Category: America’s Gilded Age (1870-1900)

Duchess by Design by Maya Rodale

On By TracyIn America's Gilded Age (1870-1900), Top Pick - Highly Recommended, Tracy's Reviews1 Comment

Duchess by Design (The Gilded Age Girls Club, #1)Duchess by Design by Maya Rodale
Tracy’s rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Series: The Gilded Age Girls Club, #1

Release Date: October 23, 2018

4.5 stars, rounded up.

Brandon Fiennes, The Duke of Kingston needs to find a rich bride, he inherited a failing estate, two unmarried sisters and a mother with an expensive sense of style. He consults with his cousin Freddie and is told that if he wants a heiress, New York is the place to go hunting.

Adeline Black is a seamstress with dreams of opening her own shop and creating her own designs, her dreams do not include love, marriage or handsome dukes – until a chance meeting in a hotel lobby. She is attracted to the stranger, who must be the duke the papers have been writing about, but dukes don’t marry seamstresses and she tries to put the encounter out of her mind and concentrate on her goal – to convince the heiress Harriet Burnett to go with her dress designs, including her signature – pockets!

Kingston cannot believe his luck, he meets the woman of his dreams his first day in New York, she is lovely, poised, intelligent AND an heiress! He sends a note to the suite she entered, asking her to meet him in Central Park. She is going to refuse until she reads a description of her outfit in the paper – this could be her break! She agrees to meet him and the attraction between them is red hot. But he still thinks she is an heiress…

When he learns the truth, he confronts her, she never lied to him, he never asked. She tries to walk away, but he follows her and his attention causes her to lose her position at Madame Chalfont’s shop. He feels badly and offers to help her – she refuses and tells him, that he has no idea what it is like to be poor – he may think he is poor, but what he really is, is entitled.

Adeline spends the next week trying to find work and Kingston tries to find a bride – he narrows his choices down to two. Adeline gets an intriguing offer when she runs into Harriet at a speech in Union Square. Harriet and several friends have a club – Ladies of Liberty, they help women find work, they offer to fund her dream, but she must swear to keep their secret.

While out with Freddie, Kingston happens upon her shop – she refuses to see him – hilarity ensues! When she gives him the heads up about the two women he is considering for his duchess, he asks for her help. He invites her to the opera, she will wear one of her creations and get free advertising when the papers write about it. She agrees and at the opera, suggests a potential duchess, Miss Alice Van Allen.

Kingston can’t seem to forget about Adeline and wishes he could marry her, but he has responsibilities to his title, family and tenants – he can’t let them down, even at the cost of his own happiness. He begins to court Miss Van Allen and she is all he could ever hope for in a duchess, but his heart is not in the courtship – it is with a dressmaker who has no desire to marry and has no fortune.

Things start to take off for Adeline, her shop is a success and when she receives another letter from Kingston saying he has met Alice and yes she is perfect, but he thinks he should consider a few more ladies and asks her to attend a ball with him. She agrees. They attend and she tries not to feel hurt when he spends time with Alice and leaves her with his cousin Freddie. She doesn’t like Freddie, he is handsy and makes her uncomfortable, she is angry because she cannot completely rebuff him, his wife is a client and he has yet to pay his bills – she cannot afford to anger him and it makes her more determined to remain independent. Kingston makes assumptions about her and Freddie and is jealous. On the way home, he realizes that he will marry Alice, but a part of his heart with always be with Adeline.

They have no contact for weeks and then have a random meeting on a rooftop garden. He misses her and again wishes that there was a way they could be together. The arrival of his mother and sisters remind him that he must propose to Alice, but he continues to stall.

When they meet again at a masked ball, sparks fly and he makes a decision. When Adeline leaves the ball, he follows her, knowing everything will change. She takes him to the bowery, hoping to scare him away, but they end up sharing their pasts and spend the night together. When he asks how she got the money to start her shop, they fight and she leaves, hurt.

Kingston follows through with his new plan and the fall out threatens Adeline’s dreams. Can there be a HEA??

