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Review: Lord of Chance, Erica Ridley
Jan. 29th, 2021 09:24 pmThis book takes advantage of the somewhat banana-pants marriage laws that Scotland had throughout large swaths of history to set up what is an accidental marriage. It's not convenient--actually, it's rather inconvenient--but after the two of them tell what they think is a white lie to protect the female protag's honor, the two of them are decidedly legally bound, and made moreso by the fact that the male protag's creditors have gotten wind of this accident.
Anthony, our male protag, is basically useless ton. He's kind and has a good heart, but the only thing he's ever learned to do is gamble, and he's also learned by osmosis that his worth is in when he's winning at the tables. So it's a bit unfortunate that he's 2k pounds in debt, and the debt has been called. He has two weeks to pay up, or be sent to debtor's prison,
Charlotte, our leading lady, is the out-of-wedlock child of a courtesan and has been treated quite shabbily by the ton, as such.
Charlotte wants respectability. Anthony wants to be useful and pleasing to people. And, as the kind of society who has grown up vacillating between everything-is-fine-just-now to not having a enough to eat to keep up appearances, he has a number of useful, surprising skills and a willingness to work.
The moment he realizes he's married to Charlotte and that his ruin would be hers, he starts coming up with a plan to find an apprenticeship and a way to pay down the debt.
There are a number of truly charming things about this book. The first one is that Anthony is a gambling addict, and the book doesn't pretend that's any less of a problem than it is. Nor does it treat it as something that one just gets over. Anthony repeatedly has to force himself to walk away from offers to gamble by remembering what is at stake. And that's charming in and of itself: from the first, he values her enough to realize that he has to stop being reckless with money.
The second is that Charlotte struggles with her mother's profession, but the book does not. The book very clearly sees her mother as someone doing her best by a child she loves, and who engages in sex work as an honest, if not always desirable, profession.
The third is that a lot of Anthony's assumptions about how his family values him turn out to be wrong, which was delightful. Don't get me wrong, I love a terrible birth family as much as the next hurt/comfort loving swamp witch, but it's also nice when a character realizes they are more loved for being themselves than they have understood themselves to be.
Ridley's greatest strength, I would argue, is her dialogue. She's sharply witty and extremely fun in her banter. Combine that with characters who are struggling with flaws that feel intensely real, who are also people you can imagine wanting to know, and you have this book. This was my first of Ridley's, I will definitely be returning.
Anthony, our male protag, is basically useless ton. He's kind and has a good heart, but the only thing he's ever learned to do is gamble, and he's also learned by osmosis that his worth is in when he's winning at the tables. So it's a bit unfortunate that he's 2k pounds in debt, and the debt has been called. He has two weeks to pay up, or be sent to debtor's prison,
Charlotte, our leading lady, is the out-of-wedlock child of a courtesan and has been treated quite shabbily by the ton, as such.
Charlotte wants respectability. Anthony wants to be useful and pleasing to people. And, as the kind of society who has grown up vacillating between everything-is-fine-just-now to not having a enough to eat to keep up appearances, he has a number of useful, surprising skills and a willingness to work.
The moment he realizes he's married to Charlotte and that his ruin would be hers, he starts coming up with a plan to find an apprenticeship and a way to pay down the debt.
There are a number of truly charming things about this book. The first one is that Anthony is a gambling addict, and the book doesn't pretend that's any less of a problem than it is. Nor does it treat it as something that one just gets over. Anthony repeatedly has to force himself to walk away from offers to gamble by remembering what is at stake. And that's charming in and of itself: from the first, he values her enough to realize that he has to stop being reckless with money.
The second is that Charlotte struggles with her mother's profession, but the book does not. The book very clearly sees her mother as someone doing her best by a child she loves, and who engages in sex work as an honest, if not always desirable, profession.
The third is that a lot of Anthony's assumptions about how his family values him turn out to be wrong, which was delightful. Don't get me wrong, I love a terrible birth family as much as the next hurt/comfort loving swamp witch, but it's also nice when a character realizes they are more loved for being themselves than they have understood themselves to be.
Ridley's greatest strength, I would argue, is her dialogue. She's sharply witty and extremely fun in her banter. Combine that with characters who are struggling with flaws that feel intensely real, who are also people you can imagine wanting to know, and you have this book. This was my first of Ridley's, I will definitely be returning.
