep going. There's always something out there for everyone. Plus, once you've lost everything, you can only look forward instead of back.

Eleanor Dumont is truly a strong character in that way. She never gives up, even after losing everything and her loved ones, repeatedly. She didn't let men step on her when she started dealing cards, when she created a whole empire around her and her vingt-et-un game. She fought fate and the patriarcal system and racism when those weren't too much of a thing. There's no way not to like this character. This novel, and her story should definitely be more known, so I hope you will pick up this book one day!

The only thing that bugged me off about this book is the real Madame Dumont. After finishing the book, I did some research about her. As it turns out, all the bad stuff about her has been omitted in the book. She did some questionnable things in her life (I'll let you Google it, her story is cool to read though), and in the book, she is only portrayed as a good, resilient person. Maybe the novel could have had even more depth by showing the flaws of the character, and the shady things done by the real person.

It still is a very cool book to read, that will propel you in the Wild West era alongside a badass woman!

DNF at 31%

I have now tried to chew my way through this book several times, but I just can't do it. It doesn't capture my attention and I feel my mind wandering every time I pick it up. I cannot connect with the characters, least of all the MC, who seems very into herself, constantly describing herself as beautiful and exotic. It got old really fast. So I am calling it quits. Maybe it will appeal to others, just not to me.

This is a simple sort of historical fiction that provides an in-depth view of its subject's life. In this case, it is the story of the first woman who was America's first female professional croupier of modern-day blackjack.
It is the mid-1800s, and North America does not look as it does now. There are different borders, and the people inhabiting the wildlands of the west are varied and have many faces. Into their mix, a woman comes along who is running from a past and does not want to take the typical role a woman plays in the mining cities. She starts a trend that defines her. The author's note at the end provided an improved understanding of the rest of the text, as she talks of the information she found and which parts were fiction.
The narrative voice was interesting, as were some of the situations Simone found herself in. As I mentioned earlier, her travels are used to show the country of the time. I found the pacing a little uneven, enough to throw me off. Some things happened very quickly, and at other times we move through the years. This is just one minor issue I had with it. It is still a quick read, probably a couple of sittings, and I would recommend it to readers of this genre.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

Thank you to Net Galley and Wyatt-Mackenzie Publishing for giving me the chance to read and review this book. The opinions expressed are my own.
This was such an interesting book! I had never heard of Madame Mustache (Simone Jules, Eleanor Dumont), but I found her to be a very strong, motivated person. When her family dies in a fire, she heads to San Francisco to rebuild her life. She has to earn a living so she becomes the first professional croupier of modern day black jack. This is the story of her life, and all of the obstacles she faced as she competed in a man's world. This book was very well written with a lot of interesting facts about the Wild West. I really enjoyed this book, and I would recommend you read it if you like historical fiction.

This one was only OK for me. The historical aspect of the story was interesting, but beyond that couldn't really get into the book.

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

A Betting Woman: A Novel of Madame Moustache by Jenni L. Walsh is a historical adventure following the escapades of Simone Jules a.k.a. Madame Eleanor Dumont a.k.a. Madame Moustache, a female croupier who made a name for herself in the American West during the Gold Rush era of the mid-nineteenth century. A real-life historical figure, Madame Moustache pops up here and there in the historical record and is known for popularizing the card game “twenty-one” or “vingt-et-un.”

Following a great personal tragedy, the young Simone Jules made her way from New Orleans to San Francisco in order to start anew. She left behind her old life, including a fiancé. Arriving in California, Simone discovered there were few options available to single women, aside from the obvious. But she was not interested in pursuing any of those careers. Rather she wanted to earn her keep by gambling, playing the card game her mother had taught her. Vingt-et-un was unfamiliar to the men of the city, primarily gold miners, and she was able to tap into the riches they were pulling from the ground.

Gold mining was a boom and bust occupation. Therefore, so was gambling. Simone had to pick up and move many times to follow the money, living in circumstances ranging from the dubious comforts of a thriving boomtown to the primitive settings of miners’ camps. Along the way, she loves and loses, and struggles with wanted and unwanted (mostly unwanted) attention from men.

The novel does a lovely job of making the world come alive and fitting it into the historical context of the day. It’s interesting to see a woman make an unconventional life for herself. Nevertheless, I never really connected with the protagonist, even though I admired her pluck. Her emotions were convincingly described, but I wasn’t moved by them. Maybe it’s because her strongest love was always for her card game. Even so, I recommend this novel for its careful portrayal of a nineteenth-century woman who was determined to live in a man’s world on her own terms.

What a fantastic, wild ride of a story A BETTING WOMAN is! Madame Moustache, aka Eleanor Dumont, was the real-life woman who popularized one of my favorite gambling games, blackjack. Eleanor is fierce, independent, smart as a whip, and able to hold her own in a world not terribly known for its kindness to women. This is a WOW read that will keep you thinking about the world and the story long after you put the book down. Definitely snag this for the top of your TBR pile...you won't be disappointed!

