This audiobook was straight-up fun! The duet narration with Eva Kaminsky and Aaron Shedlock hit just right—the back-and-forth had an easy rhythm, and I gotta give it to Aaron, his female voice wasn’t cringey at all. Matter of fact, he ended up being the standout for me.

The story itself dropped me right into 1920s New York—think jazz, Broadway just starting to buzz, and women hustling for their shot on stage. It didn’t sugarcoat what it took to get ahead, but that’s exactly what made it feel so real. Add in the spice, and yeah…I was hooked.

If you’re into historical romance with some heat, layered characters, and that glitzy Gilded Age vibe, this one’s worth a listen. Highly recommend.

Shupe is a beloved historical romance author of mine. Her contemporary romance novels under her pen name I feel aided in my ability to handle listening to The Gilded Heiress's first person POV. I feel like the audio helped pull me through the story more as I read along with the eARC. I do not know if I would have been able to enjoy the story as much as I did, if it weren't for listening to the dual narration. Both Eva Kaminsky and Aaron Shedlock did an amazing job of bring the characters to life and for creating a connection to the story.

Shupe's characters always have a depth to them that I enjoy; especially her side characters. In this case Pippa and what little we see of Sticks. He made quite an impression. As a herocentric reader I rooted for Leo's revenge even at the extent of what it might cost him. And I adored Josie for the strength she showed and for who she was as a character. Her ability to see the world and to maintain her dream of being a part of it as a singer gave a lot of hope.

One can always expect a grittiness to a Joanna Shupe novel & she did not shy away from highlighting the truth of the times for those who were not of the elite. Even though I know the intent of the novel was to showcase this, it still maintained the Shupe readers have loved.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperAudio for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Gilded Heiress A Novel by Joanna Shupe and narrated by Eva Kaminsky; Aaron Shedlock was my first Joanna Shupe read. Eva Kaminsky and Aaron Shedlock made this a very easy listen. The plot was simple and easy to follow. The romance was medium on the spicy scale. Leo is a dirty talker, if you like that.

Four stars instead of five because Josie is 90% street smart but has moments of being dimwitted that are incongruous with the rest of her character.

Joanna Shupe sets such a fresh scene in historicals. With emotion and grit and a healthy heap of tension, Josie and Leo have to work together even if they’d rather work apart. Forced proximity is a powerful drug and Joanna Shupe delivered.

Thank God for Joanna Shupe. She never misses.

If you grew up watching Anastasia, currently obsess over The Gilded Age, and/or love a morally gray hero, this is the book for you!

Wonderful narration from Eva Kaminsky and Aaron Shedlock! They really brought this story to life. I’ve listened to quite a few books read by Kaminsky, and she’s always great. To my knowledge, I’ve never read a book Shedlock narrated, but he was also great! Very clear narration and good voice work. I listened on 2x speed and didn’t have any issues with skipping, words sounding odd, everything was very clear!

Leo is a Boston conman, looking out for his mother and five younger sisters. He comes across Josie singing on the street and is struck by her voice and her resemblance to the Pendletons, on of NYC's wealthiest families whose young daughter was kidnapped over a decade ago. They also happen to be the family that callously let his father go and as Leo sees it, destroyed his family's chance at a decent life. Leo comes up with a plan to use Josie to gain the reward money by convincing everyone she's the lost Pendelton heir, but he doesn't plan on falling for her!

I was immediately captivated by Leo! Literally, his first scene is him running from the police, taking shelter in a brothel, and having a threesome to obscure his face. And I loved him for it. WHY?! Only Joanna Shupe could make me fall for such a scoundrel! He's so infuriating but so charming you can't help but root for him!

Josie was an interesting character. She isn't the typical aristocrat that you get in many historicals, she grew up in an orphanage, she dreams of being on Broadway, but she's currently singing on the streets of Boston. When Leo approaches and spins her dreams of NYC, she can't turn him down, though she knows better than to let this relationship become anything more than business. Too bad for her that she really can't resist Leo's many charms. The two begin a relationship, both thinking it can only be a fling, but they have real feelings, and Leo knows he has to come clean to Josie about his scheme. She reacts how you'd imagine, but one thing about Josie, she knows what she wants, and she isn't going to let anyone tell her differently, so when she sets out to have Leo in her life, he doesn't stand a chance!

I really enjoyed the kidnapping mystery, especially with how Shupe wrapped it up. It wasn't the perfect HEA; there was a struggle for all to adjust which made it so much more real! I loved this aspect of the book. I do wish we'd gotten a bit more of an epilogue with all involved, but I was still satisfied with what we did get.

