Gambler's Prize

by Valentina Luellen

"Even the gutter is too low for you!"

Babette was stunned, overwhelmed with shame. His cruel insult drove home the appalling lengths to which this Mississippi gambler would go to mend his wounded pride. He would ruin her family...and herself in the process.

Suddenly she felt she had no choice. Her hand touched the cold steel of the derringer in her pocket. Defiantly she pulled the weapon out into the open.

"You are not fit to live!" she cried, and leveled the gun at the man she loved...

...and squeezed the trigger.

Inside cover:
It was Mardi Gras, and anything could happen!

And to Babette, the most wonderful thing did. She fell deeply and hopelessly in love.

But she was an innocent girl from one of New Orleans's finest families--rich and proud. He was a riverboat gambler who trifled with women and took pleasure in relieving foolish spendthrifts of their money.

Surely their love had no future. And yet...so great was their attraction for each other that they began to believe they could overcome all obstacles.

But there was one thing they hadn't expected--blackmail!

Genres: Romance

190 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Pseudonym for Judith Hagar. AKA Judith Polley and Helen Kent.

Valentina Luellen is one of the pen names of Judith Hagar. She published 33 historical romances for Mills & Boon, with many of the tiles featured in the Masquerade series.

Reviews

[Sarah Mac · Rating 2 out of 5]

Zzzzz. Abandoned, circa pg 50.

I couldn’t care less about these people & their dry, boring story. From scanning ahead I see that eventually he blackmails her into being his mistress (I think), which is supposed to fill me with rage (I assume)…but zero fucks are given (proven fact), so it’s time to move on.

Standard 2-star DNF.

[Melinda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible, horrible vile book, I absolutely hate it. The H sets out to take revenge against the h because she has married another man after she had pledged to marry him. She had married this other man because he was blackmailing her family.The H, who was supposed to love her, did horrible things to destroy not only her but her family. As a result of something the H is directly responsible for, her father dies of a heart attack. The H also takes the h's sister-in-law as his mistress and flaunts it in front of her. The amount of rage he displayed and the cruelty he engaged in makes it impossible to believe that he was ever in love with her. Furthermore he plans to take her as his mistress although she has a husband. He plans to do this openly to bring her shame. He also hires a harlot and sets her up in a house to beguile the h's husband and to get him in debt for her services. He also encourages her brother to build up gambling debts. Through this all our wimpy h still loves the H (yeah right). He writes her a letter at the end of the book when he discovers what a dirt bag he has been and apologizes and tells her he his giving her the deed to the house and half of the earning of the gambling establishment and of course stupid forgives him and HEA follows. I think this H is one of the most despicable characters I have ever encountered. This one goes on the "Books I Loathe" list. Read this on openlibrary.com

[Reading with Cats · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of those rare books that I honestly wish I had never read. This is not a romance — it’s a treatise on emotional abuse. Please stay far, far away from this piece of shit.

[Lynn Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Originally published in 1969 under title Slightly Scarlet. Set in 19th century New Orleans. She also wrote under the pseudonym of Judith Polley. This particular story was unappealing for me despite few more attempts to read it my opinion of the novel has not changed.

[Roxanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book.