Wagered Weekend

Jayne Castle: Ecstasy Romance

by Jayne Castle, Jayne Ann Krentz

Lucky at cards, unlucky at love? That's what Savannah Emery had always been--and she knew she should have stopped while she was ahead. That night at the party the wine and her winning streak had gone to her head. She had bid too high and lost... and the stakes were a weekend with Cord Harding.

Lean, handsome, with massive shoulders and fiery red hair, Cord was a man of steely determination. He didn't know what it meant to lose. And he was determined to collect his winnings.

Genres: Romance, Category Romance, Contemporary

196 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 1981

About the author

The author of over 40 consecutive New York Times bestsellers, JAYNE ANN KRENTZ writes romantic-suspense, often with a psychic and paranormal twist, in three different worlds: Contemporary (as Jayne Ann Krentz), historical (as Amanda Quick) and futuristic (as Jayne Castle). There are over 30 million copies of her books in print.

She earned a B.A. in History from the University of California at Santa Cruz and went on to obtain a Masters degree in Library Science from San Jose State University in California. Before she began writing full time she worked as a librarian in both academic and corporate libraries.

Ms. Krentz is married and lives with her husband, Frank, in Seattle, Washington.

Pseudonyms:
Jayne Ann Krentz
Amanda Quick
Stephanie James
Jayne Bentley
Jayne Taylor
Amanda Glass

Reviews

[reeder (reviews) · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Savannah knew she would sink to any depth in her scheming to win this game."

This heroine is intolerable.

• She places wagers she has no intention of paying off.
• She thinks in terms of manipulating the hero into falling in love with her, seeing the process as a risky game and an exciting challenge.
• She lies and uses an OM to provoke the hero's jealousy.
• She steals a lot of cars. Well, two cars.

The hero is a (redheaded) 1980s Neanderthal.

• He abuses his position as owner of the engineering firm where the heroine works to transfer her OM to a different branch.
• He sets sexual favors as stakes in a card game with the heroine.
• He cheats at cards.
• He stalks her on her vacation demanding she pay up.

The heroine has been thwarted in love by her boss, who transferred the OM she was stalking to a branch office of his engineering firm, where the OM took up with a tiny blonde. The story starts at the OM's engagement party, where the heroine is winning at blackjack and one of her coworkers quips "lucky at cards, unlucky in love." So she's pretty steamed when the boss comes up to her and asks her out to dinner. She's been refusing his dinner invitations for the past two months, ever since he moved his headquarters from San Diego to the office up the coast where the heroine works in personnel. The hero mocks her for her crush on the engaged OM and offers her the chance to get her revenge on him by beating him at cards. At first she's winning, but just as she becomes complacent in her victory, he calmly turns the tide and wins all her chips. NOOOO!!! She wanted to grind him beneath her heel, so she offers to go out to dinner with him if he wins the next hand.

She loses. And pesters him for another hand.

He sets the stakes at a kiss. She accepts the wager, while reassuring herself that she has no obligation to pay up if she loses.

Of course she loses. And pesters him for another hand. He sets the stakes at their spending the weekend together. No problemo. At this point, she has absolutely no intention of paying up, so she accepts the wager. And loses.

(We're only at the end of chapter one, and I had to take a two-day break to think about why the heroine's attitude antagonized me so much. Do I believe it's dishonorable not to pay a debt for sexual favors? No. But it does bother me that she was the one repeatedly pestering him for the rematch. If she didn't like the stakes, she should have walked away, but her ego and resentment wouldn't allow that. I make my peace with my ambivalent feelings about this set-up and return to the book.)

She can't figure out a dignified way to get away from him at the party (JAK's heroines are all about their professional veneer), so she ends up going to dinner with him. She attempts to escape from the restaurant via taxi, but he thwarts that plan and drives her to his home where he claims his kiss while she's plotting how to steal his car keys and escape. When he has to take a phone call, she sees her opening and she's out of there.

Fortuitously, she has a two-week vacation scheduled in Carmel. She leaves his car in her apartment's security garage and catches her flight. She decides she's going to have to quit her job when she returns (ironic, since the reason she was rejecting his dinner invitations in the first place is that it's bad policy to get personally involved with the boss).

Her first day in Carmel, she receives a dinner invitation from OM#2, who met her walking the rocky beach. When she opens her hotel room door that evening thinking her date has arrived, she's surprised to see the hero instead.

Somebody really wants his weekend.

He allows her to go out to dinner with OM#2 as long as she promises to return by 10pm for a chat. He ends up stalking them at the restaurant and loitering in the hotel hallway to prevent a goodnight kiss. Once OM#2 gives up and leaves, the heroine offers an ungracious apology for her behavior the night of the party and I regret wasting two days coming to terms with her behavior instead of just reading ahead.

The hero reaffirms his intent to collect his winnings and lays out his plan to stalk her until she gives in. But! He'll draw the line at forcing her to have sex. She can call a halt to their lovemaking whenever she wants. The heroine likes the idea of getting him hot and bothered, then shutting him down. (No. I already wasted two days coming to terms with her intolerableness. I'm just going to plow on.) They immediately engage in "primeval sexual combat" that the heroine manages to stop at second base.