Thanks to the publisher for the complimentary ALC via netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperAudio Adult for the ALC

This was my first book by Joanna Shupe and the premise of an Anastasia retelling immediately got my attention. Eva Kaminsky and Aaron Shedlock did an excellent job with the narration, bringing the characters to life, and showing their depth and emotions. The chemistry between the characters is well done, and their slow burn relationship, and their own characters growth is extremely satisfying. I do wish there would have been more detail and in the world building of the historical gilded age, as it felt a little lacking in description of the world and time period itself.

First a big thanks to NetGalley and HarperAudio Adult for this opportunity to listen rate and review this audiobook arc which is available 8/25/25!

An Anastasia retelling in New York City’s Guilded Age with spice so if on page bothers you here’s your warning.

It’s a duet with Eva Kaminsky and Aaron Shedlock who is a surprising new to me audiobook narrator so this was fun. Honestly these two narrators brought the story to life and Aaron Shedlock had a decent female voice that wasn’t like Billy Connelly in Brave. The ebb and flow of the duet narration was seamless. But Aaron was a stand out narrator for me.

As for the actual story it was steeped in historical references for the era which is 1920s New York so it had the beginnings of broadway and stage performing which was fun. It didn’t shy from what a girl had to do to get her leg up in that life. I truly did enjoy it.

So I highly recommend this audiobook to those who like historical romances with spice!

The push and pull coming from Leo and Josie is perfection!

I wanted to hate Leo, but with every page his reasoning and character shined threw. Josie is fiesty and loved seeing her grow as a character as she was pulled into every new situation.

“My thoughts were a tangled mess when it came to this woman. I wanted to protect her and ravish her and use her all the same time."

The narrators did an amazing job of showing emotion and depth in Leo and Josie. I was able to listen to the ALC with ease and understanding what was going on. I knew going into this it was a re-telling of Antansia, there were parts that reminded me of it. I haven't read a historical romance in a long time. The banter, tension, and slow burn made the ALC a four-star for me.

It's been far too long since I've read or listened to a Joanna Shupe book, so I'm grateful to NetGalley for a review copy of The Gilded Heiress. The plot wasn't entirely original, but Ms. Shupe's story of a Boston scoundrel befriending a talented but impoverished young singer with the intention of tricking a wealthy New York family into believing the songbird is their long-ago kidnapped daughter plays out beautifully. Leo and Josie have both had to struggle in life: she as an orphan abandoned as a baby, and he as the sole breadwinner and protector of his mother and four sisters after his father's unjust character assassination and untimely death. He's got chutzpah and she's got talent, but can they learn to trust each other enough to succeed in the cut-throat world of New York at the end of the 19th century? The ending of The Gilded Heiress is not truly surprising, but the engaging details and immersion into a world of utmost luxury and abject poverty combined with sympathetic characters and a plot line to cheer for make a fabulous read.

This is such a sweet story! The Gilded Heiress is a spicy Anastasia retelling set in the late 1800’s. Having never read/watched Anastasia, this was a fun, new-to-me tale.

Josie Smith, an aspiring singer, grew up in a Boston orphanage, never knowing her birth parents. Leo Harding, a streetwise hustler, sees Josie as his ticket to a huge payout when he sees some resemblance between her and the infamous Mr. & Mrs. Pendelton. The Pendelton’s had their baby girl abducted from their home nearly two decades earlier and still have a large sum of money offered for anyone that can lead them to their lost daughter.

The dual-style narration of this story is great. I enjoyed the subtle Boston accent that Eva Kaminsky gave to Josie, adding to the background of the character. Aaron Shedlock is a great as well and his inflections really brought Leo to life. The pacing is great and led to a really good overall listening experience.

This is a fun, light-hearted story with a bit of spice and I really enjoyed listening to it!

This is my first historical romance and for sure will not be my last.

I absolutely loved the whole premise of the story- we have Leo who is a conman, Josie who is an aspiring singer, a baby stolen from her home at almost 2yrs old, never located despite HUGE reward being offered. And all the mystery, who-dun-it vibes. So many secrets and lies with a revenge side-plot.

It's a little slow burn with all the tension!! And then we get some sexy "teach me" moments, a little "good girl".

Absolutely loved the narrators as well- Eva and Aaron brought these characters to life!!!

Am I glad I read it? Unfortunately, THE GILDED HEIRESS did not live up to my hopes for it, for several key reasons.

Most notably, the dual first person POV really undermined my experience of this story in a couple of ways. Critically, the choice of perspective makes this book feel more like a contemporary romance than a historical romance. While this may appeal to contemporary readers who are new to historical romance (and I wonder if this may have been the intention, given that none of the other Shupe books I've read are written in this first person), but I am an established histrom reader and I want my histroms to feel like histroms. This does not.

