Tag: Harper St. George

The Devil and The Heiress by Harper St. George

On By BarbaraIn America's Gilded Age (1870-1900), Barb's Reviews, Victorian Era (1837-1901)Leave a comment

The Devil and the Heiress (The Gilded Age Heiresses, #2)The Devil and the Heiress by Harper St. George
Barbara’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: The Gilded Age Heiresses #2
Publication Date: 6/29/21
Period: Victorian – London 1875
Number of Pages: 304

I discovered this new-to-me author with the first book in this series, The Heiress Gets A Duke. I absolutely loved that book and I believe this one is even better. The writing is exceptional – I love the way the author turns a phrase. The plot is well-formed, well delivered, and fast-paced. It was such an engrossing and interesting story I read it from beginning to end in one sitting.

We met the Crenshaw family in the first book and found the parents to be very despicable, but the children were delightful. Well, the parents haven’t changed one bit and they are now selling their daughter, Violet, to the nobleman with the most to offer Crenshaw Iron Works. Since they got themselves a Duke the last time, the title isn’t as important this time around – as long as there IS a title. What they need this time are the raw materials that will be needed by Crenshaw Iron Works when they open their London branch. They’ve found the perfect candidate and drawn up the agreements – but they ‘forgot’ to tell Violet she’d been auctioned off to an absolutely odious man.

Violet Crenshaw isn’t exactly who she seems to be. Everyone believes her to be very quiet, pliant, and biddable. What they don’t readily see is the spine of steel. What they don’t expect is for her to object to their marriage choice for her and they certainly don’t expect her to take any actions to thwart them. Violet is definitely more than everyone believes her to be. While everyone is valuing her for her monetary worth, they are missing her real worth.

Christian Halston, Earl of Leigh, isn’t exactly who he seems to be either. He is – but it is because he has long ago buried the real Christian deep inside himself, so what we see on display is the cold, calculating, uncaring, and womanizing man he has become. Christian isn’t the typical pockets-to-let aristocrat in search of an heiress. However, since his beloved Scottish estate burned, he doesn’t have the funds to make the repairs. Frankly, he could care less about anything else in his Earldom – he really never plans to marry and have children so the title and everything that goes with it can either go to some distant relative or die out altogether. His vile father was the Earl and he hated Christian – for no good reason. Then, Christian met Violet and she intrigued him – and she was an heiress – what could go wrong there?

I highly recommend this book and this series. The author’s writing style just speaks to me and the characters could easily become my friends if I met them in real life. I loved watching Christian change from trying to manipulate Violet into doing as he wants to only wishing to love her and make her happy – even if it cost him his own happiness. It was also nice to spend some time with Max (Violet’s brother) and to get to know him better as I’m sure his book will be the next one. I hope you’ll choose to read this book and love it as much as I did.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

View all my reviews

The Heiress Gets A Duke by Harper St. George #Release Day Blitz

On By TracyIn America's Gilded Age (1870-1900), Blog Tour, Book Publicity, Tracy's Reviews, Victorian Era (1837-1901)Leave a comment

The Heiress Gets a Duke (The Gilded Age Heiresses, #1)The Heiress Gets a Duke by Harper St. George

Tracy’s rating: 3.5/4 of 5 stars

Series: The Gilded Age Heiresses, #1

Release Date: January 26, 2021

August Crenshaw is not your average young woman; she is smart, savvy, and deeply involved in her father’s business ventures and has no plans to stop working or change her ways to please a man. She plans to marry someday, but on her own terms. So, after watching her friend Camille forced into marriage with the Duke of Hereford, August thanked her lucky stars that her parents would never do such a thing to her or her sister Violet. But when they travel to London to visit Camille, August is horrified to learn that her parents are planning to marry Violet off to the penniless Duke of Rothschild. She is still reeling when later, she sneaks out with Camille to watch a prizefight and ends up kissing one of the fighters.

Evan Sterling, the Duke of Rothschild has inherited a mountain of debt and a failing estate, he has tried over the last year to sort things out, but it is clear that he is in over his head and must marry an heiress to save his tenants and his family from ruin. When his mother has suggested he marry Miss Crenshaw, he recalls the kiss he coaxed out of her at his fight and agrees to meet her. But to his dismay, she is not the Miss Crenshaw he wants. A thought that is further cemented when August takes him to task and warns him away from Violet by threatening to expose his fighting to society – he decides then and there – August is the one that he wants!

August is shocked to learn that her parents expect her to marry him and make it clear that if she doesn’t, she will no longer have a job in the business. But sadly, her father also makes it clear that if she marries Evan, she will not have a job either – so August is understandably angry and tries to thwart Evan at every turn – but her efforts only make him more determined to marry her! They finally make an agreement and he promised to release her from the betrothal if she will come to his estate and let him court her for a week. A HEA seems like it might be possible, but a shocking twist and some misunderstanding make things much, much harder.

I loved this book right up to the 90% mark and then it came very close to being a wall-banger for me. I thought the book was well written and paced nicely, I liked the storyline and even though I found August a bit abrasive and at times annoying, I felt her pain and anger, likewise, I felt Evan’s desperation and feelings of failure and loss. They were both great characters and I loved the banter between them, and the undeniable chemistry – this book was a five-star read until the end ruined it for me – the ending sucked – the book that had been nicely paced up until this point went into hyperdrive with TWO misunderstandings, followed by a quick resolution and then BOOM! it was over – not even an epilogue to let the reader get a little taste of their HEA – it was disappointing. This is the first book in a new series and despite my disappointment with this book’s ending – I did enjoy most of the book and will certainly be looking forward to the next installment.

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