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

In the style of Isabel Allende, Jenni Walsh tells the tale of an enigmatic and courageous woman and the settlement of the western United States during the Gold Rush. I found myself transfixed by the story of Madam Dumont and her entrepreneurial spirit. While following her story you explore and are part of the mad Gold Rush of the mid 19th century. Dumont's travels take her to all types of boom and bust towns along the west coast and into Canadian territory where she interacts with a cast of colorful characters. The writing is superb, I felt the dust in my mouth whenever Dumont got on her mule and took off on the next high adventure.

Jenni L. Walsh has upped her game with A Betting Woman (no pun intended). I've been a fan since reading her first book, Becoming Bonnie. Her astute historical research and her ability to bring characters to life on the page draw me into her books, but A Betting Woman exceeded my expectations. The time period details and the obstacles Simone/Eleanor shrewdly turns to her advantage kept my interest. I enjoyed learning about Madame Moustache and the Gold Rush while being entertained by a gifted storyteller.

Historical fiction at it's finest. I was drawn to the story about the woman who brought us blackjack (back then vingt-et-un). Born Simone Jules, reinvented as Eleanor Dumont and remembered as Madame Moustache. I was drawn in from the first page on this woman's adventurous journey and trransports you to the wild west days. The story was engrossing and entertaining following Simone/Eleanor and her wit, style, intelligence that got her notoriety for being the first professional woman dealer. I am a sucker for these stories about woman who go after their dreams and go against what society's expectations were of them. This would be enjoyed by fans of Kate Quinn, Paula Mclain and Marie Benedict.

"There it was, my sobriquet, for better or for worse, but forever, the mother of vingt et un and the West's first betting woman, should history decide to write me into her pages."

This historical fiction based on the life of the real Eleonor Dumont (the French-speaking, card dealing woman of today's blackjack who lived in the era of the California Gold rush) was engaging from the very beginning. A Betting Woman breaks her story into 3 parts under her 3 different names she went by over the course of her life. She overcame obstacles & created her own space in a world that was not really made for women. Plus there was a fun little smidge of romance & heartbreak the author weaved into this book.

I've read some great new historical fictions lately and I'd add this as one of my favorites. If you are looking for a historical fiction based on a real woman far ahead of her time look no further.

Although the previous book I read by Walsh was about a woman I knew something about (“Becoming Bonnie” which is about the female of the notorious crime due, Bonnie & Clyde), this novel is about a woman about whom I knew absolutely nothing; I didn’t even know she existed until I read about her in the blurb for this book. Well, you know me; I can’t resist a good biographical, historical, women’s fiction novel, especially when it’s about someone about whom the world knows little to nothing. How Walsh found this person is beyond me, but I can already tell you that I’m very happy that she did. What a fascinating woman; what a fascinating life! We won’t even mention how the gold rush era partially coincided with the Civil War, and how that impacted people as well. But Walsh doesn’t ignore that in this novel, either.

What impressed me the most about this book is how Walsh got inside the mind of this incredible woman, and focused on a very central and formative time in her life. Written in first person, Simone/Eleanor tells us all of the things she goes through, concentrating on the parts that shaped her life the most, and made her famous as the first professional croupier in the world! Now, the first-person voice is one that can be difficult to employ when writing about a real person who is long dead. There are always the “shades of a ghost” that usually bother me, but Walsh avoided this by taking us to only one specific point in her life, which was (by my math) about 10 years before she died. Therefore, I think Walsh was wise in using first-person here, which allowed us to witness this as a coming-of-age story. by that I mean we see her go from the young, happy-go-lucky, privileged, debutant Simone Jules, to the scratching but wily Eleanor Dumont, to the Madame Moustache.
From the author’s notes, I can see why this woman was such great fodder for Walsh and this book. In fact, having mostly skeletal information about Eleanor herself lends well to allowing an author to fatten up the person. Together with this, the period was filled with various, well-documented, and significant events that would obviously have had some kind of impact on Eleanor’s life and livelihood. Walsh’s talent shines through here by her artful and evocative weaving of the facts available and her own imagination. This feels like a real diary or personal journal, and I think that’s what Walsh was aiming to give us. In this she succeeded. Also, much like anyone who writes their own story, there are things that the person will leave out – details and minutia that are irrelevant. Walsh copies this when she has Eleanor recount how things went on in a certain way for weeks, months, or even years. This may bother some readers who aren’t comfortable with how Eleanor skips ahead, but that didn’t really bother me. Mind you, Walsh could easily have made this book into a trilogy of books, with each one focusing on the three phases of her protagonist’s life – as Simone, as Eleanor, and as Madame Moustache.

I do have to say, however, that there was one thing that bothered me, which was part of the reason why I feel I had to take half a star away from this novel. It is hard for me to talk about it because I’m afraid it would become a spoiler, but let’s just say that one aspect of Eleanor’s actions (or more correctly, her reactions to something that happened to her) didn’t fit with the woman that Walsh had built up. The other reason for the half star off is that as sympathetic as Walsh makes Eleanor to her readers, there’s also a slight distance there, which prevented me from getting totally emotionally involved with how the story ends (meaning: she didn’t make me cry). That doesn’t mean I can’t wholeheartedly recommend this truly lovely novel, and give it a very respectable four and a half stars out of five.