The Heiress
Lynsay Sands
Avon, Feb 22 2011, $7.99
ISBN: 9780061963094

Her sister Christian's marriage (see The Countess) bought the family time, but at the rate their father loses money gambling, they still face the scandal of poverty shortly. Suzette knows she needs to find a husband, which will allow her to demand her inheritance.

Suzette wants an impoverished desperate male who needs to marry money and is wiling to negotiate with her over the joint use of her dowry. Daniel Woodrow pretends to be a pauper to elude gold-digging twits. However, when he and Suzette meet, both are attracted to one another. She insists she seeks a penurious spouse while he pleads insolvency. She stuns him with a proposal that he shocks her by accepting. Besides ridding them of a corpse, they chase after a blackmailer and must escape a diabolical adversary before they can say I do in love.

Since the Heiress is a co-read to the Countess, as several major incidents are reiterated here in a fresh brisk manner but from a different viewpoint (Einstein's relativity at work), it behooves the audience to read both historical romantic suspense thrillers back to back. The story line is fast-paced from the moment the lead couple meets and never slows down as Lynsay Sands amusingly satirizes the sub-genre with a spin mindful of Oscar Wilde's Victorian lampoon The Importance of Being Ernest; in this case the importance of being poor.

Harriet Klausner