The Wager

By: Sue Barr

Narrated by: Bridget Thomas

Never expecting to lose the race to his cousin, Viscount Ashton, Darcy must now accept the terms of their wager.

“Can we negotiate terms?”

"You agreed to dance, at minimum, three sets per evening. You are not required to dance the opening or final sets, but you must dance the supper set and escort your partner into dinner.”

With the end in sight, only three more balls to attend, he travels with his good friend Bingley to Hertfordshire where he meets again Lady Elizabeth Hamilton Bennet, a woman he egregiously insulted six months prior.

“She is tolerable I suppose, if one prefers ordinary garden flowers. However, she is not handsome enough to warrant an introduction.”

Fate truly has not smiled at him lately.

©2024 Sue Barr (P)2024 Sue Barr

Better with repeated listening

After my first listen I rated the story and narration as solid fours, but upon more than one relisten I have decided to give a full review and change the fours to fives. The story is relatively light and enjoyable, and I have found the narration improves if I change the speed to 1.15 or 1.2.

Great Dialogue

Interesting take on P&P - Elizabeth and Jane are titled daughters of Mrs Bennet’s first marriage to a younger son. Big difference in Bennet household with loving parents. This author does great dialogue. Much more sophisticated Darcy despite his original insult. The narrator does very well for female characters, but her males have light voices. Still a very enjoyable audio.

Lizzy and Jane are not Bennetts with low angst

I enjoyed listening to this book and finished it in less than 24hrs.
In this variation, Mrs. Bennett was previously married and Jane/Lizzie are not Mr. Bennetts blood daughters.
I normally don't love this type of variation, but we still got the insult of Darcy to Elizabeth - just in London here.

Lizzie is still clever and teasing.
The two meet again in the Meryton assembly and eventually Lizzie forgives Mr. Darcy.
After that Darcy knows he wants to marry Elizabeth and goes about pursuing her.
I love that Mr. and Mrs. Bennett are better parents and have kept better control of their children.
Caroline is way over the top and clueless about how to behave in society, but all in all I love the romance of ODC.
My only issue with this novel is that it jumps away from an interaction too quickly. There is a scene where Darcy has asked to court Elizabeth and they are walking hand in hand. Mr. Darcy calls Elizabeth a tease while they are both laughing. Then Mr. Colins put a hand on Lizzie to pull her away from Darcy. It them jumps to Colins complaining to Mr. Bennett about Elizabeth.
I would have liked to have known what Darcy did about Colin putting his hands on Elizabeth. We never get back to that. There were a few scenes like this I found annoying. I also wish we had some info beyond the wedding. I love when the story takes you further.

Overall, it is an enjoyable read and I was pretty satisfied.
The narrator was pretty good, but I have just gotten used to a few narrators that it is tough to get used to a different voice

Fantastical approach to P &P

The narrator was pretty good, but like many others I wasnt as impressed with the male voices as the ladies.

I adored this version of Jane. By far it is one of the best I've seen in the 30 or so P&P variations I've read. I hate the "Jane is SUPER naive" with her head in the clouds - depictions where she isn't even aware that bad things happen to people... BUT this Jane is most certainly superior to that trope. Jane is still polite and kind, but here she has a backbone with an interesting & mature personality.

This story is a definite departure from P & P. Overall it is a good tale with clever dialog. But I didn't really feel like I was listening to a variation of P & P... more like it was a generic Regency "Duke" romance with some familiar names and places.

I don't mind P & P variations that completely diverge from the original by changing circumstances or settings... or even versions where some aspects of a character's personality are altered. But this one... well without giving spoilers just seemed to be more about benevolent aristocrats and landowners marrying within their class. Which let's face it, is certainly not what Jane Austen was attempting to do in any of her books.

Great story, okay narration

First and foremost, the narrator is nasally; this unfortunately, means that several characters sound pompous and grating when they, in fact, are not.
However the writing is good and I thoroughly enjoyed the plot. I especially enjoyed the fact that Ashton continued to slowly drop in precedence by Darcy as a favored cousin. hah! I would listen to it again.