Wagering for Miss Blake by Callie Hutton – a Review

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Description:
Mr. Giles Templeton, third son of the Earl of Wexford, is a rake of the highest order and a confirmed bachelor. Yet, marriage-minded-mamas continue to drag their daughters to his attention. He’s everything a young lady of the ton could want—handsome, wealthy, charming, and kind. For Miss Suzanna Blake, though, Giles is missing the one thing her parents require in a potential son-in-law—a title.

Giles has a golden touch—investments, horses, connections but when he falls…hard for Suzanna, she turns him away, despite the passion sparking between them. At wit’s end, Giles wagers her that not only will she marry him but he’ll make her fall in love with him. If Suzanna wins, she gains a sizable fortune for her favorite charity but she faces a loveless marriage to a titled man. Though her heart yearns for a true love-match with Giles, she has never gone against her parent’s wishes. All bets are off when happiness lies in losing a wager.

Review:

Book 4 of the Lords and Ladies in Love series, Wagering for Miss Blake, will accelerate your heart rate with a sensual game of cat and mouse, but most importantly, earn high praise for defending the importance of love. Callie Hutton takes the ton to task with the collectiveive, indomitable spirit of Giles and Suzanna.

Giles Templeton’s lack of a title has never been a deterrent; his rakish ways even charming. But it’s the single most vexing, nay, tormenting impediment to winning over Suzanna Blake.

“However, she’d been quite disappointed when he’d been introduced as Mr. Templeton. She sighed inwardly. Mother would never approve, and Father would go along with whatever Mother wanted. And her mother wanted a title for her only daughter. A title.”

So it’s her mother, more accurately.

Giles is the son of an earl, but not the first…with the coveted title. Second place is first loser, if Ricky Bobby were to tell it. Bugger that. Suzanna has been conditioned to attain the elusive title via marriage, but life’s purpose changed upon meeting Giles. If only choices were hers to make!

Suzanna and Giles were enamored from the onset; their conversations captivating and engaging. It really was a harsher, critical time to thrive among the nobility. Any mother would want happiness and true love for her daughter, but the stigma attached, the expectations imposed, are confining and sheltered.

I was impressed by Suzanna’s strength and spine. She thought little of the ton’s amenities and falling in love with Giles steeled her resolve to fight for her future. Giles…swoon-worthy to be sure! A genuine charmer, with a healthy amount of arrogance and confidence, but never a hypocrite nor disingenuous.

“When I want something, I do everything in my power to succeed. Except deceit. I will win you fairly and honorably.”

Will Suzanna sacrifice Giles’s devotion, and her happiness, to appease her mother? Gretna Green sounds far more tantalizing, don’t you agree? I really enjoyed Wagering Miss Blake! Giles was relentless in his pursuit and I loved the progress he made to allay Susanna’s fears, however incrementally. Strides were life-affirming. I found Giles’s bachelor blue blood besties to be just as devil-may-care and I’m certain Ms. Hutton can maintain this high with their HEAs.

Reviewed by Carmen

Copy provided by Publisher