I found this book to be extremely confusing. We were introduced to too many characters too quickly. It was difficult to tell them apart. This made it difficult to follow the storyline. I wanted to like it.

Georgina Wilcox is one of four sisters who inherited their father’s coal business. She is a wallflower with hidden musical talents & enters into a fake betrothal with Lord Mark Sebastian after being caught in a passionate embrace. The third son of an influential marquis, the tongue-tied Mark is determined to keep the scandal from ruining Georgina’s reputation and his own prospects of winning the celebrated Harlbert’s Prize for music.
The start of a new series & a well written, well researched book which I enjoyed but didn’t love as I would have liked more chemistry between Mark & Georgina, their characters had depth but just lacked that extra something
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book; all thoughts and opinions are my own

Fake dating is one of my favorite tropes. So I was extremely excited to read A Gamble at Sunset. I really enjoyed the sisters and how each of them were so unique and all just wanted what was best for their family.

I however thought the book focused too much on Katherine when Georgina should have been more of the forerunner since this book was about her romance and finding love.

I kind of wish we would have gotten Katherine's storyline first which would have given a lot more context into why she was the way she was in this book.

I'm not really sure how I feel about Mark as at times I felt his relationship for Georgina was more like a fetish since he obessed so much over Dido Elizabeth Belle.

I do feel this one will be a hit for historical romance fans as it has all the elements that make for a intriguing historical romance!

While the storyline of the book remains the same from beginning to end, I felt that the plot was confusing and not very organized. I typically love this genre and multiple points of view, but the execution lacked and left me disappointed.

I was excited to get my ARC copy, and began my read with great expectations. What drew me in was the cover .
Initially, I read this story, I had difficulty in keeping the storyline of the characters straight, I would have to flipp back to check in.
One of the biggest things I appreciate is that things were left open; not every thing was explained which spurned me on to continue reading. The latter as resulted in me falling in love with the week constructed characters

First person narrative from the perspective of the two main characters. It is an excellent tale with several elements like love, betrayal, pride, prejudicism, racism, mixed race relationships, hypocrisy, friendships, family, loyalty, the pursuit of knowledge. Music plays a center role as well. There is also the age old struggle to choose one’s happiness vs society’s expectations vs repercussions for one’s actions. I love the historical background at the end of the book as well as the bonus recipe!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Vanessa Riley for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for A Gamble at Sunset coming out May 21, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I was really excited to receive this book! I’ve read Murder in Westminster and loved it. Murder Mysteries are definitely one of my favorite genres. This book definitely has a different vibe than that one. This is more romance based. I love the regency era setting. The whole fake dating is fun in any time period, so I enjoyed the hijinks that ensued. I just love wallflower stories. I loved the writing. It was definitely heavy on the dialogue, which is my favorite style. It felt a lot like Queen Charlotte and other regency books I’ve read. I felt like a couple of the characters weren’t as developed, so I’m hoping they’ll be featured more in the rest of the series. I’ll definitely check out more books by this author.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys diverse historical romances!

"When a duke discovers the woman he loves was tricked into marrying another, the master chess player makes the now-widowed Viscountess the highest-stakes wager of his life in a last-ditch effort to win her affection: he will find husbands for her two sisters—or depart forever..."Georgina and Mark were meant to be together. I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley. This in no way affects my opinion of this book.

I wanted to really enjoy this one, because it did have such an interesting plot. But I could not get past the characters or the writing. Unfortunately, the characters were rather one-dimensional and never fully fleshed out, except perhaps the duke. I felt the writing and the dialogue was messy and didn’t fully come together.

This is a great read. The plot is well written and the storyline is interesting and keeps your attention. I am looking forward to next book in this series.

This was not a typical historical fiction and it was really hard to get into. I may have to try a different book by this author, sadly this one was not it for me.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Normally, this is my go to happy genre. This book...was not. So many moving parts were happening in this book that just didn't need to be, the romance was lackluster. The focus of the book was on a sonata that then couldn't even be used for the goal. Overall, it was just a busy read that I had to force myself through and I was very disappointed.

