Rating: 
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Excellent book. Well written and refreshingly different. The author brings Regency London alive. Both Nicholas and Sarah are strong characters and Sarah is no simpering Miss, but a vital, intelligent woman who is a good match for Nicholas. Julia Justiss draws an excellent villain, as well. Hard to believe this is Justiss's first book. I'm looking forward to her future ones.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good for first book
Review: I enjoyed "The Wedding Gamble" for the most part. Sarah seemed to be such a strong heroine that I felt she should have had the guts to speak to her husband about her feelings regarding his mistress, as opposed to just accepting and worrying about it. Also the situation with Sinjin was never really cleared up to my satisfaction. I hope that Ms. Justiss intends on writing another book with Sinjin as the hero so that we can find out what lucky lady wins him. Otherwise I really enjoyed the book and Ms. Justiss appears to have a promising writing career ahead.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good for first book
Review: I enjoyed "The Wedding Gamble" for the most part. Sarah seemed to be such a strong heroine that I felt she should have had the guts to speak to her husband about her feelings regarding his mistress, as opposed to just accepting and worrying about it. Also the situation with Sinjin was never really cleared up to my satisfaction. I hope that Ms. Justiss intends on writing another book with Sinjin as the hero so that we can find out what lucky lady wins him. Otherwise I really enjoyed the book and Ms. Justiss appears to have a promising writing career ahead.
Rating:
Summary: A thoroughly delightful book!!
Review: I enjoyed The Wedding Gamble so much. It was cleverly written--both sweet and steamy. The humor was wonderful and the author shows an immense knowledge of the Regency period. I recommend this book to anyone who loves a good Regency romance.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: I liked it a lot. I admit that it did bother me that Sarah never really seemed to let go of Sinjin. But I liked it anyway. I liked Nick.
Rating:
Summary: A good book
Review: I really enjoyed this even though I don't usually read Harlequin Novels. This book's plot is is very refreshing. The heroine is very likable as is the hero. The only thing I really didn't like was that for most of the novel she thought she was in love with her childhood sweetheart and it never said that she stopped loving him. Besides that it was very good.
Rating: 
Summary: A puzzling book in parts...
Review: I sought this book out (...) just to find out the story of Sarah and Nicholas Englemere, who play such a prominent role in THE PROPER WIFE. I ended up reading the book in one sitting (meaning it certainly meets one criterion - keeping my interest sustained), but I was left oddly disappointed. Why? The plot is great, the devices are great. What is a problem for me, perhaps, is not so much the fact that the story begins with the hero engaged to another woman (a virtual shrew), or that the heroine is penniless and on the threshold of marriage to a sadist. The first part of the book was perfect. My problems began in the second part of the book (after the couple get married), beginning with Sir James (the villain) gatecrashing the wedding party, and culminating perhaps in the remarkable scene between Englemere and Sinjun. Let us just say that Sinjun's suggestion took my breath away, almost as much as it did the Marquess's. Furthermore, it exposed a new facet of him, which I had not expected from THE PROPER WIFE (where there is a wonderful scene between him and Englemere). The ending was powerful and suspenseful, in that I wondered at Sarah's conviction that she would be rescued in time and her willingness to risk her life, not just her reputation, to save other women. Yet, I could fully understand where she was coming from. The difficulty I had was with the apparent bravado of Englemere's former mistress, and the blindness of husband and wife to the fact that both she and another person were being used by the villain to create trouble in their marriage. Read this book for the remarkable beginning and the fierceness of Sarah's convictions. You will be frustrated in parts (and I could wish that her feelings were left unclear until the end) because Sarah is unwilling to face Englemere with the truth - that she loves him. [You knew that, didn't you?]. A conversation between husband and wife might have cleared up both the Big Misunderstanding and the Little Misunderstandings.
Justiss is right in showing Englemere as unwilling to talk about his past love life to his new wife, and Sarah as hesitant to expose her feelings, and in fearing for her security with an apparent gambler. But to us post-modern readers, some of this behavior seems strange - although it is the result of the author's effort to remain true to the period. I am rating this a 3.5 because a lot of things did not make sense to me: 1) why Englemere chose Lady Clarissa when he wanted a quiet calm wife; 2) why Sarah's ancestral estate was not entailed (the explanation was not good enough); 3) why Sinjun thought he could persuade Sarah into an adulterous affair, even though it would be dishonourable and completely out-of-character; 4) why Sarah refused to confront her husband with his mistress's presence at her ball; 5) why neither Sarah nor Englemere suspected the fine hand of Sir James; 6) why Sarah felt that she could trust either her husband or her former lover to rescue her from Sir James [my biggest problem]. And as I said, I would have liked to see Sarah's feelings about her former love far more uncertain. Once she had admitted to herself that she loved her husband, her inability to confront him about Mrs Ingram made little sense. We are to believe that she thought Englemere did not love her, and that she hoped to persuade him into loving her with sex alone. Which brings me to my last difficulty. I just had a lot of trouble with the last sex scene. Not just because it was so explicit, but because the language and euphemisms were far too flowery, completely unlike the rest of the novel. It is as if a Bertrice Small scene was plunked into a well-mannered Regency. That is why the book gets only 3.5. It is a good book, but it is not a keeper for me (independent of the grade). For the best work by Justiss published so far, I recommend her third book A SCANDALOUS PROPOSAL (published 2000).
