Welcome to the Blog + Review Tour for To Win a Wager by Grace Hitchcock, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

About the Book

Title: To Win a Wager
Series: Best Laid Plans #3
Author: Grace Hitchcock
Publisher: Kregel Publications
Release Date: October 20, 2026
Genre: Regency Romance

A Regency-era enemies-to-lovers romance set in the magnificent Scottish Isles

Tess Hale has always been taught to fend for herself, but she never needed to until the night bounty hunters come knocking. It’s 1813 in Great Britain, and Tess’s best laid plans crumble when her father sends her alone in the dead of night to an island cottage to escape them. She finds herself in a world of warring clans she didn’t know existed.

After a decade as a spy separated from his clan, Jamie Malcom has a duty to fulfill as next in line as chief—but his absence means he must earn his people’s loyalty. He pursues a treasure stolen from his clan long ago, and it leads him straight to Tess.

As Tess grapples with her past, Jamie vows to protect her future—but lies revealed shatter the trust they had been building. For purposes beyond themselves, they are thrust into a marriage neither of them wanted . . . at first.

In the finale to the Best Laid Plans series, Grace Hitchcock invites readers to the sweeping Highlands and beautiful Scottish Isles with a romance guaranteed to delight.

PURCHASE LINKS: Goodreads | Kregel | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | ChristianBook | Bookshop | BookBub

Q & A with Author Grace Hitchcock

Welcome, Grace! Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions!

Thank you so much for having me here, Christy! 

In your bio, you state that the library was your favorite place to go as a child. It was mine too! What are some of your most cherished childhood reads? 

L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, Louisa May Alcott’s An Old-Fashioned Girl, Little Women, Jo’s Boys, Eight Cousins, and Rose in Bloom and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden and The Little Princess,

Do you have a favorite place to write?

I roam everywhere! I think it was a habit I developed being homeschooled as a child where I never worked in the same place for long. Now, I love writing on the front porch, under the pergola on the back porch, while walking the driveway (I do dictation on the first draft), at my bedroom desk (for heavy edits like content edits) and at my library desk. I used to only write at coffee shops before I had babies, but with homeschooling 3 kiddos, I write in the little pockets of time that I find!

If you had the opportunity to live anywhere in the world for a year while writing a book that took place in that same setting, where would you choose?

If we are asking Adventurous Gracie, she would say the countryside of Bath! I loved my time in Bath in 2025 and I know I would never be without something to go see and research and write about there! But, I’m a homebody, who only travels about 7-15 days out of the year ☺ 

To Win a Wager takes place in Scotland. I have always wanted to go to Scotland!! What type of research did you do for your settings in this novel? 

It’s beautiful there! I went to Scotland with my husband in the Spring of 2025, just in time to add all the delightful additions that I wouldn’t have been able to do without being in Scotland to feel the wind upon my face, along with light mist, as I rode through the highlands in the early morning atop a pony. The trip breathed another layer of life into my heavily researched novel as I gained further understanding of the land. I even traveled through Dornoch, a village where Tess briefly visits and, in their bookshop, found the world’s best notebook—a tartan covered notebook. Soooo beautiful. I may have to return to that bookshop just to buy another one ☺

Which character in To Win a Wager was the most difficult to write?

Jamie! I wanted to make sure I had a brooding hero with a past who struggled in a real way to forgive himself for past actions as he endeavored to lean on Christ in a newer relationship with Him.

You’ve written all types of tropes in your books. This one has enemies to lovers, marriage of convenience, and more! Do you have a favorite trope to write, and is it the same trope that’s your favorite to read? 

I love a good marriage of convenience story as a reader, but I think my favorite is forced proximity because it’s a trope that I can weave all sorts of the best kind of trouble into!

Do you have any author friends who support you while you’re writing? Do you belong to any writing groups?

I do! I have a mastermind group that is so fun to chat with and bounce ideas off of, talk about editing, reviewing workshops, or discussing a scene idea that needs something fresh!  

Since To Win a Wager is the finale to The Best Laid Plans series, can you tell us what’s next for you (and us!)?

I’m writing away on a new series, but I can’t say what it is quite yet! I’ll be hoping to announce it in late Spring and the first people to know will be on my newsletter, so be sure to sign-up and snag some of my exclusive freebies on my website while you wait to hear the news of what’s next from me!! https://gracehitchcockbooks.com/pages/freebies

Thank you again for being here! I really appreciate it!

Thank YOU so much for having me!!! I am so excited for this latest book and I hope it sweeps the readers into the glorious highlands as they devour Jamie and Tess’s love story.

Happy reading! 

Grace

More in This Series

About the Author

Tour Giveaway

(1) winner will receive a signed copy of To Win a Wager, plus print copies of To Catch a Coronet and To Kiss a Knight, and a bookmark!

Full tour schedule linked below. The giveaway begins at midnight October 20, 2026 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on October 27, 2026. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to JustRead Publicity Tours Giveaway Policies.

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