The Heiress Gets a Duke by Harper St. George

Even a fortune forged in railroads and steel can't buy entrance into the upper echelons of Victorian high society--for that you need a marriage of convenience. American heiress August Crenshaw has aspirations. But unlike her peers, it isn't some stuffy British Lord she wants wrapped around her finger--it's Crenshaw Iron Works, the family business. When it's clear that August's outrageously progressive ways render her unsuitable for a respectable match, her parents offer up her younger sister to the highest entitled bidder instead. This simply will not do. August refuses to leave her sister to the mercy of a loveless marriage. Evan Sterling, the Duke of Rothschild, has no intention of walking away from the marriage. He's recently inherited the title only to find his coffers empty, and with countless lives depending on him, he can't walk away from the fortune a Crenshaw heiress would bring him. But after meeting her fiery sister, he realizes Violet isn't the heiress he wants. He wants August, and he always gets what he wants. But August won't go peacefully to her fate. She decides to show Rothschild that she's no typical London wallflower. Little does she realize that every stunt she pulls to make him call off the wedding only makes him like her even more.

I love this cover (historical accuracy in the dress be damned) - I know illustrated covers are “controversial,” but I'm not a huge fan of the old-school clinch covers either, and this photo cover is just gorgeous. I haven't read a ton of them, but the “brash rich American collides with (relatively) poor nobleman” is one of my favorite historical subgenres - see [b:It Happened One Autumn 827412 It Happened One Autumn (Wallflowers, #2) Lisa Kleypas https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388206425l/827412.SY75.jpg 1823891] for the best one I've read. This book was fascinating to me in the way it actively pushed back on that trope, with August early in the book attending the engagement party/wedding of one of her friends who's been forced into marriage with a truly awful duke for the prestige it'll give her family. (I know that's how these marriages went more often than not, but historical romances are fantasies as it is, so.) I loved August and her determination to not let her sister get trapped into the same bad situation. Evan was a little less developed of a character for me, but I did love his commitment to his family and his mother. One negative thing: this could have used another pass with a copyeditor. There were several instances of words being used twice within a sentence or two of each other, which always reads oddly to me, and a couple of times the flat-out wrong word was used. Nothing major, but distractions from an otherwise-good novel.

Did not like the heroine. Boring and long drawn out. Very politically correct main characters. May try the 2nd book since I was interested in the hero.