Rating:
Summary: A puzzling book in parts...
Review: I sought this book out (...) just to find out the story of Sarah and Nicholas Englemere, who play such a prominent role in THE PROPER WIFE. I ended up reading the book in one sitting (meaning it certainly meets one criterion - keeping my interest sustained), but I was left oddly disappointed. Why? The plot is great, the devices are great. What is a problem for me, perhaps, is not so much the fact that the story begins with the hero engaged to another woman (a virtual shrew), or that the heroine is penniless and on the threshold of marriage to a sadist. The first part of the book was perfect. My problems began in the second part of the book (after the couple get married), beginning with Sir James (the villain) gatecrashing the wedding party, and culminating perhaps in the remarkable scene between Englemere and Sinjun. Let us just say that Sinjun's suggestion took my breath away, almost as much as it did the Marquess's. Furthermore, it exposed a new facet of him, which I had not expected from THE PROPER WIFE (where there is a wonderful scene between him and Englemere). The ending was powerful and suspenseful, in that I wondered at Sarah's conviction that she would be rescued in time and her willingness to risk her life, not just her reputation, to save other women. Yet, I could fully understand where she was coming from. The difficulty I had was with the apparent bravado of Englemere's former mistress, and the blindness of husband and wife to the fact that both she and another person were being used by the villain to create trouble in their marriage. Read this book for the remarkable beginning and the fierceness of Sarah's convictions. You will be frustrated in parts (and I could wish that her feelings were left unclear until the end) because Sarah is unwilling to face Englemere with the truth - that she loves him. [You knew that, didn't you?]. A conversation between husband and wife might have cleared up both the Big Misunderstanding and the Little Misunderstandings.
Justiss is right in showing Englemere as unwilling to talk about his past love life to his new wife, and Sarah as hesitant to expose her feelings, and in fearing for her security with an apparent gambler. But to us post-modern readers, some of this behavior seems strange - although it is the result of the author's effort to remain true to the period. I am rating this a 3.5 because a lot of things did not make sense to me: 1) why Englemere chose Lady Clarissa when he wanted a quiet calm wife; 2) why Sarah's ancestral estate was not entailed (the explanation was not good enough); 3) why Sinjun thought he could persuade Sarah into an adulterous affair, even though it would be dishonourable and completely out-of-character; 4) why Sarah refused to confront her husband with his mistress's presence at her ball; 5) why neither Sarah nor Englemere suspected the fine hand of Sir James; 6) why Sarah felt that she could trust either her husband or her former lover to rescue her from Sir James [my biggest problem]. And as I said, I would have liked to see Sarah's feelings about her former love far more uncertain. Once she had admitted to herself that she loved her husband, her inability to confront him about Mrs Ingram made little sense. We are to believe that she thought Englemere did not love her, and that she hoped to persuade him into loving her with sex alone. Which brings me to my last difficulty. I just had a lot of trouble with the last sex scene. Not just because it was so explicit, but because the language and euphemisms were far too flowery, completely unlike the rest of the novel. It is as if a Bertrice Small scene was plunked into a well-mannered Regency. That is why the book gets only 3.5. It is a good book, but it is not a keeper for me (independent of the grade). For the best work by Justiss published so far, I recommend her third book A SCANDALOUS PROPOSAL (published 2000).
Rating:
Summary: The Wedding Gamble was truly delightful.
Review: I usually do not read Historical romance and The Wedding Gamble is the first Regency Romance I have ever purchased. After reading about Sarah's plight, during the Marriage Mart season, I would like to read more books in this time period. Ms. Justiss did a wonderful job with descriptions and she portrayed Sarah as a strong heroine who knew how to go about getting what she needed and wanted. Ms. Justiss also did a splendid job making me hate the villian and love the Marquess of Englemere. I look forward to reading more books by this author.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book up to the point where Heroine becomes annoying
Review: In the beginning, this was a great book which kept me reading and not able to put down. However, the Heroine (Sarah) becomes rather annoying after marriage to the Hero with her unshakeable sense of "DUTY". Also, the whole plot regarding the past love she was not able to get over and ignored due to her "duty" to her husband was pathetic. Almost everytime she ran into her lost love, she almost immediately ran to her husband for sex (please - get real!) Portraying the Heroine as such a lost, sad and tragic figure due to her lost love was BORING!! I liked the characters of Nicholas and Sinjin. However, although Sarah started out as a very likeable character, I ultimately ended up despising her for her misguided sense of duty,her inability to leave behind her lost love (especially since she had already admitted that she loved her husband) and her misuse/abuse of Sinjin. Why run to him when she has a husband more than capable of taking care of her? Especially at the end when she confronted Findlay? Why ask Sinjin to be there to help her and not Nicholas, her husband - but yet, she writes a really sappy disgusting goodbye love letter to her husband, Nicholas, describing where she is and what she is doing. Great book up to a certain point, then proceeds to become annoying and ridiculous. At one point, I was so frustrated and angry with Sarah that I wanted to throw the book away without finishing it. However, I made myself finish it and really wish I hadn't!!! Hope to see a book about Sinjin.
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