Devils Wager by Mary Spencer

Devils Wager Reviews

• 
  Lauren

  Read: 2020
  It was bad!!! An American inherits a title in England and is treated horribly. His new wife loves him but doesn't defend him either. when his uncle dies she won't even travel to the funeral and then the villain drugs him and gambles away his home.
  
  He has 3 years to pay it back. She tells hi not to come back till he pays it back. When he finally accomplish his goals, he returns to the ungrateful wife, who upset because she thinks he cheated on her. Personally, I think he should have.
  
  The h only cares about her Godfather's house. She was annoying and selfish. Meanwhile, the H does everything to make her happy. Stupid fool!!
  
  Tis book was so awful, I had to skip pages. The book would have been better if the H never changed into something he wasn't for an undeserving woman.
  
  I rarely give 1 star but this book rubbed me the wrong way.
  
  I originally put this review under Dark Wadger but mixed the books up.
• 
  Sara

  The book starts with the prologue when the h is sleeping in her chair. She is woken by the H. First she thinks she is dreaming. Since she haven't seen him for 3 years, when she sent him away after he gambled away the estate. But he is really there and has the money to pay the dept.
  Well I was hooked!
  In chapter one we go back 3 years. The h, Mary Spencer is an orphan that is living as a goddaughter to the earl of Kerlain. Now he is dying and wants the h to contact his grandson who lives in America. (The earls son moved to there when the earl disinherited him) He also wants the h to marry the grandson Lad Walker (the H). The h agrees and writes the H after the earl dies. To her the castle is everything and she owes a lot to her benefactor because without him she wold have been on the streets.
  Lad doesn't want to leave his Tennessee home but is persuaded by his uncle and the fact that his father always talked about his childhood home in England with love.
  When he sees the castle for the first time he is underwhelmed. The same can be said for Mary when she sees him for the first time. For the H on the other hand it's insta love!
  The story goes quite quickly from here. They agree to marry the next day. The wedding feast is interrupted by the neighbor and childhood friend of the h. He has wanted to marry the h for a long time but she doesn't like o trust him. Turns out the H meet the neighbor on the way to the castle.
  The neighbor makes treats and is generally mean. Then leaves. The wedding night goes great and the H even tells the Mary he loves her.
  The next day the neighbor seeks out the H and apologies and gives him a horse. Mary tries to warn him not to trust the neighbor but she is unwilling to talk to bad about her former friend. So the H keeps befriending him. Lad tries to win over the people of Kerlain but they think he is strange since he insist on working along side them. The h defends him tho and soon she tells him she love s him to.
  A couple of months go by and the H gets a letter from Mississippi telling him his uncle has died. He is devastated and feels he should have been there. He wants to take his wife and go back home. But Mary wants to stay and feels she can't leave the people of Kerlain. Lad goes out wandering. The neighbor from hell (NFH) finds him, gets him drunk and tricks him into gambling away the whole estate. He then dumps the dead drunk H at home with a note telling the h what he did.
  Mary goes to the NFH who says he will give her back the estate if she divorces the H and marries him. She says she loves her husband and will follow him to America if thats where he is going. NFH then threatens to starve her people and treat them like s**t and whatnot. He then blackmails her into betting with him for the estate. He will let her buy the estate back for 70 000 pounds if she stays there. He will give her 3 years to get the money. If she can't she has to divorce the H and marry him instead. She agrees.
  She decides not to tell Lad about the bet. When the H wakes up with a hangover he can't remember anything about gambling away his wifes home. But he feels terrible when she tells him about it. You can feel the love between them at this moment. She isn't angry or yells at him. They talk. She tells him about the 70 000 pounds. He wants them to go to America and forget about Kerlain. But she knows what will happen to the people and says he has to go away and get the money somehow whether in America or in London. She will stay with the people. Just like Mary was ready to fallow Lad to America, Lad is now willing to stay in England to at least be near the h. So he goes to London. That was the first half of the book
  The next chapter is letters sent by Mary to Lad and vise versa. Reading them lets us know that they don't get answers to each others letters. (they send them to a lawyer, I think, thats suppose to forward them.) My heart broke a little here.
  Lad finds some dude who teaches him how to gamble. The H/h keep writing letters that doesn't get answered. Lad sends money and presents that for some reason gets to Mary tho the letters don't.
  The next bit isn't so interesting. Lad mets the dude who makes him in to a gentleman and he makes money gambling. Meanwhile the NFH is trying to sabotage the main couple. He ingratiates himself to the servants in Kerlain and shows Mary newspapers with stories of Lads escapades in London (of course there not what the h thinks). He gives her gifts that she feels she has to accept when they are things that can help her people. Then she gets tired of trying to get rid of him and kind of just tolerates him visiting her since the servants keeps letting him in.
  The day before the estate (and the h) falls in to the NFHs hands our H returns. With the 70 000 pounds. We are now back where the prologue started. They don't really argue but have a discussion that leads to them making love. The next day the NFH come to collect the h but meets the the H instead. A more sophisticated Earl of Kerlain. New clothes and a new English accent. He plays with NFH a bit and then slaps the check (or the like) in his hand. NFH hisses some threats then leaves. The H promotes the servants that betrayer the both the H and h ( on of them had been persuaded to intercept and hide the letters between the h/H by NFH)To be fair they thought the were doing what was best for Mary and the estate)
  Lad explains about the newspaper articles. He escorted a friends fiancée (they are mentioned in the two previous books) a couple of times and the papers made a big deal of it. Mary tells him of the bet the NFH made her agree to. Declarations and...
  No not yet. The h must be abducted first. Cut to a couple of months later and the people has accepted Lad as there lord and Mary is pregnant. The NFH decides to kidnap the h.
  And force her to have an abortion! Luckily the H comes just in time. He challenges the NFH to a card game with the same deck of card as he used to steal Kerlain from Lad.
  If Lad wins he will get NFH's estate and NFH will leave the country. If NFH wins he will be allowed to live in piece and they will forget all this ever happened. Naturally the H wins. The NFH tries to shot him but is shot by a friend of the H.
  A year later with baby and recap of the characters from the previous books.
  Had hoped that the second half of the book would be all about the h/H and the H wooing her again. That had been a interesting approach with their coming together so fast at the beginning. Instead they ended up in bed immediately.
  Better then the last two. But just ok. More drama please!
  
  
• 
  Nancy

  OMG! I can't wait to read Lad's story until I met his silly twit of a wife, Diana. I wish Lad dumped her sorry ass and marry someone else, preferably Bella. Although I do like Wulf......