Building on that, the Gilded Age setting, a period marked by extraordinary, ostentatious wealth accumulated by industrial tycoons and bankers at the expense of the working class, should be a perfect setting for an Anastasia retelling featuring a massive reward for the return of a lost heiress and a con man trying to feed his family, but the first person POV keeps the reader removed from the rich potential of the setting.

I was also disappointed at how almost apolitical this book about working class MCs is. I found myself flat-out annoyed by Josie's misguided, idealistically principled admonishments of Leo that "stealing is bad!!!", nevermind the desperation of his family's socioeconomic status and also her own, and I literally rolled my eyes when Leo—SPOILER COMING HERE—gives up the reward money offered by people with more wealth than he or we can fathom because ~Josie is worth more than money~. This book comes perilously close to willful ignorance of the politics of its Gilded Age setting, which I found surprising given how deeply political Shupe's newsletter is.

Lastly, some key plot points felt emotionally underwhelming to me, including the culmination of the con and the revelation of Leo's duplicity, though the extent to which this was a direct result of my already-soured feelings due to the first person POV I cannot say.

The audiobook narration is really nice, particularly Eva Kaminsky's narration of Josie's frank, headstrong, naive ambition, and I think that the first person perspective works better via audio.

Despite all of the above complaints, I didn't hate this book, but my experience of it is marked by underwhelm and disappointment at missed opportunities. At the risk at sounding like an "old" person railing against change, between the cover, the first person perspective, and the notable apolitics, The Gilded Heiress feels a book that was written and published with the express purpose of drawing new readers into the "dying"—note those quotation marks, please—subgenre.

Rating: 🤷🏼‍♀️ (it was fine; 3.5 rounded down)

Thank you to Avon, HarperAudio, and Netgalley for an ALC of this title. It's out on 8/26.

I love Anastasia, so once I heard Joanna Shupe was writing a retelling I needed to read this. Overall, I really enjoyed this one!

I liked Shupe's take on Anastasia. It has the main story beats with the Gilded Age setting, complicated characters and spicy hot romance. I could easily picture this book in my head. Shupe's writing flows easily and allows the reader to escape into the world. I enjoyed the plot a lot. The set-up for the con is great and kept me excited to find out what was going to happen next.

The romance has the Anastasia and Dimitri chemistry that we all know and love. Josie and Leo have insane chemistry which made for some spicy scenes later on. Their banter was fun too. Leo is a character who is not very likable at first, but that's the classic Shupe hero in my opinion. He does become a better person throughout the story and he will make you swoon hard. Josie has a little naiveté but she's not dumb. She sticks up for herself and has her own dreams. Both are great characters. Their dynamic is sure to charm readers.

Narrators Eva Kaminsky and Aaron Shedlock were wonderful. They are both new to me and after listening to this I will need to check out more of their stuff. I really enjoyed their performance and how they emoted. The audio for this is so good! Definitely recommend it.

Would recommend to fellow Anastasia lovers and historical romance readers. Or for fans of The Gilded Age & The Buccaneers tv shows.

Before I begin I would like to thank NetGalley, HarperAudio Adult and Avon for the advance listening copy. All opinions are my own for this honest review.

Narration Style: Dual POV, Dual Narration
Length: 11 hrs

I will be the first to admit romantic mystery set in the Gilded Age is not my first go to genre, but I'm so glad I got a chance to check out The Gilded Heiress. It's filled with secrets, grief in the former of loneliness, and a gradual journey toward healing and trust. Joanna balances an interesting mystery of mistaken identity and romance which offers a story that feels engaging (kind of like Bridgerton lite), even if slightly predictable.

What I really found elevated this book was the narration of Eva Kaminsky and Aaron Shedlock, both of which brought their A-game, resulting in a well-paced, emotionally grounded listen. Yes, This is a dual narration, but both Eva and Aaron handle their chapters with consistency that work with the other's performances.

Eva brings a familiar warmth I’ve come to associate with her holiday romances that I've previously enjoyed, but she slips into this historical role beautifully. Her portrayal of the FMC is composed and expressive without being overly dramatized. Aaron, as always, brings a rich, grounded energy to his own performance. He’s reliably great at capturing the kind of emotional restraint that slowly unravels as a character opens up. I've been a fan since Nocticadia, and his work here reinforces why.

Both narrators voiced opposite-gender dialogue with ease, keeping characters distinct throughout. If you're someone who enjoys dual narration, this production will hit the mark. However, I do think that listeners who strongly prefer duet narration might find themselves struggling to adjust to the voices in this one (personally it didn't bother me at all).

