The Gilded Heiress is a play on the tale of Anastasia. Anastasia being a girl who was playing the princess but was actually the real princess. This story is similarly themed. Josie is an orphan who is making money by signing on the streets. All she wants in life is to be famous and sing on stage. Then enters Leo Hardy con man extraordinaire. Leo needs a big break to save his family and he wants revenge. His father was fired and let go without reference from the Pendleton’s years ago after the abduction of their daughter. Afterwards the man drank himself to death leaving the family in crisis. Leo finds Josie on the street and sees his dreams of revenge coming true. Josie looks like Mrs Pendleton and if he could get her in front of Pendleton he could claim the reward money and swindle the couple. First he needs to figure out how to get her to NY and that’s where singing comes in handy. Leo becomes her manager and gets her NY. But Leo’s learned a lot of lessons as a con man and falling in love is no go. Will Josie become the singer she wants to be? Will Leo get his revenge?
I enjoyed this book but it wasn’t love. I really disliked the main character Josie. She saw the world as black and white and was really self righteous. Leo became a con man to save his family, but all Josie could say was “how horrible of you to steal!” My girl there is very much grey in this world. Would I steal if I knew my family would die without it? Yes I would and I hope you would too. She was supposed to be “street smart” but she just never came across as it. Her “parents” tried to change her and treated her like she was dirt, but they ended up staying with them. I mean I would have said F off if they said some of that to me.
One of other big deals is this book isn’t historically accurate. In 1896 most women were never allowed to associate or be around men without another woman around. It was beyond scandalous and no one ever said a word. That is unbelievable because Josie went around high society with only Leo. It’s inaccurate and it’s a big detail.
Did I like the book yes. Did I like most of the characters? No. I did like Leo, he was the only one who saw the world with grey colors.

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyage and NetGalley for the arc.

Has potential, I didn’t care for the brothel scene at the beginning. A little cringy in general but the story line was good

Thank you, Net Galley, for this ARC. Joanna Shupe is one of my favorite historical romance authors. I was especially intrigued when I saw this was an Anastasia retelling. The story is told from the point of view of Leo and Josie. Leo is a man of many talents on the streets. He sees the perfect opportunity for a good hustle when he sees Josie singing on the street. Josie looks like the kidnapped daughter of the wealthy family that employed and ultimately fired Leo's dad. Leo sees this as the perfect opportunity to get back at the family that ruined his. He becomes Josie's manager and promises to make her a star. As Josie and Leo travel to New York, they get to know each other, banter, and ultimately fall in love. This scheme becomes harder for Leo to want to stick to and has him rethinking of how he wants to be seen. I loved how the story came together as both Leo and Josie were strong characters with good hearts and emotional grit. I thought this was fast paced and fun retelling of Anastasia and would definitely recommend it. :)

With the class differences and mystery of Anastasia dropped into Gilded Age New York (with a side of Boston), the first few chapters of this book do a great job of hooking you into a story that you think you already know.

These characters are straightforward and goal oriented without being selfish. It would have been easy for the heroine to be a damsel, especially against this hero who thinks two steps ahead and uses any means necessary to provide. Instead, she is no dummy. She sees the risks and rewards and makes her own decisions accordingly. I like that while she does accept help, the reader never feels her future is dependent on it. These are both smart people doing what’s best for their futures, and as their relationship builds, so does the weight of secrets.

While the pace of this book starts quickly, it settles to allow important details to come through. There are a lot of threads that need to be woven together to bring this story together in the end, so taking the time to do that was smart. I think it was a fun read that would appeal to a lot of different readers.

I received an ARC from the publisher <3

This was different for Joanna! It was not a standard historical, and neither main character was rich. Instead, we have an Anastasia retelling set in the gilded age. Josie, the FMC, aspires to become a Broadway star/singer. Leo, the MMC, takes advantage of Josie's skills to avenge his father's reputation and (in a roundabout way) death. Leo's propensity for lies and manipulations foreshadow the third act breakup, which you see coming but love anyway.

