On this episode of Questionable History, our Snarky Sisters revisit an old favorite of theirs - The Wagered Widow by Patricia Veryan. This book has it all - romance, adventure, and extremely wide/complicated dresses that pay off in the end.
Meet our heroine: Rebecca Parrish, a beautiful widow - she is described as petite (of course, insert eye roll here) and dainty. Apparently being tall is a definite detriment on the marriage mart. She has recently left off mourning clothes and is ready to get back out there - she is single and ready to mingle people! She is also an unashamed fortune hunter who is seeking a wealthy and staid husband to help pull her out of the financial mess inherited from her late husband's gambling addiction. Her two top requirements in a husband - no gambling and no duels.
Our hero: Treve deVillars, a cynical, satirical, and self-proclaimed rake who enjoys gambling, duels, and women but not necessarily in that order. Basically he is the epitome of everything Rebecca does NOT want in a husband. And that is fine by him as he does not have matrimony in mind (he loves 'em and leaves 'em when he has had his fill). A trauma in his past has left him immune to a woman's charms and wary of this thing called "love". That is until he meets and falls under the spell of the beautiful Rebecca Parrish.
Our third line in this love triangle: Also vying for Rebecca's hand is the staid and proper (aka boring) Sir Peter Ward. We don't have a lot to say about him except that the only one who has a higher opinion of him than himself is Rebecca. In our humble opinion he lacked substance and there really was no competition but for some reason Rebecca is obsessed with Peter (who can do no wrong, but is all kinds of wrong for her) and dismisses the obviously superior Treve (who can do no right, but who is everything that IS right).
Eventually our heroine catches up to us and realizes that Treve is the only man for her (and luckily for her it isn't too late and for some reason he still wants her, huh - to each their own). They finally make their way to a happily ever after after the traditional misunderstandings and jumping to conclusions on the part of the heroine. Truly the best relationship in the whole book is between Treve and Rebecca's son Anthony who are honest and up front with each other from the beginning.
Those who are Patricia Veryan fans like us, would know this would not be a Veryan book without at least some adventure in the aiding and abetting of a Jacobean fugitive. And of course the daring rescue takes place in the middle of a costume ball where the heroine is some how able to hide the wounded man under her hooped skirts. Okay, sure, we will buy that - what do we know about fashion back then. . .
In all seriousness, this book is a lot of fun and we highly recommend it - especially if you have never read a Patricia Veryan novel before. This is a good one to start with as it is one of her best.
And finally, keep listening to the end of the episode where we add a new segment in our podcast - Let's cast this! Since we like to imagine all of these novels as movies (we are still waiting to hear back from Netflix on all our pitches), we thought it would be fun to contemplate who would be the perfect actors to portray these characters on the big screen. If you have ideas of who to cast shoot us an email at snarkysisterspodcast@gmail.com
