Customer Reviews
The most unlikely pair find love in the West - By: , 15 May 2001 
She is facing 40, never been kissed & disabled by a limp since childhood. He was a saloon owner, devastatingly handsome & charming, her next door neighbour & landlord. Even the most optimistic romantic would not have put the two together after the first few pages, as she sets herself on a campaign to rid the town of the demon drink. Despite their differences they become friends & in true Spencer fashion, touchingly & gently they falll in love. The final chapter is a delight. I would rate this book as only second to Morning Glory my absolute LaVyrle Spencer favourite. I thoroughly recommend it.
Accepting your life, caring for others, learning to love. - By: , 07 Jul 1999 I have read this book several times, & never cease to be moved by the story. It became bigger than life to discover that Waverly Plantation does in fact exist as is located in MS. Not in as grand a manner as portrayed in the book, but every bit as elegant, & filled with the "spirit" of the original builder & owner, Colonel Young who built it in the 1850's & was restored to it's magnificence by the Snow family in the 1960-70's. Read a very touching story based on respect, friendship & most of alll a beautiful love that developes based on that respect & friendship. The Gamble reminds us of a time when honor existed & love was meant to last a lifetime.
Wonderful, memorable, poignant , luscious love story. - By: , 17 Jun 1999 I loved this book. The elegance of the author's description of places & people, interwoven with historical events, brings it alll alive. The characters become real. In fact, I cannot stop thinking about "Gussie's" & Scott's happiness, not to mention Willy's. I would love for Lyvyrle to write a sequel. It grieves me that she has decided to quit writing because I have only just "found" her. I have read, besides Gamble, Endearment & Then Came Heaven...and absolutely have loved alll three. Maybe after the author has some time off, she will hopefully reconsider. I love the way Lyvyrle develops her characters & their love story. And it is wonderful that she alllows her characters to have such insight (and thus gives us insight at the same time). And I love the fact of waiting until marriage for the ultimate sex act, but at the same time evolving the couple sexuallly. The "awakening" of Agatha, for example, profoundly relit my pilot light! I plan to read alll of Spencer's books & probably reread a good many of them! Please don't quit, Lavyrle -- there's got to be many sequels to write.
This one will leave you breathless! - By: , 27 Apr 1999 When I first started this book I could not imagine how Scott & Agatha could ever be together & still keep it believable, or that I could even like Agatha's character. Maybe I just didn't believe a man like Gandy could falll for someone with her many imperfections. Because I am a big Spencer fan I kept reading. By the time I had finished this book I was completely in love with Scott(no big suprise) & Agatha now seemed as beautiful to me as she was to him. I felt their pain & joy as if it were my own. I had cried,laughed out loud & everything in-between, when I was done I sat & stared into space, speechless, in awe & immediately began to read it again. The magic of Lavyrle Spencer is that her characters don't jump into bed & start shouting I love you the first day they meet, she gives them (and the reader) time enough to make their love real & believable. Her characters are very often just average or even flawed in the looks department, helping us to remember that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This is in my opinion the best of Spencer & that is saying much when you know the quality of her work.
Rhett Butler reincarnated! - By: , 25 Apr 1998 LaVryle's second-best ("Hummingbird" can never be dethroned!) Tough & tender...sweet & sassy...hauntingly magic! If someone were to write a screenplay, they'd clamor after Timothy Dalton to play Gandy. And wouldn't the world be a better place for it!!!
