Product Description

A Passionate Gamble

It was bad enough when Anthony Morehouse thought he had won a piece of furniture in a card game, but when he learned that The Ladies' Fashionable Cabinet was actually a women's magazine, he couldn't wait to get rid of it. Then he sees beautiful Edwina Parrish behind the editor's desk. Tony has never forgotten the spirited girl who had bested him at every childhood contest, ultimately winning a priceless family heirloom he had no business wagering. Here was a golden opportunity for him to win it back. Yet Edwina, now a voluptuous enchantress, tempts him in a way no woman ever had before ...

Edwina was stunned to learn that Tony is the new owner of her beloved magazine. Being the Cabinet's editor has been a labor of love, and she's not about to let Tony take it away from her. If the scoundrel wants to make a wager, then he'll find that she has a few tricks of her own up her sleeve. But the mischievous youth she once knew has grown into a brazen charmer, and Edwina may be making the biggest gamble of all ... with her heart.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #485484 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-01
• Released on: 2003-07-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 384 pages

From Booklist
After winning the Ladies' Fashionable Cabinet in a card game, Anthony finds to his great surprise that he owns not a piece of furniture but rather a ladies' magazine. Once Tony discovers that the editor is not the dried-up spinster he envisioned but instead is his childhood friend and nemesis, Edwina Parrish, he comes up with a wonderfully devious scheme to pay Edwina back for all the humiliating wagers he lost to her as a boy by wagering her for ownership of the magazine. The chance to win control of the magazine is too tempting to resist, but it means Edwina must prevent Tony from discovering her creative uses for some of the magazine's profits. As both try to gain the upper hand in their little competition, Edwina and Tony gradually realize that they might be playing for a different, more important prize. In the second in a trilogy, Hern expertly infuses each encounter between her delightfully appealing protagonists with delicious wit and luscious sensuality. John Charles
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
A winning, sexy bad boy and a spirited woman: together they are an unbeatable pair sure to delight readers. -- Romantic Times Book Club

Once A Scoundrel's sparkling wit and compelling characters will make you laugh and cry . . . and then go back for more! -- USAToday-bestselling author Sabrina Jeffries

The end is so wonderfully sexy and mushy, it made my toes curl. -- Rakehell.com

About the Author
Candice Hern has always enjoyed escaping into the history and literature of Regency England. After years of re-reading the novels of Jane Austen and other women of the period, she by chance discovered the great Georgette Heyer -- and all her contemporary stepchildren -- and was instantly hooked.

Candice lives in San Francisco in a house cluttered with African violets, orchids, Regency-period antiques, and mountains of reference books.

Customer Reviews

Once a Scoundrel
Laugh out loud funny, excellent historical detail, wide range of intriguing characters. Clever plot with subtle message. Mature heroine and hero with lots of sparks and sparring as they wager their way past their deep-rooted rivalry. Candice is a wonderful writer who has outdone herself in this second installment of her current trilogy. I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel and subsequent offerings.

interesting character portrayals saves this book
"Once a Scoundrel" was not a bad read. To the contrary, it was well written and had several interesting (and captivating) characters that the authour successfully made you care about. And yet, on the whole, the novel did not totally satisfy. And that was because the story line was an often used one, with few interesting or surprising plot twists.

Anthony Morehouse is a typical gentleman of the ton: he spends his time drinking and gambling with his friends, and gadding about from one social do to another. So that when he wins the ownership of a ladies' magazine at the gambling tables, he's not too sure what to do about it. A visit to the editor's home gives him the first of many shocks: 1) the magazine he now owns is not some ladies' fashion concern but actually one that writes on political issues, reforms as well as matters about fashion and housekeeping; and 2) the magazine's editor just happens to be Miss Edwina Parrish, his childhood nemesis, who bested him in everything. Suddenly, the opportunity to pay Edwina for all those years of humiliation has been presented to him on a silver platter, and in the mood of mischief, Anthony wagers Edwina that if she can double the subscription level in two months, he will sign the magazine over to her. And in the meantime, Anthony has every intention of spending as much time as possible with Edwina, who has grown up to become a rather delectable young lady...

Edwina has spent the last few years making the magazine over into something that she's rather proud of, only to discover that the ownership of her magazine has changed hands. Edwina's is afraid that the new owner (Anthony) might want to take a more active role at running the magazine, and discover how she has been using the profits from the magazine to run certain charities. Now Anthony has challenged her to a wager for the ownership of the magazine. Should she accept this mad wager? For while she has every intention of wining the wager, working under Anthony's close scrutiny could mean the discovery of all her secrets. And then there is that rather unnerving manner in which Anthony looks at her that's awakening all sorts of feeling that she'd thought she had buried...

I truly enjoyed the manner in which Candice Hern allowed for Edwina's character to blossom from a serious minded editor and reformer to a young woman ready to let a little bit of fun and frivolity into her life. Also well done was the manner in which the authour fleshed out the secondary characters in the novel -- from Prudence, Edwina's mousy assistant editor who happens to have a severe crush on Edwina's brother (I do hope that there's a novel that features Prudence as heroine at some point), to Flora, a woman with a scandalous past whom Anthony and Edwina hire to be the fashion editor, to Anthony raffish friends -- these characters added colour and depth to this otherwise rather ordinary story. Where the novel failed to raise itself above the expected level was in the predictable storyline -- you could almost predict the exact chapter in which Edwina and Anthony would first indulge in a bit of dalliance, to the chapter in they would fall out because of Edwina's political sympathies. I was also disappointed that Anthony's growth as a character was not as detailed as Edwina's was -- we're told about his growth, but not shown. On the other hand, the novel did unfold smoothly and at an even pace.

On the whole though "Once a Scoundrel" was a pleasant enough read, even if the storyline and the hero & heroine were pretty much run of the mill.

Enjoyable Regency fluff with a feminist twist and thin plot
Edwina Parrish, the feminist reformer and ex-tomboy, is sorely disappointed in Anthony Morehouse, the dissolute gambler and still-sensitive boy she once knew. Turns out, Eddie did quite a bit of wagering when she and Anthony played together. Anthony, who is, of course, smitten with Edwina, bets her that she can't double her subscriptions in three months. If she can, she'll own the magazine her aunt started as an amusing fashionable and gossip rag. For independent Edwina, this wager is too good to resist.

Anthony's new magazine, The Ladies' Fashionable Cabinet, is the Marie Claire or Vanity Fair of its day, minus the fashion reports. Edwina labors under the illusion that so many of today's feminists still do: you can't be into the latest high-society or haut ton fashion and still write reviews on Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's A Vindication of the Rights of Women. Fortunately, Anthony, who's feeling the need to break out of his role of good-for-nothing privileged son, actively tries to help Edwina---not without a few wagers of course---for example, appointing as her new editor Flora Gallagher, the Heidi Fleiss of the day. The notorious courtesan becomes Edwina's ally and best friend as Edwina and Tony head toward the typical Regency ravishment...except Edwina seduces Tony!

The inevitable boy-loses-girl moment is a ridiculous falling-out between Anthony and Edwina just before the hero proves his love and the heroine realizes her pride (and prejudice) got in the way. Nevertheless, this predictable-but-fun romp into publishing and steamy romance contains a little gem of wisdom on the merits of both beauty and brains.