Gilded Age Heiresses Series by Harper St. George / Historical Romance Book Series

The Heiress Gets a Duke by Harper St. George (2021)

Historical romance. Victorian-era England. Book 1 of the Gilded Age Heiresses series. A semi-tragic prologue starts the series with Camille, an American heiress, being married off to a much older and impoverished duke in England against her wishes. August is one of Camille’s friends who sees how awful the whole situation is and is thankful that her own parents would never do such a thing to her or her sister. Fast forward to a few months later, when August visits England with her parents and younger sister, and her parents are doing exactly what she feared. They attempt to set up a match between younger sister Violet and impoverished duke Evan, but August intends to thwart it. It doesn’t much matter since Evan prefers the fiesty August instead and tries to convince her to marry him. He needs the money because his father’s antiquated ideals have left the estate in much debt and the tenants on his lands are suffering. August refuses because she would prefer to stay working for her father’s company and has no interest in becoming a duchess. There’s a lot of cajoling involved here, even though these two are very clearly attracted to each other. The romance was great here and I enjoyed seeing August’s family dynamic. We also get to meet all the key players in future books of the series.

Ebook borrowed from my local library via Libby.

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The Devil and the Heiress by Harper St. George (2021)

Historical romance. Victorian-era England. Book 2 of the Gilded Age Heiresses series. This book deals with August’s younger sister Violet and Evan’s best friend Christian in a road trip escape from the suitor that Violet’s parents have selected for her. Believing that she is safe from her parents’ meddling now that her sister has settled with the duke in Book 1, Violet is caught off guard when she realizes that her father has agreed to a match with a viscount. She plans to run away and is aided by an earl, Christian, who has his own designs on her and hopes to force a marriage when they’re caught together. Of course, during the trip, these two actually talk and get to know each other, so Christian feels guilty for his planned betrayal. Violet is also opening up to the idea of marriage, since she feels so connected to Christian. In the background, Violet is working on writing a novel and has based her main hero on Christian without him realizing it. This book has all the calamities you would expect in a road trip novel plus the added dread of uncovering Christian’s deception. We also introduce the pairing on Violet’s brother Maxwell with her friend Lady Helena when they team up to chase after the runaway pair.

Ebook borrowed from my local library via Libby.

The Lady Tempts an Heir by Harper St. George (2022)

Historical romance. Victorian-era England. Book 3 of the Gilded Age Heiresses series. Maxwell (older brother to August and Violet) is called back to England from America after his father suffers from heart problems; he’s tasked with marrying and siring the next generation to take over the company or else his sister August loses her business deal. When he crosses paths again with widowed Lady Helena, the attraction he feels for her is reignited. Knowing that they don’t really have a future together on opposite sides of the ocean, he proposes a fake courtship and subsequent fake engagement so that he can appease his father long enough to not jeopardize his sister’s project. Lady Helena is facing her own parental pressure to marry in order to continue her charity work with abandoned women. She agrees to Maxwell’s proposal since she cares about his sister as well, but Helena does not want to marry in truth because she knows that she is unable to have children. But of course these two are highly attracted to each other and cannot seem to keep from being heartbroken. Add a subplot with some property dispute and Maxwell not understanding Helena’s mission and purpose, we have a high amount of angst here. It was really fun to read Helena and Maxwell’s flirting and banter here and we continue to see the rift between Maxwell and his siblings versus their parents.

Ebook borrowed from my local library via Libby.

The Duchess Takes a Husband by Harper St. George (2023)

Historical romance. Victorian-era England. Book 4 of the Gilded Age Heiresses series. We revisit the woman from our tragic prologue of Book 1, Camille, an American heiress who was married off to a much older duke. Throughout the first three books, we’ve seen bits of the cruel treatment she has endured from her husband, ultimately seeing his death in the bed of his mistress at a house party. Now a widow for the past two years, Camille is slowly trying to reclaim her identity and participating in causes her husband would have disapproved of, like the home for young women or the women’s suffrage movement. She also seeks to determine if she can find sex pleasurable and propositions a man to assist her. Jacob is the illegitimate son of an earl and half-brother to Christian from Book 2. He refuses Camille’s proposition at first, not wanting to make things awkward as their social circles overlap. He ends up needing a fake fiancee to prove his stability for a business arrangement and asks Camille to play the part; of course she only agrees in exchange for the sex lessons she wanted in the first place. We soon realize that Camille has underlying fears of the act due to the ill treatment from her husband and Jacob needs to be gentle and patient as well as allow Camille to be in control of their intimacies. We get to see our charming rakish hero slowly fall in love with Camille and help in her journey towards empowerment. Overall, this was a great way to conclude the series and see our poor Camille finally get a happy ending.

Ebook borrowed from my local library via Libby.