Customer Reviews

The Gamble

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My copy of this book appears to have been through a flood, a windstorm, or any other event you could imagine simply because I've read it so much that it is practically falling apart. Lavyrle Spencer is one of my favorite authors. The way she delves into each charators emotions and thoughts holds me captive. The Gamble, by far, is my absolute favorite book. I want a man like Scott Gandy. It's funny, but when I assess a man, I compare him to Gandy (luckly I found one!). The good boy gone bad can be a hard role to depict, but Spencer does it with taste and dignity and in a way that the reader can almost sense Gandy's upbringing before it is revealed. I adore his gallantry matched by his spirit and mischief. I love the protective nature in him. I admire the way he deals with Agatha on a business level, using not so fair tactics (such as the sewing machine) but being honest enough to admit it. I swoon at the way he treats women and I chuckle at his manner with Willy. Scott Gandy is absolutely my favorite hero. Rhett Butler has nothing on Scott Gandy!

Agatha Downing is, as well, my favorite heroine. Her proper air is not stuffy nor intimidating. She is generally a good, honest, decent women who does not look down on others even when she does not approve of their actions. She admires what others have in their lives rather than be jealous of them (such as the inhibitions of 'the girls') and displays a lot of spunk for such a 'proper woman. The elogance and carriage that Agatha shows, especially when she moves to Waverly, is admirable.

Then there is Waverly. I am always torn about which is my favorite part of the book. I love the feeling of new beginnings and those "first times" of discovering something (or someone) new to love, but Waverly is my fantasy of Southern charm, regal settings and an incredible way of life. I could never move south because all of my pre-ordained notions of Southern living are tied to Waverly Plantation and I could never have that.

All is all, The Gamble has become my comfort zone over the years. I find the need to re-read it at least once a year - like a family reuion. So far, only Lavryle Spencer has been able to cause that reaction in me.

I am currently re-reading Seperate Beds. Although this book is a different era and completely different storyline, I can't put this book down either!

When I first started this book I could not imagine how Scott and Agatha could ever be together and still keep it believable, or that I could even like Agatha's character. Maybe I just didn't believe a man like Gandy could fall for someone with her many imperfections. Because I am a big Spencer fan I kept reading. By the time I had finished this book I was completely in love with Scott(no big suprise) and Agatha now seemed as beautiful to me as she was to him. I felt their pain and joy as if it were my own. I had cried,laughed out loud and everything in-between, when I was done I sat and stared into space, speechless, in awe and immediately began to read it again. The magic of Lavyrle Spencer is that her characters don't jump into bed and start shouting I love you the first day they meet, she gives them (and the reader) time enough to make their love real and believable. Her characters are very often just average or even flawed in the looks department, helping us to remember that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This is in my opinion the best of Spencer and that is saying much when you know the quality of her work.

I have read this book several times, and never cease to be moved by the story. It became bigger than life to discover that Waverly Plantation does in fact exist as is located in MS. Not in as grand a manner as portrayed in the book, but every bit as elegant, and filled with the "spirit" of the original builder and owner, Colonel Young who built it in the 1850's and was restored to it's magnificence by the Snow family in the 1960-70's. Read a very touching story based on respect, friendship and most of all a beautiful love that developes based on that respect and friendship. The Gamble reminds us of a time when honor existed and love was meant to last a lifetime.

I loved this book. The elegance of the author's description of places and people, interwoven with historical events, brings it all alive. The characters become real. In fact, I cannot stop thinking about "Gussie's" and Scott's happiness, not to mention Willy's. I would love for Lyvyrle to write a sequel. It grieves me that she has decided to quit writing because I have only just "found" her. I have read, besides Gamble, Endearment and Then Came Heaven...and absolutely have loved all three. Maybe after the author has some time off, she will hopefully reconsider. I love the way Lyvyrle develops her characters and their love story. And it is wonderful that she allows her characters to have such insight (and thus gives us insight at the same time). And I love the fact of waiting until marriage for the ultimate sex act, but at the same time evolving the couple sexually. The "awakening" of Agatha, for example, profoundly relit my pilot light! I plan to read all of Spencer's books and probably reread a good many of them! Please don't quit, Lavyrle -- there's got to be many sequels to write.

Even though I don't read much in this genre anymore, this still has to be my all time favorite book. The characters are written with such life to them that I could picture them clearly in my mind. With each page I fell more and more in love with the story of two such total opposites finding each other. It's a heartwarming tale about a bunch of misfits that come together to form the strangest family you ever wanted to meet, from the prim and proper milliner to the rakish saloon owner, to the former prostitutes, and let's not forget the old, superstitious mammy.

