Customer Reviews

Wedding Gamble (Harlequin Historical)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I sought this book out (...) just to find out the story of Sarah and Nicholas Englemere, who play such a prominent role in THE PROPER WIFE. I ended up reading the book in one sitting (meaning it certainly meets one criterion - keeping my interest sustained), but I was left oddly disappointed. Why? The plot is great, the devices are great. What is a problem for me, perhaps, is not so much the fact that the story begins with the hero engaged to another woman (a virtual shrew), or that the heroine is penniless and on the threshold of marriage to a sadist. The first part of the book was perfect.

My problems began in the second part of the book (after the couple get married), beginning with Sir James (the villain) gatecrashing the wedding party, and culminating perhaps in the remarkable scene between Englemere and Sinjun. Let us just say that Sinjun's suggestion took my breath away, almost as much as it did the Marquess's. Furthermore, it exposed a new facet of him, which I had not expected from THE PROPER WIFE (where there is a wonderful scene between him and Englemere).

The ending was powerful and suspenseful, in that I wondered at Sarah's conviction that she would be rescued in time and her willingness to risk her life, not just her reputation, to save other women. Yet, I could fully understand where she was coming from. The difficulty I had was with the apparent bravado of Englemere's former mistress, and the blindness of husband and wife to the fact that both she and another person were being used by the villain to create trouble in their marriage.

Read this book for the remarkable beginning and the fierceness of Sarah's convictions. You will be frustrated in parts (and I could wish that her feelings were left unclear until the end) because Sarah is unwilling to face Englemere with the truth - that she loves him. [You knew that, didn't you?]. A conversation between husband and wife might have cleared up both the Big Misunderstanding and the Little Misunderstandings.

Justiss is right in showing Englemere as unwilling to talk about his past love life to his new wife, and Sarah as hesitant to expose her feelings, and in fearing for her security with an apparent gambler. But to us post-modern readers, some of this behavior seems strange - although it is the result of the author's effort to remain true to the period.

I am rating this a 3.5 because a lot of things did not make sense to me: 1) why Englemere chose Lady Clarissa when he wanted a quiet calm wife; 2) why Sarah's ancestral estate was not entailed (the explanation was not good enough); 3) why Sinjun thought he could persuade Sarah into an adulterous affair, even though it would be dishonourable and completely out-of-character; 4) why Sarah refused to confront her husband with his mistress's presence at her ball; 5) why neither Sarah nor Englemere suspected the fine hand of Sir James; 6) why Sarah felt that she could trust either her husband or her former lover to rescue her from Sir James [my biggest problem].

And as I said, I would have liked to see Sarah's feelings about her former love far more uncertain. Once she had admitted to herself that she loved her husband, her inability to confront him about Mrs Ingram made little sense. We are to believe that she thought Englemere did not love her, and that she hoped to persuade him into loving her with sex alone.

Which brings me to my last difficulty. I just had a lot of trouble with the last sex scene. Not just because it was so explicit, but because the language and euphemisms were far too flowery, completely unlike the rest of the novel. It is as if a Bertrice Small scene was plunked into a well-mannered Regency. That is why the book gets only 3.5. It is a good book, but it is not a keeper for me (independent of the grade). For the best work by Justiss published so far, I recommend her third book A SCANDALOUS PROPOSAL (published 2000).

I enjoyed "The Wedding Gamble" for the most part. Sarah seemed to be such a strong heroine that I felt she should have had the guts to speak to her husband about her feelings regarding his mistress, as opposed to just accepting and worrying about it. Also the situation with Sinjin was never really cleared up to my satisfaction. I hope that Ms. Justiss intends on writing another book with Sinjin as the hero so that we can find out what lucky lady wins him. Otherwise I really enjoyed the book and Ms. Justiss appears to have a promising writing career ahead.

I enjoyed The Wedding Gamble so much. It was cleverly written--both sweet and steamy. The humor was wonderful and the author shows an immense knowledge of the Regency period. I recommend this book to anyone who loves a good Regency romance.

The plot of The Wedding Gamble is inventive and fast-moving, the setting alive with detail and color, and Ms. Justiss has expertly created a likeable, believable cast of characters. I felt torn with Sarah over Sinjin, her first love, and Nicholas, her new husband of whom she is very unsure. Her villain is truly rotten and definitely added punch to the story. And, Ms. Justiss, if you have the time, would you write a story for your secondary character, Hal? I eagerly look forward to reading more books by this bright author.

I usually do not read Historical romance and The Wedding Gamble is the first Regency Romance I have ever purchased. After reading about Sarah's plight, during the Marriage Mart season, I would like to read more books in this time period. Ms. Justiss did a wonderful job with descriptions and she portrayed Sarah as a strong heroine who knew how to go about getting what she needed and wanted. Ms. Justiss also did a splendid job making me hate the villian and love the Marquess of Englemere. I look forward to reading more books by this author.

I LOVED this book! I have read tons of romances and this is one of the few that has two handsome,generous,honorable,and gallant men in love with the heroine. Usually the other man in the story is either old, ugly, fat, perverted etc. and this story also has one of those too. I was thrilled that Sinjun did not just give up and slink away after returning home and finding Sarah married to Nicholas. I thought the author was very creative in the way in which Sinjun asked Nicholas to give Sarah up. Woowee! He thought of everything. Sarah was wonderful because although she loved Sinjun she could not wait for his return from battle since she had to marry a wealthy man in order to save her family's estate. She was also honorable and wanted to be a good wife to Nick. The private meeting between Sarah and Sinjun where they pour out their hearts to one another was heartbreaking.This is the first book I have read by Ms. Justiss and I am already looking forward to reading Sinjun's story.

