Sandalwood Princess And Knaves Wager [Paperback]

Having spent many years living in India away from her native England, Amanda Cavencourt is finally on her way home. A fairwell visit to a powerful Indian Princess gifts her with a precious wooden statue "The Sandalwood Princess" which is reputed to confer joy & fertility upon the bearer.

This idol is also desperately desired by a gentleman who enlists the help of an unofficial goverment spy to retrieve it. The notorious agent enlisted is known as "Falcon", and quickly wrests the statue away from Amanda.

When they both find themselves aboard the same England bound boat Amanda begins to plot to retreive the statue, and Falcon to guard it. Matters are greatly complicated by the illness and ensuing infatuation of the Falcon's aide with Amanda's handy maid Bella.
Also travelling with Amanda is an unlooked for Indian servant - Padji. For tangled reasons he continues with her, and attempts to guard her against the notorious Falcon.

The story ends up back in India with a convincing twist of plot & is throughly delightful all the way.

I sighed a tear or two and my heart clenched in places, with the perfection of the discriptions and poignant plots.

Ms Chase has concocted a delightful froth and whipped it to perfection, allowing the reader to enjoy from the first page to the last.

***Knave's Wager***

Lillith Davenport must marry again. She has settled upon a reliable gentleman and will sacrifice her independence for the future of her beloved nieces (one hopes they're worth it!)

Enter the "bad beautiful angel" determined to seduce her and his wayward nephew...

Set in regency England of course, this fine story sails along convincingly & touchingly, with charming charachters and the usual Chase wit - interjected where most welcome & least expected.

Lilith is a heroine who really IS sensible, looks after herself, doesn't sigh after the wicked hero, never makes foolish decisions and needs rescuing and altogether manages to be more convincing than any other creation. Even with all this sense & so little sensibility, she remains a refreshing & charming character whist he is just the opposite but so very debonair and beautifully repentant later.

A great set from one of the Regency genre's best authors.
kotori ojadis@yahoo.com

I am prejudiced. I thoroughly adore Knaves' Wager, which I rate one of the best Regencies (traditional Regencies as well as Regency historicals) that I have read. Witty, funny, true to its period, multidimensional characters, and a love story that you can believe in, really believe in. And neither character is especially obnoxious either (a bonus!). Chase's book is up there in my personal pantheon of Great Romances, along with a few others. Let me just drop a few titles - "Cotillion" and "The Unknown Ajax" by Georgette Heyer, "Price and Prejudice" and "Persuasion" by Jane Austen, "The Famous Heroine" by Mary Balogh, "Barrayar" by Lois McMaster Bujold (SF but who cares?) and so forth. OK, now you known my standards. Here is the review:
One of my rare five-stars goes to this old Regency by Loretta Chase, which I prefer to her LORD OF SCOUNDRELS (published more recently). The story is slightly unusual, in that there are three romances developing (or unwinding) simultaneously, but the author (and thus the reader) always keeps the primary romance up front. Since this is a very old book, I will offer a brief summary.

The heroine Lilith is a widow who blames a libertine Marquess for the death of her husband, after years of dissipation in London. She has spent the years of her widowhood bringing out her husband's nieces and marrying them off more suitably (and kindly) than their own parents would have. However, Lilith is running out of money... but she insists on repaying a debt of honor, making life more difficult for herself. What is a newly impecunious widow to do? Well, if she wants to keep bringing out her surrogate daughters (her husband's nieces), she can only ensure this by marrying a highly eligible - and dull - suitor. This is just the beginning of a fascinating story, in which the Marquess in question seeks to remove a young cousin from the claws of a mistress and would-be wife, where this same cousin falls for one of the heroine's protegees, and where we see an amazing amount of development in the characters, as they grow and mature through their experiences.

There are no cardboard villains, no too-saintly hero and heroine, but no too-stupid-to-live persons either. Everything that happens is quite believable (well, almost entirely), and what results is a charming comedy of manners and morals.

If you love Georgette Heyer, you might like this book. It does not have Heyer's ironic wit and richer panoply of characters, but there is something Heyeresque about this story, which is yet uniquely the work of Loretta Chase. From my perspective, Loretta Chase is one of the more skilful and knowledgeable Regency writers, who rarely makes mistakes in the tone of the period, not to mention such things as titles or events.

If you like this book, I recommend Chase's The English Witch (set in England and Albania). I wanted a book about a minor character, but Chase is unlikely to oblige. [That is how good she is].

Rather less successful is the second book THE SANDALWOOD PRINCESS. I liked the heroine, and I found the hero interesting. Unfortunately, I did not find the plot credible, and the setting somewhat sketchy. To make matters worse, I live in the city where the book is set (and am interested in that very period).

A very brief guide to the plot - the hero is engaged by a powerful English aristocrat to steal a statuette from a rich Indian princess; he does so succcessfully, but finds the tables turned on him in *England* by the princess's young Englsh friend and her Indian servant/bodyguard. The story is set in Calcutta, British India, at sea on the way home, and in England, and then returns to Calcutta where the denouement takes place. You will like this book a lot better if you know little about Indian society and British India circa 1810-1815.

Knaves' Wager - Five Stars
The Sandalwood Princess - Three Stars

Note - Loretta's first six Regencies have been reissued in three volumes by Signet. All are going out of print. If you wanted to read her and couldn't find her books (try the local public library as well), get them now.

Reviewed by bookjunkiereviews 18 February 2006

I rate this 5 plus stars based on Knave's Wager alone! The Sandalwood Princess is good as well, but Knave's Wager has to be one of my few favorites. I have read it multiple times - in fact, I have the previous edition of the book. I love Loretta Chase's old works, which for some reason are a little different than her newer ones. The plot has been summed up nicely by others, but I would just like to say how incredibly wonderful this book was. The main characters as well as the secondary characters were wonderfully developed, and none of them were either unrealistic or stereotypes. The dialogue was fast moving and very witty, and the plot had enough twists and turns to keep me on my toes. I love Lilith and Julian both, and would have loved to see them again in a nother book. Also try Loretta Chase's Isabella and The English Witch, both of which are gems as well.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 3 reviews  4.7 out of 5 stars