The lives, loves, and losses of wealthy women, from Mary Davies Grosvenor to Patty Hearst. A bit meandering overall. Gets considerably more interesting as the women profiled gain more agency.

Interesting new view into women's history through the lens of money. I loved the concept of exploring the lives of heiresses and Thompson delivers an incisive look into the lives of the wealthy. An easy, fun nonfiction read.

I loved the idea of this book but was disappointed, not because it was badly written but I was hoping it would be told in a fictional way. This is a very fact heavy book that flies around centuries and decades, dipping in and out of stories with no real structure. I really enjoyed the opening and loved some of the suggestions for why so many heiresses struggled with what they had.
This would have made a great essay or extended article. I’m afraid I didn’t finish this. There are just too many great books out there and I didn’t want to waste time finishing this one.
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC. This is my honest review.

I am fascinated with this subject and this book scratched my itch. Thoroughly researched and well-written, Heiresses describes so many girls and women I had never heard of who lived extraordinarily interesting lives as they were born into a life one can only imagine. What is always interesting about an heiress is the marriage-making and what ensues after said marriage/marriages as well as how the heiress treats her fortune and what grasp of it she holds. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and recommend it to those who are interested in all things over-the-top inherited wealth. Thanks to St Martin’s Press for the advanced copy.

Heiresses by Laura Thompson is a history of women who inherited money from their families and how it affected their lives. Filled with historical data and referencing some remarks/comments that were made by contemporaries of each heiress helped to showcase each heiress' life. The 17th and 18th century heiresses were little more than tools for men to enrich their own lives without lifting a finger for themselves which is a sad commentary on life during these time periods. I knew of these types of affairs but not to the extent that Ms. Thompson described in the book.

The problem that I had with the book is that Ms. Thompson would be writing about an heiress from the 17th or 18th century and then jump to comparing a contemporary heiress with the earlier heiress. I found it confusing and never understood the need for the comparisons. I also was disappointed that she only highlighted a few of the contemporary heiress lives where she had gone into so much depth on the earlier heiresses. Although an interesting read, I had difficulty with it holding my attention (especially when it jumped around between early and contemporary heiresses). Disappointing but it definitely showcased how money does not buy happiness.

Usually this kind of book is right up my alley. However, this one just didn’t do it for me. I found the narrative too casual and gossipy. The lack of sources was concerning as well. The organization was jumbled and somewhat rambling.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an ARC of Heiresses by Laura Thompson.

Upon reading the synopsis of this novel, I was immediately intrigued and found the premise of the book to be very interesting. I have personally always found the lives of heiresses to be fascinating and was curious to learn more about some of them, many of whom experienced great tragedies throughout their lives. I like how the author tied the concepts of autonomy and independence into the novel as well, and that she did not just focus on the misfortunes experienced by many of these women throughout history. However, I was not a big fan of the author’s overall writing style; I thought the story would flow smoothly and read like a compelling novel but it reads more like a research paper for school. I thought the author often jumped from place to place and I was left confused by many parts of the novel and found myself wondering what exactly the author meant by certain lines, and why she chose to write certain parts of the story in the way that she did. Many parts of the book were dry and rambling and I found myself wanting to skim through the novel at times. I was quite disappointed in this book as it was not exactly what I expected it to be and I felt quite let down by the time I finished reading the novel.

This book should have been right up my alley. In fact, as I began reading I felt completely at home because I had at one time been a voracious reader of historical romances, usually from the Victorian period of English history. I therefore had a comfort zone for understanding the rigidity of English society, the emphasis placed on the family heritage and the importance of keeping the title and the land together and safe. The women in this book were real life examples of the fictional American heiresses I have read about so often when the plot had the Duke of Someplace Hyphenated needing an infusion of cold hard cash to keep the fires in the castle burning. Where is a Duke to look for money? At the gaming tables? No, too uncertain. Among the American super rich, of course. I thought this was going to be fun. Instead, this turned out to be a fizzle.

Once the book moves into the mid-1860s the focus is put on specific well recognized women and keeps coming back to them in each portion to tell the story of how they coped, or didn't cope, with certain aspects of life with all their wealth. For me the book fell down because I didn't feel enough guidance from the author to let me know what the purpose of each divided segment was for. I was distracted by too many things in the book that I thought of as problems. I honestly don't know who I would recommend this book to.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an e-galley of this book.

I was so excited by the premise of this title, and unfortunately it was just a huge letdown. This book reads more like an academic paper--and not an excellent one, even. If this was one that I was hired to edit I would've struck through so much of it. Dry writing, unfocused in far too many places, overstretched in others--it's a very disappointing read.

I received an advanced reader copy of Heiress from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

If you have an intellectual interest in heiresses and a baseline understanding of high society then you will most likely enjoy this book. Thompson goes into great detail about the trajectory of women who inherit large sums. I enjoyed her introduction when she stated that for many a heiress, “her inheritance is her fate and… she wears it around her neck like a collar and chain.” However, if this is your first foray into high society and inheritance then this book may not be for you.

Thompson’s book read more like a textbook or research paper than a novel. As someone new to the social circles and high society mentioned in the book, I found myself utterly confused at the abundance of names, titles, and places. While Thompson did a good job of addressing the turmoil that these young women faced, it was a struggle to get through the vast amounts of information to find the underlying story within. So, while there are intriguing party’s of the story, you may miss them hidden within the dry text of facts.

