Widow’s Gambit

Widow’s Gambit (1998) Tracy Grant

The Neville girls are of good family, but impoverished, and after their father’s death are left to make their way as best they can.

Claudia is the most beautiful (and Diana is not yet of age) so Livia decides to do whatever it takes to give Claudia a Season, and a chance to find a husband.

Diana said she wanted to go to London as much as her sisters did. If Livia had to acquire a dead husband to get them there, she had no fault to find with the scheme.

We have three sisters, two young men at Oxford who support their plan, an older brother and various aunts of said young man, and two younger children, both of whom have lost their mothers.

And some various other nephews and aunts and sisters-in-law.

And a butler who is an out-of-work actor.

There are a lot of characters in this book, but for the most part they are all unique personalities,

Aunt Isabel claims that one can deny anything and be believed if one does it with enough authority.

Nicholas has been sitting in the House for years and I guess he’s got used to it, though I’ve never understood why he likes it, it seems to make him angry so much of the time…

In addition to a lot of characters, there is a lot going on. Claudia needs to find a husband, Nicholas needs a wife, Francesca needs to remarry if Nicholas is going to take a wife, and many many other things.

Oddly, however, it didn’t get too muddled, and it was amusing. It wasn’t one of the best historical romances I’ve read–and certainly not up to what I’ve come to expect from Tracy Grant, but this is an older book, and you can see the kernel of the writer she’ll become in there.

If you’ve read other Tracy Grant stories, be aware this is an early work, but it is fun.
Rating: 7/10

Published by NYLA

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