Firstly, the hero of this novel, Harrison Archer, doesn’t have a sparkling personality like most heroes. He’s a bit of a scoundrel whose family despises him. But then they land themselves in some financial problems, they rely on Archer to save them. The problem is, Archer wants nothing to do with them and actually wishes to exact revenge on them for treating him badly as a child.

I liked Archer, but I don’t think I totally fell in love with his character until a bit later on in this book. That being said, I think this book takes a bit of warming up to in the beginning, but because of the premise and the other characters, I kept on reading. As this is my first read by Shupe, I was looking for a new author to read more historical books from, and after reading THE HEIRESS HUNT, I’m happy to say that I will be looking forward to more of her books.

While I loved the heroine in this book, Maddie, I found myself frustrated by her hero Harrison and his inability to see when he was being overbearing and heavy-handed. I didn't buy their reconciliation, either. I needed more groveling tbh...

A strong start to a new historical series for Shupe. The tennis angle was an interesting plot point and I’m intrigued from the rest of the series.

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The Heiress Hunt (The Fifth Avenue Rebels #1). By Joanna Shupe. 2021. Avon (ARC eBook).

I enjoyed Harrison Archers and Maddie Webster’s journey back to each other after a three year estrangement from being the best of childhood friends. There are old and new secrets and heartbreak that they have to overcome, but each have become resilient in their own right, albeit in unconventional ways. Now they have to learn what it is like to take and give in marriage. I think Shupe is a strong writer who weaves elements of Golden Age New York effortlessly. I look forward to reading more of this series.

I’m going to be honest, I couldn’t get into this one. I am posting my review wayyy after the publish date because I DNF-ed it and it felt wrong because I love so much of her other work. I think this series that just isn’t for me because the second book was the same, though I’m giving it another go because I think I just had a sour taste in my mouth after reading this one. The class difference between hero/heroine didn’t feel right, the hero was an entitled jackass imo, and it felt like the excitement was never really there. I’m still giving it two stars because the writing it good, I am just not a fan of the characters. I won’t be posting this review to goodreads as I didn’t finish it.

The Heiress Hunt is the ​​first installment in Joanna Shupe’s Fifth Avenue Rebels series. This is a Gilded Age childhood friends to lovers romance following knickerbocker Harrison Archer, who must marry to save his bankrupt family, and Maddie Webster, his childhood best friend. Harrison asks that Maddie help him find a wife, all while fighting the feeling he’s had for her for years.

I absolutely love Joanna Shupe and felt that this book was a rare miss from an incredibly talented author. I found that our heroine Maddie had very little agency throughout the book, and that Harrison was forgiven too easily for his repeated missteps. I would’ve liked to see him more fully acknowledge the way he took control from her and put in the work to fix it, rather than promising to do better in the future.

I did love the setting, the exploration of women in sports at the time through Maddie’s passion for playing tennis, and the bonds of friendship between the other characters introduced. Shupe has written some of my all-time favorite romances and I love the way she writes about the Gilded Age, a time period so few romance writers explore. I’m still very excited to see where Shupe takes this series.

Still compulsively readable, as all Joanna Shupe books are for me, but this one missed the mark for me a little, including a late-stage conflict that felt oddly timed in the novel and kind of a hasty resolution within the last chapter (at least compared to the scope of the hurdle that needed to be overcome). I also felt like Harrison could’ve done with a little more redeeming on-page given his actions, rather than it having to be solely Maddie’s responsibility to seek him out and apologize for being in the wrong. Overall, I didn’t hate it, but it wasn’t my favorite she’s ever written and I’ve heard better things about later books in the series so I’m looking forward to those.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I LOVE JOANNA SHUPE!!! She never misses with me!! I love how her historical romances take place in America and I was so excited to read this childhood to lovers story!! First of all, HARRISON!! He’s been in love with Maddie since he was 12 and my heart!! The cuteness!!!!! Ahhhh!!! I loved seeing him reunite with Maddie and then the plot line of asking her to find himself a wife was so fun because it made Maddie so flustered hahahaha! I also love a good marriage of convenience and when these two finally got married!! I was so excited!!! It was so much fun!! I did feel the lying towards the end seemed a little out of character to me for a conflict purposes, but it just felt a bit out of place. But overall this was a fun one!!! I am very excited for what’s next in this series!!

