The Heiress Hunt

Shupe (the Uptown Girls series) opens her Fifth Avenue Rebels series with this effortlessly diverting Gilded Age romance. When Harrison Archer returns to New York City from France, his estranged and nearly bankrupt family insists he save the family business by marrying an heiress. Harrison has no interest in helping the people who cruelly disowned him—but on their list of potential wives is his childhood friend and rising tennis star, Maddie Webster, with whom Harrison has been in love since she was 15, and he seizes the opportunity to reconnect. Maddie, meanwhile, is being courted by a duke and fears scandal if she gives in to her attraction to Archer, having heard rumors of his wild Parisian lifestyle. But when Archer asks her to throw a house party for him in Newport, R.I., and invite her most eligible friends, she can’t say no. Shupe’s feisty heroine admirably strives for independence in a male-dominated society, while Archer is appealing not only for his devotion to Maddie, but for his fierce drive to avenge his family’s mistreatment of him. Their sexual chemistry and dynamic banter, especially during intimate moments, convey an alluring blend of love and playfulness. This character-driven historical romance is sure to delight. Agent: Laura Bradford, Bradford Literary. (Mar.)