The Unexpected Heiress - Kaitlin O'Riley
Updated: Sep 5, 2020
Date Read: August 2, 2020
Review: Merry is a great heroine. She's smart, intuitive, and empathetic. Her aunt is using her, basically, as bait to help them each catch a wealthy husband. The aunt is a pill. Phillip spends his time drinking and sowing wild oats. He also loves to be contrary to whatever his family thinks is good for him, so he resists the wholesome Merry on purpose. That's ok, because she intially thinks he's pompous. Rightly so. But they really do fall for each other from the get go, they just don't realize it. Philip can be a hothead, at times. But he falls hard and gets hurt in the process. It's your typical misunderstanding here. He doesn't care that she's penniless, just that she lied to him. I loved the Hamilton Bookshop scenes and love how he encourages her writing. Also enjoyed the side story of his brother Simon.
Series: Hamilton Cousins #3
Type: Victorian
Heat: 7/10
Tropes: Appearance vs Reality (Merry was an oil heiress, but has lost everything - she's just not letting that get out yet), Love at First Sight.
Premise: Meredith "Merry" Remington, an oil heiress is now destitute and an orphan now that her father has died. Her aunt makes them travel from NYC to London to live with her sister and makes Merry keep the secret of being penniless while they both hunt for wealthy husbands. Only Merry isn't too thrilled with lying. But she must, to help her aunt and young cousins. She bumps into Philip Sinclair, the Earl of Waverly in a bookshop. Sparks fly but she thinks he's pompous and he likes teasing/flirting with her. Her not being receptive to his drop dead gorgeous looks and charm, entices him.
The Good: It was a really enjoyable read. Philip is a rake with a good heart. Merry is a budding writer. Philip's family is wonderful and Merry falls in love with them, and they love her too.
The Bad: The beginning of the book has Phillip gaga over another woman. I'm not used to that. Also, not "bad" per se, just different but I'm also not used to getting third person insight into characters heads other than the hero and heroine. But here we had a few others, too. Another oddity, there were 2 instances that seemed out of order in the novel.
**Many thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC in order to write this unbiased review.**
Author Website: https://kaitlinoriley.com/