The Wager by Lily Maxton

The Basics:
The Wager by Lily Maxton
Entangled: Scandalous
Book (Novella) Two in the Sisters of Scandal series
Historical Romance
Published August 11, 2014
Source: Received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Amazon.ca Kobo.com

Why I picked up this book:

I was enticed by the blurb.


Blurb:

A seductive wager…winner takes all

London, 1818

Anne Middleton never plays by the rules. She is willful when she should be obedient and unabashed when she should be decorous. Worse still, she can never resist a good wager...or a very naughty book. And Confessions of a Courtesan is about as sensational and risqué as a book can be.

Michael Grey—the Earl of Thornhill—had once courted Anne's sweet and modest sister. But whilst Anne is certainly no lady of decorum, her bold impulsiveness slips through his armor, and propriety is forgotten. Now he too is immersed in the book of forbidden delights, where each page is an invitation to sin and a guide to pleasures unknown...

Roused by heady desire, Michael tempts Anne in a way she cannot resist—a wager. Thus begins a game of chance, where coins have been replaced by a currency that is far more illicit. And the stakes of seduction are dangerous indeed...

My thoughts:

This novella-length tale of romance in the Regency period won me over completely.

For me, this length requires a few things - either an obvious immediate connection between two strangers that flourishes quickly, or a pre-existing relationship that suddenly blossoms into something sweeter (and/or lustier) than it was before the story begins. The Wager takes the latter route, with Michael the former suitor of Anne's sister.

I absolutely adored the exchange of letters that brought these two closer. I think it's a very relatable technique as so many modern relationships involve emails and text messages. Truly, I found them quite charming.

I also loved the way that the book within the book was used. This point of connection endeared me to the couple even more. That they took turns being shocked or surprised by each other was rather amusing - not having a completely jaded hero was a very nice change of pace!

I read the first in the series back in April and *apparently had no recollection of it at all.* But I thought quite highly of it at the time! Clearly I need these novellas to be longer, to make a longer lasting impression.

Bottom line:

I loved this short historical romance. I found it believable within the limits of the length and my complaint is that it wasn't any longer because I would have been quite happy to read more of these two.

4.5 stars
For fans of Regency romance, novellas, slightly scandalous heroines