The Player by Stella Riley

The Player by Stella Riley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Caroline Maitland is a rich heiress in London for the season hoping to pick up a husband, preferably one with a title. Well, preferably one she loved, but, eh, that’s what you do for family, find someone who would be best positioned to help the rest of the family.

She has two advantages and several disadvantages. Advantages: she has money; she’s being ‘sponsored’ by someone with a title. Disadvantages: fashion sense (there are reasons); a certain amount of ‘plainness’ that may or may not be because of the bad fashion choices and the constant refrain from an important source (mother) that she isn’t exactly pretty (so low confidence in own appearance); ‘common’ blood (money is from gramps who is a self-made man).

The vast majority of the beginning of the book her two main suiters, and really the only ones who seemed to actually ever court her, is a man who never had money and has problems keeping it when he does get some (the cousin of the woman who is sponsoring Caroline), and a handsome man with a title, though deeply deeply in debt (of his own making), and with a bad, super bad addiction to gambling. Caroline gets on somewhat well-enough with the one I’ll call ‘cousin’, but that fella was never really a serious contender (mostly because he didn’t have a title and mother wants her daughter to get someone with a title, preferably high up, at least higher than a Baron (of which her other suitor holds as his position in society, Baron). Right, and the other suitor, Baron Handsome Douche both finds Caroline unattractive, but also finds it difficult to actually be in her company. BUT! He needs her money.

This book seemed determined to pack every cliché, trope, etc. etc. from romance into it. Including a few things from films of roughly the 1980s/1990s – the one being the ‘ugly duckling’ who, with a few modifications, suddenly becomes a beautiful swan. We have the revenge plot, the rich heiress, the penniless handsome con artist type (though he does in fact have a title; con artist type because he only wants the woman’s money and is playing a long con to get it, lying left and right, etc. etc.), the rivals who used to be best friends but are now bitter enemies, highway robbers, etc. etc. There are many things missing, I’m sure. Like no one has a physical or mental defect, though the Earl has a very bad cloud hanging over him (*people chanting behind his back and to his face* ‘murderer! Murderer!’), and the Heiress is . . . um, badly dressed and has ‘common’ blood.

I put in my status updates, 41% in, that the book, up to that point, was more of an ‘Anti-Romance’, and a revenge plot. An Anti-Romance because the two seriously circling each other (not counting cousin) kind of hate each other. Revenge plot? Well, hadn’t gotten to that part yet – there are several point of views in the book actually. One is Caroline’s, another is Baron Douche, sorry, that’s Marcus Sheringham. But Marcus isn’t the ‘mastermind’ behind the revenge plot theme/plot-line, but the target. For there is also a fella who goes by many names, but I’ll call him Earl Sarre to be quick about it.

Ten years ago Sarre, who had been a Viscount at the time, was engaged to be married. For various reasons that don’t really matter, they were waiting for his 22nd birthday to pass before the marriage could be performed. Well, exactly on that specific day, the 22nd birthday, Sarre’s fiancée popped over and lured him from his room. He followed her, trying to get her to stop. She wandered into the ‘bad’ parts of the castle/manor/whatever-the-building-was, the parts in disrepair. Then up to the roof. While basically dancing around in her long white gown, wiggling and hopping on that roof, fiancée asked Sarre to guess something. Though first she told him that a) she isn’t going to actually marry him, and b) she’s pregnant and they both know it can’t be his since they’ve never screwed around in that way. Then she asked him to guess who the papa of her unborn child might be. One thing leads to another, Sarre learns that his supposedly best friend has impregnated his fiancée, and he also watches as his fiancée trips on her own gown and plummets off the roof to smack grotesquely against the hard ground.

Sarre is now on the ground, his parents are demanding to know what all the fuss is about, and then Marcus pops up. For, you see, he was there to gather up the fiancée and leave with her. Learning that the woman was dead, Marcus started screaming such things like ‘Murderer!’ Even though Sarre had already told his parents what happened, they kind of looked at him and asked something like ‘so, did you?’ Then the Earl, no not Sarre, I’m referring to Sarre’s father here, sent Sarre to Europe with the kind words of ‘I’ve another son, he’ll be Earl.’

Seven years passed from that date. Sarre is 29 and has made a fortune through several means while in Paris and around Europe. Some from counting cards, some from being a highly sought after actor (sought to hire not arrest, I should be careful there). Pops dies. Sarre remains in Europe for he did still have that brother. Let him ‘rule’.

Three years pass. The brother is dead. Sarre ‘must’ return to England to assume the Earlship. For reasons. Whereupon the book opens with him on a boat heading to England.

Quite interesting book. Both of the people who make up the ‘love couple’ in the romance are, in their way, acting. Though the acting of one is bluntly noted – for Sarre has been an actor for these long years, and doesn’t really know how to be an Earl now so he plays a role. Caroline? Well, she’s also playing a role, more subtly alluded to in the book – the role of a ‘suitable’ type. She has a mind, and wit, and all that but she’s been hiding herself – she also has a much better fashion sense than might be guessed, but she’s hiding that as well (for her grandfather, the person funding her, liked certain dresses, garish horrible dresses, so she wears them even knowing they suck balls).

I liked the book. Not exactly sure why this specific book needed to be part of a series, per se, instead of just being there. Alone, adrift in a sea of stand-alones. But that Rockliffe dude does appear in this book and plays a somewhat important part, though his brother Nick plays a much larger role for most of the book. Speaking of Nick – reading a romance involving him and the fiery French woman whose name now escapes me (sister of Sarre’s business partner) would be neat. And something I’d wish to do. But the next book in the series involves neither, and considering that it took 4 years for book 2 to appear, then 25 years for book 3 to appear, and then 2 years for book 4 to appear, I would have to assume that no book involving Nick and that fiery French woman will appear. Despite how interesting the few scenes involving both were.

I do this sometimes so I’ll do it here: the first book in the series involved: Rosalind Vernon and Marquis of Amberley – both pop up in this third book though neither has much to say; the second book in the series involves: the Duke of Rockliffe and Adeline – both play larger roles in book 3 than either of the people from book 1, though the duke plays a larger role than his wife; and those people in book 4? Do they appear in book 3? Well, while I haven’t read book 4, I do recognize one of the names - Cassandra Delahaye is/was one of Caroline’s friends in book 3.

sex: There were a few moments wherein it seemed as if actual graphic sex might suddenly break out, but unless I blinked and missed it, graphic sex either didn’t occur or was quite quick.

Age: Caroline, I believe, is 22. And Sarre is 32.

Rating: 4.32

June 22 2017



View all my reviews