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BOOKWORM REVIEW: A Wicked Game by Kate Bateman


RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
SPICE: 🔥🔥🔥

Morgan Davies and Harriett Montgomery have been part of a family feud that is as old as time. As generations passed, the resentment slowly waned into childhood rivalry and ribbing..and for some, flirtation. Before Morgan sets sail to join the British war against France, he makes a wager with Harriett: If he comes home from the war, she owes him three kisses.

After surviving as a prisoner of war, he comes back to London with two missions: to seek vengeance on the cartographer who created the incorrect map that led to his imprisonment and to collect on his wager with Harriett. To his surprise, both roads led to the woman who has been on his mind since his departure.

I really enjoyed this somewhat quick read. The chemistry between Morgan and Harriett was intense from the onset. Their banter and flirtation were fun to follow, and the intensity just grew as more details about their feelings and history are uncovered.

Those three kisses! Whew, the spice that Morgan introduces to the equally enthusiastic Harriett just makes for a fun, hot read. 

I also enjoyed the subplot full of mystery and suspense. We get lots of moments in which Harriett shows that while she is an innocent, she is no wilting flower. Her competitiveness and strength just make her all the more relatable.

This is the third book in the series, but it can be read as a standalone. As a newbie to the series, it was great to understand the background provided about the characters from the previous books in the series.

** I am voluntarily reviewing an advance copy of this book. Thank you to Kate Bateman, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for providing an ARC. **

ABOUT THE BOOK

If there’s one thing impossible for a Davies to resist, it’s a challenge from a Montgomery. . .

A teasing bet.

Shipwrecked and imprisoned thanks to an incorrect map, Captain Morgan Davies has returned to London to exact sweet revenge on the cartographer responsible for his suffering. He’s also vowed to claim the winner’s prize―three kisses―in the bet he made with his long-time nemesis, the prickly, smart-mouthed Harriet Montgomery. His incarceration has clarified his feelings for her, but convincing the infuriating woman he wants to marry her is going to be his greatest challenge yet. When Harriet’s revealed to be the very mapmaker he seeks, Morgan decides to combine revenge and seduction into one delightful package. . .

A dangerous enemy.

Harriet’s always wanted witty scoundrel Morgan, and now he’s back; as handsome and as taunting as ever. She has enough on her plate dealing with her father’s failing eyesight and a rival mapmaker copying her work to play wicked games with a dastardly Davies―however tempting he might be. But when a threat from Morgan’s past puts them both in danger, Harry discovers that she and Morgan might not be enemies at all . . .


MEET KATE BATEMAN

Kate Bateman, also writing as K.C. Bateman, is a bestselling author of Regency and Renaissance historical romances, including the Secrets and Spies series, Bow Street Bachelors series, and Ruthless Rivals series. She loves to write feisty, intelligent heroines, wickedly inappropriate banter, and heroes you want to both strangle and kiss. 

Her books have received multiple Starred Reviews from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, and have been translated into multiple languages, including French, Brazilian, Japanese, German, Romanian, and Croatian. Her Renaissance romp, The Devil To Pay, was a 2019 RITA® Finalist for Historical Romance. 

When not writing, Kate leads a not-so-secret double life as a fine art appraiser, auction house owner, and on-screen antiques expert for several TV shows in the UK. She currently lives in Illinois with a number-loving husband and three inexhaustible children, and regularly returns to her native England ‘for research.’

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