If you enjoyed watching Mr. Selfridge or The Paradise, you will delight in this New York Gilded Age novel about two rival department stores and the former lovers on opposite sides. Beatrice Goodwin left New York and her first love for a marriage of convenience with an English duke. When she scandalously divorces him after sixteen years and returns home to take over her family's failing store, she's surprised to find that her direct competition is run by Wes Dalton, the man she loved but left behind. Dalton has spent the intervening years building a giant retail empire in the name of revenge, determined to run Beatrice's family's store out of business.

Professional rivalry leads to private sparks, as neither of the pair has forgotten the other. But can they set aside the past?

Rodale's excellent Gilded Age Girls Club is a series of feminist history lessons in pretty Wild Rose pink bows. She has done extensive research on remarkable women of the time period, from architects and engineers, to cosmetics pioneers and business owners. Many of the characters are based on real women, and the issues they face--of discrimination, intimidation, and struggling to be taken seriously--are still (unfortunately) relevant today.