The first book in a new trilogy….A Gamble at Sunset is about the Wilcox sisters who are Black and living in Regency England. Like Bridgerton, this version of time and place has Black member of the “haute ton” and nobility. But not all member of society approve of their multicultural world and especially dislike mixed race couples. The Wilcox’s father built a lucrative coal empire from scratch which left the sisters wealthy. Unfortunately, the oldest sister Katherine married a Viscount with a gambling addiction and most of their money and business is gone. Now a young widow, Vicountess Katherine must rebuild the coal business and provide for her 3 younger sisters. Enter the Duke of Torrence, who will do anything to help the Wilcox sisters but as Katherine’s former love who she believes abandoned her with child years before, her meets with great resistance from her. In an effort to will her back, Torrence provides huge dowries for the 2 middle sister and works hard to find them suitable husbands. Thru a series of rash decisions, Georgiana (sister #2) becomes fake engaged to Lord Mark….the 3rd son of a Marquis. Mark falls in love with Georgie but his father is a belligerent racist and Georgie is very reticent to marry after watching her former brother-in-law bankrupt the family and make her older sister miserable. I enjoyed th e story and will read the next book in the series. I did, however, feel the the dialogue, especially in the beginning of the book, was not a tight as it could have been and felt a little haphazard.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
Vanessa Riley returns to historical romance with A Gamble at Sunset, the first in the Betting Against the Duke series. This new series promises to be rather high-concept, both setting up an overarching plot for the series and including a self-contained romance, which I felt was a somewhat double-edged sword in places here.
Vanessa Riley is well-known at this point for her historical research into Black people in Britain, but I love how she continues to surprise with little nuggets of research highlighting how small the world was and is. The lore of her narrative is based on some characters who are descended from the eighteenth century Russian nobleman Gannibal, who was a former enslaved person who ended up being adopted by Peter the Great. And while the characters in the book are fictional, Gannibal truly does have descendants in the British aristocracy, including the modern-day Unicorn Hot Duke, Hugh Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster and George Mountbatten, Marquess of Milford Haven (cousin of Queen Elizabeth II).
But all this lore is perhaps the most interesting part of the book. That’s not to say that there’s not good stuff here, but there’s so much going on that it all feels half-baked. The romance is cute, for example, and gave me similar vibes to Bridgerton book and season 1 but if the dynamics were flipped, with the compromising position occurring before the fake courtship. And Georgina and Mark are nice characters who do have solid chemistry.
But they also share page time with all these other characters, namely Georgina’s sister and the Duke, and what I think will be their overarching plotline over the series, that no one felt well-defined and like they “stuck” with me. The stakes for Georgina and Mark weren’t there, and thus, the whole book fell a little flat.
I am still cautiously optimistic about this series, and will probably read the next to see how the story progresses. But while it was a bit of a letdown, I do recommend it if you’re looking for a well-researched historical romance with Black characters.

DNF. I don't know if i will pick this one up at another time, but i found it to be a bit all over the place within the first 3 chapters. Maybe i'll try something different by this author and compare.

Thank you to Netgalley for the DRC!

"Joy must defeat the darkness."

Vanessa Riley breathes life into a diverse cast of characters in this creative take on a regency era romance and fake dating.

The Wilcox sisters inherited their father's successful coal business, but when the oldest, Katherine, marries she gains not only a title, but the debts accumulated by the man's follies until his untimely death. Luckily a duke, with whom Katherine and her late husband have a past, swoops in to keep the sisters from ruin. Until Georgina Wilcox kisses Mark Sebastian, a would be composer from a well to do family, to vex Katherine, but the wrong people see. They decide to fake court until other prospects present themselves and Georgina can politely end the engagement. Meanwhile Mark is actually in love with her. Regency shenanigans ensue!

Georgina is lovely and has a whimsy that's irresistible. I don't blame Mark in the least for being instantly intrigued by her. There are prejudices which rear their ugly heads and regency sensibilities which can be frustrating ,but our delightful couple gets through them. Plenty of surprises are weaved into the narrative.

