Category: Tracy’s Reviews

A Gentleman’s Gamble by Maggie Dallen

On By TracyIn Novella, Regency Era (1811-1820), Tracy's Reviews1 Comment

A Gentleman's Gamble (Devilish Lords Book 3)A Gentleman’s Gamble by Maggie Dallen
Tracy’s rating: 4/4.5 of 5 stars

Series: Devilish Lords, #3

Release Date: August 21, 2018

Jeb Cleveland and Eliza Beaucraft have a past, two years ago Jeb hit rock bottom and almost took a wager that would have cost him is honor and a young girl’s reputation. But he realized his mistake and walked away – straight into Eliza, the sister of the woman he was going to wager over. Eliza tells Jeb in no uncertain terms exactly what she thinks of him and warns him to stay away from her sister.

Two years later, Eliza has a problem and now it is her turn to gamble. Her father wants her to marry his disgusting business partner, Eliza believed that she was well on her way to being a spinster and was fine with that. She is not a beauty, tends to be prickly and wants nothing more than to be independent. She hatches a plan, knowing Jeb to be a worthless rake with a gambling addiction, she decides to offer him a gamble he can’t pass up – her dowry in exchange for a marriage of convenience. He will get the money he needs to pay off his brother in law and she will be free of her abusive father, but the true lure is the risk, this is an all or nothing kind of bet – there is every chance her father will not pay him – she is hoping that the thrill of the uncertain outcome will be the thing he can’t pass up.

Eliza finagles an invitation to Georgie’s house party and allows her sister Mary to update her wardrobe and soften her hairstyle, not that she thinks it will help, she is doesn’t expect Jeb to want her – just her dowry.

When Jeb learns that Eliza will be at the party, he dreads seeing her, she reminds him of his failure, but he is shocked by her transformation and her cordialness, he wonders if she has forgiven him and hopes to get her alone to talk. As luck would have it, they meet by chance later that night and when she asks him to marry her, he agrees. She insists that theirs will be a white marriage, but he insists on sealing their deal with a kiss.

They set off for Gretna Green and form a friendship of sorts along the way, with Jeb, Eliza can be her blunt self and he likes that about her. Once they marry, he tries to learn more about her and her desires, but prickly Eliza responds by comparing him to his father. She realizes that she hurt him and tries to make amends and they end up kissing again. Afterwards, Eliza turns frigid again, but Jeb press her and answers her questions honestly.

Eliza begins to realize how badly she has misjudged him and begins to think that they could have a real marriage together. But when they return to London to face her father everything goes horribly wrong. But their time together changed Eliza and when she is faced with Jeb’s betrayal, she refuses to believe that he hurt her on purpose, but it doesn’t really matter, because whatever was between them is over and her father is the only winner in the gamble, or is he?

This was a very sweet, well written novella. There are a couple of heated kisses, but for the most part this is very low steam novella, with flawed characters, twists and turns, forgiveness and a very well done HEA.

Reclaimed by the Knight by Nicole Locke

On By TracyIn Middle Ages / Medieval (476-1454), Tracy's ReviewsLeave a comment

Reclaimed by the Knight (Lovers and Legends #7)Reclaimed by the Knight by Nicole Locke

Tracy’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Lovers and Legends, #7

Release Date: September 1, 2018

If you read the previous book The Knight’s Scarred Maiden then you already know Nicholas of Mei Solis, he is the scarred knight that helped Rhain escape the vengeance of Reynold of Warstone. If like me you wondered about his past, the wait is over!

Commanded by Rhain to return home and settle his past, Nicholas dreads returning to his holding and the only woman he ever loved, the woman who promised to marry him and married his best friend while he was away. Six years ago, Nicholas was happy and in love, he left Mei Solis to earn coin for the property, he said he would return in two years and left even after Matilda begged him to stay. Two years turned to three and with it a horrific injury and the news that his love married his friend Roger. That news kept him alive, alive to seek vengeance on his erstwhile friend and his faithless love. Now three years after receiving the news, he is back and ready to put the past behind him and move on with his life.

Matilda loved Nicholas with all her youthful heart and begged him not to leave, but leave he did, without even a proper goodbye. At first he wrote her letters and she wrote back, but then his letters to her suddenly stopped without explanation, but he continued to correspond with Louve, the estate steward. Believing he broke their betrothal, Matilda marries his friend Roger, she writes to him one last time to tell him of her marriage, and tries to love her husband as he deserves. Nicholas, Matilda, Roger and Louve all grew up together and were dear friends, but what Matilda felt for Nicholas was much deeper and she was heartbroken when he broke their betrothal.

She was content with Roger, but never loved him as she did Nicholas and feels guilty about that. Roger is dead and she is pregnant with his child, she has tried very hard to change and become the type of person she believes Roger wanted her to be, she curbs her adventurousness and her temper, but Nicholas’s returns and treats her like she betrayed him, she cannot let that go without speaking her mind.

They talk and argue, each believing they are the wronged party and slowly they begin to accept their own roles in the break down of their relationship. They form a tentative peace, but Matilda is sure Nicholas is leaving again and refuses to trust him. When Matilda goes into labor, Nicholas is by her side and after the baby is born, keeps his distance for weeks, until he hears her crying.

Something breaks in Matilda after Julianna’s birth and she feels like she is drowning in despair and grief. When Nicholas comforts her, it feels right and later when he insists that she stay in the manor, they finally have it out – the love they shared, never truly died, but hurt and mistrust are not easy to let go of, and when Reynold shows up, Matilda is sure Nicholas is lost to her forever.

This was a very emotionally charged book filled with misconceptions, mistrust, forgiveness, second chances and growing up. I personally felt that they both could have tried a little harder to communicate while he was away and Matilda was more angry than I believe warranted (for someone who married and had a child with another man) and I would have liked the ending to be a bit more specific regarding their HEA. But it was a very good story and makes me want to read Reynold’s book all the more!!!