Rachel Reads & Reviews

Vanessa Riley’s Betting Against the Duke trilogy is more than your typical regency romance. Yes, there’s bastard fathers, compromised situations leading to marriage and marriage of conveniences, but Riley’s prose makes it feel like this is more a historical fiction novel than romance. The ensemble characters and their complicated family dynamics are given equal page time to philosphical musings on the beauty of music and the agony of sickness. Plus Riley includes a helpful cast of characters in the beginning of the novels. It’s more of a Russian novel than a typical historical romance. Makes sense considering the Wilcox family’s situation is based on Cesar Picton, a former slave from Senegal who became a “gentleman” in British society and coal millionaire. Jahleel’s lineage is based on the black prince of Russia, Gannibal, reasserting the history that black people were not only slaves back then but a precious few were integreted into society with their own fortunes and titles. That and the chapter titles, the tragedy and the romance of it all. The series wholly stands out in the historical romance genre.

So let’s get to the rankings.

1. A Wager at Midnight: Scarlett was as fiesty as her name implies. Who doesn’t love a girl who will crossdress for a medical education. I enjoyed how Riley incorporates long-standing issues regarding medical healthcare for women and immigrants of color, building the storyline of Jahleel and Katherine, and the delicious intellectual spark between Stephen and Scarlett.

2. A Deal at Dawn: Katherine and Jahleel’s HEA has been a long-time coming. Lurking in the background for the past two books, these former husband and wife have a lot of internal struggles to get through before they can reunite. I adored how Riley wove in the fatigue that comes with being a caretaker, as well as the emotional cost on both. Katherine hurt Jahleel by acting like his sickle cell disease made his less than a man. Same with hiding her daughter’s diagnosis from both of them. Jahleel’s likely death is also a horrible prospect to consider, but he needs someone who loves him as a whole man, not defined by his illness. It’s a heavy book which puts this solidly in the middle. I enjoyed the mature look at an older couple with realistic issues to contend with, but you need to be in the right mood for it.

3. A Gamble at Sunset: Excellent for setting the unique tone of the series, illustraing the main characters and subverting the usual compromise = marriage plot. Rather it focuses on Mark’s aims of making a musical masterpiece. One for the art, but moreover, for the money. Lots of treatises about the importance of money to make a comfortable life, but also the passion for creativity and beauty that leads Georgina becoming his muse. They are simply so, so sweet together. Only the obstacles to their HEA feel a little longwinded, putting this on the bottom of the ranking.