2.5 stars

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Miss Gabriel's Gambit opens with David Rutherford, Lord Donhill, losing to a chess match that has been played for ten years through correspondence. He thinks he was playing Sir Miles, a man he met in India. However, as Sir Miles' health failed, his niece Sylvia took over and not only responded to David's letters but his chess moves. Despondent that his chess game is over, David gets into his cups and makes a wager that if any woman beats him at chess, he'll marry her. Once he learns that Sir Miles has died, he decides to pay his respects and questions who he actually was playing chess against those last years.

Now that he realized that a husband was the only honorable defense for a female in Sylvia’s exposed circumstance, he could not offer her that option, even if he wished. He had never reneged on a wager in his life.

After losing her parents when she was younger, Sylvia traveled with her uncle as he played chess matches, learning the game herself. When Sir Miles dies, she then is at the mercy of her aunt who treats her like a servant. She was set to become betrothed to Lord Hugo Highslip but when her dowry ends up missing, he backs off, not wanting to marry someone penniless. In her uncle's will, he left clues as to where her dowry, jewels and money, could be found but no one has been able to crack to the code and just assume her uncle lost the money in mismanagement. When David shows up at her aunt's home, she knows she has to protect her reputation, so she lies and says her brother William is the one who was sending the chess moves.

Does he feel more than friendship? She wondered. Does he feel this strange awareness, as if something wonderful and frightening is about to happen?

For a story that seemed to have a lot of threads involving chess, there wasn't a lot of chess in it. The only chess we get to see between Sylvia and David is the beginning ending move sent through correspondence, one quick game in public, and an at the very end sitting across from each other over board. I missed our leads making moves, testing each other over a chess board that translated to some delicious combative tension. What the story does deliver is a very vernacular and toned romance sub-genre Traditional Regency. There's a couple kisses but, for the most part, our leads don't get to spend a lot of time together one-on-one; if you've only been a reader of newly published Regency, you'll find the tone vastly different. There's a decided lack of romping around, sexually or heroine adventures.

So, the alternatives were either, William’s ruin or William’s death or, she added reluctantly, her ruin.

Even though our heroine doesn't defy convention by running around London, Sylvia is a strong and substantial character. I liked how she stood up for her cousins and self and used her smarts and anger over how the men were treating her to beat them at their own game. David reminded me of how a select amount of heroine's are portrayed today, he needs to wear glasses and is forever ruining his, already hapless attire, to polish them. This couple wasn't steamy but they had a nice harmony to them. I did miss a building up of their relationship, though. There's a misunderstanding and subsequent awfulness David acts toward Sylvia that was disappointing to see from him so late in the story and it made his realization to “I love you” towards Sylvia feel even more rushed.

As he crossed the floor towards her, she could read a promise in his face, an assurance that was almost as real as a comforting hand upon the shoulder. There was nothing to fear now that he had come.

There's mention of David and Sylvia spending time in India and a few appearances of David's servant Harjit but no real substance to either and the mystery and search for Sylvia's dowry only provides a faint reason to keep David in Sylvia's orbit rather than a fun treasure hunt. There was some villainy and rescuing but the action finally came about a bit too late in the story for me. The ending felt a little abrupt with finally out-loud admitted “I love you” but that could just be me used to newly published works almost always having epilogues. This was originally published in 1993 (I read the 2020 Kindle version, not sure if reworked) and it definitely has the Traditional Regency sub-genre feel, if looking for just kisses and Brummell to be a strong secondary character, then this would match that taste. ( )