The Marriage Wager
By Candace Camp
3.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
The Marriage Wager
Candace Camp
In a world where love was always a gamble, they meant to beat the odds.
No longer in the first blush of youth and without a marriage portion, Miss Constance Woodley could scarcely imagine why one of the leading lights of London society should take an interest in the likes of her.
But under her benefactor's guiding hand she was transformed into a captivating creature who caught the eye of the handsome, charming and ever–so–slightly notorious Lord Dominic Leighton. And before the shocked eyes of the entire ton, the 'nobody' and the rakish viscount showed that even in the heartless world of the marriage mart, when love was at stake, all bets were off...
Candace Camp
Candace Camp is a New York Times bestselling author of over sixty novels of contemporary and historical romance. She grew up in Texas in a newspaper family, which explains her love of writing, but she earned a law degree and practiced law before making the decision to write full-time. She has received several writing awards, including the RT Book Reviews Lifetime Achievement Award for Western Romances. Visit her at www.candace-camp.com.
Read more from Candace Camp
The Bridal Quest Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Marriage Wager Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Other Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Compare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Stolen Heart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Momentary Marriage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hidden Heart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Winterset Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Mesmerized Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Promise Me Tomorrow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Perfect Gentleman: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hidden Heart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Happens Under the Mistletoe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wedding Challenge Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5So Wild A Heart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5By Any Other Name Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5An Independent Woman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Indiscreet Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to The Marriage Wager
Related ebooks
Her Officer and Gentleman Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5319 A Royal Punishment Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Glenlitten Murder Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blossom Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Proposal to Risk Their Friendship Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Fallen Woman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5160. A Miracle In Music Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Widow's Blush: A Widows & Shadows Mystery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMysterious Mr. Sabin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLessons in Trust Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5All He Wants for Christmas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Darkest Sin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Abandoned Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Corner House Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDevoted to the Spanish Duke: London Lords, #3 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Soldier's Heart Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dangerous Desires (Hearts of Rebellion Series, Book 3) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Scandalous Deception Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flirting With Ruin Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Notorious Lady Grantham Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Reef by Edith Wharton - Delphi Classics (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBrazen: Reformed Rakes Novella, #3 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Romanov Trilogy: Rebel Princess, Curse Not the King, and Far Flies the Eagle Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rebel Princess Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax, The Adventure of the Devil's Foot, The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShayne: The Pretender Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Rancher & The Reluctant Princess Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Reef Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Notorious Mr. Hurst Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Royalty Romance For You
Bred By The King In Public: Dominant King Erotic History Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5To Have and to Hoax: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Marry and to Meddle: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seven Years to Sin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5These Old Shades Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Pleasure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Swoon and to Spar: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cold-Hearted Rake: The Ravenels, Book 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Love and to Loathe: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dancing at Midnight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unlaced Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Bit of Rough Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Simply Wicked Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Simply Sinful Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Smallest Man: the most uplifting book of the year Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil’s Submission Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wild Irish Girl: Lady Sydney Morgan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBound To Please Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scales and Sensibility Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Not To Bare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Make Me Love You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Matchmaker Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Simply Sexual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Submitting to the Marquess Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fallen Angel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Lady's Code of Misconduct Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sisters of Sea View (On Devonshire Shores Book #1) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bargain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Marriage Wager
85 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/52.5 / 5.0
This book had a number of positives and negatives for me. I enjoy the setting (both place and time), and the characters were entertaining. There were a number of clever plot elements, and everything ends well. I could easily give this book three or four stars if not for one particularly jarring element: premarital sex between the main couple.
I am hardly so naive as to believe that nothing ever happened before marriage in Regency England. However, I do not need it described for me, and it wasn't even really necessary for the story. The same attempted scandal creation could have occurred without it, and it would have made a lot more sense than what ended up transpiring between two individuals who hadn't even known each other for more than a couple months, tops. They called it love in the book. It really wasn't; it was unbridled passion and lust. - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Francesca makes a wager with the Duke, he selects any girl from the ball as Francesca's next matchmaking endeavor and she will have her engaged by the end of the season. He chooses mousy chaperone Constance. Constance is shocked when Francesca befriends her. Orphaned, 28, and living with her aunt, she's chaperoning her cousins, not looking for love herself. But under Francesca's tutelage, she's blossoming and catches the eye of Francesca's brother - not what Francesca had in mind!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The first in the Matchmakers series has a definite Cinderella-like flavor. Constance Woodley, on the shelf at twenty-nine, is in London for the first time only to act as a companion to her two spoiled younger cousins. Her aunt displays traditional "evil stepmother" tendencies, pressuring Constance to dress in drab, matronly clothing and ensuring that she is so busy tending to her daughters that she has no time to attempt to carve out a life for hersefl. Enter Lady Francesca Haughston, Constance's fairy godmother. Lady Francsca, a young widow who has had some success in helping society parents find matches for their daughters, makes a comment while at a ball that she could get any girl married. The Duke of Rochford takes her up on her wager, selecting Constance out of the crowd to be the focus of Francesca's efforts. Little does Francesca know, but that same night Constance actually meets her "prince" on her own--Francesca's brother. Dominic is, of course, above Constance socially; to complicate matters, his family is in financial straits and need him to marry well. All seems lost...or is it?
This story doesn't really hsve any surprises, but it is a well-written and fun read. The ending felt a bit rushed and almost a bit too neat, but overall I really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to reading the others in the series soon. - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I like a book with an older and a younger couple on different timetables. This one is let down by a thing I very much dislike in romance novels: the intrusion of incest or rape (rather than camp mustache twirling), particularly since it's off screen, existing to make the people who oppose the match more repulsive than they otherwise would be.
I do like the likeable characters enough to keep an eye out for the fourth book in this series, the one that deals with this book's older couple. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I quite enjoyed learning more about Francesca and watching her matchmaking at work. I had been a little sad to see that there is no hint of her romance with Sinclair, past or present, although one does wonder at the very end when Francesca wins the bet (c'mon, not really a spoiler, is it? She is the matchmaker after all). It is also fun to see Francesca wield her power as a high-ranked lady to outwit Constance's stubborn aunt who is husband-hunting for her daughters and Dominic's stubborn admirer who won't take "no" for an answer.There are some surprising topics that pop into The Marriage Wager that I had not expected, and I do not think that I had ever encountered in any romance novel that I have read. Francesca and Dominic's family keep some skeletons in their closet, and these shocking secrets surface at the end of the book!All in all, I think The Marriage Wager is an enjoyable romance as Regency romance goes (though no underlying mystery or mayhem involved). I think I prefer The Courtship Dance for some undetermined reason (I admit that it could be due to the fact that I read it first).
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A fun regency romance with a lot of the usual plot points and with a refreshingly realistic attitude.Constance Woodley stayed at home to nurse her father through his final illness and was older than most when he died to have her season in London, her sister-in-law and brother convinced her to help mind their daughters and now, when they're old enough she's working as their chaperone. No-one reckoned on Lady Haughtson and a bet.It's light fun, fairly realistic and with a lot of interesting characters and situations.