Barbara’s rating: 3.3 out of 5 Stars
Series: On His Majesty’s Secret Service #1
Publication Date: 11/5/2018 — 1990
Period: Regency London
Number of Pages: 246

This book was first released in 1990 as Ecstasy’s Gamble and was substantially rewritten/revised for this 2018 release. Still, even with the rewrite, it is very much a throwback to the times of ultra-alpha males dominating. If you enjoy books from that time and earlier, you’ll enjoy this story. It is definitely not a story where the male stops every five seconds and asks the female’s permission. Please do not think my 3-star rating is because of the male lead – it is not. I didn’t care for his coercive actions, but the female lead annoyed me more. I just cannot abide a female who is TSTL – especially when her actions endanger others – as they usually do. This female lead was TSTL on every level.

Lady Jessica Carlton, daughter of the Earl of Braeleigh, gambles – almost nightly – in the gaming hell owned by a French émigré, Madam du Barre. She’s not there because she loves gambling. She gambles under the name of Lady Fortuna because her wicked stepmother is forcing her to pay a ‘stipend’ in order to continue to see her young brother and to avoid having to marry a very odious man. You see, Jessica’s father is deceased and her seven-year-old brother is the new earl with his stepmother having guardianship over him. If Jessica cannot pay the stipend, then she will be forced to marry the odious man and she’ll be unable to see (and protect) her young brother. Her stepmother is on wicked overload!

Here’s part of what bothers me about the above scenario. First, I have to wonder about how much research the author did into the period about which she was writing. Children, especially heirs to a title, would never have had a female as guardian. If there were no male family members to take on the role, the guardianship would have been managed by a group of solicitors, etc. The child could have continued to live with the stepmother – if the guardians thought that appropriate – but his assets would not have been under her control. Then, I cannot imagine that Jessica’s father, knowing what he did about his wife, would ever have left her involved in any way with either of his children’s lives. But still, even if that all happened as described, Jessica, as the daughter of an Earl could have found someone to speak with – a solicitor, etc. – to try to extricate both herself and her brother from the stepmother’s clutches. To me – all of that is just totally improbable, and to me, that is her first TSTL act – to just accept the situation as is. After all, to be a gambler – who never loses – you have to be pretty shrewd, a good judge of people, and have excellent intelligence. Jessica displayed none of that.

Damien Trevor, Duke of Wyndham, spent years in France as the spy Le Chat and has just returned to England after he and his men barely escaped with their lives. As he is no longer in His Majesty’s Service, he is surprised when his former leader asks him to take on a mission in England. It seems someone is passing information to the French – very secret information – and they need to find out who is doing it and put a stop to them.

So, about that. Damien had already met Jessica and blackmailed her into sleeping with him and was further coercing her to have a relationship. It didn’t seem there was much investigation or intelligence gathering done before he leapt to the conclusion that Jessica was the one delivering the messages. I mean – his ‘intelligence’ network didn’t even know who Jessica really was or anything about her – and seemed okay with that. For someone who was the premier spy for the country, he didn’t seem to be very smart.

Lots of things happen and Jessica displays many more occasions of being TSTL and Damien displays many more occasions of being an ultra-alpha male before we finally get an ending for all of the villains and the HEA for Jessica and Damien.

Do I recommend this book? I’m just not sure. Something about it kept me reading rather than not finishing it, so I did like most of the story even if Jessica annoyed me more than Damien. Is that sexist? Maybe. However, I just cannot abide stupid women – because they aren’t stupid – and so, Jessica really annoyed me. My thinking is – if you enjoyed an old-school historical romance in the vein of Johanna Lindsey or Kathleen Woodiwiss, then you would probably enjoy this. I love both of those authors and if our female lead wasn’t TSTL, I would probably have rated this one higher. If you have more modern sensibilities where you want to read a beta male lead who stops every five seconds to get the female consent, then you probably won’t enjoy it.

I believe I will try the second book in the series to see if TSTL female leads are a thing for this author or if she actually writes an intelligent, thoughtful, non-victim, type of female lead. If she gets away from the TSTL leads, I might continue to read this author because I did enjoy her writing style. Of course, she’d also need to come up with more sensible plots too. 😊

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