Top positive review
4.0 out of 5 starsA great debut novel
Reviewed in Australia on 20 July 2016
This is a nice light historical romance.
Cassandra Samuels has given the reader some wonderful and delightful characters in her debut novel A Scandalous Wager.
Oliver had me in stitches when he entered the scene at the beginning of the story. I do enjoy a book with humour and the more laugh out loud moments the better - and there were plenty of those. The banter between Lisbeth and Oliver was amusing and the more time they spent together a romance developed between them - it was quite endearing.
All characters were likeable even the grandmother and sister who turned against Lisbeth after she was accused of murdering her husband, eventually they felt ashamed for abandoning her at a time she needed them the most. Kudos to Ms Samuels for having Lisbeth forgive her family - always lovely to read happy words rather than bitter ones.
Well, I have to mention, it had me beat who the killer was. I even made a list of names who I thought it could be, shocked to find I got it wrong. Well done, Cassandra Samuels, for keeping me guessing and madly flipping the pages until the murderer was revealed and at that moment I was able to breathe again and relax into the last bit of the story. Loved the ending, came together quite nicely.
