An Heiress to Remember

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. (Mar.)