That night, she decides what she wants is the hero's love (which she casts as marriage instead of a weekend affair) and plans to seduce him without actually having sex with him because she recognizes that if she succumbs to him, she'll be lost.

Her strategy is to make him jealous by spending the day with OM#2. The hero thwarts her by delivering a message in front of the OM that her husband will be arriving the next morning. The OM balks at adultery, and the heroine's temper makes the OM flee in terror. She then tries to provoke the hero's jealousy by arranging for the delivery of a single red rose with a forged note from engaged OM#1 asking for a second chance.

(The jealousy gambit bothers me. The hero of Whirlwind Courtship had disdained the proclivity of women to use jealousy to provoke a romantic response, so seeing the heroine employ it here feels like a step backward for JAK heroines. In my favorite JAK contemporary, Family Man, the protagonists vow they would never seek to make the other jealous before they even start their relationship.)

The heroine deflects the hero's jealous anger with a false show of submission before once again calling a halt to his lovemaking and sending him back to his own room. The next morning, on her way to breakfast, she discovers him in the hotel hallway with a tiny blonde's lips attached to his face.

No, he's not reversing the jealousy game. (The best thing about Krentz's heroes is they are completely disinterested in OW.) It turns out his Aunt Ella's neighbors' daughter is on a husband hunt and has targeted the hero. He asks the heroine to pretend to be his lover to put her off; the heroine ups the stakes by claiming they're engaged. The pushy OW actually accompanies them upstairs after dinner that evening, so the heroine seductively tugs the hero into her hotel room and the hero collects on his bet at last.

After the heroine tries to do yet another runner the next morning by stealing the hero's rental car, all the truths come out. He had deliberately provoked her into the card game, where he cheated to win the dinner and the kiss. He was so insistent on collecting the wagered weekend because he was sure that if he could just get her into bed, she would see he was the man for her. He loves her, she loves him, they get married three days later while still in Carmel.

So...this book is a lot like Whirlwind Courtship except without the hillbilly rapists. Or the dog. Or the metacommentary on romance novels. We have a larger brunette heroine who compares herself unfavorably to the tiny blondes who are on the prowl, and a redheaded hero whom she manipulates by refusing sex because if she has sex with him, she will completely surrender herself. JAK's vision of romance at this stage in her career is an unfiltered battle of the sexes, where heroines struggle between their need for independence and their desire to be bonded to a man and men regard women as prey. She'll hold onto these themes for a very long time, but gradually learn to personalize them by bringing the epic male/female struggle down to the characters' individual histories and choices rather than attempting to reflect the whole social conflict brought about by women's liberation.

JAK checklist
Pacific Northwest setting: Nope. However, JAK immediately relocates the protagonists from their home in Southern California to Northern California (her second-favorite setting) for a vacation from which they never return.
Familiar professions: She's in human resources; he's the CEO of his own engineering firm.
Marital status: They're both single, never married.
The heroine's character sheet: Savannah Emery (28) has tawny gold eyes and seal-brown hair. She's 5'11" and is going to be called "an amazon" a lot by both the narrator and the hero. Her superpowers are welching on bets and stealing cars.
The hero's character sheet: Cordell "Cord" Harding (37) is a rugged redhead with gray-green eyes. He's a level 10 stalker and debt collector.
Pets: None :-(
Vehicles spell success: She steals his brand-new Mercedes.
Metaphors are for flogging: Playing games. Romance/relationships as a game to be won.
Hero threatens to spank heroine: He threatens to beat her if she contacts OM#1 after the rose is delivered; then threatens to beat her again when she steals the rental car. There are also several instances of grabbing her shoulders in a bruising grip. Honestly, this guy is kind of triggering.

[Maddie Elam · Rating 5 out of 5]

loveeeee. this was such a fun read as someone who grew up playing cards - which is why i picked the book in the first place!

i ate up the banter between the characters, and loved how they both were playing games without the other knowing it.

[Ashley Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actually really liked this one. Read it in 2 days which is fast since I only read before bed! Keeping it I think!

[Jelena · Rating 2 out of 5]

1,5 - 2 ⭐

[Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

An early publication (1981) and a Candlelight, this Jayne Ann Krentz is a bit repetitive and without much of a plot. Still . . . I love to see how she improves as she continues to write. When you compare Savannah Emery to Juliana Grant in Lady's Choice (not to mention Cordell Harding to Travis Sawyer in the same book), you can see clearly how Ms. Krentz treats similar characters with a great deal more finesse and a far more intricate plot in the later book (1989). One has to start somewhere.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read this book several times and although it's dated, it is still enjoyable. I will continue to keep it and read it again in a year or so. I'll also keep looking for it to come out in Kindle as my book is getting worn.

[Lesley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok story - but dated!

[Cem73 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tire vf : Un jeu dangereux

[Tonya Warner · Rating 1 out of 5]

Painful to read.

Savannah Emery is unlucky in love, lucky in cards. Hoping her winning streak sticks around, she takes up her boss, Cord Harding, on his wager of a weekend with her. She is bound to win.

Frustrating. Aggravating read. No one is likable or believable.