Review: The Gilded Heiress

The Gilded Heiress by Joanna Shupe
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

The Pendeltons ruined my father's life and my family's future. I'd never forgive it. And someday, I'd find a way to even the score. 

The Gilded Heiress had the beats of the Anastasia cartoon movie, with great historical additives but the romance lacked intimacy and depth for me. Told in dual first person pov's, Leo lives in Boston, hustling as a confidence man to try and take care of his mom and five sisters. His father used to be a gardener for a rich family in New York but when their toddler daughter was kidnapped, an investigation started to point fingers at him and he was sacked without references. This made it hard to find a job and he ended up drinking himself to death. Leo knows his father was innocent and holds a huge grudge against the Pendletons, so when he sees a young woman singing on a corner in Boston that closely resembles Mrs. Pendleton, a scheme is hatched. 

I would need to be more careful with Josie. She had a strange power to make me confess things, apparently. 

Even though this told in both Leo and Josie's povs, I got more of a sense of Leo's character, his scheme to pose as Josie's singing manager to get her to New York and then somehow introduce her to Mrs. Pendelton, convincing both Josie's the kidnapped baby and collecting the reward money, is the plot of the book. We get the bare bones of Josie's character, she grew up in a Boston orphanage, she has a bestfriend Pippa, who we barely see, and she's very judgmental about Leo's past and how he's made money to help his family survive. Josie can hardly lie, could barely understand what would possess someone too, and is that all round sweet, good-hearted character that comes off a little too goody-two shoes, to me anyway. The reader knows the third-act break-up is going to be Josie finding out about Leo's original plan, even though Leo falls in love with her and plans on telling her his original scheme but, obviously, not in time. 

“Careful,” I warned, my voice husky. “Or I might attempt to corrupt you.” 

Her mouth twisted slyly, like she had a secret. “Perhaps I'll let you, tomcat.” 

The romance was pretty much insta-lust, a lot of gazing at lips and body parts that make them have the hots and want to jump into bed together. I struggled with feeling the depth in their romantic relationship, I believed them as friends, but if you're more into the physical, these had some good open-door scenes. If you've been a historical romance reader for years, this will feel like a clearly written stylistic choice to try and catch a newer reader, if the dual first person povs didn't already tip you off. I'm not sure how years long fans of the subgenre will take to it and I'll be vastly interested if the change to pick up new readers works. 

Looking down, I used my pinkie finger to lightly touch the back of her hand---and her breath hitched. 

Shupe is always great with her historical additives (Lotta Crabtree plays a decent part!) and I had a fun time catching things I knew and going on to learn about things I didn't. I wish we could have gotten more scenes with Leo and his family, who he's doing this all for, and gotten Joise's character a little more flushed out, more out of the “I'm here to be lusted after by Leo and shame him for having been a confidence man”. Romantic relationship depth wasn't really here to be found for me, but if third person historical romance hasn't worked for you, this would be something different for you to pick up and if you were looking for some Anastasia movie beats.

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