I'm excited to see where this world goes, and look forward to reading whatever else Joanna puts out - if the publisher would like to continue sending me ARCs I will read them as quickly as I did this one (I literally dropped everything else lol).

Billed as an "Anastasia" retelling, this book is a delight and cleverly sets up at least one sequel. I cannot wait to see what comes next from this author.

An Anastasia retelling? Yes, please. The movie Anastasia is a core memory of my childhood. When I learned that a rockstar historical romance author, Joanna Shupe, wrote a retelling, there was no way I would not read it.

Of course, it’s wonderful. Shupe writes amazing morally grey MMCs that offer a taste of that bad boy excitement, but without the yuck feelings. Sure, Leo is a conman, but he is motivated to take care of his family. Also, as soon as he realizes Josie is no longer just a mark to him, he plans to come clean and not use her. I think it was the perfect balance and a beautiful redemption.

I usually do not prefer first-person POV, but everything about this book is crisp and polished. It does not come across amateurish like 1st person often does for me. Josie and Leo’s POVs were equally developed which brought a symmetry to the story. Neither main took a back seat, and I was able to get into both of their minds. I loved that Josie was a tough girl who could fend for herself and even surprised Leo sometimes.

Since I am very familiar with Anastasia (I probably watched it close to 100 times), I appreciated that there was another storyline to bring mystery and surprise into the plot. Discovering the kidnappers was enough to keep me turning the pages, but not too much that it overtook the main story arc of Josie finding out who she really is.


(The threesome scene was so quick and at the beginning of the novel before Leo knew Josie. It had no effect on the romance for me.)

This is the perfect book for other nostalgic 80s-90s kids who want an adult version of this classic. 5 stars!

I’m a fan of Joanna Shupe so I was excited to receive this ARC. This is a nice Anastasia retelling with twists, and lots of spice!

Set on the East Coast in the 1800s, Josie has aspirations of becoming a professional singer. She hasn’t had the easiest life, raised in a children’s asylum since she was little. Leo is a thief/con man that sees Josie singing in the town square, and notices that she has a strong resemblance to a family who’s daughter was kidnapped years ago. He decides to take Josie under his wing with promises of a singing career, but really to use her for money.

I enjoyed this retelling. Leo wasn’t really the kind of MMC that you drool over, but I did enjoy the dynamic of their relationship. I also appreciated Josie’s boldness; I love a strong FMC.

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager, Harper Collins Publishers, and Netgalley for the ARC of this novel; all opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.
I really wanted to love this book.
If you’re looking for a light historical romance, this is for you. It’s basically a contemporary with an 1890s setting.
Josie didn’t have growth really, and for some reason was never adopted, yet kind and morally perfect? The lingo used throughout the book took me out of the story, and with the first person POV it truly felt like modern characters dropped into the 1890s. It is a fun story, but felt like a fan fic.

Giving this 3.5 rounding up to 4 stars.

I really loved the premise of this story, but I think the execution fell a little flat for me. It's about Leo Hardy, who is out for revenge against the very wealthy Pendleton family who unfairly fired his father years ago and led to his family's destitution. His plan is to pass off Josephine, a girl who grew up in an orphanage and now sings on the street for money, as the long lost daughter who was kidnapped when she was a baby from the Pendleton family. I found the story as a whole to be a bit too long. It did drag more in some parts than others. I didn't really need all the details of making Josephine into a star singer. I did feel like many of the characters acted in ways that were believable, which was good. Perhaps my biggest gripe was that it was written in the first person, alternating between Leo and Josie's perspectives. This isn't typical in a historical romance, so it threw me off. Also, it was interesting how the first person voice made me think the characters were more selfish and modern-sounding than the usual third person voice historical romance characters.