I loved this book, it was almost unputdownable – I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about him actively trying to find a bride who was not Adeline, but found that it didn’t bother me at all. I loved Adeline and her friends and thought Harriet and the Ladies of Liberty were wonderful. I loved watching Kingston begin to envision a different future for his duchy – to let go of the past and bravely embrace the changes happening in his world. He and Adeline together were magical, she was exactly the duchess he needed – he just had to be brave enough to take the risk and she in turn had to be brave enough to trust him with her heart and dreams. There were a couple of title errors and typos that I assume will be corrected by publication – but overall, this was an outstanding start to the series and I highly recommend this book and can’t wait for the next book in the series!!

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an Uncorrected eARC that was provided to me by Edelweiss and the publisher.*

A Notorious Vow by Joanna Shupe

On By TracyIn America's Gilded Age (1870-1900), American Historical, Tracy's Reviews1 Comment

A Notorious Vow (The Four Hundred, #3)A Notorious Vow by Joanna Shupe

Tracy’s rating: 4/4.5 of 5 stars

Series: The Four Hundred, #3

Release Date: September 25, 2018

I thought this was a solid 4 star read, maybe even 4.5 stars…

Lady Christina Barclay is in in New York City with her parents, who have left England under a cloud of scandal and unpaid debts. Her parents want to marry her off to a rich man as soon as possible and have gotten an “in” to NY society via her mother’s cousin. Christina is meek and painfully shy, she hates crowds and escapes to the solitude of her cousin’s reclusive neighbor’s garden whenever she gets a chance. On this day, she is taken by surprise by a very large dog, the dog knocks her down and she is knocked out and ultimately rescued by the reclusive neighbor, Oliver Hawkes.

Oliver Hawkes never intended to be a recluse, but after losing his hearing at 13 and trying to fit into society, he decided he would rather not subject himself to cruel, ignorant people and has made a life for himself alone, he is filthy rich and incredibly smart. He uses both of those resources for his experiments and inventions. He is not happy to find a trespasser in his garden, but he is honorable and takes her in and sends for a doctor. When Christina wakes, she is embarrassed and scared, when the butler, Gill explains that Oliver is deaf, but can read lips, she forces herself to look at him while thanking him. They talk, with Gill acting as a translator. Later she learns that he can speak, but he choses not to, he makes an exception for Christina and even teaches her a few words in sign language, but then he tells her she is not welcome in his garden, he wants to be left alone. She leaves.

Days later, he sees her in the garden again, he brings her inside and they talk, she again asks if she can walk in the gardens and this time, he agrees. She watches him work and he teaches her a few more words before she leaves. She really likes Oliver and feels comfortable with him, but he has made it clear, he wants to be alone.

When her parents try to marry her off to a vile old man, Mr. Van Peet, she runs to Oliver for advice. Her parents are truly awful people, her father is self absorbed and her mother is emotionally and verbally abusive. They don’t care what Christina wants, they need money and she is just a means to an end for them. When Van Peet does something that terrifies Christina, she again runs to Oliver, knowing her parents would do nothing to help her. Oliver is appalled and agrees to help her run away. But before they can form a plan, her parents burst in and insist that Oliver marry her. He refuses at first, but then changes his mind and insist they marry immediately. What he doesn’t tell Christina is that it will be a temporary marriage in name only.

At least that was Oliver’s plan, but as the days pass and he gets to know her, he begins to think that maybe they could have a real marriage. But there are those who will do anything to keep them apart and when his greedy cousin Milton has him declared insane, Christina will have to put all her fears aside to save the man she loves.

I really enjoyed this story and found it a refreshing change from the more traditional historical romances I generally read. It was well written, steamy, fast paced and interesting. There are cameos from Nora, Julius and the rakish lawyer Frank Tripp and well as some wonderful secondary characters and some really nasty villains. I would have given the book 5 stars, I could understand why Christina was timid, but I never really understood why she had so many fears and why she was so shy. I also never learned what the scandal that drove them from London was or why everyone kept saying how strong she was, because she ran away and cried a lot, she wouldn’t stand up for herself and even at the end needed to be almost forced to speak on Oliver’s behalf in public. These things along with some timeline errors kept this from being a 5 star read for me, but I would absolutely read the book again and would happily recommend it. It is the third book in the series, but it can definitely be read as a stand alone title.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review of an uncorrected eARC that was provided to me by Edelweiss and the publisher.*