Review: The Highest Stakes

The Highest Stakes by Emery Lee

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Highest Stakes is a historical novel set in Georgian England. It is not a romance novel, although a romance is central to the story. It is about greed and ambition, class and the lack of choice for women and commoners. It's about the lucrative and vicious business of horse-breeding and racing, soldiering in the Napoleonic War, and characters attempting to break out of their social status.

I really enjoy historical fiction that doesn't focus on famous people and events because the outcome isn't pre-determined. This is one of those. It submerges you in the time period and makes you feel the struggles of people living there. It doesn't modernize the characters' choices, but is realistic about what happens. It has really great historical detail, making you feel like you're there. I love the details about raising, racing and caring for horses. And the war scenes were not tedious at all.

The reason I only gave it 4 stars is that it reached a point when I realized that nothing was going right for anyone I cared about in the story. There were truly despicable characters who were very well-drawn and I wanted them to come to serious harm. So I loved it because the author was able to engage my emotions, but the emotions evoked were not happy ones. I wish there had been moments of stolen happiness for the protagonists - that they could have had more time together at points along the way. They do spend most of their time apart. This is truly not about their relationship, but about the hope/hopelessness of their love.

There was a point towards the end when I had no idea how in the world everything could be resolved, and I feared it was impossible. The ending is satisfying except for the fact that it's not longer - a little more of that hard-earned happy ending would have been nice.



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