Overall, it was a delightful fairytale romance, which I think was the intention (the author's note mentions the story of Anastasia). Tad bit long, but I do love Joanna Shupe's stories and would gladly read more of her words.

I’ve always been a big Joanna Shupe fan, back to when she was writing regencies, and <u>The Gilded Heiress</u> did not disappoint.

What this book reminded me of, whether or not it was intentional, is the 1990 young adult book, <u>The Face on the Milk Carton</u> by Caroline B. Cooney, which was widely challenged in the 1990s for its references to cults and sexual activity among teenagers. The idea for the novel originated from the practice in the 1980s and 1990s for milk cartons to feature photographs of missing children. In this book, a 15-year-old girl, Janie Johnston, begins to suspect that her parents have kidnapped her after she recognizes her face on a milk carton, and the rest of the book series explores Janie’s uncovering of her own backstory.

In TGH, Josephine Pendelton, the daughter of a wealthy couple that’s part of New York City’s Four Hundred is kidnapped and left at a children’s asylum in Boston. 18 years later, we see Josephine, now called Josie, singing on a street corner for money, which is where our hero, Leo, a professional swindler of sorts, first sees her. He realizes that he can potentially take her to New York, get her in front of the Pendletons and collect the reward money. Little does he realize that Josie Smith is actually the real Josephine Pendleton.

Something I found really refreshing about this book compared to a lot of other historical romances is that both protagonists, Leo and Josie, were working class (at least at the beginning) and not the elite. Leo does eventually leave his swindling days behind, but there isn’t much sugar coating about how difficult it is to do so in Gilded Age Boston and New York. I also really liked how warm both protagonists were, especially Josie who is a sort of earnest that isn’t super common in romance novels nowadays because I think there’s a perception that being genuine is somehow less profound or makes a character weaker.

Something that was kind of interesting to me is that unlike Shupe’s other romances, both through Avon and her independently published ones, I’d say this book is tamer on the sexiness scale. It’s definitely open-door but if <u>My Dirty Duke</u> and <u>The Scandal of Rose</u> are a 10 and her Avon historicals (The Wicked Deceptions, The Knickerbocker Club, The Four Hundred, Uptown Girls, and The Fifth Avenue Rebels) are like a 7 or 8, this one is like a solid 6. It’s not good or bad, but just a bit noteworthy.

The only thing I’d change about this book is that I think the kidnapping plot wasn’t as fleshed out as I’d like and the resolution, namely Josie’s reunification with the Pendletons, felt slightly rushed. That said, this book is still a solid 4-4.5 stars and I’d recommend it to anybody that loves historical romances.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Pretty cute story. Anastasia retelling. A cozy romance from the past where a long lost missing girl makes her way in the world with the help of smooth-talker Leo.

You get to follow them as Josie soon gets discovered all while Leo has secrets of his own. I recommend if you like retellings.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Collins for the chance to give my honest review.

I wanted to love this book. I really tried. The writing and characterization just did not work for me. The historical setting should have been amazing, but instead it felt like modern characters were just dropped in front of some cardboard scenery. Nothing about the plot or characters’ behavior or motivations was convincing or seemed true to the time period. Josie was so beautiful and talented and perfect it was unbelievable that she hadn’t been adopted. Also… where did she learn to sing? It’s never made clear. Leo was deeply unlikeable and never really redeems himself.

I was provided an ARC in exchange for an honest review, I just sincerely wish my review could have been more positive.

