Christi (christireadsalot)'s Reviews > The Devil and the Heiress

I read and fell in love with The Heiress Gets a Duke at the beginning of this year, so I was so thrilled when I got an e-ARC of book 2 in the series, The Devil and the Heiress. I love Gilded Age reads and am so fascinated with “dollar princess” heroines, the term coined for American heiresses who married into British aristocracy between 1870-1910. This series has been such a delight and I think I even love Violet & Christian’s story more. 🤩

The Crenshaw family made their fortune in the iron and railway business but are still considered new money amongst the old New York families and often not let into established ballrooms on Fifth Avenue. Violet’s parents decided to take their two daughters to London and marry them off to aristocracy to open those New York society doors. With her older sister August set to marry a Duke (book 1 is their romance), now it’s Violet’s turn for an advantageous marriage...if her parents have any say over her life.

Violet is an aspiring writer and has no plans to marry a man she doesn’t love. When she learns her parents are going to push her into a marriage while they are still in London, Violet decides her best plan is to run away. She just conveniently happens to run into Christian, Earl of Leigh, during her getaway and he offers Violet a lift in his carriage as he’s headed out of town as well. Christian is in need of an American heiress, while he doesn’t have any outstanding debts like most of the ton men in need of heiresses...he does have a Scottish estate that recently had a fire and is need of extensive refurbishment. After meeting Violet through his friend Evan, the Duke of Rothschild & hero from book 1, Christian was taken with Violet immediately and his plan is to seduce her to marry him on their shared-carriage journey north.

This book was so much fun, I love a roadtrip-forced proximity romance and this delivered. Violet knows what she wants, and doesn’t want in the case of her parents trying to force her into a marriage, and was such a great heroine. And I really loved Christian, he didn’t have the greatest of upbringings and after his father left him with debts Christian made changes and actually earns a living on his own. He goes after what he wants and when that becomes Violet, he does everything to woo and show her he cares.

Thank you to the publisher (Berkley) for an e-ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my honest thoughts & review. The Devil and the Heiress has a publish date of June 29, 2021.