The American Heiress: A Novel

Daisy Goodwin

Jun 2011 · Sold by St. Martin's Press

About this ebook

Now including an excerpt from VICTORIA: A Novel, by Daisy Goodwin, the Creator/Writer of the Masterpiece Presentation on PBS.

"Anyone suffering Downton Abbey withdrawal symptoms (who isn't?) will find an instant tonic in Daisy Goodwin's The American Heiress. The story of Cora Cash, an American heiress in the 1890s who bags an English duke, this is a deliciously evocative first novel that lingers in the mind." --Allison Pearson, New York Times bestselling author of I Don't Know How She Does It and I Think I Love You

Be careful what you wish for. Traveling abroad with her mother at the turn of the twentieth century to seek a titled husband, beautiful, vivacious Cora Cash, whose family mansion in Newport dwarfs the Vanderbilts', suddenly finds herself Duchess of Wareham, married to Ivo, the most eligible bachelor in England. Nothing is quite as it seems, however: Ivo is withdrawn and secretive, and the English social scene is full of traps and betrayals. Money, Cora soon learns, cannot buy everything, as she must decide what is truly worth the price in her life and her marriage.

Witty, moving, and brilliantly entertaining, Cora's story marks the debut of a glorious storyteller who brings a fresh new spirit to the world of Edith Wharton and Henry James.

"For daughters of the new American billionaires of the 19th century, it was the ultimate deal: marriage to a cash-strapped British Aristocrat in return for a title and social status. But money didn't always buy them happiness." --Daisy Goodwin in The Daily Mail

One of Library Journal's Best Historical Fiction Books of 2011

Ratings and reviews

I have enjoyed this book so much (it reignited my love for historical romances), that, not that I'm finished, it felt too short. I want more Duchess and Duke, Core and Wareham. I know at 475 pages it is not a short book, but I think it could have been longer--then again that's probably me being selfish and wanting to follow entire lives of character's instead of just snippets. I do hope that there will be other books that follow the lives of Cora, Wareham, Bertha, etc. I had almost forgotten how easily I could get swept up into the world of historical romances, thinking I should be there at the balls and participating in the season with the characters. I am glad that "The American Heiress" has so fully brought that love back to the surface.

This book did a great job of keeping me reading until the end (I won't give it away), but it felt like a let down. It felt like a period/romance/mystery, and kept making me want more. Unfortunately, there wasn't more. The characters were left (mostly) undeveloped, and the "mystery" was just blurted out over the last 3 pages. It wasn't a terrible book. After all, I did read it all the way through. It just didn't give the depth I was looking for.

This is my first time using this tool on my phone and I chose this book because of the short story " The Duchess Tatoo". I hated when I was getting close to the end of " The American Heiress" but it was very good.

About the author

DAISY GOODWIN is the author of the New York Times bestselling novels The Fortune Hunter and The American Heiress. She is a Harkness scholar who attended Columbia University's film school after earning a degree in history at Cambridge University and was formerly a leading television producer in the U.K. Her poetry anthologies, including 101 Poems That Could Save Your Life, have introduced many new readers to the pleasures of poetry, and she was Chair of the judging panel of the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction. She and her husband, an ABC TV executive, have two daughters and live in London.