A Wicked Wager
A Wicked Wager by Adele Clee 2018 Regency
I’ve had bad luck with some of the novels I’ve read recently but this one turned out to be a gem. It is the second novel in a series but can be read alone. It also makes me want to read the other books in the series.
A group of friends have returned from India to London in 1820 which ties the Avenging Lords series together. Each one is bent on seeking revenge against someone who has slandered or ruined someone in their family.
Devlin Drake is seeking revenge against Baron Bromfield and his daughter Hannah, who slandered his brother, Ambrose, who was mysteriously killed. Devlin and his friends are rolling dice with Bromfield, and Devlin wagers his estate Blackwater against marriage to Bromfield’s daughter.
Bromfield and Hannah are screeching, arrogant, elitist who are outraged about losing the wager but they find a way out by offering Bromfield’s illegitimate daughter, Juliet, as his wife, expecting him to call off the wager. Instead Devlin agrees to marry the abused and completely honest Juliet.
Bromfield wants Juliet to find letters at Blackwater but she confides to Devlin that she thinks there is more to the letters than a confession from Hannah about her role in Ambrose’s death. She hatches a plan and Devlin backs her up.
Cree knows how to develop her characters and make the reader care about them. Juliet is put in danger several times and Devlin has a few secret demons he must deal with as he falls in love with his wife. Cree also adds a twist about the letters that keeps the reader turning the pages of the novel. There are several bad guys and each plays a vital role in the story. The revenge comes but not in the way Devlin had first planned.
Writers, if you’re looking at how to write a romance, this is a good example. The point of view slips back and forth between the hero and heroine, a must in a modern romance, and reveals how each interprets the circumstances that have brought them together. They battle what to reveal of their feelings, but Cree knows how to release information and emotions in a steady stream so the reader never loses interest.
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