The Wager (2001) — Sonia Prentice (Hollytree Books)
ISBN: 9780954117405 • Condition: Good • Seller: Crappy Old Books
Here’s a slim grenade with a nice polite pin: The Wager by Sonia Prentice. It looks harmless—tasteful cover, tidy year (2001), the modest poise of a Hollytree Books original—but crack it open and there’s that delicious hum of consequences assembling themselves like cutlery before a row. Someone makes a bet (as one does), the universe takes notes (as it always does), and suddenly the smallest promise becomes an obstacle course, the kind with social hurdles, moral puddles, and a finish line that keeps moving “just to see what happens.”
Prentice writes with a cat’s confidence: unhurried, amused, and convinced you’ll follow her to the top of the wardrobe to observe the humans below. The tone is tart but forgiving; the chapters are little wagers of their own—“Go on, read one more”—and your dignity loses decisively around page forty-seven. Expect stakes that escalate from “Oh, that’s manageable” to “What have we done?” with the grace of a well-aimed eyebrow. There’s wit for the head, warmth for the spleen, and those cameo details (the chipped mug, the town clock five minutes fast, the letter you shouldn’t have posted) that say: yes, the author has met people.
Is it romance? Possibly. Satire? Frequently. A social caper where character meets consequence in an alley behind the grocer’s? Almost certainly. The Wager is the kind of book that knows how you spend your Sunday afternoons and is prepared to negotiate.
About our copy: graded Good by Crappy Old Books—our name, not our standards. That means it’s seen daylight (bravo), learned to sit flat (useful), and acquired the faint, honest scuffs of a book that has lived in the world without demanding a glass case. You may notice a whisper of shelf wear, a corner with character, perhaps a spine that hints at previous laughter. No loose signatures, no confetti pages, no crimes committed by highlighter. In short: a dependable co-conspirator for your next tea-and-schemes session.
Why this edition deserves your mischief:
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Hollytree Books charm: small-press poise with a quietly sharp bite.
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A premise that starts as a nudge and becomes a map of unintended destinations.
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Dialogues that clink like glasses and then say something you’ll underline.
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Perfect commuter length for missing your stop in a refined and literary manner.
Buy it for the bet, keep it for the payoff, and display it for the air of subtle audacity it lends to any shelf. And when someone asks what The Wager is about, smile mysteriously and say, “Oh, you’ll see.” That’s how rumours—and good reading—begin at Crappy Old Books.
