The Duchess Takes a Husband (The Gilded Age Heiresses, #4)
Harper St. George
A scandalous arrangement between a London rogue and an American duchess leads to lavish stakes. 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.
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Thank you so much to Berkley Romance and Netgalley for the advanced copy! All thoughts and opinions are still my own.
I have had such a fun time with this series and was extremely excited that Camille was getting her own story! She absolutely went through it in the first 3 books - getting married off to a terrible man, suffering emotional, sexual, and mental abuse, and then finding her husband dead with his mistress.
No one deserved an HEA more than her.
On top of that, this book had some of my all time favorite tropes - friends to lovers, sex lessons, fake engagement, etc.
And while I enjoyed this romance overall, I felt like it underdelivered.
There were so many good themes and elements, but it almost felt as though a few too many were added and because of that none of them quite got the dedication I was hoping for.
The fake engagement is sooo underutilized. It's mentioned maybe twice and Camille almost never had to actually act in a fiancée way. Sex lessons is possible my favorite romance trope, and while it delivered that, I wanted MORE.
Camille is suffering so much PTSD from her previous marriage. And finds herself shutting down whenever she is touched intimately. But I felt as though it was overcome a little too quickly with Jacob. I wanted more small moments before the big all in.
One thing I do appreciate about this series overall, is the way it addresses women's rights at this time. Camille uses the small amount of freedom widowhood has offered her to become part of the suffragette movement.
And knowing how the Married Women's Property Act eventually works out, it was really fascinating watching that unfold.
Overall, I think Harper St George's historical romances are fantastic. She uses so many good tropes mixed with the inherent pining of the genre while still giving voice to issues of the time. While this wasn't my favorite of the series, I'm really excited to see what she does next - in the world or otherwise!
0Really adore this series. Jacob is incredibly swoony!
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