Wedding Wagers

Timeless Regency Collection, Book 11

De: Donna Hatch, Heather B. Moore, Michele Paige Holmes

Narrado por: Kim Bretton

Three wagers. Three couples. Let the bets begin.

A Wager for Love by Donna Hatch:

For once, Phillip would like to be seen as more than the younger brother of a duke. When he unexpectedly meets the one girl in all London who doesn’t give two figs for his rank in society, she won’t give him the time of day. Determined to gain her attention, he accidentally tips over her boat and dumps her into a river. Not the best way to convince a lady of worth that he is a gentleman of promise. Frustrated, Phillip makes a rash wager with a friend: He vows he’ll not only gain her forgiveness, but her hand in marriage by the end of the season. The stakes are high in this romantic Regency romp!

The Final Wager by Heather B. Moore:

When Victor Roland, Earl of Locken, enters into a game of 21 with Lord Southill, the stakes get quickly out of control. Before Victor knows it, Southill is betting the dowry of his sister. While completely illegal, Victor is mostly insulted, so he does what any gentleman of the ton should do. He punches Southill out. Problem is, Southill is in so much debt that he’d been kicked out of his townhouse earlier that day. So, Victor is forced to deliver Southill at his estate outside of London...only to meet Southill’s sister, Lady Juliet, a woman who Victor now wishes he’d bet on.

An Improbable Wager by Michele Paige Holmes:

Sherborne Alexander Rowley III has come home to marry his neighbor - and solve his financial problems in one fell swoop. Love doesn’t figure into the equation, only the need to save his family’s estate. The reserved Miss Emily Montgomery seems willing enough, leaving the only possible obstacle to Sherborne’s success his childhood friend, Eli Linfield, and the wager they made long ago that Eli would be the one to marry Emily. When the timely birth of a colt; Emily’s mischievous sister, Sophia; and Emily herself all conspire to ruin Sherborne’s plans, one night of mayhem unravels far more than their betrothal. Emily is not as demure as he believed, nor is Eli what he has pretended these many years. Yet the future for all may yet be bright. Sherborne might even wager on it.

From the publisher of the USA Today best-selling and number one Amazon best-selling timeless romance anthology series in regency romance comes Wedding Wagers. Featuring best-selling authors Donna Hatch, Heather B. Moore, and Michele Paige Holmes.

©2018 Heather B. Moore (P)2020 Mirror Press, LLC

Ok

First book. Just ok. Second book. Better but didn't like the ending. Third book. The best. Loved it.

Three clean Regency novellas

Wedding Wagers

A Wager on Love by Donna Hatch (3.5 stars)

A sweet story with likable main characters who were developed as much as possible given the shorter format of a novelette.

Only a couple of modern phrases to pop the reader out of the book, as well as some modern attitudes, but it was easy to lose oneself in the story and to cheer for the H and h.

The Final Wager by Heather B. Moore (3 stars)

A well-thought-out story with interesting characters. I liked the H and the h, their personalities are well-fleshed-out, especially given the fact that it’s a novella.

Two things bugged me, though. Spoiler alert:
1. The wager wasn’t complete. We know what he loses if she wins, but not what he wins if she loses...
2. There were more modern words, phrases and grammar than I care for. I’m normally pretty easy-going about such things as long as I can get lost in the characters. But I kept getting sucked back into reality by the sheer amount of them. A couple of examples: the h says, “...but perhaps you aren’t too picky?” Later, our hero says, “I did travel quite a way to crash your wedding”. It was a shame because it would be such an easy fix.

Ms. Moore is one of my favorite authors and she’s usually a stickler for a well-edited story. This wasn’t poorly edited, it just didn’t feel up to her usual excellent standard.

That said, it really was a very good story line and, as mentioned above, I really liked the characters she created.

An Improbable Wager by Michelle Paige Holmes (3.5 stars)

Unique story with very modern attitudes for the time period, but believable in spite of that.

