Ravishing the Heiress by Sherry Thomas

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The first book of 2022 for the Rake Appreciation Society was Ravishing the Heiress by Sherry Thomas. This is the second book in her Fitzhugh Trilogy. Rake Appreciation Society is hosted by Crystal from Crystal's Bookish Life and Jenn from The Book Refuge. I was able to use this read for the Winter's Kiss board 2 for the new to you author prompt. I also read this as my first book for the Romance Takeover Readathon and it covered the author you've never read, POC author and historical romance prompts.

Millie was engaged to an Earl at the tender age of 16. When he suddenly passes, the marriage contract is reconfigured with the new Earl, 19 year-old Fitz. He his in love with his schoolmate's younger sister Isabella and is forced to marry an heiress to help get the earldom out of debt. They come to an agreement to separate after 8 years to allow each to move on with their life. As the 8 year time limit comes to an end, Fitz approaches Millie about begetting an heir before they separate. Millie has been in love with Fitz all this time and has struggled as she tries to be his friend and offer support however she can. She gets nervous that she won't be able to hide her feelings when they start to get intimate. When Isabella, now widowed, comes back into their lives Fitz gets torn between choosing to stay with his friend and wife and his first love.

This book had me crying a lot. It was higher angst-wise than I usually prefer. Despite my rating, there's a lot that I liked about this book. This was written as 3rd person which took some getting used too. I loved the friendship that we see grow between Millie and Fitz throughout the book. On Millie's end it hits love almost instantly, but watching Fitz slowly fall in love with Millie was so sweet. I also really enjoyed that he really saw a lot of little things and actions that Millie had, even if she tried to hide it. Now, there are a lot of flashbacks in here. I thought where they were placed in the storyline felt natural and a good way to tell their 8-year history without doing too much in the beginning. Where I had issues with them is it felt like they were just as long, if not longer than the "present day" chapters. I just wanted more time with them as they were reaching the end of their agreement.

Now to where I had issues. First off, a small nitpick. Mrs. Graves (aka Millie's mother) is only referred to as her mother like 4 times. The rest of the time she's called Mrs. Graves. Now I get that part of it is from the POV of the story, but it also felt off. Even more so when you see that Millie doesn't have an estranged relationship with her mom. Another problem I had was Isabella. She was made out to be the villain, which fine. At first she seemed just impulsive and like she never really grew up, but later she does some things that made me see her actions as more manipulation. I get that's not to be liked because we want Millie and Fitz to have their HEA. I just wished that Fitz and Isabella could've realized that they had grown apart and changed without her becoming the "mean girl." 

The biggest issue I had was the payoff. If there is going to be this much angst in a book, I need more happy. I was so frustrated with how it ended and it didn't even have an epilogue. I was getting nervous as I passed the 75% mark, but it seemed like they were finally going to admit their feelings to each other at about 90%. Then things happen (another freaking conflict) and it goes to about 93%. I thought we'll get about 7% of them being happy together. While I would prefer longer, that would at least hopefully give me something. Two pages later it's over and the rest of my eBook was a prologue for the next book. I was not pleased and while I believe that Millie and Fitz are going to be happy, I needed to see it. This book did really effect my emotions, so that would make me more inclined to rate it 4-stars, but because I was so emotionally invested and wasn't left feeling happy at the end I couldn't give it the 4. It just left me feeling disappointed and unsettled. This book almost put me in a book hangover, and not in a good way.

I have heard good things about Sherry Thomas, but I believe she is on the more angstier end of historical romance. I can't say I won't pick up any more of her books, but if I do it'll most likely be because of a book club or filling a super specific reading prompt. I just don't enjoy this kind of angst and I would be really hesitant picking up something else from her just because I didn't get the payoff I needed at the end. But as they say, "Never say never." I did really enjoy the story mostly and loved Millie and Fitz. I just needed to see them happy for more than a few pages. It was a really good discussion on the live show and I loved getting to chat about this book with everyone! I can't wait to read our next book. Even if the books that Jen and Crystal don't always work for me, it's always a great discussion.

Have you read Ravishing the Heiress?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Ravishing the Heiress, Sherry Thomas, 3.5-stars, 0 days, eBook, 304 pages, published in 2012, traditionally published