I got this ARC via Netgalley from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
“The Widow Wager” by Jess Michaels is the 3rd one in the “Notorious Flynn” series and by god, it’s the hottest so far, so steamy that it is hard to describe.
One morning Crispin wakes up in the sitee in his bedroom and has a bad hangover. The only thing he notices is that somebody is asleep in his bad. When the redhead moves, he is happy that she is dressed but also wonders about it. Within seconds she tells him that she’s Gemma – his wife. The only problem is that Crispin has no clue how it happened, the night before he wasn’t married at all nor did he ever wanted to get married.
Gemma, young and beautiful, doesn’t mind telling him about the card game he had with his dad and that her father actually won, that’s the reason why he had to marry her. Gemma, a very young window with a scandalous death on her hands, had lived with her father and sister Mary and the first wanted to get rid of her. Now he had only his younger daughter Mary in his possession. Gemma’s father had dragged her towards a priest and they had to marry within the same night – Crispin doesn’t remember a single minute of it.
The only possibility he sees to get rid of her and end this marriage is the help of his brother, Rafe, the Earl of Hartholm. When they arrive there in the morning, Crispin hadn’t visited his family in months and couldn’t know that his sister in law, Seraphina, only gave birth to their first son the night before. A boy who is also named after him. Plus he has to admit to himself that he maybe has an alcohol problem Gemma doesn’t tolerate.
The Flynn’s welcome Gemma to their family, even their mother is very friendly to her and when Rafe and Crispin talk, Rafe asks him what he thinks that Gemma wants. But what does she want? He cannot tell it because he never had given it a thought. But his older brother also lets him know that there is a scandal about her later husband’s death and that people say that she may has killed him.
Over the next couple of days they share a lot of intimacies. Gemma welcomes him to her bad, is very open and never refuses him. They are connected in a sexual way. But he has his secrets. When Crispin asks her about her past and the death of her husband, she tells him but he doesn’t tell her his secrets. He withdraws more and more the closer they get.
But they also have to think about Mary and Crispin offers his brother’s help to chaperone her and give her a season. Gemma is insecure if Rafe is really willing to do so but the Flynn’s know about her father, the way he threatened his daughters over the years because she didn’t keep any secrets.
No marriage can work, not even in name, when there are secrets and rumors involved, not in society. Not in London. Not even in the Flynn family.
+C+C+C+
Oh my god, when I read this book I blushed. Those sex scenes were pretty explicit from the beginning and it was so hot. When I arrived in Milano I had to three books with me. I finished both Nicola Cornick books and this one and I really told myself that I will finish the other ones before I give myself time to read it – I wasn’t able to finish it in Milan but back at home in Vienna – which isn’t that bad either. Anyway … this book was hot.
You have to love Gemma and Crispin, though I have to say that my favorite character is Seraphina to be honest. I love her. She is the best of all the females so far. Gemma is different but also shares similarities with her because they share the kind of marriage – an arranged marriage. Annabelle married out of love but Gemma and Seraphina were pushed into situations they had to learn to deal with. Those two together could be the base for a great story in my opinion because of Seraphina’s influence in society and Gemma’s love for sex. I can imagine kinky things.
All those Flynn men must be quite handsome. I mean those rakes … and finally one of those has a passionate, seductive wife, who cannot get enough of her husband, who is brave, self-confident and self-secure. When her husband hurts her, she doesn’t give in. When he only tells her parts of his secret, she doesn’t push him but tries to find out herself even risking to make everything worse.
I loved it, really loved it. I read the second half of the book in the tub after driving 900km because I had to know how it ends. And I cannot imagine that somebody would think differently about this book because it’s the hottest of the series so far. I cannot wait for more!
Maybe we will get even „kinkier“ stuff next time. With Gemma and Crispin I could even imagine bondage, I can imagine visits in „the club“ …. such a lot of things.
Rating: 5*****
If you like Jess Michael’s novels, you’ll love „Tempted“. It’s the newest addition to the “Wicked Woodley’s” series. I read the book back in December but was too busy to finish my review just yet….
Another great book that’s what I have to say in the beginning but it’s probably my usual statement to any Jess Michaels book, isn’t it? But this one is different, it has a few darker elements.
Buck is reading .... 