$Title: HEIRESS
Author: Susan May Warren
Publisher: Summerside Press
July 2011
ISBN: 978-1-60936-218-8
Genre: Inspirational/historical/women’s fiction
The heiress daughters of newspaper magnate August Price have been given everything their hearts desire. But what if they want only to be loved—without an enormous price tag attached?
Esme is tired of society. She wants to write for her father’s paper, but she’s a woman and expected to marry a good match. She’s being courted by one man, but her heart yearns for another. Esme gets around the writing rules by writing under a penname, and she is being published—without her father knowing who she is. But will she be able to keep this dream—or forced to give it up?
Jinx is in love with her sister’s beau. She is not officially out in society, but she dreams of when she can be. She doesn’t think Esme deserves Foster, and she is determined to do whatever it takes. But will Foster give her happiness?
HEIRESS is the first book in Ms. Warren’s Daughters of Fortune series. Set in the Gilded Age, each of the women must navigate the expected roles of woman to forge their own way and try to achieve their hearts’ desires.
I was looking forward to reading this book because Susan May Warren is one of my favorite contemporary romance writers –and I even liked her romantic suspense real well. But this book – and her other ones with Summerside Press – were disappointing. I know they are “real life” and not everyone has a “happy-ever-after” but these wealthy ladies were somewhat depressing. There were some real touching romantic moments in both Esme’s and Jinx’s stories. HEIRESS is very well written, but I just wasn’t a fan of this style. Discussion questions are included at the end of the book. $14.99. 367 pages.
About Susan: Susan May Warren is an award-winning, best-selling author of over twenty-five novels, many of which have won the Inspirational Readers Choice Award, the ACFW Book of the Year award, the Rita Award, and have been Christy finalists. After serving as a missionary for eight years in Russia , Susan returned home to a small town on Minnesota ’s beautiful Lake Superior shore where she, her four children, and her husband are active in their local church.
Susan's larger than life characters and layered plots have won her acclaim with readers and reviewers alike. A seasoned women’s events and retreats speaker, she’s a popular writing teacher at conferences around the nation and the author of the beginning writer’s workbook: From the Inside-Out: discover, create and publish the novel in you!. She is also the founder ofwww.MyBookTherapy.com, a story-crafting service that helps authors discover their voice.
Susan makes her home in northern Minnesota , where she is busy cheering on her two sons in football, and her daughter in local theater productions (and desperately missing her college-age son!)
A full listing of her titles, reviews and awards can be found at:www.susanmaywarren.com.
Link to buy the book: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1609362187/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=sprightly-20&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=1609362187&adid=1JF1JHWKFXYX80AEG4NY
About the giveaway and party:
Susan May Warren is thrilled to announce the release of her latest historical book, Heiress!
Find out what the reviewers are saying here!
Heiress, a richly complex historical romance, is the first in Susan's three book Daughters of Fortune series. In honor of Heiress’ debut, Susan is hosting a FABULOUS Gilded Age Giveaway and giving away an opulent prize pack fit for an heiress!
One grand prize winner will receive:
Find out what the reviewers are saying here!
Heiress, a richly complex historical romance, is the first in Susan's three book Daughters of Fortune series. In honor of Heiress’ debut, Susan is hosting a FABULOUS Gilded Age Giveaway and giving away an opulent prize pack fit for an heiress!
One grand prize winner will receive:
A $100 gift certificate to ModCloth.com
A sleek silver iPod™ Shuffle
A beautiful strand of Pearls
Titanic DVD
Speakeasy Compilation Music CD from Starbucks™
Heiress by Susan May Warren
Click one of the icons below to enter. But do so soon - this giveaway ends 10/5/11. The winner will be announced Thursday, October 6 on Susan’s blog.
Click one of the icons below to enter. But do so soon - this giveaway ends 10/5/11. The winner will be announced Thursday, October 6 on Susan’s blog.
Blog tour schedule: http://litfusegroup.com/blogtours/text/13429072)
• How do Esme and Jinx compare to Jacob and Esau?
Esme is the older sister “Esau,” who “despises” her birthright – her role as the elder sister and the expectations to marry well. Jinx is the younger “Jacob” who wants nothing more than to step into her sister’s shoes. However, Jinx’s life does not turn out as she supposes. I took the themes of Jacob marrying Leah (thinking it was Rachel), and of having to wait for love and applied them to Jinx’s life as she marries Foster, and then falls for someone else. I flipped the brothers when I sent Esme instead of Jinx away, but Esme married “outside” her society in many ways (like Esau married outside the faith), and I especially wanted the reunion between brothers, when Jacob feared his brother, and Esau forgave him. It made for a poignant scene between Esme and Jinx. (Hopefully I haven’t given too much of the story away!)
• What lessons do the Price daughters learn that we can apply to our own lives?
That being blessed isn’t about what you have, but in the fact that you are loved by your heavenly Father, and that your life is in His hands.
• Why did you choose the "gilded age"? How is the "gilded age" defined?
The Gilded Age is one of excess and a time when people were coming into vast wealth (while the regular population made very little). The gulf between the rich and the poor widened. However, the high society, despite their wealth, lived turbulent lives, some even committing suicide. If they were “blessed” then why were they so unhappy? This book is a quest for the answer.
• Is this story inspired by true stories?
I read a number of biographies and historical records, so I tried to make it as accurate as I could. However, everything is fiction. :)
• What does it mean to be "Blessed"?
There are many “Blessed is he who…” in the Bible. However, I believe all of them come back to that foundational knowledge that seeps through and takes root in a person’s heart, that they are in the hands of a God who loves them.
Besides when you came to know the Lord, what is the happiest day in your life? The day I married my amazing husband. Or perhaps the day I gave birth to my first child. Or second. Or third. Or fourth. I think it’s hard to pick because they’re all my happiest, in different ways.
What are you reading right now?
Wish you were Here, a book for endorsement by Beth Vogt, one of my Voices from My Book Therapy. It’s excellent and comes out in the spring.
What would be your dream vacation?
Anywhere where I can be with my family.
How do you choose your settings for each book?
I try and find a setting that will act almost like another protagonist and add tension to a story. Like Minnesota, in the winter.
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