2.5 stars ⭐️
Oof this was a miss after I immensely enjoyed her Uptown Girls trilogy.

This wasn't entirely bad mainly due to the tennis-playing heroine (historical sports romance? Yes please!) and of course, I always love Joanna Shupe's writing style.

Both main characters were unlikeable (dare I say their relationship was borderline toxic) and I just wanted to slap some sense into them. The story itself wasn't great, the conflicts were ridiculous, and I didn't like any character in this except for Kit, Alice (I can't wait to get to their book!!!) and Harrison's group of gentlemen friends.

I just hope JS's next releases are better because I know she's got a lot more to give.

***ARC Provided by the Publisher via NetGalley***

Friends to lovers can be a lot of fun, and really, really, hot. And books like this one are the reason why this trope is one of my favorites.

Harrison and Maddie are friends, and neither of them are fully admitting (at least to one another) the attraction between them. And, Harrison needs to marry well...or at least that is what he is expected to do. And, Maddie is trying to be supportive when what she wants to do is be with Harrison herself.

And, well, the journey of them figuring this out, and getting together, and working things out was fantastic.

I enjoyed and recommend this title.

<i>The Heiress Hunt</i> was almost a success for me, but the end pulled it down from a high four star rating to a three star. I think I'm arguably being harsher with my ratings right now than usual, so admittedly, take that number with a grain of salt. But <i>The Heiress Hunt</i> was set up to be a success for me. I love nothing more than pining (preferably mutual, but I'm also a fan of a man being in love with his best friend for years and keeping his mouth shut about it) and estranged friends to lovers is sort of catnip for me. I also really like the premise of a man who wants the hostess having the hostess invite all of her friends to a house party so he can woo the hostess, but on the down low. And the first 40-50% of this book was hitting those notes for me. It was incredibly different in tone, I felt, to the brilliant <i>Uptown Girls</i> series, but it was like peanut butter M&Ms and I just wanted to keep listening. But once we passed the first half of the book, I felt like the wheels sort of started coming apart. I still found the book compulsively readable because I wanted to know what would happen, but instead of being my favorite type of M&Ms, it was like they were regular ones that are good, but why am I eating them? (This analogy is getting tortured, but I hope you're following.) Anyway, if you want to know nothing really about the plot, skip the rest of this review because I'm going to have some minor spoilers in the rest of it.

At about the halfway point, there's a forced marriage and... I didn't like it. It just didn't really make sense the way it happened, so much as it felt like a convenient excuse. Maddie had said she needed time and instead of helping to get Maddie that time, Harrison just goes full steam ahead in a way that didn't really work for me. Also, the unresolved sexual tension in the build up to the forced marriage was honestly way sexier to me than the ultimate consummation scenes that came after the fact, which is always a bit of a let down, though a forgivable one.

But both Maddie and Harrison spend the rest of the book making decisions that were just dumb and then the conflict that tears them apart at the end felt like a completely over the top ridiculous element that had me seething. There are third act break ups and then there are third act break ups that START at 90% of the way through the book. Ultimately, I still love Shupe's writing and am really looking forward to the next books in the series. As for whether or not you should give this one a read or skip it may really come down to your toleration of late third act break ups. If only I could have stayed in the first half of the book feelings the whole time...

Joanna Shupe is amazing. She created this genre for gilded-age romance novels. These characters are fire. The heroine is a tennis player and her hero was her friend that left NYC. How do you break an engagement? and to a DUKE no less? Well, this hero knows how to do that and so does Joanna Shupe.

