Customer Reviews

Double Wager (Signet Regency Romance)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had the opportunity recently to read two of Mary Balogh's earliest books - A MASKED DECEPTION and THE DOUBLE WAGER. Compared to her later books, I have to say that both were kind-of disappointing. The books were not badly written, the characters were more or less rounded (but not completely fleshed out in the characteristic Balogh style that develops later), and the plots were slightly unusual. However, THE DOUBLE WAGER in particular troubled me, perhaps because of the similarity it bears to a much better book (in my opinion) Heyer's THE CONVENIENT MARRIAGE, where the hero, heroine and villain(s) are all more interesting.

Balogh does not completely rip off Heyer, in the style of some particularly shameless writers. She introduces some twists to the story - firstly the notion of a double wager, one made in London by the hero the Duke of Eversleigh, and the other made in the country by the heroine Henrietta Tallant, who prefers to be known as Henry. The Duke, a member of a group of friends who are trying to avoid matrimony, is nevertheless persuaded to wager on the point, when he determines to marry - simply to cut out his unsatisfactory cousin and heir presumptive. [Actually there is a story behind the Duke's dislike of his cousin, of course].

In the country, young Henry Tallant wagers with a group of friends that she, who hates being a girl and despises the idea of a London Season, can nevertheless catch the most elusive man, the Duke of Eversleigh. Her friends think that her loss is a foregone conclusion, given that Henry is so hoydenish and the Duke is notoriously determined to remain a bachelor (besides being rather elegant).

Henry is one of a rather large family - her eldest brother Sir Peter Tallant lives in London with his eminently proper wife Marion; the young Henry lives in the country with her brother Giles, two younger siblings, the twins Philip and Pen (Penelope?), a flustered governess who is unable to control the children, and a couple of unusual pets. This entire menagerie travels up to London, for no particular reason, upsetting the Tallant household. It does serve a useful plot device - in that the dismissal of the governess and the threat to send the youngest children to school acts as a powerful stimulus for Henry to accept the Duke's offer. And of course, the Duke does offer, ostensibly because Henry amused him at her ball.

In the background, the discarded mistress of the Duke forms an alliance with his cousin. They hope that the Duke will be forced to divorce his wife for adultery and worse, which will leave the succession clear. The mistress hopes to marry the Duke, or at least not to share his attention with a young wife.

The Duke and his new Duchess win their wagers, but neither informs the other of course, that their marriage came about only because of the double wager (hence the title). The Duke learns about the wager made by his wife from her indiscreet brother, after the latter has run into trouble. Curiously, he does not judge Henry badly. I wonder why? You would think that his pride would be hurt, or that he might wonder if his wife really loved him. Perhaps he had no illusions anyway about the marriage.

Henry is not an admirable wife, let alone a perfect Duchess. She will not have the marriage consummated, and she will associate with the Duke's cousin despite his warnings (even when he tells her why he so dislikes Oliver). When she gets into trouble, she will not ask for help, since she believes that she is as good as a man. Rather, she will borrow from untrustworthy persons and get into scrape after scrape. She chooses to listen to a man who has proved himself to be less than good, rather than listen to her husband (or ask someone else for advice). Generally, she is a rather spoiled and immature 18-year-old who seems younger than her age.

I found the denouement somewhat improbable, and as you can tell, I did not like the heroine at all. The story lines, borrowed from THE CONVENIENT MARRIAGE and AN APRIL LADY, could have worked beautifully if the heroine had been different. The denouement seemed both farcical and melodramatic to me, even though they might be in keeping with the heroine's general character. But to the end, I could not figure out what attracted the duke to his duchess, and I did not think their marriage would be a successful one. To the end, Henry (or Henrietta) showed that she did not trust her husband, and that she felt that she could go through life on her own - even though she had been rescued by her younger siblings more than once.

What was attractive about this book were the younger siblings - Philip and Pen. They were beautifully drawn, as was the confusion they created in the Tallant and then in the ducal household. Their love for their older sister and determination to protect her from her own folly was well-portrayed. I have some doubts about the ways in which they were apparently able to slip into and out of the duke's house, but that is a small point.

There is one major flaw in the plot - the issue of the villain's motivation. Making the villain the duke's father's sister's son and therefore the duke's heir was somewhat unusual, given that most titles of dukes were created with remainder to heirs male (meaning the sons, the sons of sons, and so forth of the person so honored). There are only a few titles that pass differently (and do so by Act of Parliament, or as Scottish titles). This was not well-explained. That, and Oliver's reckless behavior, did not add up to me.

Of all the Baloghs, I have read, this book was the most disappointing, for the reasons I stated. The writing is immaculate, as usual. But the heroine and the hero, let alone the intrigue, simply did not draw me in.

