Holly‘s review of Wicked Little Game
“You want my wife. You always have…”
For years, the Marquis of Vane has hungered for Lady Sarah from afar, watching the beauty brave a cruel marriage. When Sarah’s wastrel husband makes Vane a shocking proposal – one night with Sarah for 10,000 pounds – the temptation is almost too great.
Tricked by her husband into fulfilling his wicked bargain, Sarah can’t refuse a night of exquisite pleasure with the devastating man who haunts her dreams. But neither she nor Vane imagined their passionate encounter would set the stage for murder, or that a deadly twist of fate could spell a love to last all time…
I picked this up because I thought the premise sounded intriguing. Unfortunately the heroine completely ruined it for me. Actually, she prompted me to write this post. I’m going to quote from that post instead of writing a summary, mostly because I’m lazy.
It is Regency England. You’re the daughter of an Earl, but you marry a man your parents don’t approve of. They don’t disown you for it, though they do make their disapproval plain. When it becomes clear the man you married is a wastrel of the worst sort, your mother says you must apologize before she’ll help you. Your pride won’t allow you to do it. So for ten years, you live on pride alone, barely scraping by and utterly miserable.
Then the unthinkable happens – your husband barters with a man you’re very attracted to and you’re sold to him for one night. (I won’t spoil it, but suffice it to say things are not as they appear to either party.) Rather than appear weak to the man you’re supposed to spend the night with, you choose – to once again assuage your pride – to foster the misconceptions and misunderstandings he’s operating under. But it gets worse, because you find your husband murdered and you are the main suspect. You’re thrown into prison and don’t have the means to hire an attorney.
Do you give in and call your parents? Or ask the man you just spent the night with for help? Not if you’re this heroine you don’t.
I had a hard time find sympathy for Sarah. While I’ll concede part of her hesitation in contacting her family was guilt and shame, I still believe the majority of it was simple pride. She didn’t want to admit her mistakes to them and apologize, which shows a lack of maturity and stubbornness that borders on stupidity.
I understand that basis of what the author was trying to achieve, but I feel she failed for the most part. While I give her credit for taking on such a hard character, I think what should have come across as fear and guilt just seemed cold and cruel instead. I’m afraid I saw her only as a prideful martyr, all the way through the end.
Vane was a much better character, but in the end I could only look on him with pity. His reasons for wanting Sarah in the beginning were sketchy at best, and as the novel progressed I kept thinking, “really? You want her? Really?” I think I would have liked him a whole lot more if he’d been after someone else.
I can’t say I was very impressed with the book as a whole, though it did have a few redeeming qualities.
I may be curious enough to read the second book, Sweetest Little Sin (which I have in my TBR pile), however. We shall see.
2 out of 5
The series:
This book is available from Berkley Sensation. You can buy it here