Johanna Shupe never misses, and The Gilded Heiress is no exception. This final installment in the Fifth Avenue Rebels series delivers all the hallmarks of Shupe’s signature style: sizzling chemistry, whip-smart banter, and a heroine who refuses to play by society’s rules. I have seen some reviewers have issue with the spicy scene early involving the MMC being hid by some sex workers to escape the police. While I do not think it added to the story, I think it was a clever way to be a lead in for his relationship to the madam when he needed to turn to her for help. I almost thought it would be a Jack Kelley moment and he would duck into a vaudeville show considering the aspirations of the soon to be introduced FMC. I have also seen other reviewers take issue with the age gape and then the MMC giving into the yearning that resulted in everyone, including himself, telling him he can't touch her. I did not even think of this when reading. It felt like a natural progress. He made sure she was in control and taken care of at all times. No predatory behavior which was against the way he survived since moving to Boston. All around a fun read and of course it was extremely well researched. I loved the ending.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of The Gilded Heiress. I love any books that take place during this time frame and settings (NYC and Boston). The two main characters in the book are Leo and Josie. Leo is the eldest of his family which includes his widowed mother and 5 sisters. Since his dad died, he's been responsible for taking care of his family and realized soon on that he could make more money being a "confidence man" - someone who swindles people and he is also a pickpocket. Josie is an orphan who after aging out of a Boston orphanage, rooms with her best friend from the orphanage and she sings at a bar and on the streets. It is singing on the street that Leo first sees Josie. She reminds him of the mother of a rich NYC family that had their almost 2 year old kidnapped but never found. Since it is that family, the Pendletons, who fired his father after the child was kidnapped, Leo finds them responsible for his father's death. He then schemes to bring Josie to NYC on the rouse of her singing on Broadway, to then say she is the long lost Pendelton baby and he can get the reward.

I liked both characters. Leo, even though he is a swindler, has a good heart and is doing what he can to take care of his family. He really does care for them and also for Josie and is torn between his attraction towards Josie and his need for money. Josie is street smart and does not fool easily. She has a slight mistrust of Leo, but goes to NYC with him anyways. Unlike other reviews, I did not think the 10 year age difference was a huge issue. I loved the rapport between the two and especially liked how the chapters were in alternating viewpoints.
I liked the author's writing style and the book was an easy read; I read it in one sitting (Ok, I am retired and one reading sitting can be 4-6 hours). I plan to read more of this author's books.

Overall, 3.5 ⭐️ This one has its audience and today that was me. Was it a prolific and incredible piece of writing? No. But was it well structured and entertaining. Absolutely. There were too many plot holes and cliches for my liking, but when I suspended disbelief and got lost in the story I found myself enjoying the dynamic between Leo and Josie, and the storyline of her 'come up' in New York.

rating — 2.5 out of 5 stars.

i’m actually devastated about this. please don’t text.

i read and loved joanna shupe’s fifth avenue rebels series, and i also love the movie anastasia, so needless to say this was a highly anticipated release for me! unfortunately, things started going wrong as soon as i opened the book. the fifth avenue rebels series (and i assume all of her other books?) are written in third person, which i’m used to and i prefer – this book, however, was written in first person. i know that a lot of people enjoy first person POV, but i really preferred her writing style when she was writing third person POV! the internal monologues felt kind of modern to me, and it was taking me out of the story a lot. that, and leo’s thoughts (especially early on) spent so much time objectifying josie that it really put me off of him. i do think that she did a decent job of having him grow & develop over the course of the book, but it’s hard to make a character fully forgivable when the start feels so tainted.

i liked the end of the book more than the beginning – i was glad to see that josie held her ground and didn’t immediately forgive leo for his transgressions. but ultimately, i was not fully won over by the course of their relationship, and i wish that leo hadn’t been quite as much of a sleazy asshole in the beginning. other readers might be more forgiving, but there is zero mercy for men in my house! josie, baby, call me instead.

3.75 stars
This is a solid historical romance and Anastasia reimagining. I'm a big fan of the story of Anastasia so I enjoyed it. The leads are well-written and their chemistry is quite good.

Wonderful retelling of Anastasia by the queen of Gilded Age romance, Joanna Shupe. The pacing felt a little bit off, but I think that was because i was anticipating the animated movie’s plot beats, instead of focusing non the story at hand.

Thanks Avon for the ARC!

Anastasia was one of my favorite movies and this book gives that same feeling and does it so well!
You won't be disappointed