Girls who dare – Inside every wallflower is the beating heart of a lioness, a passionate individual willing to risk all for their dream, if only they can find the courage to begin. When these overlooked girls make a pact to change their lives, anything can happen. Ten girls – Ten dares in a hat. Who will dare to risk it all?To Wager with Love.Once bitten, twice shy… bitten, twice shy…
Harriet Stanhope is intelligent and serious, the kind of girl who reads Plato and likes long walks in the rain. She is unsuited to ballrooms and flirting and finds the season a horrific waste of time. Once upon a time she fell in love, however, she trusted her heart to a man who kissed her and whispered sweet words … and then laughed with a friend about her having done so.
Heartbroken and humiliated, Harriet vows to use her brain in the future and never trust her stupid heart ever again.
An unrequited passion…
Jasper Cadogan, The Earl of St Clair is hopelessly in love, with a woman who hates him.
Lovable rogue, Jasper, is handsome, charming, easy-going and beloved by the ton, the most eligible man on the marriage mart, but he can’t put a foot right with childhood playmate Harriet Stanhope. Though they were once close, Jasper knows he did something years ago that hardened Harriet’s heart against him, but for the life of him he can’t think what it was.
Jasper knows Harriet believes he’s frivolous twit at best, and in awe of her superior brain, gorgeous Jasper is struggling to prove himself otherwise. Determined to discover what it was that drove Harriet away from him, he’ll use fair means or foul to get to the truth.
A wager that will risk both their hearts…
The Peculiar Ladies dare Harriet to bet something she doesn’t wish to lose and when her big-mouthed friend Kitty tells Jasper, she knows she’s in trouble.
Too stubborn to back down, Harriet accepts Jasper’s shocking wager and plunges them both into a scandal that will risk everything, including two hearts.
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I have read along with the books in this series and loved each one of them and Book 5 was just wonderful!
Harriet Stanhope is a bluestocking and finds society functions of balls, parties and flirting to be a waste of her time when she could be learning something new from a book. She, however; has been in love with Jasper since childhood.
Jasper Cadogan, The Earl of St Clair is extremely handsome with his turquoise eyes, he is loved by the Ton, he is charming and it makes him a target for all the debutantes and their husband hunting mamas. He, however; has been in love since childhood with a Harriet, who despises him.
Jasper and Harriet were very close until Harry turned eight and ten and his father sent him to stay with some maternal relatives. He hated leaving Harriet but asked her not to marry anyone while he was gone – Harriet was six and ten and told him she would wait. However; when Jasper returned, Harriet ignored him and was rude – Jasper had no idea what he had done all those years ago but he plans to find out. They have an emotional road to happiness — misunderstandings, no communication between them, a secret Jasper is hiding. But when they are discovered in a compromising position; the families try force them to marrying and the thought of marriage forces all the truths, secrets, misunderstandings to come forward. I highly recommend this book and all the books in this series for fun stories, wonderful characters (both main and secondary), with some spice and HEAs.
To Wager with Love
Girls Who Dare Series #5
Emma V Leech
https://www.facebook.com/EmmaVLeech/
Release date 11/13/2019
Blurb :
To Wager with Love. Once bitten, twice shy…
Harriet Stanhope is intelligent and serious, the kind of girl who reads Plato and likes long walks in the rain. She is unsuited to ballrooms and flirting and finds the season a horrific waste of time. Once upon a time she fell in love, however, she trusted her heart to a man who kissed her and whispered sweet words … and then laughed with a friend about her having done so.
Heartbroken and humiliated, Harriet vows to use her brain in the future and never trust her stupid heart ever again.
An unrequited passion…
Jasper Cadogan, The Earl of St Clair is hopelessly in love, with a woman who hates him.
Lovable rogue, Jasper, is handsome, charming, easy-going and beloved by the ton, the most eligible man on the marriage mart, but he can’t put a foot right with childhood playmate Harriet Stanhope. Though they were once close, Jasper knows he did something years ago that hardened Harriet’s heart against him, but for the life of him he can’t think what it was.
Jasper knows Harriet believes he’s frivolous twit at best, and in awe of her superior brain, gorgeous Jasper is struggling to prove himself otherwise. Determined to discover what it was that drove Harriet away from him, he’ll use fair means or foul to get to the truth.
