The Marriage Wager

Francesca makes a wager with the Duke, he selects any girl from the ball as Francesca's next matchmaking endeavor and she will have her engaged by the end of the season. He chooses mousy chaperone Constance. Constance is shocked when Francesca befriends her. Orphaned, 28, and living with her aunt, she's chaperoning her cousins, not looking for love herself. But under Francesca's tutelage, she's blossoming and catches the eye of Francesca's brother - not what Francesca had in mind!

Miss Constance Woodley is having a lucky day. A supremely lucky day.

Due to a Duke's fancy, Lady Francesca is going to take her under her wing and look for a good match for her. No more standing in the corner as the companion to her cousins.

Constance is a charming character, modest and well-mannered. Lady Francesca is a superb social manipulator, aiding her at every turn.

A few stumbles on the way to true love and happier ever after.

A charmer of a novel, like a candy with a soft center.

This book had a number of positives and negatives for me. I enjoy the setting (both place and time), and the characters were entertaining. There were a number of clever plot elements, and everything ends well. I could easily give this book three or four stars if not for one particularly jarring element: premarital sex between the main couple.

I am hardly so naive as to believe that nothing ever happened before marriage in Regency England. However, I do not need it described for me, and it wasn't even really necessary for the story. The same attempted scandal creation could have occurred without it, and it would have made a lot more sense than what ended up transpiring between two individuals who hadn't even known each other for more than show more a couple months, tops. They called it love in the book. It really wasn't; it was unbridled passion and lust. show less

I like a book with an older and a younger couple on different timetables. This one is let down by a thing I very much dislike in romance novels: the intrusion of incest or rape (rather than camp mustache twirling), particularly since it's off screen, existing to make the people who oppose the match more repulsive than they otherwise would be.

I do like the likeable characters enough to keep an eye out for the fourth book in this series, the one that deals with this book's older couple.

At a party Lady Francesca Haughston is challenged by Lord Sinclair Rochford to get a Lady of his choice engaged by the end of the season. He selects Miss Constance Woodley, who is dependent on her uncle's family since her father's death. Constance is surprised and leery when she is suddenly taken up by such a distinguished Lady. And even more so when she finds that a gentleman who has been flirting with her is the Lady's brother. Very enjoyable Regency romance.

A fun regency romance with a lot of the usual plot points and with a refreshingly realistic attitude.

Constance Woodley stayed at home to nurse her father through his final illness and was older than most when he died to have her season in London, her sister-in-law and brother convinced her to help mind their daughters and now, when they're old enough she's working as their chaperone. No-one reckoned on Lady Haughtson and a bet.

It's light fun, fairly realistic and with a lot of interesting characters and situations.

The first in the Matchmakers series has a definite Cinderella-like flavor. Constance Woodley, on the shelf at twenty-nine, is in London for the first time only to act as a companion to her two spoiled younger cousins. Her aunt displays traditional "evil stepmother" tendencies, pressuring Constance to dress in drab, matronly clothing and ensuring that she is so busy tending to her daughters that she has no time to attempt to carve out a life for hersefl. Enter Lady Francesca Haughston, Constance's fairy godmother. Lady Francsca, a young widow who has had some success in helping society parents find matches for their daughters, makes a comment while at a ball that she could get any girl married. The Duke of Rochford takes her up on her show more wager, selecting Constance out of the crowd to be the focus of Francesca's efforts. Little does Francesca know, but that same night Constance actually meets her "prince" on her own--Francesca's brother. Dominic is, of course, above Constance socially; to complicate matters, his family is in financial straits and need him to marry well. All seems lost...or is it?

This story doesn't really hsve any surprises, but it is a well-written and fun read. The ending felt a bit rushed and almost a bit too neat, but overall I really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to reading the others in the series soon. show less