The Stranger I Wed

Since reading her Gilded Age Heiresses series, Harper St. George has officially become an auto-buy author for me. I was so excited to learn that she’s launching a new series, The Doves of New York, existing in the same world as the Crenshaws and their families. The first book is The Stranger I Wed, introducing Cora Dove and her sisters to the London scene. It’s a fabulous beginning that promises more swoons and heart eyes in future installments.

Special thanks to Harper St. George, the publicists at Penguin, and NetGalley for providing me with physical and digital ARCs of this book!

Summary

Cora Dove and her two sisters may be illegitimate, but they are also now wealthy heiresses… if they can find suitable husbands, that is. In order to access her inheritance, Cora must marry a worthy man, but anyone in her dad’s wide circle is off-limits. So she leaves America for England, hoping to find a titled husband who could do with an influx of cash. The perfect marriage of convenience must be to a man who isn’t too appealing, one whom she can divorce after a year and still keep her fair share of the money. When Cora sets her eyes on Leopold Brendon, Earl of Devonworth, she may have found the perfect husband for her circumstances. A little too perfect, actually, if the growing feelings between the new husband and wife are anything to go by…

Review

Upon first starting the Doves of New York series, I was excited that it’s a tie-in with the author’s previous series, The Gilded Age Heiresses; I loved all four of those books! This new series introduces the Dove sisters, three illegitimate American heiresses who were friends with Camille and the Crenshaws. In The Stranger I Wed, Cora Dove is in London with a very practical list of features she needs in a husband. She intends to marry quickly so she can access her inheritance, and if she finds the right husband for her needs, both could stand to benefit. It’s a marriage of convenience in the shrewdest sense.

She finds an ideal candidate in Leopold Brendon, Earl of Devonworth, and it’s not long before the two virtual strangers are married. Both Cora and Devonworth are a bit closed off to love, living in the realm of practicality and responsibility. But in time, they’re also starting to notice deeper feelings for each other. Should they give in to their rising attraction and developing emotional bond? Or should they stick to their original plan and divorce after the first year is up?

Harper St. George is consistently a master of developing an emotional bond between characters, creating delicate yet passionate romantic tension, while also situating them within the social and political world of the time. That is all on full display in The Stranger I Wed. Both Cora and Devonworth are involved in the laws and rights affecting regular people. Cora, through Camille, is getting deeply into women’s rights and the suffrage movement. Devonworth is a member of Parliament, and has personal morals guiding the acts he supports, particularly for clean water access. Through Cora’s influence, he also becomes a stronger supporter of women’s rights, surely a sign of his respect and love for her.

Beyond their mental connection, there is a physical attraction growing between Cora and Devonworth. They may not be sharing a bedchamber, but they do have access to the same washroom, and let’s just say that’s exactly the bridge they need to start exploring their physical intimacy. Even as they start to entertain this aspect of marriage, communication issues may make their path forward a bit confused! These two do tend to hold their cards close to their chests, after all.

While The Stranger I Wed feels like a whole new world to dive into, with the full Dove family, I also loved seeing how these characters interacted with the Gilded Age Heiresses characters that readers have come to know and love. We get glimpses into how their lives are progressing, even if the starring characters are the new Doves on the scene. It’s a beautiful way to expand this whole Victorian era world.

Final Thoughts

The Stranger I Wed is a superb start to the Doves of New York series, one that will appeal to readers of Harper St. George’s previous series as well as an entirely new audience. It highlights her balance of a meaningful romantic connection between characters with a vital, realistic world that they interact with and aim to improve. I already can’t wait to see what romances unfold for Cora’s two sisters in the upcoming books.

Get the Book

You can buy The Stranger I Wed here – it’s available as a paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

The Stranger I Wed by Harper St. George
Series	The Doves of New York (#1)
Audience	Adult
Genre	Historical Romance
Setting	England
Number of Pages	368
Format I Read	Print ARC
Original Publication Date	April 23, 2024
Publisher	Berkley

Official Summary

New to wealth and to London high society, American heiress Cora Dove discovers that with the right man, marriage might not be such an inconvenience after all. . . .

Cora Dove and her sisters’ questionable legitimacy has been the lifelong subject of New York’s gossipmongers and a continual stain on their father’s reputation. So when the girls each receive a generous, guilt-induced dowry from their dying grandmother, the sly Mr. Hathaway vows to release their funds only if Cora and her sisters can procure suitable husbands—far from New York. For Cora, England is a fresh start. She has no delusions of love, but a husband who will respect her independence? That’s an earl worth fighting for.

Enter: Leopold Brendon, Earl of Devonworth, a no-nonsense member of Parliament whose plan to pass a Public Health bill that would provide clean water to the working class requires the backing of a wealthy wife.  He just never expected to crave Cora’s touch or yearn to hear her thoughts on his campaign—or to discover that his seemingly perfect bride protects so many secrets…

But secrets have a way of bubbling to the surface, and Devonworth has a few of his own. With their pasts laid bare and Cora’s budding passion for women’s rights taking a dangerous turn, they’ll learn the true cost of losing their heart to a stranger—and that love is worth any price.