Never Gamble Your Heart

I enjoyed the first book in this series, Never Blow a Kiss. It was wallpapery, sure, but very entertaining, with leads who sizzled and dialogue that made me laugh. This one? Still wallpapery, but missing the zing of book one. It’s not terrible, however, and, if you’re looking for fun and forgettable, this does the trick.

The premise is a good one: Female spies posing as governesses infiltrate high-society homes to expose corruption. A fake governess school that’s really a covert spy program? I’m all in. But this book didn’t live up to that pitch.

Frances (Frankie) Turner, a brilliant but somewhat socially awkward mathematician, teams up with The Dove to track down who’s trapping wealthy women in forced marriages. The villains, “The Dowry Thieves,” all belong to a gaming club run by Jasper Jones, the brooding love interest. Frankie becomes governess to Jasper’s orphaned niece, and her math-through-card-games lessons charm the girl. Jasper spends most of the book alternating between being intrigued and irritated by Frankie before—surprise—he falls for her.

Frankie worked in book one. Here, her quirks—including a very annoying tendency to again and again exclaim Holy Queen V!—veer into caricature. Jasper, meanwhile, is supposed to be sharp, but he doesn’t notice Frankie’s obvious game for far too long. Their rivals-to-lovers chemistry just didn’t land.

The pacing moves quickly, and the mystery had promise, but there was too much insta-lust and not enough depth. The supporting characters are thin, the twists predictable, and the ending? Rushed. The epilogue skips the main couple entirely to set up the next book, which didn’t help.

I still like the concept of this series, but the execution here missed the mark.