Luck is No Lady is another book I downloaded on my Kindle at some indeterminate time. All I know is, I needed a book to read at the gym, and now that I think about it, I probably started reading this while I was also reading Sweet Tooth – spoiler alert for that book, I did not like it. So looking back, I think it makes sense that I used this book as a distraction from the finger-quotes “serious” book I was “reading” at the time.
And oh man – this book was good.
It’s a typical Regency romance with many of the common tropes – a trio of sisters (the better to base a romance trilogy off of, y’know), whose parents have died. The eldest is guiding the two younger girls through their first season. Their father died with a debt they have to repay, and the eldest is shielding the younger girls from that knowledge because she’s filled with pride and doesn’t want her sisters to worry.
But the book starts off with a classic Hide Behind The Curtain Scene that I think I’ve read at least once before this year, maybe twice? No, it is twice! The first time was in Shameless, and we’ll see it a third time in the upcoming Do You Want to Build a Start a Scandal?
We meet Emma Chadwick – eldest Chadwick daughter, trying to keep the family together through their first season and also trying to figure out how to pay back her father’s loan shark – as she’s hiding from a creepy guy behind a curtain in a study during a ball. That’s also where our hero, Roderick Bentley, meets her, and there is instant chemistry. But they don’t act on it, because
BENTLEY: he is the bastard son of an earl and, after watching how the ton treated his mother when he was a child, he has sworn off of marrying into that class.
EMMA: Bentley is a very rich owner of a “gambling hell” (“casino”) and she is a self-proclaimed spinster, so that match is Something That Is Just. Not. Done.
A couple of weeks after that encounter, Emma receives another missive from the loan shark, demanding payment. At the same time, her elder aunt Angelique notes that there is an advertisement in the paper for a bookkeeper. Emma has always been good with figures, and so she puts on her Sneaking Out Bonnet and goes to the address.
You can see where this is going.
So Bentley hires her, and there’s the fun tension where they both know the other person but for propriety’s sake they have to pretend that they weren’t almost making out behind a drapery a fortnight ago. Bentley agrees to have “Mrs. Adams” calculate the figures, but when she comes up with the same amount as the other applicants, he says she won’t suit. Instead of taking the hint and shutting up, Emma accuses Bentley of withholding information in an attempt to make her fail.
Turns out, Bentley’s previous bookkeeper was embezzling a bunch of money. Bentley’s great at gambling and making investments and basically being a very sweet version of a 19th Century Wall Street Guy, But In London, but Bentley is very bad at balancing checkbooks. Emma is hired on the spot, and given the added task of auditing the ledgers to see what happened.
And that, my friends, is the MacGuffin. You will never find out if the previous bookkeeper gets punished, or if Emma discovers anything hinkier than padding invoices for candles. It is not important.
What is important is the relationship between Emma and Bentley and how it grows through the book. First of all, the only conflict keeping them together is their stupid selves. Meaning, they think their hang-ups are too important to get over. Emma refuses to give in to her “selfish” desires to pursue a romance with Bentley – she needs to take care of her sisters, and if Emma is seen with the rakish owner of a gambling hell, she doesn’t care that it may reflect poorly on her – she cares what the ton will do to Portia and Lily. Bentley cares a great deal for Emma, and listens to her and – my god, he genuinely cares about her and I swear to god, I just reread the book on my Kindle (to refresh my memory, ostensibly, but it’s just as good the second time in nine months) and I can’t think of any moments where Bentley may have a hint of misogyny or any of those old-timey Regency attitudes that still pop up every now and then.
But anyway, in spite of his feelings, Bentley doesn’t want to get involved with that societal class.
And as the book progresses, feelings of the characters really shine and the sexual tension is great. Some of the best I’ve read. And it starts even before they start kissing for reals!
This comes at the end of her interview, when Bentley hires her. I should note – the casino he runs is adjacent to a brothel, but he doesn’t own the brothel or control it.
“It is not my habit to seek companionship from the girls in the west wing.”
The statement was uttered in a lowered, intimate tone, as if the conversation had just crossed a significant threshold. One she was not quite certain she had agreed to traverse. “As I said, such a thing is none of my concern.”
He dipped his chin and his smile widened, lengthening the masculine curve of his lips. The look he gave her was laced with an intensity she could not deny. “I know it isn’t. But I wanted you to know anyway.” [p. 112-113]
I mean — I mean, just — just read this —
If she were not responsible for her sisters and there was just herself to consider …
The moment became too quiet as they stared at each other. He studied her. Seeking something.
Her heart ached within the restraints she could not break.
After a bit, he smiled. Mischief flashed in his eyes and swirled there with something else she would not have recognized before that morning.
“Admit it,” he said. “You don’t want to dance with me because you know you would enjoy it.”
His voice had lowered again into those intimate tones that flowed so warmly across her skin, making her feel like they were the only two people in the room.
Her limbs felt heavy and weak. Her blood rushed faster through her veins and her heart picked up speed.
“I will admit no such thing.”
“But you do not deny it either.”
Emma glanced away again. He was right — she couldn’t.
They stood in silence for a moment. Then she felt him step up beside her until he stood close enough for his coat to brush her bare shoulder. She looked up and saw something anticipatory in his gaze. Something that set her nerves alight with delicious sensations.
“Walk with me in the garden.” [p. 203-204]
[I dunno, maybe it’s me – but sometimes, the build-up is even better than the actual hook-up, y’know?]
And maybe I’m biased, because there’s a scene in the book where one of the gamblers comes into the casino during the daytime to square up with Bentley, but the gambler is drunk and embarrassed and he starts waving around a pistol and he accidentally grazes Bentley’s arm. Emma happens to be there and she brings him back upstairs to the offices to clean his wound, and IT FEELS SO MUCH LIKE THAT SCENE IN HOW TO STEAL A MILLION THAT I CAN’T EVEN
“You are surprisingly calm for having just been shot,” she observed. “Do you often entertain drunk young men waving pistols?”
He gave a soft chuckle. “Not if I can avoid it.” [p. 129-130]
Okay, maybe it doesn’t have the same spark as Peter O’Toole yelping as Audrey Hepburn puts the iodine on his shoulder, then she scolds, “Stop being such a baby, it’s just a flesh wound,” and then he mutters, “Happens to be my flesh.” BUT STILL.
(I *still* haven’t rewatched that movie since I talked about it back when I reviewed The Art Forger. I should really remedy that.)
I really liked this book. And it was short! When you read something on your Kindle/Kindle app, it tells you how far along in the book you are, and spoiler alert, the actual storyline of the book ends at 69%. (Nice.) The rest of the book is a preview for the next book in the series, which I think focuses on Lily, the middle Chadwick sister? I’m not sure, I didn’t read that part.
I really liked that the tension and struggle in the book came from inside the two characters and not outside forces or society actively making thing difficult. And I really liked the realness of Bentley – yeah, he’s probably too much of a nice guy, but isn’t nice every once in a while to pretend that one exists somewhere?
Grade for Luck Is No Lady: 4 stars
That's What She Read 