An Island Princess Starts a Scandal

Two years ago, Adriana Herrera putout her second Las Leonas novel, An Island Princess Starts a Scandal. Manuela is going to be married in a few months to a man she can’t love, but before the wedding, she wants to spend her time in Paris with women of a similar inclination. She enlists Cora, a ruthless and business-savvy duchess, to show her around the sapphic parts of the city. But how can these two women overcome everything that could keep them apart?

Why I Chose This Book:

I loved A Caribbean Heiress in Paris back in 2022, and I’ve been wanting to read this sequel since it came out. Alas, I never quite got to it, but now with the third and final book of the trilogy (A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke) out tomorrow, it was high time I read it!

What I Liked:

• Manuela just wants to party and flirt with girls! Let her have her fun!
• Cora is so scary and bossy and ruthless. I love her and how different she is from Manuela!
• Showing the sapphic community of late 1880s Paris
• Art by and for women
• Business dealings turning into blackmail to get fun outings!
• Manuela’s friendship with her fellow Leonas, Aurora and Luz Alana
• Standing up for what makes you happy

Final Thoughts

Like the first Las Leonas book, I loved An Island Princess Starts a Scandal. It combines business and pleasure in the most delectable way. I enjoyed getting to know more about Latinas in 1880s Paris, artwork of the time, and sapphic communities that allowed women to live independently and with each other. Manuela and Cora are such different characters that manage to balance each other out well. This was a fun book, and I can’t wait to read the final installment of the series, A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke. Aurora and Apollo’s story has been set up well here, and luckily that book is out this week. Stay tuned for my review!

Get the Book

You can buy An Island Princess Starts a Scandal here – it’s available as a hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

An Island Princess Starts a Scandal by Adriana Herrera
Series	Las Leonas (#2)
Audiobook Narrator	Nneka Okoye
Audience	Adult
Genre	Historical Romance
Setting	France
Number of Pages	368
Format I Read	Audiobook & Hardcover
Original Publication Date	May 30, 2023
Publisher	Canary Street Press

Official Summary

“Adriana Herrera is once again here to upend any outdated notions of historical romance.” —Entertainment Weekly

One last summer. 
For Manuela del Carmen Caceres Galvan, the invitation to show her paintings at the 1889 Exposition Universelle came at the perfect time. Soon to be trapped in a loveless marriage, Manuela has given herself one last summer of freedom—in Paris, with her two best friends. 

One scandalous encounter. 
Cora Kempf Bristol, Duchess of Sundridge, is known for her ruthlessness in business. It’s not money she chases, but power. When she sees the opportunity to secure her position among her rivals, she does not hesitate. How difficult could it be to convince the mercurial Miss Caceres Galvan to part with a parcel of land she’s sworn never to sell?

One life-changing bargain.
Tempted by Cora’s offer, Manuela proposes a trade: her beloved land for a summer with the duchess in her corner of Paris. A taste of the wild, carefree world that will soon be out of her reach. What follows thrills and terrifies Cora, igniting desires the duchess long thought dead. As they fill their days indulging in a shared passion for the arts and their nights with dark and delicious deeds, the happiness that seemed impossible moves within reach…though claiming it would cause the greatest scandal Paris has seen in decades.

“…a fun, frothy, feminist voice in historical romance.” —New York Times bestselling author Sarah MacLean

Can’t get enough of the Las Leonas?

• Book 1: A Caribbean Heiress in Paris
• Book 2: An Island Princess Starts a Scandal
• Book 3: A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke