Heiress Without a Cause

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Title: Heiress Without a Cause (Muses of Mayfair Book 1)
Author: Sara Ramsey
Publisher: Spencerhill Associates Ltd
Pages:  343 Pages
Genre: Regency Historical
Source: Amazon, Goodreads
Rating: 3  Stars

Summary:

One title to change his life…

A disgraced son with a dark reputation, William “Ferguson” Avenel is content to live in exile – until his father dies in the scandal of the Season. With rumors of insanity swirling around them, his sisters desperately need a chaperone. Ferguson thinks he’s found the most proper woman in England – and he won’t ruin her, even if he secretly desires the passionate woman trapped beneath a spinster’s cap.

One chance to break the rules…

Lady Madeleine Vaillant can’t face her blighted future without making one glorious memory for herself. In disguise, on a London stage, she finds all the adoration she never felt from the ton. But when she’s nearly recognized, she will do anything to hide her identity – even setting up her actress persona as Ferguson’s mistress. She’ll take the pleasure he offers, but Madeleine won’t lose her heart in the bargain.

One season to fall in love…

Every stolen kiss could lead to discovery, and Ferguson’s old enemies are determined to ruin them both. But as their dangerous passion ignites their hearts and threatens their futures, how can an heiress who dreams of freedom deny the duke who demands her love?

Review:

I haven’t really read a historical romance in a while and I begrudgingly confess that i miss it a lot more than i thought. First I was thrilled that this book took me about 4 hours to read – the length satisfied my unknown need. I have been reading a lot of shorter novels and sometimes just short stories which is fine but at the same time i have missed a lengthy book. This was a feminist novel in disguise. I thought it was a romance and believe me it was but it was also gun ho female equality. I haven’t really seen too many romance novels in this time period bring that up.
So you have Lady Madeleine Vaillant who is bored out of my mind and does something scandalous – fantastic because scandalous is needed sometimes BUT she goes and gets caught. Boooo!!! In comes the large rakish male hero who doesn’t know he is a hero and inadvertently saves her for his own purposes while make her fall in love and finding love himself and they ride off to gretna green and live happily ever after. We’ve heard the basics of a historical romance over and over again. I liked this one specifically because Madeleine is older (for historical romance standards) and she has 2 other friend who are older and just not interested in getting married off. Amelia, Prudence, and Madeleine all have passions outside of a wealthy husband that include novel writing, history, and acting. All very very inappropriate and unacceptable for women back then. They find ways to avoid the marriage market and pursue their passions anyway. 
Yes, this was fluff and i don’t care. I enjoyed reading the internal conflict Mad kept having with Ferguson. Ferguson himself has huge HUGE daddy issues that he works on resolving including 3 sisters that are pretty much pissed off at him through out the whole book. Madeleine has some issues with her past as well and takes it out on the family that has love and accepted her thus far. This drives me a bit crazy but I was a teenager and sometimes people are selfish. 
I didn’t like that the author merely referenced and i mean it was a pretty vague and general reference about Madeleine’s parents. If you are going to mention back story please give me a bit more than just a sprinkle. We know that her parents are dead, they died in France, the estate she lived on burned, and they chose duty over love….that is it. I also had Hoped for more of what happened with Caro because she HATED Ferguson SO MUCH  but I didn’t really know why. I think that would have been nice to know as well
. 
The sex factor? meh. it was ok. I read some reviews where some readers complained it was too raunchy but I say have you not been driven by lust to do crazy raunchy things? If not I am sorry. I didn’t find the sex scenes too be too dirty. They were pretty tame compared to things i usually read but hey to each her own. 
This was a good read. It wasn’t spectacular, make me rip my hair out awesome, but it was good. I liked it and it made me want to read the second book. This was enough for me at the time because i needed a mental break. 

 

 

Recommendation:

If you want something just nice and not particularly mind engaging to read this is it. This was a good read that didn’t take brain power to follow and it was a nice change in pace AND last i checked it’s free on amazon. 🙂 Win win. If you hate it don’t worry you didn’t spend anything on it. 

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