Wicked Wager by Mary Gillgannon

 Wicked Wager by Mary Gillgannon

Blurb:

When hardened gamester Marcus Revington wins Horngate Manor in a card game, he's delighted to finally own property, and undeterred when he learns he must marry the heiress of the estate to claim it.

The heiress, Penny Montgomery, is happy with her life raising horses at Horngate and has no desire to wed anyone. When she discovers what her guardian has done, she comes up with a scheme to convince Marcus she's unsuitable as a wife so he'll give up his plan to marry her.

Who will win in this battle of wits and wills? Or will they both discover the name of the game is love?


I've had this book on my wishlist for a long time. Every time I wanted to buy it, I stopped before the deed was done because I wasn't really sure what to expect. I really love the cover, I think that it is beautiful but I wasn't sure if the cover or the blurb was an indication of the content. Sure, the blurb tells us what all of this is about but it doesn't tell us whether the emphasis is on the erotic part indicated by the cover (and somehow contradicted by the story told in the blurb) or on the story.

Actually it is a mixture of both I think. It has this captivating and really nice story about Penny and Marcus who fall for each other despite their very rocky start with Penny being part of her cousin's loss at the card tables and it also has a lot of rather steamy content. Tastefully written and sweet but a lot of it nonetheless. I must admit that I skipped several pages every now and then because of that. I wanted to read more of the story and how that turned out and less how compatible they are in bed. (They are, don't worry about that!)

I would have loved it better if the emphasis had been more on the story itself and the battle between hero and heroine and less on their mutual sexual attraction and its consequences.  It was a nice story but it could have been much more as the characters are really great and I really enjoyed their verbal sparring.

★★★★