Harlequin Historical #299: The Gambler's Heart

by Gayle Wilson and Jennifer Hartmann

The Gambler's Heart by Gayle Wilson released on Nov 24, 1995 is available now for purchase.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0373288999
• ISBN13: 9780373288991
• Release Date: December 1995
• Publisher: Harlequin Books
• Length: 347 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Powerful Emotion at its best

As always, Gayle Wilson's historical novels don't disappoint. The Gambler's Heart is no exception. Emotionally intense to an almost painful degree, Ms Wilson tells a complex, intriguing, gritty tale of two wounded people - one physically, the other emotionally - healing each other and finding a love that makes them whole again. A remarkable story by a remarkable writer who challenges the reader into feeling - living- being part of the hero & heroine's lives, emotions and, finally, their joy as they reach out into each other's souls to find a heart-warming, memorable love.

Beauty and the Beast

Lady Madelyn Fairchild has a title and great beauty, but there's something missing in her life...she's never known love, she's just known pain at the hands of the people who should have loved and cared for her. She finds that missing piece of herself in Jean-Luc Gavereau. He's a man whose scarred exterior masks an equally scarred interior. Together they find that two wounded hearts just might be able to take the biggest gamble of all...to trust in a love they've never known and never expected to find.The third book in Wilson's "Heart" series is as wonderful as the first two. Her characters have depth and pull you into the stories, until you absolutely can't put down the book!

I adored this book

This is the second Gayle Wilson books I've read (the first, "Honor's Bride" is equally fabulous), and I found her amazing. Ms. Wilson writes with sensitivity, understanding, and passion, and all three come through in "The Gambler's Bride." The story centers a centers around a series of standard romance novel devices-- a forced marriage, a gambled bride, a scarred man with a past, a beautiful widow who's never know passion-- but Wilson trancends the stereotypes to make this story pulse with life and love. Her hero, Jean-Luc Gavereau is a gambler, a once handsome man horribly scarred by fire (this is not some sexy little mark across his cheekbone). He feels isolated by his deformity, his birth, and his class. He meets Madeline Fairchild in the private parlor of an inn one rainy night. Their meeting is brief and acrimonious, but both are haunted by the kiss they shared. They don't meet again until over a year later, when Madeline's half brother asks her to marry Gavereau in order to release him from the gambling debts he owes the man. Jean-Luc cannot fathom why Maddy wants to marry him, but agrees because he wants her and because she moved him terribly that night in the inn. Madeline has some secrets of her own, but the two lovers explore each other with tenderness, delicious passion, and a good deal of humor. Because their union makes little sense to polite society, they, and especially Jean-Luc, are the target of a great deal of anger and violence. It is overcoming this hatred, and learning to trust each other that proves the greatest challenge to Maddy and Jean-Luc. This is a beautiful, beautiful love story, full of love and redemption and fabulous sex scenes. I love the fact that Maddy knows exactly what she wants from Jean-Luc-- his heart and soul, and I love that he feels it too. He gives himself truly to Madeline in a way that few romance heroes do. I find that very very beautiful. If you like some of my other favorite Romance writers-- Connie Brockway, Mary Jo Putney's historicals, Mary Balogh, Patricia Coughlin-- you'll love this one too.

My favourite romance

This is the best romance book I read in my life and I'm sorry because there are a lot of people in the world that never read it. Thank you Gayle Wilson for sharing this wonderful love story with us!

It will be a movie someday!

If every romance novel ever written was like this book, there would be no reason to hide a 'trashy romance' from dissaproving eyes. I love this book. While few people except Harlquin fans will ever read this novel, I would recommened it to anyone who has ever wanted to fall in love. This passionite story deals with history's shadows, and judging the future by the past. GET THIS BOOK! It will be a movie someday