A Rogue’s Wager by Christi Caldwell

The Rogue's Wager (Sinful Brides #1) by Christi Caldwell
Also by this author: The Love of a Rogue, Seduced By a Lady's Heart, Loved by a Duke, My Lady of Deception, The Heart of a Scoundrel, To Wed His Christmas Lady, To Trust a Rogue, To Woo a Widow, To Redeem a Rake (The Heart of a Duke Book 11), Along Came a Lady (All the Duke's Sins, #1)
Published by Montlake Romance on October 25th 2016
Genres: Historical, Romance, Regency
Pages: 325
Format: eARC
ISBN: 1503940624
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London, 1821
Lord Robert Dennington, the Marquess of Westfield, has long reveled in the freedom afforded him as the ducal heir. He knows he must someday do right by the Somerset line, but he’s in no hurry to give up his carefree existence.
Helena Banbury is a bookkeeper in a gentleman’s gambling club, adept at analyzing numbers and accounts but helpless for lack of influence. She’s never belonged among the nobility on the gaming hell floors, but neither does she feel completely herself among the men who run the Hell and Sin Club, despite the fact that they are family. The once-illiterate girl from the streets wants more than the gilded walls her protective cage can offer.
When Robert mistakenly enters her chambers one night, Helena is forced out of her predictable life and thrust into the glittering world of Society. Will the charms of the marquess prove more perilous than any danger she ever knew on the streets?

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A Rogue’s Wager is a deeply passionate historical romance between two unlikely regency era lovers. The story unfolds as Ms. Caldwell adds charm, wit, angst, and danger into her narrative of lovers from different ends of the social spectrum. This is Christi Caldwell’s debut as a traditionally published author, having signed with Montlake after establishing herself as an Indie writing phenom. She has a large backlist of books written and was a USA Today bestselling author prior to her deal with Montlake, part of Amazon’s publishing house. Ms. Caldwell writes poignant stories that feature romantic couples who could be real. It is this ‘Everyman’ quality of her writing and character development that has enamored her to readers because they can imagine themselves inserted into the role of heroine.

Caldwell’s story centers around the exploits of Helena Banbury, a woman who is reluctantly thrust into London society. Helena is out of her element and experiencing the world of the peerage. This is not your typical ‘fish out of water’ tale because Helena is both smart and well-grounded, not easily swayed by the trappings of wealth. Helena encounters Robert Dennington, the Marquee of Westfield, a very jaded gentleman. As with all of Caldwell’s books, Robert appeared as a secondary character in one of her previous books. The brilliance of Caldwell is that she does have a group of ‘players’ in her regency romances, but each book is a solid and complete story that is only enriched by her backlist titles. So, when readers pick up A Rogue’s Wager, they will be immersed in a rich and textured world of Caldwell’s making, filled with characters that are never flat and are always complex because she gives due diligence to all her characters from the minor ones on to the major characters. One of Caldwell many gifts as a writer is that she gives her characters quiet, poignant moments that anchor her stories beyond the romantic entanglements of love, giving the main characters in A Rogue’s Wager a chance to fall into love. Caldwell characters do have a palpable attraction, but love grows for them out of the mutual discovery of who they are beyond physical attraction.

In deciding to publish Ms. Caldwell, Amazon has hit gold in that she provides not only a new historical romance series but she has an established readership with a large and varied backlist library for new readers to discover.

I highly recommend Caldwell and A Rogue’s Wager, as she provides more than romance in this wonderful story of love and redemption.