Interesting main characters, especially Eli. The whole plot and POV revolves around him and that fact adds uniqueness to the story.

I didn’t catch any modern words or phrases that popped me out of the story and enjoyed the romance.

Michelle Paige Holmes is one of my favorite authors. You can’t go wrong choosing to read her stories.

The whole trilogy was enjoyable, light read

Narrator: 4 stars

Ms. Bretton has a good accent, does well with male voices and doesn't read too slowly. A well-acted book!

*poor, **ok, ***good, ****very good, *****something special

Swoonworthy!

I absolutely adore Regency romances and these three stories are no exception! They were all SO GOOD!!! But I especially liked the 2nd story by Heather B. Moore. To love someone so desperately that you'd give up everything to be with them is just so touching and beautiful. I also love that these stories are clean...free from foul language and sex, once again proving that you can have amazingly romantic and exciting love stories without the garbage! Oh! And the narrator is superb!!! All 4 of these ladies are extremely talented and deserve much more than 5 stars!!!

Enjoyable

This series is always good for a reliable listen. Some of the stories are more developed than others, but they're all generally sweet and pleasing. I liked all three in this set, though in the first story, there was so much repetition in Meredith’s internal thoughts, that it got somewhat annoying. The narrator, as usual, had very good pacing and excellent sense of scene and character personality.

Loved every story!

This was a lovely production! I could listen to her voice all day... and I pretty much did because I couldn’t turn it off. Love these authors!💜

3 wonderful regency stories

I love these collections and this was such a fun storyline to read about. I wondered how each author would fit the theme of "Wedding Wagers" into their novella. By the way, each of these stories didn't feel like I was reading a novella.

A Wager of Love by Donna Hatch--The Regency era had so many rules on who could marry whom, it's a wonder anyone got married for love. Phillip is the son of a duke and wants to meet a woman who's not interested in him just because he's the brother of a duke. He finally meets Meredith Brown, but when he accidentally dumps her into the River Thames it leads to a wager with his best friend. This was a fun story. I liked Phillip's friendship with Michael, the man he places the wager with. I think Phillip is a lucky man that Meredith was such a forgiving lady after he caused her unexpected swim in the Thames. I wouldn't have been quite as forgiving or found humor in it as Meredith did.

The Final Wager by Heather Moore--Victor Roland plays a game of twenty-one with Lord Southill, who loses hand after hand. Lord Southill finally tries to bet his sister and her dowry, which Victor refuses to do. Later on, Victor finds out the truth of Lord Southill's finances and meets his sister, the beautiful Lady Juliet. I loved this story. Poor Lady Juliet was saddled with a selfish brother who wasted their inheritance, and Victor wanted to help so that she didn't have to marry a man old enough to be her father. I loved the ending with the horses; it reminded me of Julia Roberts in Runaway Bride.

An Improbable Wager by Michele Paige Holmes--Sherborne Rowley III intends to marry his long-time neighbor, Emily Montgomery, because it will solve his financial problems. His plan hits a big snag when Eli Linfield, a childhood friend, remembers the wager they made as children that Eli would marry Emily. The late night birthing of a foal causes quite a bit of trouble for Sherborne, Eli and the Montgomery sisters, and a huge secret comes to light. I liked how this story resolved itself. I knew how the bet would end but I never suspected how it would play out. No spoilers here.

I liked the narrator and thought she did a great job with all of the voices.

Great Anthology

Each of the three stories included in this anthology is unique. I enjoyed them all and did not have a favorite. I had also purchased an ebook copy of Wedding Wagers and had read it before listening to the audiobook. Usually, I do not reread books, but I enjoyed this one so much I wanted to listen to it again.

The narrator did an exceptional job of bringing these stories to life. I will be looking forward to more audiobooks by Kim Bretton.

At my request, I was given a copy of this audiobook. My review was voluntary and my opinions were my own. I will be looking forward to the next anthology published.