A wager that will risk both their hearts…
The Peculiar Ladies dare Harriet to bet something she doesn’t wish to lose and when her big-mouthed friend Kitty tells Jasper, she knows she’s in trouble.
Too stubborn to back down, Harriet accepts Jasper’s shocking wager and plunges them both into a scandal that will risk everything, including two hearts.
My review :
Will a woman let her past hurt decide for her future and forfeit her happiness …
I am no professional reader, when I write a review it is to put on paper what a book made me feel. And outside a TSTL character, every sentiments a story brings out from me, is proof of a talented author. From time to time, I put immediately on paper my thoughts, like I did today.
Then I pondered if I should minimize how upset I was during the first part of the book, but it is truly what I felt, was I more tired or not in a good mood, I am not sure as the rest of the story did it for me and redeemed my annoyance.
So sorry if I rant, but sometimes there are books that make you react, or overreact like this one.
While I had been sorry for Harriet to have overheard things she should not have and the pain it caused her, I am not fond of people who hold a grunge for years, it made them angsty and unreasonable people.
For a clever renowned woman, she was such a coward, she was hurt eight years ago and since then she has been punishing the man, Jasper, she hold responsible but not once did she tried to clean the slate and to get to know why. For one hurt, she since had been hateful and relentless in her set down of him.
She is quite the vilain in this tale, the one who subjects him to pain, she shuns him because he does not follow the path she would have, it is difficult for me to feel empathy for this kind of characters who uses past hurt to be licensed the right to punish others.
And when she could act like an adult and get her answers, she runs, lies and hides.
I confess it is because it was a Mrs Emma V Leech book I kept reading, and hopefully gladly.
First I had a reprieve for my anger with a part of the story focusing on the other members of the club, I so love Matilda, alas her story I suspect would be the last in this series. And this short foray in the other women’s life cooled my boiling blood.
And then the author gives us an insight of who is really Jasper, a man hurting, ashamed of his deficiencies, trying his best to mask them and for years, unable to understand why he lost the love of the woman who is his world. He makes mistakes, he is a flawed man, but he respects and admires Harriet, if only she will acknowledge him instead of avoiding him or passing by him as if he was invisible.
Yet, Mrs Leech did it, she atones Harriet’s character and lets her see the wrong of her choices and headlong rush.
From there, I turned every pages eagerly as the other girls’ story became more complicated and interlocked with the main couple’s story.
Even if Harriet and Jasper’s story stands alone, you might miss a lot by not reading the series in order as each book contains insights about the other women member of the club.
5 stars for this book as I just adore to read about lost peoples whom regain their senses and walk again on the right path.
Now I can’t wait for Bonnie’s story, and all the other girls left.
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(Sigh)…I love Jasper and Harriett’s story…(sigh)… This was another wonderful story, in a series of wonderful books, by Emma! This one will tug at your heart strings—there were several times my heart dropped into my stomach while reading.
There are several updates, scenes and additional background info on the secondary characters—leading us to the next book in the series! If you haven’t started this series-you need to do so today!
P.S. If hot love scenes are important to you, you will not be disappointed. These are beautifully written and do not take anything away from the story.
The Cold Shoulder To the Extreme
This story has a lot of sweet touches between Jasper and Harriet, especially near the end. I just couldn’t help thinking how juvenile their thoughts and actions were. To let so many years go by with an unaddressed distance between lifelong friends seemed odd. I thought Harriet’s dare was less amusing compared to dares from previous books. It could be because her situation with Jasper was so illogical – and she is the intellectual in her ladies’ group.
A fun loving romance with a happy ending from Ms Lleech. Her characters are believable, and strong without being unpleasant.
Yay yay. I was so looking forward to this couple. And I wasn’t disappointed. I was so happy to read why things went wrong. And how they got to their happy ending.
I really loved this book. All of the characters are unique and the cast of characters come in throughout all of the books. This is the story of a broken heart and how to take a chance at love again.
I have read most of the books in this series and really enjoy them. Although they are fast reads, they are good stories. This one is about Harriett and Jasper who fell in love as young adults, but through a few misunderstandings almost ended up as enemies (although they never stopped loving each other). Due to being caught in a compromising situation, their families are trying to force them into marrying – which in turn forces them to figure out what went wrong all those years ago.