I found this to be an engaging story from the outset, the stakes were clear and we were in the know from the beginning which really helped to empathize with Josie (at times it did kind of feel like yelling at characters in a horror movie who are running up the stairs rather than out of the house!) I enjoyed the touch of mystery. While the core romantic tension was compelling, the “mystery” component leaned a little predictable, not enough to disappoint, but enough that it was solved in my head pretty early on.

I think the part that I actually most appreciated was the consistent portrayal of enthusiastic consent in their intimate scenes. It added an extra layer of emotional safety and maturity to the relationship. As someone coming from a lot of Dark Romance, it was really nice to have a break from the non/dub/cnc type triggers are really have an MMC actively talk the FMC through it, but asking her throughout the act for her consent.

I think the part that drove me the most nuts was the FMC's reactions, which felt repetitive and sometimes exhausting, I do realize there was a loss of trust, but having the MMC repeatedly express his feelings and intentions, she would often respond as if she were hearing it for the first time. It came off less like trust issue and more like she'd never heard his assertions and declarations of love and intention.

I wouldn't say that the Gilded Heiress is groundbreaking in terms of the historical mystery romance genre, but I don't think it needs to be. To me it delivered a satisfying romance with a hint of suspense, and two flawed characters who find their way toward healing and trust. Add in the reliably excellent narration, and I think it’s absolutely worth the listen. I did rate it a 4 star, it think it would actually be closer to a 3.5-3.75, so I decided to round up because I love Aaron that much!

As mentioned in the beginning, I received an ALC of this audiobook from NetGalley, HarperAudio Adult and Avon in exchange for an honest review. Having said that, all thoughts are my own.

Joanna Shupe’s The Gilded Heiress is a fun, fast-paced romance set in the glamorous Gilded Age. It’s a fresh take on the Anastasia story, with secrets, drama, and a love story that grabbed me right away.

Josie and Leo have instant chemistry. From the moment they meet, sparks fly, and their connection surprises them both. The romance is steamy, with just the right amount of Shupe’s trademark heat, and their relationship is full of tension and heart as their feelings for each other deepen.

Beneath the romance lies a web of secrets, betrayal, and identity, as this is the very heart of the Anastasia story. Josie, unknowingly the missing heiress of the powerful Pendelton family, is swept into a con orchestrated by Leo, a charming grifter with a vendetta. As they infiltrate New York’s theater society, the stakes climb higher, and the line between truth and deception blurs.

The writing feels modern and easy to read. Initially I was unsure about this being written in first person present but with dual perspectives from Leo and Josie, and given the tone and time period of the story, it worked perfectly.
I experienced this through both ereading and audio, and listening to the audio was my preferred format. The dual narrators both did a fantastic job bringing Joanna’s words to life.

Thank you to Avon Books for the eARC and Harper Audio for the ALC.

3.5 stars.

This is one where I think the way you read could really change your experience. I listened as an audiobook and that really enhanced the story. The narrators (Eva Kaminsky and Aaron Shedlock) transported me to historical Boston. I swear their accents made this story.

I will say The Gilded Heiress was surprisingly spicy. And while I liked those scenes, it did make the romance between Leo and Josie feel a bit insta-lusty. And it was the romance that I felt wasn’t as present. Their characterization was good, and I enjoyed the main plot, but I didn’t believe in their happily ever after.

I do love the idea of an Anastasia-like intrigue, with a MMC who is basically a con man. I just wish we could have had a bit more relationship development.

Excellently narrated audio, this gilded age book was a lot of fun! My first Shupe - more plot heavy than some historical romances, and a little cheesy at the end perhaps, but I enjoyed it.

First person dual narration is a specific choice, and I don’t think I loved it as much as I had hoped, but it was very fun to follow along with Josie and Leo as their relationship blossomed, bottomed out, and came back into being. Like I said, a little cheesy and hard to believe at the end, but I had a good time reading it!!

This was a refreshing retelling of the classic Anastasia story. A street singer is discovered by a thief who's just trying to score some reward money to help his family. But what he doesn’t realize is that he’s stumbled onto something much bigger than he ever expected.
Lies, mystery, romance, and found family all unfold in this emotional and gripping escape. If you're a fan of retellings with heart, this one is worth the read.

I loved this, it’s not really Anastasia so if you came for that aspect I feel you’ll be disappointed. The story was compelling and kept me interested until the end. I was frustrated with the miscommunication trope, I would’ve liked to see more of how their relationship progressed instead. Cute fun and overall a good time.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for allowing me to read this in return for my review.

I really enjoyed this and Anastasia vibes. The ending felt rushed though. I know she was glad to be back with her parents & vice versa but I guess I expected more conflict at the end of them wanting to be together. Either way, it was still good & I think people will really enjoy it. The narrators did a great job and I loved Eva’s Boston accent it helped set the tone for the differences between Josie’s two lives.