Esme and Jinx are the daughters of a wealthy newspaper publisher and this story covers the time span between the late 1890s and WW1. Esme simply wants to use her gift for writing to make people aware of the plight of the destitute. She's not interested in the role high society is trying to foist on her. However, her younger sister embraces the glitz and glamour of the world she's brought up in, so much that she's prepared to take matters into her own hands and make a drastic move.My favourite is part 2, which focused on Jinx and the fascinating romantic predicament she got herself into. I really felt her emotions. Because of her immature machinations going horribly wrong, it seems the rest of her life is doomed for misery. It's obvious that what would really have suited her is right in front of her, but it seems too late. Her character development, from the shallow, calculating girl in part 1 to the pensive and wise heroine she becomes is excellent, as is the case of mistaken identity at the crux of her dilemma.When the story shifted to Esme in Part 3, I was still too full of Jinx's story to want to get stuck straight into it. Then when I did, I found the character and background of Daughtry Hoyt had a rushed-over feel to it. He seemed a bit like a plot machination to ensure that Esme had a baby, but he was too nice a plot machination for what happened to him. If the novella-sized Parts 2 and 3 could have been extended into full length novels in their own right, I might have been even happier with this interesting read. Part 4 was the same dizzy rush of drama, skipping a lot of time. I don't feel I got enough of the next generation of characters, Jack, Rosie and Lily, to care much for them. Not necessarily enough to read the next book.The quotes from D.L.Moody, who was a contemporary evangelist of their time, made a good theme. He said that when we're full of self and our own plans, there's no room for God to move. This is exactly what is borne out in the novel. The time period was perfect, showing the corruption in what is so often looked back on as an idyllic, romantic era. It was satisfying to see both sisters end up with men they truly loved, although at different points of the story they both decided they couldn't cope with social and economic repercussions if they did.The author mentioned that her story was loosely based on Jacob and Esau, and although I could see similarities when she mentioned it, it wasn't forced enough to be in our faces. Altogether, a good read although I would have preferred it to have been longer in parts and not so compressed in the second half. But because I liked the two sisters and their perfect matches, I might just read the sequel anyway. This story isn't a romance novel nor is it written in romance novel style. It's more of a one generation epic about the Price family, with a Christian bent.There are two daughters, born from a wealthy family. The eldest, Esme, wants to be a reporter. But as a woman from a wealthy New York family with social asperations, her dream is denied in favor of a betrothal to a wealthy man. She falls in love with a photographer she's known since childhood. She struggles with the choice: leave behind her life of wealth to marry for love and possibly live in poverty. Yeah, that's a tough choice. And she wavers, quite a bit.Her younger sister, Jinx, is a social climber and fancies herself in love with Esme's fiance. She wants to marry a wealthy man and live in high society. So when she disovers her sister kissing the photographer, she scemes to trade places, to steal her sister's life. And with her mother's help, and a handful of lies, she suceeds.And it goes on from there, covering just less than twenty years of the lives of these two women, the men they love and the men they marry (not always one and the same).The moral seems to be that even rich people are not happy without God's love and blessings from God don't come in the form of money or posessions but in knowing He is always there, watching an protecting and forgiving.Yeah, well, those are themes the church uses to make the not rich people feel guilty for wanting more. I'm certain there are unhappy rich people out there, but most of them seem pretty dang happy to me. Is the President unhappy? What about our congessment? Most of them are millionairs. How about the heads of banks and major corporations with their huge bonuses? Yes, many of these people behave wickedly - and happy to do so. But so long as we not-rich people are convinced that they rich are unhappy, we're supposed to overlook the fact that in the last five eyars or so, the rich have increased their yearly income, while the rest of us have all taken pay cuts.But I digress...Oh, the one happy rich guy dies a hero as a way to redeem himself for a youthful mistake. Aw, only in fiction...I would have enjoyed the story more if it hadn't gotten preechy at times. The story is compelling and surprising and a nice break from the romance format I normally read.
What do You think about Heiress (2011)?
Too much going on with so many multiple characters and twists it makes me dizzy
—Jess_234
A bit of a slow start but still a great read.
—robinson16180
