Reviewer: Connie Payne
Title: Gambling On An Angel
Author: Paty Jager
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
ISBN: 1-60154-012-4
Release Date: 2006
Genre/Sub-genre: Historical Romance
Year/Setting: 1873 - WA
Overall Rating: 4.0 +
Sexual Content Rating: Sensual
Language (Profanity) Content Rating: None/Mild
Violent Content Rating: Mild
Paty's Website:
www.patyjager.com
After a painful childhood and hard life, their mother has passed with her last wish being that her three children reunite. Thus the new chapter in their life begins.
Letha Harrison, Sister of the Temperance Movement, and her young sister, Lottie, travel, not without some mishap, to Wallula, WA, where their brother Robert was last known to be. Finding him proves more difficult than Letha had thought.
In the meantime, Letha needs to find a decent job and place to live. And Mrs. Samuels place, isn’t it. But her sister is hungry and tired and Letha’s run out of options for the moment.
Bas Slocum, entrepreneur and saloon owner, the latter unbeknownst to Letha, has come to the sisters rescue more than once. This time he offers Letha the opportunity to start a business in one of his vacant properties.
While Letha continues to search and wait for news about Robert, she settles into her new life, due in part to Bas. Ah, Bas, he seems perfect for her. He’s charming, attentive, and thoughtful both to her and Lottie. And best of all he thinks as she does on the evils of drink.
Bas is at his wits end. He knows he needs to tell Letha the truth, that owns a saloon, but he’s afraid of losing the best thing that ever happened to him. Waiting, however, may cause Bas to pay the ultimate price.
While I thought Lottie charming, and Mitch to be intriguing, I felt as if only the surface of both Letha and Bas were scratched. For some reason they didn’t seem quite fully three-dimensional. In regards to the showing vs. telling, I wanted to "see" more.
That said, Ms. Jager has created conflict between the main characters that would be great fodder for a reading group. Bas’s struggle with telling Letha the truth, Letha’s righteous behavior regarding the evils of drink. Their timing or lack thereof, their beliefs, their thinking.
I can see Gambling On An Angel possibly causing some good-natured, yet possibly heated debates, should a reading group choose this title. It would be interesting to see what the consensus was at the end of that particular session.
Take a gamble and see where your loyalties end up (before the happily ever after). With Letha or with Bas?
Connie
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