I let someone borrow my copy years ago, and just couldn't get this story out of my mind, so about two years ago I found a copy in a local bookstore and nabbed it up. My "new" copy is just as tattered as the first one was, and I'm not lending it out this time. I highly recommend this story for someone who is looking for a true "romance" or "love story".

THE GAMBLE is a story about Agatha, a prim and proper lady whose green eyes gave away her true feelings and of Scott who was happy to do what pleased him, whether viewed right or wrong. They were on opposite sites of the battlefield when it came to drinking in a saloon, but became friends when a small child needed their help and love. Together they found common ground and love bloomed.

THE GAMBLE is a great story - one of my favorite Spencer novels! Set back in the 1800's in Colorado, it is a typical western, with a little more flavor thrown in for good measure. Spencer writes a romantic story without going over the boundaries of propriety. This is a book that you could recommend to your mother or your grandmother, and not be embarrassed. Definitely enjoyable for all ages!

While I have not read all of LaVyrle Spencer's books yet, I am down to the last 4 or 5. I was worried I would not find another as good as Vows or Hummingbird (Spencer's historical novels are far superior to her contemporary efforts). About 50 pages into The Gamble, however, I knew this one was going to be their equal. As other reviewers have expressed, a romance book is just not a romance when halfway through the characters have already professed their love for one another (this was one of my problems with November of the Heart, although it was superbly written). The Gamble keeps you on tenterhooks until the LAST 50 pages - even though you know how it must end. Both lead characters were perfect. In Scott Gandy, LaVyrle has created the sexiest hero I have ever imagined. Her descriptions of him just resonate in my mind. And I cannot tell you how wonderful it was that she created her heroine with such an obvious physical flaw, and that Scott still falls for her. Most Harlequins would never stand for that! I am still trying to figure out why this Spencer book has never been made into a movie while some of her lesser novels have been. Maybe someday. You know a book is simply fabulous when you keep reading voraciously but still somehow never want it to end! If you have never read LaVyrle Spencer, I challenge you to read The Gamble and then never pick up another book of hers again. Simply impossible!

There are very few romance novels out there that rise above the usual formula, that have less than perfect looking characters, and that have real depth to them. Thank God for Lavaryle Spencer. She never gives us the obvious love at first sight scenario, which I personally find to be a bore, but instead gives us two people who build a relationship on firmer ground.

The Gamble, starts out with Agatha Downing trying hard to run a respectable business, while next door Scott Gandy has just opened a saloon. Agatha is a staunch prohabitionist, and isn't afraid to tell Gandy exactly what she thinks of him. The two clash at every turn, but this isn't one of those stories where the characters become attracted to each other and forget about their differences. It's only in understanding the other's situation better and becoming friends in their own right that they began to be attracted to each other.

It's a quality story superbly told. I can't recommend it enough, and I am a very picky reader.

The first half of the novel was FANTASTIC!!!! I was desperate to find another Spencer novel that equaled Hummingbird and after reading the first couple of pages of the Gamble I thought I had found it, only to be incredibly disappointed after the second half of the book.

After Scott left Agatha in Kansas to go back to his hometown Mississippi, the story fell flat and became gratuitous. There were only a couple of passionate interactions between Scott and Agatha in the first half, which were paced perfectly and made you salivate for more. However, when Scott invited Agatha to Florida to offer her a proposition, Spencer left the relationship stagnant and platonic, which completely confounded me!!! Where was the sexy, daring, impatient and utterly adorable male hero I have come to love in the first half of the book????? Spencer changed Scott too drastically and suddenly became a sweet and patient gentleman that was not conducive to Agath's prim and proper character.

You were left with the feeling of utter confusion and impatience for the romance and passion-verbal or physical- to start between them again, but to no avail. Spencer just kept writing so much of the peripheral environment-and hardly incorporating any heat between Agatha and Scott-that you felt the novel falling apart from its promising start. Finally when the romance began to pick up slightly it ended before you even knew what hit you when they confessed their love for each other and then getting married. Even the love-making ending was flat and nowhere near as passionate as you would have liked.

After finishing the novel I was still confused and felt cheated as to how Spencer could have written such different halves of the same novel-especially when it came to Scott's characterization. He started off like Jessie Dufrayne in Hummingbird and ended like a complete different person-too sweet, too patient, and too boring.

I am still sighing over the ending of the novel in utter and sad disappointment. I have not read all of Spencer's novels and I hope one day I will hit upon one of her books that come close to Hummingbird or the Fulfillment.

I work in a library and when someone asks me to give them a title of a book to read I always suggest The Gamble. This is one of my favorite books and every time I read it I cry at the same spots. The main chacters are so great you can't help but fall in love with them. I keep holding out hope that they turn it into a movie. I would love to see this book come to life in a tv movie.