While I rated this book as a 2 on Goodreads, my true rating would be a 2.5.

This book gives a comprehensive overview of the lives of some of history's most infamous heiresses. The preface is well-written and gives a solid introduction to the book. It brings up ideas about the heiresses' lives that are then referenced in each chapter. The book is organized more or less chronologically. In some chapters, the inundation of names and people to keep track of made the cast of characters discussed hard to follow. Additionally, it seemed like the entire book was just one story repeating again and again; it was hard to find each individual heiress engaging and distinct. However, it was informational and gave thorough case studies.

Thank you St Martins for the ARC to read and review.

Though this one is obvious in its excellent research and breadth of detail, from the get go it reads like an academic text book more than a main stream nonfiction book.

Covering how the heiress has been treated down through the centuries with concerns regarding status, wealth, and power, this book has got all the ingredients, its just lacking in luster.

I received this ARC via Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press, in return for an honest review. This is detailed, well-researched history of, primarily, English women of wealth and their lives. If you’re interested in the history of women of wealth and the associated societal changes that their circumstances helped engender, this is an interesting book. I thought it would be about the Gilded Age of Americans who bought English titles for money (1870-1905) but it actually starts much earlier.
And, quite frankly, it’s almost all quite depressing as most of these girls and women were bartered at an early age into marriage or other arrangements whereby they were held without options. Even in the 20th century examples, most of the women came to bad ends of destitution or addictions.
As a sociological study, it’s very informative about how much or little society’s rules changed and the impacts on women and girls. For example, Ms. Thompson details how English norms and laws favored kidnappings of young girls/women by men seeking their fortunes. I differentiate between women and girls because many were married in their early teens, ages 12-16.
As with other reviewers, I would note the author does skip around a bit when linking individual histories together and, since I’m not a Jane Austen fan, her references didn’t do anything for me.
It makes me appreciate that I worked for my income and that it is mine to control!

Fabulous read for anyone interested in what I can honestly call a chronological anthology of the rise and often fall of mostly English and occasionally American heiresses. It’s also a wonderful study of the sociological exchange between nations that brought us Winston Churchill and other important cultural figures..

I won't be reviewing this elsewhere. The glib style is so tiresome. The ground has been covered before by better authors. To dare to put gold-digger Meghan Markle in the book--even just that brief mention--spoke volumes about the author. Sorry, this one was not for me.

This book just wasn't for me. I love historical books and learning about past people and things, but this fell short on so many levels. at all what I expected or wanted from this book. It was more or less a research paper one would do for school.

I was expecting a book that was more like the tabloids with paparazzi. A book of heiresses and their sordid affairs. The dirty secrets and such.

The writing was dry and at times boring. There were parts of the book I was literally falling asleep on. I should have probably DNF'd it, but I kept hoping it would get better
At times, it was interesting, but overall it was a huge term paper.

Even though I didn't like it, you may. Give a try. After all, we all read a different book with the same title.

Thanks to Netgalley, St. Martins and the author for the Kindle Version of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Heiresses: The Lives of the Million Dollar Babies by Laura Thompson was an interesting read. I am giving it three and a half stars.

So this book is a nonfiction but the topic is incredibly interesting. It is written like a text book and so it is not the easiest read. I honestly had to really try to focus at times but the subject matter is so interesting. Women for years because of money have been forced into marriages or kidnapped and then forced into marriage and treated as bank accounts instead of as humans. This book brought light to the incredibly and interesting lives of some of these women.

I was sent this book via Netgalley in exchange for a review

Thompson's book manages to cover most of the last five hundred years, and readers get a comprehensive view of the treatment of heiresses in America and Europe. The book is clearly well researched, and the author has a flair for writing that helps to create an engaging narrative. My only wish is that the book had been organized differently. The chapters were occasionally too long, and I got lost trying to remember who we were following. But the story was still good, and the book is a great way to engage new readers on the subject.

If you've ever been fascinated by the incredibly and achingly wealthy, this book may be up your alley. Heiresses by Laura Thompson covers heiresses from varied time periods, starting out from the 1600s up to more contemporary times. You meet up with Barbara Hutton and Patty Hearst as well as Daisy Fellowes, the Vanderbilts, and many others I never really knew about.

You may think an heiress has an easy time with all the money, power, suitors, and more that come her way, but you would be very wrong. Throughout the book, you witness firsthand how an heiress can live a tortured existence for many reasons, including unforgiving and uncaring relatives, rogue lovers and fortune hunters, plus kidnappings, forced marriages, and so many other horrific issues. In fact, it's brought up that one of the women could have been happy if she never even had half of her fortune.

An amazing amount of research went into this book, which should be applauded. I appreciated the demystification of the suffering that heiresses continue to experience. You learn--if you didn't understand this already--that money is not a blessing in many of the true life stories.

While I found it interesting to read, it's so dense with material and people that it was hard to keep track of them all and their relationships and relatives. I needed a family tree or more definition between the heiresses because, it seemed, that much of it overlapped. At times, it could be slow as well.

The epilogue felt like it could have consisted of more of a wrap-up. Plus, the most modern heiresses covered reigned in the 1970s like Patty Hearst, for example. I think I would have liked coverage of more contemporary heiresses and luminaries although Megan Markle is mentioned very briefly at a few points.