Here’s a little break from regency romances in the UK ton. Rodale’s trilogy is set in the hustle and bustle of Manhattan with working women and womanly pursuits at its center. Here’s my ranking of Maya Rodale’s The Gilded Age Girl’s Club. 

1. A Heiress to Remember: I do love a rivals to lovers romance especially with the added burn of former lovers before Beatrice Goodwin did the proper thing in turning down Wes Dalton to wed a duke. Now 16 years later, she’s divorced and seeks to save her family’s once famous department store. Dalton seeks to have his revenge and buy it, cementing his position as a man of wealth, power and respect. Someone her family would finally have to respect after looking down on him so long. But their rivalry sparks a fire of romance and passion, not only for each other but for true renewed interest in their careers. I enjoyed Beatrice and Wes, individually and together.

Beatrice is only recently her independence as being a scandalous divorcee allows her greater freedom to do whatever she wants, but relatably she finds standing up for herself in a board room full of men and being one of the first female business-owners to be difficult at first. And she intially has a hard time finding her voice and not diminishing herself as women are expected to do. Dalton had an interesting backstory of not only wishing to prove himself, but a possibly dire past in the Irish settlement houses in the poor side of town, which I wish Rodale had wrote about more. Plus I did enjoy the Ingio Montoya expy of a mantra that Dalton kept repeating to himself, “My name is Wes Dalton. You stole my love and insulted my honor. I have sworn revenge.”

Together, they truly challenged and listened to each other, with imagination and practical that just made them fit. I also enjoyed the luxerious description of the department stores that truly sounded like gilded paradise. Furthermore, Rodale’s goal in reclaiming frivelous feminine affairs is done really well here. Explaining that even though people dismiss women’s shopping, it does run the economy, it is what makes fortunes, and allows women some measure of time for herself outside of the home. It’s just so good.

2. Duchess by Design: I enjoyed the dynamic between Adeline and Brandon with both learning to open their hearts to each other despite the class differences. And that they find their way to happy ever after without sacrificing their duties and promises to others. Brandon to his family in trying to find a wife whose fortunes could help restore his crumbling estates, and Adeline to her heart to be not dependent on a man and to persue her dream of fashion design.

Of course, being the late 1800s, there is a bit of a clash between Brandon and Adeline over this crazy independent woman idea and he has trouble with the idea of breaking things from thousands of years of English manor tradition. But he slowly comes around to it as he realizes the vast inequalities between the working class and the gentry and how he doesn’t really like it. The power he unintentionally wields to ruin lives so easily by following Adeline, ruining her reputation as a decent woman when he merely is walking her home. Adeline’s fashion also highlights the importance of dress to women. How it holds so many double standards but also the ability to produce confidence and freedom of movement. It’s never just a dress.

3. Some like it Scandalous: this was another well done rivals to lovers between life long enemies, Daisy and Theodore with the two joining forces in a fake engagement to get their parents off their back. However, some of the language was repetitive especially the whole “Him. Her. They were enemies.” Nonetheless, the real highlight was internal turmoil Theadore experiences in realizing he is capable of more than being a rake and finding out he’ll never have his father’s approval. 

Her focus was on make-up, which unlike today, was incredibly scandalous. Only prostitutes and actresses wore makeup, no decent modest women would try such a thing. But Daisy believes in her lip-paint and the power of imbuing confidence in women to take on the world.

I’m happy to write though that these were all consistently well done books with character growth between the couples as well as a feminist spin on “frivolous” topics like makeup, fashion and shopping and how they’re really empowering to women without sacrificing historical accuracy. The latter was a special highlight for if you thought the idea of a female business owner is ridiculous-you’d be wrong. She based these heroes on real women who were founding these fields in the Gilded age aka the women that are forgotten/glossed over in our history textbooks. Highly recommend.