The Heiress Gets a Duke by Harper St. George (Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads)Published by Penguin on January 26th 2021
Genres: Fiction, General, Historical, Romance, Victorian
Pages: 320
American heiress August Crenshaw has aspirations. But unlike her peers, it isn't some stuffy British Lord she wants wrapped around her finger—it's Crenshaw Iron Works, the family business. When it's clear that August's outrageously progressive ways render her unsuitible for a respectable match, her parents offer up her younger sister to the highest entitled bidder instead. This simply will not do. August refuses to leave her sister to the mercy of a loveless marriage.
Evan Sterling, the Duke of Rothschild, has no intention of walking away from the marriage. He's recently inherited the title only to find his coffers empty, and with countless lives depending on him, he can't walk away from the fortune a Crenshaw heiress would bring him. But after meeting her fiery sister, he realizes Violet isn't the heiress he wants. He wants August, and he always gets what he wants.
But August won't go peacefully to her fate. She decides to show Rothschild that she's no typical London wallflower. Little does she realize that every stunt she pulls to make him call off the wedding only makes him like her even more.
I loved everything about this book. The Heiress Gets a Duke is the first book in The Gilded Age Heiresses series and it had my attention at page one.
August Crenshaw is an American heiress and we are introduced to her via her friend’s betrothal ball where August and her sister come to realize that young women in society don’t really have any power but of course, nothing like that would ever happen to them, right? Well when August’s family goes to London for the season, they quickly find out that they may not be as safe as they thought.
August’s parents are super frustrating in this story and I know…their thoughts aren’t out of the ordinary for this time but ugh…I hated that her mother was only focused on the fact that a Duke was interested in their family. And the fact that her father seemed to be humoring August even though he acknowledged how much value she was to his company, just made me angry.
All of that to say, August was great. Stubborn but I thought as a main character she had the right qualities. She is smart and driven to make an impact in her family’s business. She isn’t focused (at least right now) on marriage and all of these things project to the Ton that she is “mannish”.
Evan is the Duke of Rothschild and he may have a title but when his father died, the only other thing he left Evan was a lot of debt and a family to support. When his mother pushes him to consider marriage to an heiress as a way to solve his money problems, August’s younger sister, Violet, is presented as an option.
Almost immediately there is a spark between August and Evan and August is willing to do just about anything to save her sister from having to marry the Duke. Unfortunately for her (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), Evan doesn’t announce his intentions for her sister, instead he essentially declares for August and spends a good majority of the book trying to convince August that their marriage would be the right thing for both of them.
I loved the banter between these two characters and thought the way St. George kept the story moving along made the story interesting. Evan and August had some tough decisions to make and their negotiations that led to the climax of the story were exactly what I expected. The secondary characters add another layer to the story and I especially loved the relationship between the August and Violet. Even Evan’s relationship with his mother and sisters was done well even though it didn’t have a huge focus.
If you’re looking for a new historical romance series, I recommend picking this one up. I will absolutely be checking out St. George’s backlist and can’t wait to get my hands on the next book in this series as I saw that it is Violet’s story with a certain Earl and I’m already invested!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.
Recent Comments