My Dear Miss Dupré ~ Review

My Dear Miss Dupré

American Royalty #1

By Grace Hitchcock

Willow Dupré has always known that she would take the reins of the family business and run it alongside her father. But her father's health has created a crisis with the board of Dupré Sugar and the shareholders are demanding that Willow relinquish control of the company to her husband or face the consequences. Willow has spent years learning and studying to take over the business and has in fact been doing so but in 1882 society is less than understanding of a woman who steps out of her properly defined place.  But to satisfy the boards' demands she has to find and marry in less than six months. 

The plan her parents devise is not at all how Willow thought she'd be starting 1883 - she has a carefully vetted selection of 30 of Societies finest young men to choose from. But how do you decide your future in such a setting? Willow must balance the needs of the company against the desires of her heart. And she must determine who has the good of her company foremost in his mind and not just his own gains. And if she could find someone who loves her for herself she would be more than a little pleased. I definitely would not have wanted to be in her position where her future for the most part was being decided and dictated to her by others for no other reason than because she was a woman. 

My Dear Miss Dupré is an entertaining bit of Historical Fiction. I find it amazing how little women could do and be accepted according to Society's rules. Yet these same rule makers expected women of the lower classes to work longer hours and for a mere pittance and think nothing of the hypocrisy of such contrasting standards. I did find some of the information about the inner workings of sugar refining to be most informative.

This is the first book in the American Royalty series but the story in no way felt as if something had been left out or cut off. I look forward to the second book of the series (no sneak peeks of what it will be about) and would love to see one or two of the other characters from this book make it into a further book in the series. I read it over the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Willow. This is a highly recommended read. 

I was provided a complimentary copy of this book with no expectation but that I provide my honest opinion. All thoughts expressed are my own.

About the Book:

Thirty suitors, six months of courting . . .

would it be enough time for her to fall in love?

Willow Dupré never thought she would have to marry, but with her father's unexpected retirement from running the prosperous Dupré sugar refinery, she is forced into a different future. The shareholders are unwilling to allow a female to take over the company without a man at her side, so her parents devise a plan--find Willow a spokesman king in order for her to become queen of the business empire.

Willow is presented with thirty potential suitors from the families of New York society's elite group called the Four Hundred. She has six months to court the group and is told to eliminate men each month to narrow her beaus until she chooses one to marry, ending the competition with a wedding. Willow reluctantly agrees, knowing she must do what is best for the business. She doesn't expect to find anything other than a proxy . . . until she meets a gentleman who captures her attention, and she must discover for herself if his motives are pure.