Rating = 2.8 (upgraded to 3)

We liked this story. It was typical of formula historical romances and lent humor in unexpected areas. Basically, you have
a willful woman named Henry who gets into a family jam and accepts a Duke's "proposition" to become his wife. It's a duel
of wills and passionate hearts. Good characters, delightfully
surprising story, highly recommended.

I enjoyed this little romance of Mary's. The Innocence of Henry, and the gentle compassion of the rake, Eversleigh makes it such a funny and sweet story. Mary has this gift of revealing to the reader the thoughts and emotions of both the man and the woman. The woman in this case, misreads Eversleigh and can't decide whether she dares to love him in spite of the man she believes him to be. Yet she makes the right choice in the end. It is definitely a keeper.

I really enjoy Balogh's older books and have started collecting them. I just finished The Double Wager and I really liked it. I found many of the secondary characters to be quite well-developed, which I really, really like in books of any genre. I dislike when the H/h seem to exist in a vacuum or are surrounded by two-dimensional outlines of characters. I think the secondary characters and the plot were what made me like the book so much. The plot moved forward quickly and kept me engaged. And although I did know what was going to happen, I wanted to see how Henry's family/Mr. Ridley/Miss Manford would deal with it. I did not mind Henrietta's character as some reviewers did. She was 18, for goodness' sake. She behaved like an 18-year-old who has never been made to mind by a parent would. What I found lacking - and the reason it is getting less stars is the romance between the two. I couldn't seem to put my finger on when the duke actually decided he loved her. I was confused when it happened...Mary Balogh didn't give us enough insight into his character in the beginning for us to be able to interpret the "gleam" in his eyes that I guess was the beginning of his love for Henrietta. So for awhile I thought he was just pleased to have won the wager and pleased that he had such an amusing wife...he didn't mind caring for her needs, he just didn't actually love her (that's what I thought, anyway). Later on it is apparent that he DOES love her, but when it happened I thought I had accidentally skipped some pages or something. It was clear that she was falling in love with him, but not the other way around. But maybe it was just me.

I also would have liked to see what happened between the duke's secretary and the governess. It seemed like there was a romance brewing, but the governess was described as nearing 50 and the secretary was in his early 30s. Not that a romance couldn't have happened, but it did seem a little odd...however, there she was, blushing at the secretary, and they both called each other by their first names very early in the book. Hmm...guess we'll never know.

3.5 stars.

If I am correct, this was Mary Balogh's second regency, published in 1985. I've read nearly all of her books now including her novellas and short stories. Like any author, some books were a bit of a let-down (I could not finish The Trysting Place as I was so irritated by it) but, overall, she is a five star writer, unique in the romance genre and top of my auto-buy list. I admire her style very much indeed.

I read the thoughts posted here by Bookjunkiereviews before I decided to go ahead and spend a lot of money to get a copy of The Double Wager as her reviews are careful, considered and always worth reading. In the end I located a copy, purely by accident, in a UBS and went home delighted to have found a copy at half the 1985 cover price - obviously the shop owner hadn't a clue about what he had in stock!

Well, it was worth 10 times what I paid. I think this book is a great read for anyone who admires this author because in it you will find all of the seeds of her later work, the origins of the Duke of Bewcastle, her homage to Heyer and the firm beginnings of her inimitable and stylish prose.

This book owes something to These Old Shades, The Convenient Marriage, Frederica, etc. That's quite clear. However it is not a pastiche but a carefully written and highly entertaining story of two people who, despite themselves, fall deeply and physically in love. The double wager of the book wherein each makes a bet about snagging a spouse is skilfully handled by the author and is an excellent and amusing plot device. The heroine, the very young Henrietta "Henry" Tallant has an amusing and interesting family including a pair of mischief making twins and some wacky pets. Marius, Duke of Eversleigh is a great character - part rake, part guardian, a rather inwardly solitary man but also a man of great patience, understanding and capable of deep and abiding love. And, the Bewcastle quizzing glass was born in this book!

If I have any complaint about this story it's that the final scenes were just a bit weak but nevertheless brought a cracking good story to a great conclusion.

If you admire Mary Balogh you will find it a real joy to go back to her beginnings and then consider how she has developed as such a great author. I enjoyed this very much both as an insight into the early career of the author but also as a super book in its own right. Highly recommended.

This story is very predictable and not very engaging. Also the heroine is not a very sympathetic character, I felt like slapping her more than once.
Try one of the more recent work of Balogh.

I agree that this is not Balogh's best effort and the heroine is very annoying at first. But I enjoyed the book. As I have said before, Balogh's "not very good" is the everyone else's "very good".

Deligful - in style of Balogh. If you are her fan, you will like this book.