Three friends. One Wager. Winner takes all.The Earl—‘Lucky Ned’ Ashby. Pompous, preening, certain that he is beloved by everyone.
The Miller—John Turner. Proud, forced to work as the Earl’s secretary, their relationship growing ever more strained.
The Doctor—Rhys Gray. Practical, peace-loving, but caught in the middle of two warring friends.
Their wager is simple: By trading places with John Turner and convincing someone to fall in love with him, Ned plans to prove it’s him the world adores, not his money. Turner plans to prove him wrong.
But no one planned on Phoebe Baker, the unassuming governess who would fall into their trap, and turn everything on its head…
Three best friends make a life-changing bet in the first book in a witty, sexy new Regency trilogy from acclaimed author Kate Noble.
Comment: I have had this book in the pile for about two years but since this month the TBR Challenge theme is Historical, I decided to go with it, although, to be fair, there was quite a lot to choose from. This is the first book of a trilogy and I got it because it featured a governess and a lord and I tend to like different class tropes in historicals and I figured, if I ended up liking this one, there were potentially two more to add...
In this story we meet "lucky Ned", the earl of Ashby, a man who has grown up with a poor mother but ended up inheriting the earldom at a very young age and that has affected his personality so now he is known to be careless, funny and optimistic and a little cocky everyone else likes him.
To prove this against his much more serious and reserved friend John Turner, they agree on a wager to determine if Ned will be able to make a lady fall in love with him without the back up of his title.
The wager isn't completely innocent for the two friends but they go into it with the disguise of a lark and they trade places during the time it will take to deal with a business meeting that the earl is supposed to attend in the country, near the place where he grew up but where he hasn't been since then.
However, things don't go as smoothly as Ned and his friend intended and, in the end, which one of them could be more surprised by how the wager is settled?
Obviously, this being a romance, the focus isn't only on Ned and the wager with his friend from the war but also on the romance with Phoebe, the governess in the house where they are staying for there wasn't any proper place for a lord to stay except in the house of the most distinguished/important man near the property they would be discussing.
I'm saying this because it's not until 30 or 35% of the story that the main couple meets properly and starts interacting. I confess I found this amount of pages to be weird. I suppose the author wanted to establish the situation, prepare things for the plot to develop in a believable manner but I'm certain there would have been ways for them to be aware of one another sooner, especially since Ned was playing the part of the secretary.
This sort of delay helped to explain several things but then it made the romance feel a little too quick from a certain point on. Since it took time for them to trust one another, I would say the end was a bit rushed in how they dealt with one another.
Despite this, I was satisfied enough with the way the relationship progressed although, to me, the way Ned and his friend were "discovered" by the others was not as dramatic or emotional as I envisioned thinking on the way things were, romantically and how it would affect what the heroine felt about him.
The story is much more serious than what the development implies. There are some secondary characters which are used mostly to diffuse the main plot. They can be both a comedy relief and a means to crate a situation. This situation often felt so obvious that I couldn't help but think of them as props.
I also would imagine they would be a good way for Ned to be aware of what it's like to be invisible as often servants are but apart from the notion he wasn't as considered by the others as he would have had he been in his own skin, this wasn't as stressed out as I imagined. After all, the biggest hurdle in the different class trope is precisely how one element is perceived by everyone else. I thought this wasn't as exploited as it could have but then again, with so much already on going...
The main characters, Ned and Phoebe, were well developed in my opinion. If they worked out as well as a couple I'm not certain, but individually I liked who they were quite well.
Ned comes across as a little flaky, a bit arrogant, unaware of others might feel but I liked to understand he actually has deep thoughts and feelings but his attitude as a careless man is all but a role he plays, a mask he wears. Throughout the novel we get to see why he avoids seemingly serious issues and conversations or disguises them with comedy and his often "brilliant, marvelous" comment. I think the author could have gone even further with his character and, in the end, I don't feel his redemption was as well achieved as it should.
Phoebe was an amazing heroine. She was practically perfect because she has learned what it was to be on top and come down quickly after her father's demise. I can understand her anger and her hopelessness in the beginning. Also her resignation when the plot really starts. I especially liked how she reacted to Ned's first attempt at seduction and how steady she was in defending her position as the vulnerable side of the pair in case things went wrong, I really liked how aware she was of her position and how she wasn't silly just because she liked Ned. Therefore, when they finally admit their feelings, I expected a different decision from her regarding being intimate with Ned and I can only imagined the author wanted to increase the drama.
I would say this story works in several details. I liked the main character's personalities and how they evolved and I think some relationships were quite intricate (like Ned and his friend John) and offered interesting things to think about. I liked the pace from the moment the protagonist start interacting.
However, for most of the plot, a few of the characters seem to be in a constant state of manipulating someone, even if one can accept they had good reasons, and that made the story a little unfair to me as well as it brought down the end a bit. The classic situation of having enjoyed some parts and not others.
I'm debating if I want to rad the other books. I feel curious about trying another story, just to see how the writing style continues but it would also be true that I don't consider this to be a priority. Perhaps later on the year or next year...
Grade: 7/10
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