THE MARRIAGE WAGER

Author: Candace Camp ISBN: 0373772432 9/2007 HISTORICAL Publisher: HQN
Time Period: Regency London

No longer in the first blush of youth and without a marriage portion, Miss Constance Woodley could scarcely imagine why one of the leading lights of London society would take an interest in he likes of her. But under her benefactor's guiding hand she was transformed into a captivating creature who caught the eye of the handsome, charming and ever-so-slightly notorious Lord Dominic Leighton. And before the shocked eyes of the entire Ton, the "nobody" and the rakish viscount showed that even in the heartless world of the marriage mart, when love as at stake, all bets were off...

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

THE MARRIAGE WAGER has strong, solid characters, but the plot falls into too many cliches for me to be completely sold on the book.

Examples? Here are just a few: There is the make the dowdy chaperone into a swan cliche; the mean -relatives doing the chaperone a favor by moving into her house and having her do their chores after her father passes on cliche; and my all time favorite, the hero and heroine getting caught in the rain and seeking shelter in an abandoned cottage cliche. You can guess what happens in the cottage, I am sure.

I have to be frank and say I have read the above conflicts so many times, that I could no doubt write my own version of the same book in my sleep. But, I am not going to lose heart. THE MARRIAGE WAGER is the beginning to a series called The Matchmakers by Camp, so perhaps the next one will rely more on her writing of intriguing characters and less on tired plots.

Shannon Johnson