The Devil and the Heiress by Harper St. George
The Gilded Age Heiresses #2
Historical Romance
June 29, 2021, by Berkley
ARC

Review by Angela

I simply adored the first book in this series, The Heiress Gets a Duke, and couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy of the follow-up, which features the younger Crenshaw sister Violet, and Lord Leigh. An aspiring author heroine fleeing her parent’s marriage trap and a disreputable rouge out to win her heart? Yes, please.

Violet Crenshaw isn’t as invested in the family business as her older sister August, but she has dreams of her own. She desperately wants to become a published author. Although she is a bit more biddable to her parent’s whims than her sister, she absolutely does not want to be a bargaining chip in her father’s power-hungry quest to build his business in England. Especially to the man her parents have picked out for her, without her input.

Christian, Lord Leigh, wants Violet for his own for many reasons. Partially because he needs her dowry to pay for some repairs to his Scottish estate, but mainly because he has been taken with her since she appeared on the social scene when she first came to London. He’s asked her father for permission to court her, was rebuked, and now he will do just about anything to keep her out of the dreadful Lord Ware’s clutches and win her for himself.

When she runs, he magically appears as her savior (he’s not, awful man), and they set out to get her out of town and away from her parents. She thinks she’s going to a writer’s retreat in the North, but he has plans to whisk her away to Scotland and talk her into marrying him.

As you can see, Violet’s parents have not learned a damn thing since The Heiress Gets a Duke. In fact, I think they may be worse. Oh, how I dislike the Crenshaw sister’s parents! But Violet isn’t as eager to please as they believe and she gets the heck out of London as soon as she realizes what their plans for her are. She and Leigh had an attraction in the previous novel and their chemistry only builds with each page. The getting to know you is interrupted when something bad happens, but it does force this couple into closer proximity which leads to them getting to know each other a whole lot better.

I didn’t love that Leigh had ulterior motives and wasn’t honest with Violet for quite a bit of the book, but I liked how he proved himself to her in the end. The thing I loved most in the first book was how honest the main characters were with each other and to see Leigh being deceptive, in a way that is so common in historical romance, just left me a bit grumbly. But like I said earlier, I enjoyed this couple and their HEA, so I guess it worked out in the end.

Max, August and Violet’s brother, makes another appearance and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he gets his own book. Maybe with Helena? (Pretty please!) I was happy to hear that there will be a third novel in this series featuring Camille. I’m guessing she will be paired with Jacob, Leigh’s brother, and I like this very much.

Harper St. George is a bright new voice in the Historical Romance genre and I look forward to reading more of her work.

Final grade- B

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