Despite her illustrious title, Camille, Duchess of Hereford, remains what she has always been—a pariah. Though her title means she’s technically accepted by London Society, the rebellious widow with her burgeoning interest in the suffrage movement and her American ways isn’t exactly high on every hostess’s guest list. But Camille starts to wonder if being an outcast is not without its perks when the tantalizing answer to her secret fear appears in the shape of Jacob Thorne, the illegitimate son of an earl and co-owner of London’s infamous Montague Club.
Jacob is used to making deals with his club members—he’s just not accustomed to them being beautiful women. Nor have the terms ever been so sweetly seductive as Camille’s shocking proposition. To finally buy his own club and gain the crucial backing of investors, Camille offers Jacob the respectability of a fake engagement with a duchess. In return, the tempting widow has one condition: she wants Jacob to show her if it’s possible for her to experience pleasure in bed.
The lure of such a bargain proves too delicious to resist, drawing the enterprising rogue and the wallflower duchess into a scandalous game and an even more dangerous gamble of the heart.
Release Date: May 23, 2023
Series: Gilded Age Heiresses
Book: 4
Heat Level: Sensual
Publisher: Macmillan
Imprint: St. Martin’s Press
Price: $8.99
Tropes: Widow, Anti-Hero, Class Difference, Lessons, Fake Relationship, Best Friend’s Brother-in-Law/Sister-in-Law’s Best Friend
American heiress Camille, now Dowager Duchess of Hereford, was bartered in exchange as old as time: money for title. Now that her emotionally abusive husband is dead, Camille sets out to conquer a fear with the help of her best friend’s brother-in-law, illegitimate club owner Jacob Thorne. Jacob has a dilemma of his own, accidentally telling potential business partners that he has a fiancée in order to close a deal. Can the two help each other achieve their goals without getting attached?
This is the fourth and final book in the Gilded Age Heiresses series. I highly recommend reading books one and two of this series because they establish Camille’s ill-treatment and lay the foundation for the tone of this book. There is a sadness to Camille’s story that is completely appropriate but better felt when you have the weight of the other stories behind it.
From the blurb, I thought this novel might portray Camille as a widow ready to throw off the shackles of her marriage and engage in an affair, but the pace of this book is actually slower because Camille had a lot of trauma to overcome. I really like how Jacob misread the situation, too, and assumed he could “fix it” with good sex. That was not the case, and he became incredibly supportive and consent-driven. I also liked how the suffragette storyline tied into Camille’s history as a widow denied rights, with little knowledge of her marriage contract and a surviving heir that wanted to keep her as confined and helpless as her husband did. Overall, it was a well-layered story, and I am super excited about the spin-off series!
~ Leslie
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