I've been reading a lot of historical romances the past 18 months or so - they're an excellent antidote to what's going on in the "real world", and sometimes that's just what I'm looking for in a book. More often than not, the ones I read are set in Great Britain. I was happy to get the chance to read one that was a bit different for me - by a new-to-me author and set in a slightly different era (1895) and in the U.S. I enjoyed this one, the characters were aggravating at times, but that's true of most romances for me - so much of the tension comes from misunderstandings and miscommunications. That's definitely true of Harrison and Maddie, two childhood friends who were close friends in their teen years until an overheard conversation leads to assumptions and a long period of separation with no communication. When Harrison returns, he's already scheming to take over his family's failing business, but when he learns that Maddie is still (mostly) unattached his schemes expand and come to include a plan to win her for himself. He plays things a bit too close to the vest; she expects a bit too much perfection once they've married. Lots of poor communication going on for a while, but as always with the genre, they find their way to their HEA.
Thanks to Netgalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for providing a copy for an unbiased review.

It breaks my heart to DNF The Heiress Hunt, I was so looking forward to a new series from Joanna Shupe. Unfortunately I do not enjoy love triangle plots and this leaned a little to far for me. I am planning to try her next in the series though.

So the beginning of this book had me really intrigued. The hero’s motives had me cheering him on from the start, wanting to stick it to his family all the way. And when we find his connection to the heroine, I immediately knew how this book was going to play out.

I enjoyed how she wasn’t your typical girl waiting for someone to come along and swoop her away. She ‘was’ a pro tennis player (which I’ve never seen in a historical), and her ambitions were pretty high for herself.

I wouldn’t say that it’s completely predictable, because let’s face it, we all know how historical romances play out, but the journey along the way was still pretty good.

We get that typical lack of communication between the main characters to the point where you just wanna grab them and shake some sense into their heads. The plot is a bit dramatic, but creates an easy to read vibe that flows nicely. The romance is on the mild side, so if you aren’t a fan of the steamier scenes, this would be a good choice to read this summer. I gave this one a solid 3 out of 5 stars and would recommend for those who want a regency, vengeance, second-chance plot.

Taking a modern sensibility and setting it in the Gilded Age, The Heiress Hunt features well developed characters in Harrison and Maddie. Their emotional journeys and backstories are movingly rendered.

I did not like this book. The characters were badly written, their motivations didn't work for me, and I was bored for most of it. The Hero was not redeemed by the end, and more work was required before the novel wrapped up. Following this experience, I may the next book in the series when it is released. I have read Shupe's "Uptown Girl" series, and I did enjoy those, this may have simply been a miss.

I really enjoyed the Upton Girls series by Joanna Shupe and was delighted when I realized she was releasing a new series and that, unfortunately, is where the excitement died for me. Did I squeal when I got approved for an advanced reader’s copy? Perhaps. Did I frantically rush to download it and begin reading on my e-reader? Okay, you caught me. However, the further I read in The Heiress Hunt, one thing became abundantly clear: I hated both Harrison and Maddie.
This should have been everything I needed in a historical romance book. Instead, the characters were mean people and the story completely omitted them falling in love. I know that Joanna can write but this book was not it for me, especially how Maddie was constantly not given a say in her own life and gave into everything Harrison wanted.
Arc provided by Netgalley in exchange for a honest review.

Is it any surprise that I’m here to tell you that I’m in love with this childhood best friends romance? I adore everything Joanna Shupe writes and here she’s given us a different type of Gilded Age romance set in Newport, Rhode Island. I haven’t personally been to the gorgeous “cottages” (read impressive summer mansions for the wealthy) but they’re definitely on my bucket list of places to visit.⁣

This is an adorably sweet and uncomplicated romance. Our heroine is set on marrying a Duke, even though she’ll have to leave her family behind in America, because that’s what her mother has always wanted for her. But her childhood best friend is back in town looking for a wife, and he’s determined finally that no one else except Maddie will do.⁣

The conflict isn’t super heavy though and I can’t say the characters stand up to some of my faves by this author but it’s a solid start to a new series and I can’t wait to read more.