4 Stars! Thank you, to the publisher, for this eARC via Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion!

This is the first Vanessa Riley novel I have read and I cannot wait to explore more of her other works! A Gamble at Sunset was a really great read and I enjoyed reading about Georgina and Mark’s love story. I appreciated the character development and friendship between the two and all the supporting characters. The end of the novel left me wanting more so I cannot wait to see how the story continues. I loved the historical lens that the author decided to take and it brought me out of the reading slump I was in. Overall, a sort of marriage of convenience, friends to lovers hybrid situation and lots of great interactions!

Thank you, Kensington Publishing, for this eARC via Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion! If you are into historical fiction/romance, I'd recommend this to you - I will definitely be recommending this to my community.

Oh my GOODNESS, what a beautiful story! I had been in a rut with my last several reads, none of the novels really captured my interest - I think a few of them are sitting unfinished on my Kindle, in fact. On a quest to find something fresh and new, I remembered I had accepted an advance copy of this novel to review, and decided I ought to read it so I could provide my thoughts in time for the book's release. And I am so glad I did so! I believe I have a few of Ms. Riley's books but have not yet had the opportunity to read them (which will change soon, to be sure). This book is such a beautiful story of two souls coming together and breaking apart again (after a rather scandalous initial meeting). Georgina and Mark are well-developed characters, multifaceted and imperfect, as humans tend to be. Mark is a musician and composer, and Georgina a (publicly untested but known in the family to be a) gifted singer and piano player. The music aspect helped make the story of these two extra beautiful, but I think this author also has a gift of making magic happen between her characters. Each of them has their own struggles and hang-ups – not the least of which is how Mark could possibly support the two once his horrid father, the marquess (Mark is the spare’s spare) will disown him at the idea of him being with a Blackamoor. There were definitely areas of this book that were hard to read, but my husband has recently observed a few British being discriminatory, and I have no doubt it was much worse back in the early 1800s, when this book took place. This is history – it is painful, but it should be acknowledged. I appreciate the difficult positions in which some of the characters were placed as a result. Another wonderful aspect of this book is how lovely the supporting characters are. I love the entire Wilcox family, and since this is the first book in a series, I hope to be able to read about the rest of them in the future. For instance, the unforgotten love between Katherine and the Duke simmers beneath the hatred (on Katherine’s part, particularly) between the two characters. They deserve their own story! While there are a few suggestive scenes, there is no overtly spicy contact described in this book. I am delighted to voluntarily provide my honest thoughts on this book – I highly recommend it, and will be reading more of this author in the near future!

A Gamble at Sunset is the first book in the “Betting Against the Duke” regency romance trilogy by Vanessa Riley. This story takes place in London in the early 1800s. It introduces the Wilcox sisters. These four Black sisters inherited their family’s coal company after their parents passed away. The sisters experience several challenges to keeping the business going, yet they are willing to make serious sacrifices in order to save their family business and protect one another. This story focuses on Georgina and her fake engagement to Mark, a local composer and music teacher. These two have the potential to make beautiful music together literally and figuratively in spite of their cultural differences if they can ignore the opinions of others.

I found myself initially wanting to rush the story. Once I slowed down and enjoyed each line and phrase, I was treated to a beautiful love story and hints of the next two stories to come. I also enjoyed the author’s historical accuracy. The author does a phenomenal job of combining history and romance. This book inspired me to not only want to read the rest of the books in the series, but to also research more information highlighted in the book such as Blackamoors and Cesar Picton, the Black Coal Millionaire. The author also excels at depicting the racism, sexism, illnesses, and medical treatments of the regency era while telling a sweet love story.

Thanks to Kensington Publishing for providing me with an advance copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This book was such a disappointment to me. I normally love Vanessa Riley’s book but it took everything I had to finish it. I’ve never not finished a book before but this one was probably as close as I’ve ever come. It started with what I felt was too much of the storyline was not about the leading characters. I stayed true because I know it’s the first in a series so the author has to flesh out the characters for future stories but I never like either the hero or the heroine.i spent most of the book wanting to smack one or both of them. I also know that I’m a person that reads to escape and for pleasure and this story doesn’t allow for either. I know there will be readers that will adore this book but there’s just not for me.