This is my first book read by this author, and it's also her debut novel. As a long time reader of Historical Romance, predominately in the Regency period, I sometimes feel like I've seen it all, read it all. I was pleasantly surprised by this authors "fresh" approach on this Marriage of Convenience storyline.

Both the hero and heroine brought baggage into the relationship, and though each had their insecurities about each other, they faced each crisis realistically and positively. There were no "flighty" arguments, no "misunderstandings" that weren't rectified and talked about together, and when mistakes were made, apologies were given. Like in the real world.

I enjoyed that their love grew from fondness and friendship, that it was a sweet love, not the "I'll die without you" drama so prevalent in most romance. I applaud the author's thought to run with the idea that the heroine enjoyed her intimate times with her husband, and even when she thought he MAY have been seeing his pre-marriage mistress, she thought "why should I deny myself intimacy with my husband".

My only issue with the story was the TINY bit cliche' ending with the story's "villain", but I can overlook that, and it brings in the thought of future connected books. The "former love" is the hero in a future work, The Proper Wife (Historical Romance). All in all, an enjoyable, fresh and more "realistic" Regency romance that I highly recommend.

4.5 stars

I liked it a lot. I admit that it did bother me that Sarah never really seemed to let go of Sinjin. But I liked it anyway. I liked Nick.

Julia Justiss is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors! I loved A Scandalous Proposal and The Wedding Gamble was pretty darn awesome as well. I totally fell in love with each of the characters at the same pace they were falling in love with each other - Well done Julia! This story really unfolded nicely however I do think the beginning was a bit stronger than the end but I forgive this small flaw because just like A Scandalous Proposal it was nuanced with great detail and dialog AND both characters were equally lovable. To begin with the set up was very believable. Nicholas' reasons for seeking a bride were understandable given his sense of responsibility (which most great hero's have) and the death of his beloved brother (even though we only got to know him briefly I was sad at his death and oddly the movie A River Runs Thru it kept popping into my mind). And since Nicky had such a low opinion of women due to his deceased wife I get why we find him with a high maintenance diva like Clarissa in chapter one. This set up was very cleaver and it was a GREAT foil for Sarah and Nicholas to get to know each other under since "friendship" was all they had in the beginning. In these earlier scenes I just ate up the dialog. I found myself enjoying their unguarded exchanges immensely and smiled and sighed throughout this section. I loved how Nicolas could read Sarah and how Sarah could read Nicholas like when she realized he had sabotaged his engagement. Gosh it was just so romantic. The bad guy was very well drawn as well and Sarah's logic (with so many siblings counting on her at home) for having to accept him as a last resort were also believable. When Nicholas dropped the marraige proposal bomb I felt just as stunned as Sarah and loved how unbelieving she was that he would offer for her. I loved that he did this so quickly and without care to her lack of status. It was all really really good.

When Sinjin entered the picture I almost cringed in fear the story would fall apart but it worked - the dialog between Sinjin and Nicholas was jealous and funny and I ate it up. I almost wanted them to get in a fist fight esp since they clearly respected each other despite loving the same woman. I thought Sinjin's outrageous offer to take Sarah off Nicholas' hands after she gave him an heir were actually believable and my heart ached for Sinjin a bit because it was such a pitiful grasp at Sarah and what had been - plus in his own post-war way he was trying to do the right thing. I loved that Sarah misunderstanding that Nicholas had left her at home alone intentionally so she could have a private interview with Sinjin thanked Nicholas for leaving her alone. This totally shamed Nicholas and helped him trust her even more because he had in fact been mad at her at first. Glad that was cleared up quickly and without any dumb misunderstanding. This sort of technique from Julia Justice is what make me so wild about her writing. She has a way of making the reader melt with empathy for the characters as they go thru their own healing process and develop true intimacy with one another. I also thought that the miscarriage was cleverly done. I've never read a romance novel that incorporated a miscarriage and I wouldn't have thought it possible to pull it off but Justiss managed to do it. For me this plot twist made me love the characters even more but I objected to Sarah pushing Nicholas away. I would have preferred that this sadness bring them together more. (Although I did appreciate that the servants were kind of ticked at Nicholas for leaving Sarah in the country).

This last bit was where I wish it has been a bit tighter in plot and there weren't so many unexpressed emotions especially since they had had such great communication. If this misunderstanding drama had been condensed just a touch it would have worked better for me. Also the fact that she went to the villain's house at the very end to save the innocent girl was virtuous but not believable for me. I needed a bit more of a set up here and if Sarah was really trying to find a way to press charges against the bad guy going alone to the mans house seems like a very illogical choice since I doubt any victorian court would favor a female who willingly went to a mans house alone. That part just didn't add up but aside from this I totally loved this book. I highly recommend it and will seek out Julia justice's work from here on out. I'm looking forward to reading about Sinjin in a future novel. Keep em com'n Julia!

This book introduces us to a number of lovely characters and stories that rate on my favorite list. This book in itself isn't a keeper for me, although I am not 100% sure why I didn't enjoy it. The story starts really well and Nick and Sarah really engaged me as a couple. But like a number of reviewers, the plot lost me half way through. The misunderstandings, lack of communication, and hanging on to old loves just did not ring true to the characters. I would recommend several of the follow ups - " A most unconventional match" and "Christmas Wedding Wish"