The Heiress Swap by Maddison Michaels
Tracy’s rating: 3 of 5 stars
Series: N/A
Release Date: July 25, 2023
Yvette “Evie” Jenkins was orphaned young and was raised by her maternal Aunt Beth, but upon her death six years ago, she was taken in by her father’s extremely rich family and brought to America. As she is illegitimate, the Thornton-Jones give her the position of companion to their daughter Aimee. Evie has been treated well and for the most part, is happy, but now Aimee’s parents want her cousin to go to London and find a husband while having Evie train for the position of secretary at her uncle Thomas’ company in London. She has no desire to be a secretary, but her options are limited thanks to her birth, but when Aimee suggests that they switch places, she refuses. But Aimee is relentless and convinces Evie that everybody wins with her plan – for 6 weeks Evie will politely decline any and all suitors and will get to visit museums and pursue her passion for history and paleontology and Aimee will learn her father’s business from the ground up and prove to him that she is worthy to run his company one day. Finally, Evie agrees and even looks forward to her adventure. Until she meets the nephew of her hostess, Alexander “Alex” Trenton, the Duke of Hargrave. Needless to say, it was not love at first sight!
When his cousin Samuel Ellingsworth, the Earl of Brexton begins to exalt the virtues of his mother’s houseguest, an American heiress, Alex is immediately on guard, Sam falls in love at the drop of a hat and Alex doesn’t want him to be hurt. Alex doesn’t trust women, after his experience with his mother and then with his faithless ex- fiancée (who was also an American heiress) he believes women are universally fleckless and fickle, willing to tell you what you want to hear to manipulate you – he is sure Evie (who they believe is Aimee) is cut from the same mold and plans to prove it. But instead, he discovers they have a lot in common and finds himself beginning to like her. Soon deeper feelings are involved, but old fears, new threats, and the truth may end any chance they have for HEA.
I thought this was a well-written, nicely-paced story, but I really didn’t care for Alex. I completely understand that he was hurt before, first by his mother and then by his fiancée, but he took it over the top in my opinion. And his reaction to finding out the truth of Evie’s deception, while somewhat understandable, again was too much, especially given all that had passed between them. For me, it felt like Alex didn’t grovel nearly enough and not at all until he learned who she really was. I also felt that Evie caved much too quickly and everything just conveniently fell into place. In the end, I loved the idea of the story but had a hard time with the execution, so while this was not a keeper for me, it kept me entertained and left me wanting to read Aimee’s story!
*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher. All opinions in this review are my own.*
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