Knave’s Wager by Loretta Chase

knaves wagerNarrated by Stevie Zimmerman

Knaves’ Wager is one of Loretta Chase’s earlier titles, having originally been published in 1990. The author’s trademark wit and humour are much in evidence, the principal and secondary characters are strongly drawn, and the story features a sweet secondary romance as well as the very well-developed central one. The book also boasts one of her wittiest, sexiest heroes and lots of wonderful, battle-of-the-sexes banter.

Julian Wyndhurst, Marquess of Brandon has recently returned to London from the war-torn continent, having been summoned home to deal with a family emergency – which it turns out is his cousin Robert’s intention to marry his mistress of two years’ standing. Julian is not pleased at having been called back for such a paltry reason, but Robert has not only expressed his desire to marry his chère amie, he has committed his intentions to paper, which puts a completely different complexion on things.

Reluctantly, Julian confronts the young woman fully intending to buy her off, but she is made of sterner stuff and instead proposes a wager. If Julian can seduce the thoroughly proper and upstanding Mrs Davenant within the next eight weeks, she will bow out gracefully, return Robert’s letters and agree never to see him again.

Having already formed the intention of laying siege to the widow’s virtue, and fully cognisant of the effect upon women of his exceptional good looks and confident in his ability to charm the birds from the trees, Julian accepts.

Lilith Davenant is cool, composed and has the reputation of being an ice-queen. She is reserved, but is kind, thoughtful and generous to those who know her best, as well as possessing has a dry sense of humour that she rarely has the opportunity to exercise. Her late husband did not treat her well, and left her in straightened circumstances. Having no children of her own, Lilith has made it her mission to bring out her numerous nieces, but now her finances are dwindling to such an extent that she is forced to consider the idea of marrying again.

Julian, however, will have greater obstacles to overcome than his bad-boy reputation and Lilith’s sense of propriety, for she blames him for her husband’s demise. Even though Davenant was ill, Lilith believes his end was hastened by his association with Julian’s set, and the final indignity was that her husband died owing Julian a very large sum of money, which has caused the depletion of her finances.

Of course, Lilith can’t help but find herself reluctantly drawn to the gorgeous marquess, and of course, he can’t help falling for her and then being too stupid to recognise his feelings for what they really are. But even such a clichéd plotline can’t detract from the sheer joy to be found in this story. The chemistry between the leads is potent, and the author builds the sexual tension between them by slow degrees so that nothing feels rushed or forced. Julian and Lilith eventually manage to put their preconceptions aside and develop a genuine friendship in which they discover that they enjoy each other’s company and like each other as people as much as they are also attracted to each other.

Julian is one of the most delightful heroes I’ve had the pleasure to encounter in an historical romance. His studied irreverence is one of the highlights of the book; his humour is often too sophisticated to be understood by most of the ton, whose members are never quite sure whether to take him seriously or not. And when he meets someone who can not only understand him, but can give as good as she gets, it’s time to sit back and let the verbal jousting commence.

“I do not understand,” she said, “how you can chatter incessantly while you waltz. Your lungs must be prodigious strong.”

“When I am flirting, I have the strength of ten men. You will not flirt back, but that cannot stop me. The habit is too deeply ingrained. I find a stunning woman in my arms, and I must flirt with her.”

“You have obviously confused me with some Incomparable. It is your lamentable eyesight, I daresay.”

“I hope not. You have no idea the inconvenience I was put to in order to get you in my arms so that I should be compelled to flirt with you.”

He saw the shadow of uneasiness flit across otherwise immobile features.

“You must not be alarmed for my health, Mrs. Davenant,” he said comfortingly. “I promise to make up for the exertion by lying abed very late tomorrow.”

Stevie Zimmerman has a number of audiobook narrations to her credit, but this is the first time I have listened to her. She does a very good job with her characterisations and differentiation between them, and her narration is well-paced, expressive and very naturalistic in manner. There were a few moments where I felt that perhaps she had not quite caught the emotional thrust of a particular scene or speech, but they were very few and did not detract from my enjoyment in any way. Ms Zimmerman sounds very youthful and her voice has a lightness about it which led to concern on my part as to whether she would be able to bring sufficient depth to her interpretation of the hero – but her portrayal of Julian proved to be more than satisfactory. She catches his insouciance very well and is especially good in the few serious moments in the latter part of the story when he finally admits the truth of his feelings for Lilith.

My big bug-bear with this audiobook, however, is the overall quality of the sound. I started listening to it just after I’d finished a review audio provided by one of the major audio publishers and my first reaction was one of shock at the background hum and tinny sound. I thought that perhaps it was just the abruptness of the contrast, but as I continued to listen, I realised the fault was not with my ears, and that the recording sounds treble-heavy. The background hum seems to be present only during the beginning and end credits, and once I’d got used to the fact that the sound quality in this is of a lower order than I’m used to, I was able to get past it and to enjoy the story and the narration. But this does seem to be an issue with some self-published audiobooks as this isn’t the only one I’ve listened to in which I have encountered similar problems.

I’m going to recommend Knave’s Wager on the strength of the story and the narration, which are both strong enough to enable the listener to overcome the issues I’ve mentioned with the sound quality. Once one becomes engaged in the warmth and wit of the story, it’s possible to set those concerns aside and enjoy listening to this truly wonderful romance by a master of the genre.

Caz


Narration: B

Book Content: B+

Steam Factor: You can listen out loud (kisses only)

Violence: None

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: NYLA

5 thoughts on “Knave’s Wager by Loretta Chase

  1. Back in 2012 when Chase’s backlist was available in e-format I bought them all!
    The Knave’s Wager is my favorite of these, but what I wanted to mention is that they are part of the Audible/Kindle deal so I picked up the audios for a steal. My summer is jam packed with listening…..I’m worse than my kids with the ear-buds constantly in my ears….it’s too funny!
    I find that many of these early Chases are reminiscence of Georgette Heyer. Knaves Wager seems especially inspired by Faro’s Daughter. I loved it, despite the tinny beginnings, Stevie Zimmerman does a great job. I really liked her portrayal of Julian, he’s so cool in that regency rake kinda way.

    Great review.

    1. Sadly, those Audible/Kindle deals haven’t reached this side of the pond yet :( but I had plenty of credits stored up and had heard good things about the story, so it was worth it!

      It’s been a while since I read that Heyer (there’s a new unabridged audio on the way from Naxos, by the way!) , so can’t attest to the similarities, but I did enjoy the story – Julian is so urbane and witty (not to mention sex-on-legs!) he steals it completely.

  2. Same here Mel! Also bought the Kindle/Audible combos. So worth it. And I want to spread joy all around and share that Lessons in French by Laura Kinsale narrated by Nick Boulton has been released. It’s now waiting for me in my Audible library. Audio heaven revisited.

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