An Heiress to Remember

January 20, 2020
Rodale’s jam-packed third Gilded Age Girls Club romance (following Duchess by Design) finds rival department store owners rekindling their relationship even as they compete for success in late-19th-century New York City. Twenty-year-old Beatrice Goodwin, heiress to the celebrated Goodwin’s Emporium, gives up her lover, Wes Dalton, a midlevel store employee, to marry an English duke. Sixteen years later, a divorced Beatrice returns to New York with money and a new appreciation for independence. In her absence, her father’s store has fallen out of fashion, while Wes, heartbroken and seeking revenge, has built his own empire, the successful Dalton’s Department Store, just across the street. Beatrice’s return proves an unwelcome distraction for business-minded Wes, especially as Beatrice determines to restore Goodwin’s to glory. While Beatrice successfully updates Goodwin’s to be more accommodating of the modern woman by adding, among other things, public bathrooms and child care, her competitive spark with Wes turns to passion, and the pair become lovers once more. This plot-driven story occasionally sacrifices characterization to keep up a brisk pace, but historically minded readers will appreciate Rodale’s eye for detail and illuminating depiction of the changing role of women in Gilded Age society. Series fans will not be disappointed.

January 15, 2020
A Gilded Age heiress returns home after her disastrous marriage just in time to save her family's failing department store from the clutches of her first love, who's become Manhattan's premier retailer and has sworn to ruin her family yet still makes her heart pound. Sixteen years ago, 20-year-old Beatrice Goodwin walked away from the boy she loved--"Wes Dalton, a mere associate department manager at Goodwin's Emporium, the department store her family owned"--to marry an English duke, which turned out to be a disaster. When she returns, Goodwin's is a pale shadow of its former glory, thanks to her brother's mismanagement, while the store across the street, Dalton's, is the reigning retail palace, a success fueled by her first love's business sense and a desire for revenge against the family who made him feel less than. Beatrice maneuvers her brother out of the picture, then proceeds to turn Goodwin's around, creating a destination store for women. Meanwhile, Dalton and Beatrice enter into a secretive "rivals by day, lovers by night" relationship. However, as their emotional and professional stakes rise, Beatrice's success and moxie make her the target of a menacing enemy, threatening her and the store, and the couple must face what their true feelings are for each other. Rodale continues her Gilded Age Girls Club with another empowered heroine getting things done and the dashing hero who loves her exactly the way she is, though it takes him a while to realize it. The romance has texture and intensity, including a peek into Beatrice's mother's backstory that adds depth to the characters' journeys, and the book's generally lighthearted tone is tempered by historically accurate details reflective of the backlash aspiring women often faced. An entertaining, thought-provoking addition to this captivating series.

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Starred review from March 1, 2020

Sixteen years ago, heiress Beatrice Goodwin chose a duke over Wes Dalton, the young clerk at her family's small store. Though madly in love with Wes, Beatrice couldn't picture a future with her penniless beau. Now she's back in New York, aged 36, divorced, and thoroughly independent. Wes, meanwhile, has become the disgustingly rich owner of the city's largest department store, and plans to buy and ruin Goodwin's. Beatrice will not let her company go without a fight, and soon the former lovers are duking it out in business even as they're sneaking sexy trysts after hours. Both are headstrong and visionary, but only Beatrice truly understands the needs of long-suffering women, and creates a shopping experience that enthralls the ladies of New York as much as it dismays the jealous (and admiring) Wes. In time, Wes acknowledges he has much to learn, starting with accepting Beatrice's need for self-determination. VERDICT Rival store owners, second-chance romance, and a focus on feminism are wrapped up in a thoroughly fun package that's part Mr. Selfridge mixed with a dash of Gilded Age You've Got Mail, producing a winning addition (after Duchess by Design) to Rodale's popular series.--Kathryn Howe, Saint John Free P.L., NB

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Starred review from April 1, 2020
Sixteen years ago, Beatrice Goodwin listened to her head instead of her heart when she discarded a future with Wes Dalton in favor of marrying the Duke of Montrose. Now a very happily divorced Beatrice is back In New York City, intent on claiming her place in her family's business. However, in the years while Beatrice was abroad, Goodwin's Emporium has lost most of its mercantile luster to a new rival department store: Dalton's. In fact, things are so bad, Goodwin's is about to be sold to the highest bidder. What are the odds that the bidder in question is none other than Wes Dalton? Rodale (Some Like It Scandalous, 2019) once again demonstrates her perfect sense of comic timing and deft hand with history in the latest dazzling addition to her Gilded Age Girls Club series. The icing on this endlessly entertaining romantic confection is the author's brilliant matchup of Beatrice and Wes, whose business rivalry proves there is nothing sexier than a man who learns to treat a woman as an equal.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)