The Heiress by Lynsay Sands

Hey everyone,

When I first got into romance books Lynsay Sands was one of my favourite authors. I adored her books for their light-hearted, fast-paced plot-lines. Still to this day if I see a Lynsay Sands novel my first instinct is to buy it, and when I saw The Heiress in Waterstones it was no different.

The book:

Suzette is not like other heiresses; she wants a poor husband, a gentleman who will be so grateful for her dowry that he will allow her access to it so that she can pay off her father's gambling debts. When this alluring beauty encounters Daniel Woodrow—handsome, titled, single . . . and even more impoverished than she could have hoped for—it seems Suzette's wildest dreams have come true.

But Daniel has not been truthful. Tired of being accosted by an endless stream of vapid coquettes and their fortune-hunting mothers, Daniel has decided to plead poverty to stop them in their tracks. Yet here is a most refreshing and delectable lady, who claims to be thrilled by his penury. Now all Daniel has to do to find true happiness is to keep a little white lie alive . . . while avoiding a villain who's determined to prevent this union by any means necessary.

My thoughts:

The Heiress is the second book in Lynsay Sand’s Madison Sisters series and honestly I think it suffered from middle-child syndrome. It wasn’t a bad book and I certainly didn’t hate reading it, but I also wasn’t grabbed by it. Nothing in particular stood out and made me want to keep reading about Suzette and Daniel. Everything just fell a little flat.

Suzette was different, her responses were honest, her need real not feigned to jolly the exercises along, and that passion in her had called out to his own.

Part of the reason I think it felt flat to me is because it followed the same plot and timeline as the first book in the series The Countess. Although this time it is told from the perspective of Suzette and Daniel it was still similar enough that the surprise element of the plot was gone. In my opinion the plot of these two books doesn’t have enough layers and complexity to be used twice. Whereas in The Countess it worked because it was fresh, and yes still a little ridiculous, in The Heiress it was tired and still ridiculous. Also the romance between Suzette and Daniel relies almost completely on instantaneous lust as they hardly spend anytime together.

I'm sure the whole house can hear you," she said dryly. "He roars like a lion, and you squeal like a stuck pig.

Perhaps this is a sign that I’ve started to grow-out of Lynsay Sands work. Whereas when I first started reading romance I enjoyed novel that where driven by plot and actions, now I tend to gravitate to novels driven by characters and emotions. I felt that the majority of The Heiress focused on the external problems facing Suzette and Daniel. Personally I would have preferred a greater focus on the internal problems.

Lisa looked at her with patent disbelief. "Suzette, you have been following the man around like a puppy for days now. And if you do not love him, you are certainly doing a very good impression of heartbreak".

Overall I’ve given The Heiress two stars as I didn’t hate, but I also didn’t like it. Both the hero and heroine were likeable characters, and it did have Lynsay Sand’s typical light-hearted humorous style. For me it was let down by the repetitive plot-line, and the lack of focus on the characters emotions.

My rating:

Happy reading and see you next time!