THE GAME AND THE GOVERNESS is the latest from Kate Noble, and as usual this book is a lot of fun. What starts off as a bet between friends, quickly turns into a serious affair where each man is forced to question his role and how others perceive him. Mainly we're focused on Lucky Ned Ashby and the way he floats through life, but when he takes over the life of his friend and secretary John Turner, Ned quickly learns that maybe his luck isn't quite what he's always believed it to be.

Kate Noble is an auto-buy author for me, but this blurb gave me pause because I'm hesitant with books involving a bet and a woman. Luckily the bet between Ned and Turner was less distasteful than some others I've read, and Noble pulled the whole thing off well. Not only does Phoebe discover the plot early on, but when she discovers the bet has been ongoing even as she's been falling in love with Ned, she gets a pretty good groveling at the end. I enjoyed watching the two of them fall in love, and I even more enjoyed that Phoebe didn't let a bad experience in the beginning of the book ruin her outlook on life. My only complaint is that as the book went on, Turner became more and more unlikeable and spiteful. I hope that Noble's next book will be a companion piece to THE GAME AND THE GOVERNESS and we'll get to see the same timeframe played out from Turner's point of view.