The Game and the Governess

Winner Takes All, Book 1

By: Kate Noble

Narrated by: Beverley A. Crick

Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's Summary

As the Earl of Ashby, Lord Edward Granville has never been in short supply of luck, earning him the nickname "Lucky Ned". Why should he not take risks most sensible men would run from, since the tide always turns in his favor? Making a wager that he can have any woman he desires even without his title, Ned switches places with John Turner, his friend and secretary. But once he does, Ned's luck suddenly abandons him, for the ladies now have eyes only for Turner.

When Ned meets governess Phoebe Baker, he becomes intent on gaining her affections. Phoebe wants nothing more than to keep her head down, teach her students, and go unnoticed-especially by the Earl of Ashby. But his rakish secretary has the infuriating habit of constantly crossing her path. Yet Phoebe cannot deny that her pulse quickens in Ned's presence. If this prim-and-proper governess lets her heart rule, will fate intervene where Ned's luck has forsaken him?

©2014 Kate Wilcox (P)2014 Tantor

Critic Reviews

"The subtle development of romance between the devil-may-care earl and the proper former lady is the impetus behind this winning novel, which also boasts rich characters and a deliciously complex story." ( Publishers Weekly)

My Musings

It’s been several years since I have read a book by Kate Noble, and I had forgotten how much I enjoy her writing style and unique storylines. When an opportunity came up to purchase the audio version for a great price, I took advantage of it. I am so glad I did. The Game and the Governess is an enchanting love story.

Phoebe Baker lost everything at seventeen and is now a governess instead of a debutante. Years later, she’s still a governess, but she still has her dream of going to America where her cousins live.

Edward “Ned” Granville, the Earl of Ashby, is always looking for a good time. When his friend, John Turner challenges him, stating that Ned cannot get a woman to fall in love with him if he isn’t the earl, he’s determined to prove his friend wrong. Thus a wager is made. He has two weeks to win the heart of a lady.

Ned soon finds out it’s not as easy as he expected. Since he’s impersonating his secretary, and his friend is pretending to be the earl, the women at the house party pay him no mind and fawn over John.

When Ned learns Phoebe is a lady, of reduced circumstances, he sets out to win her and the wager. He doesn’t count on emotions getting in the way. Are his feelings for Phoebe strong enough to get him to lose the wager, or will Ned’s competitive personality have him throwing away a chance at true love?

The Game and the Governess has sparkling wit, plenty of emotionally-charged writing and unforgettable characters. It is fast-paced with an engaging story that pulled me in from the start. This is a charming Regency romance, and I truly enjoyed it.

Phoebe is a wonderful heroine and she stole my heart in the prologue, and I fell further in love with her as the story unfolds. While life certainly has not been kind to her, she is able to rise above that and maintain a positive attitude toward life and is an excellent governess to the sweet little children in her care.

Ned is an intriguing, complex character. At first, I did not expect to like him. He seemed too much of a careless fellow, who didn’t take anything serious. Once he settles on Phoebe, things begin to change, but not immediately. The scene with the blackberry tart did not show him in a favorable light, but his remorse helped to turn me around. From that point on, I began to fall in love with him and understand why he was so careless in the beginning of the story.

Ms. Noble is brilliant at building sexual tension between Phoebe and Ned, and it continues to grow throughout the book. The chemistry between the pair can only be called dazzling. While the love scenes may not be very explicit, they more than make up for that in emotion and sensuality. Their kiss in the lane sizzles.

I listened to the audio version performed by Beverley A. Crick and thoroughly enjoyed it. Ms. Crick reads with just the right amount of emotion, bringing the character to life. She does an excellent job with distinguishing the various characters. I will definitely want to listen to future recordings narrated by her.

If you enjoy a good Regency romance with an intriguing plot and a heroine that will pull at your heart-strings, then you will love The Game and the Governess as much as I did. I plan to read John’s story in the near future. Happy reading!

Unusual story with lots of humour

Would you consider the audio edition of The Game and the Governess to be better than the print version?

I liked the audio version so much that I just bought the Kindle version.

What other book might you compare The Game and the Governess to and why?

Nothing comes to mind.

Have you listened to any of Beverley A. Crick’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I thought she did a great job with all the different characters - and there were a lot of them.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

There were a lot of laugh out loud moments for me, especially with the children, Rose and Henry. The governess, Phoebe Baker, uses their love of horses throughout their lessons to keep them engaged. Some of the frantic plot development towards the end reminded me of a screwball comedy- which I liked.

Any additional comments?

I liked the story, the character development of Ned and John, the class snobbery, and the teacher's approach to getting the children to learn by building their lessons around what interested them, e.g., horses. I also think there's a valuable lesson here that is expressed by several different characters: happiness is a choice; but if your happiness is conditional on what happens to you in life and how it affects you, you may never be happy.

Hard to hear the story

The story line seemed to be strong but it was difficult to keep track of the character turns and plot points because the narration was a bit shrill and lacking in differentiations. The accents were inconsistent, men’s voices were all foppish with little masculinity. Female voices all sounded the same. Dialect was of the wrong class structure and wrong area of the country.
Overall difficult to hear the storyline and understand what was happening.

Over too soon!!!

What lovely character development and the narration was top notch! Loved the plot and ending and just wish there was more or that this was a series. I’ve finished all of Kate Noble’s works and they’re all awesome.

Narrator needs to work on male voices.

I liked the story well enough and the narrator’s females voices. However, she’s terrible with men’s voices. The pitch for male voices is higher than her female voices. She needs to work on that! In fact, she needs to work on developing identifiable voices for her characters - and especially work on male voices.

Terrible Narrator

The story was nice, but the narrator was completely terrible. She was like listening to a shrieking owl. The main male character sounded like an extremely feminine prissy man. It was a complete turn off for me. The story, like all of Kate Noble’s stories was good. I almost quit the book because of the narrator, but I purchased the ebook and read it myself.

Loved the book, loved the narrator!

In this story the Earl’s cockiness almost loses him his best friend and the woman he loves. The relationships between main characters are described and developed with an originality that is refreshing. I was also glad to have a capable narrator that I trust.

Just aweful

There is way too much that is terrible in this book to go over so I’m just going to say save yourself the trouble and read something else.

Male protagonist is a jerk from the start.

I wouldn't bother buying this book unless your idea of entertainment is reading about self important idiots.

Ruined by the narrator

I really wanted to listen to this book. I like the story line and wanted to hear the whole plot play out but I couldn’t listen after the first chapter. The male main character was dreadful to listen to.