The Gamble
Tough and tender, sweet and sassy, here is a story of honesty and humour for anyone who has ever lived and loved. Scott Gandy has always been a gambling man, relying on his lazy Southern charm to smooth a way out of difficult situations. Hoping to make his fortune, he opens a saloon in Proffitt, Kansas. But he soon becomes a target of the prohibition movement, led by the owner of the hat shop next door to his establishment -- the enchanting yet volatile Agatha Downing. The saloon keeper and the prim and proper milliner are hopeless adversaries... until the innocence of a child opens their eyes and hearts to each other.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about The Gamble
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Temperance worker Agatha Downing arrives in 1880 Proffitt, Kansas, intent on driving Scott Gandy's saloon out of business. They are bound by a young dance-hall girl who falls into Agatha's care, and by their own slow surrender.
Multiple novels share this title. The most commonly searched is The Gamble by LaVyrle Spencer (1987), a historical romance. The metadata above is correct.
The Gamble is a standalone, but LaVyrle Spencer wrote many connected and standalone historical and contemporary romances during her career. She retired from writing in 1997.
The Gamble is 480 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Gamble takes most readers 7 to 10 hours to finish.
The Gamble is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.