Against the Odds (Gamblers of Craven #2.5)

Against the Odds Summary:
When eminently sensible Lydia Craven decides to marry for security rather than love, she doesn't calculate on the determination of devil-may-care doctor Jake Linley to rewrite the romantic formula, in Lisa Kleypas' charming romp... Against the Odds

Against the Odds Review:
Let me start off by saying that this was waaay to short. The characters were nice but without enough history, character development or time for the story to develop their love. It was really sweet but not enough to actually believe in their love story. I wish that Kleypas had done what Larissa Ione does with her short stories. They are almost the size of a book so that we get to see the proper development and leaves us with a feeling of satisfaction.

The heroine, Lydia, is different from any of Kleypas' other heroines because she doesn't want to marry for love. She believes there is no such thing and is hoping to mark for companionship and sensibility. She is also crazy smart. Following in her mother's footsteps, she wrote many scholarly essays on Statistics and Probability.

The hero, Jake, is also different from previous heroes. He has no care for money nor does he have a lot of it. He believes living with necessities and no more, and needs to make money through his own ways. He is really sweet but once again, we see that he is a womanizer. Something to note about Jake is that his father, Jacob Linley, comes from the Bow Street Runners series. That means that this book is happening alongside the Ravenals series since the BSR and Gamblers are right before the Wallflowers/Hathaways.

My favorite part of this novel is seeing Derek and Sara. Sara is still as devious as before, absolutely set on her kids finding love. It is this determination that pushes forward the plot and creates the best scene in the novella. Derek was still the same man as he was in Dreaming of You. It was wonderful to revisit him as a father and see him struggle with letting Lydia get married. He was hilarious and kind of stole the show!

Overall a 4 star read. Three stars for the book and one star for seeing Derek and Sara again! Hopefully we get to see more their kids because they are an amusing bunch.