Playing To Win

by Laurel Ames

SERA HAD ALWAYS LOVED A CHALLENGE, BUT TONY WAS
PROVING TO BE DIFFICULT EVEN FOR HER CONSIDERABLE SKILLS! ...

Despite her bookish exterior, Sera Barclay was an imp with outrageous charm and depths undreamed of by London's stuffy ton. A woman who would risk anything for the sake of the husband who gave her his heart, and denied her everything else ...

A man of particular honor and pride, Tony Cainbrooke's inherited debt kept him estranged from his wife. But his distance was getting harder and harder to maintain ... for Sera's antics to bring them together grew more outrageous by the day!

Genres: Romance, Historical Romance, Historical, Regency, Harlequin

296 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Barbara J. Miller started writing romances because she was running out of reading material and all her copies of her Georgette Heyer novels were becoming dog-eared. By day she works as a business analyst; by night she runs a retirement home for aged horses, dogs and cats. On the week-ends she spends a lot of time in Regency England, creating heroes and heroines to fight the Napoleonic Wars, shock London society, and set the countryside in an uproar. Her accomplice is her computer-expert husband Don, who is one of her biggest fans.

Barb admits to enjoying the research as much as the writing, and has the books to prove it. France used to be in the dining room and England in the living room. Now that she has taken over the upper story of their old farmhouse as an office at least all the books are one floor. This saves a tremendous amount of time when she is trying to confirm an obscure fact in the middle of the night. Under the name Laurel Ames she produced eight Regency-era historicals for Harlequin, one of which was nominated for a Rita in 1994. Now, she writes as Barbara Miller. She is a member of the Western PA Chapter of Romance Writers of America and also edits The Laurel Wreath newsletter for them. You may email her at scribe@cvzoom.net.

Reviews

[Rabbit {Paint me like one of your 19th century gothic heroines!}]

This book is so boring. Like I don't care. *yawn*

[Heather ~*dread mushrooms*~ · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF pg. 167

Wow, so this was boring. Not even bad, just very boring. I didn't even dislike any of the characters except the weenie of a hero, but by this point in the book I felt like I'd already read the entire story. Even though there was no banging despite the leads being married for most of this time. Gah. I tried.

[Bookophiliac · Rating 1 out of 5]

I trudged on with this one for a good, long while before finally conceding that it's just hopeless. The characters, the story, the supposed conflict...
There is no conflict other than what these characters created for themselves! They're stubborn and misguided at their best. Petulant and idiotic are more to the fact. He's an insufferable buffoon and she's an ever-pleasing doormat.
I'm so over it - I don't even care that there seems to finally be an interesting plot in sight - too late.

[Elena Micheli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Noioso con una trama insignificante

[Martha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not too bad until the last 2-3 pages. 2 1/2 stars.

[Frances · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started as a 4, ended as a 2. The hero was dumber than the heroine by a furlough.