A Daring Arrangement

An entertaining historical romance with a fabulous Gilded Age setting. The heroine is an architect who unknowingly has a steamy tryst with the man she doesn’t realize is her boss.

What an engrossing start to a new series! The writing is excellent, the setting is elegant, the characters are interesting and engrossing, the villain is unexpected and the HEA is hard-won – what more could you ask for in any book.

This story is set in a different time and place than I usually enjoy, but I loved it anyway. America’s Gilded Age had brash Americans making and spending money hand-over-fist. It was the day of the Astor’s and the others in the 400 which is comparable to the Regency period’s ton. Ostentatious is the word that comes to mind – bigger jewels, bigger homes, bigger everything.

Lady Honora Parker is the daughter of an Earl. She’s had a lonely life – her mother died when she was very young and her father pretty much ignored her. Then finally, she found someone who paid attention to her and she was sure she was in love with him. So, she staged a scene where she was to be discovered and ruined so her father would allow her to marry Robert. However, her father was sure Robert was a fortune hunter, so instead of forcing a marriage, he sent her to America to stay with her Aunt and Uncle. He fully expected her to find a husband there.

Nora is one very stubborn lady and is determined to come up with a plot that will force her father to call her home. Her solution – find the absolutely biggest rake and profligate she can find and forge a ‘fake’ engagement with him. She needs someone who is so totally unacceptable that her father will call her home immediately.

While out to dinner with her aunt and uncle, Nora keeps hearing loud clomps coming from the ceiling. Was the place going to fall down around their ears? No, it was just Julius Hatcher and his friends having a party on the second floor. Aha! Julius Hatcher is just the man she needs!

She manages to sneak up to the second floor to corner Mr. Hatcher and make him a proposition he just can’t refuse. Her first glimpse of the party is priceless. There are 20 men on horses – in the ballroom – they were in black evening suits, silk hats, and eating off trays secured to saddles. After a brief conversation, Julius falls off his horse, onto the floor, passed out dead drunk at her feet. Oh! Yes! He was exactly the man she needed.

Julius Hatcher is one of the richest men in New York and he has earned every dime of that money himself. He came from humble beginnings and an uncaring family. His mother actually seemed to hate him because he was successful. Julius’ father had been a trusting man who believed that a handshake was as good as a contract – and then he got into a deal with some Knickerbockers and lost all of the family money. Julius wanted revenge for that and needed entry to the upper echelons of society. So, he had his own reasons for accepting Nora’s proposal.

You’ll love Aunt Bea – she is a sharp and crafty old lady. She’s just an older, craftier version of Nora.

I loved the banter and one of my favorite things was when Julius told Nora, “You cannot bring the tiger indoors and expect him to act as a house cat, my lady.”

Julius and Nora have a lot to overcome, but they are drawn to each other. Can each of them overcome their pasts to forge a happy future? You’ll just have to read this delightful book to find out!

“I requested and received this e-book at no cost to me and volunteered to read it; my review is my honest opinion and given without any influence by the author or publisher.”

Lady Honora Parker (Nora) has brought shame on her mother and father in England and her father has sent her to his sister and her husband in New York City to escape the scandal and save her reputation. She wants to go back to London and Robert, the poet/artist that her father thinks is such a loser and whom she thinks she really loves. Robert writes her mushy poetry and keeps that flame going from afar, but her crazy idea of shanghaiing Julius Hatcher, a wealthy rogue who is known for his hedonistic parties, into a fake betrothal doesn’t turn out like she wanted it to. She wants her father to hear of the scandalous Julius and demand that she return to London then eventually to her beloved Robert.

I loved Nora. She’s young at just twenty years old, but she’s so witty, intelligent, manipulative, cunning, and bold, she seemed older than her years. She knows what she wants and thinks she’s got it, but her heart had other ideas. One thing I liked about her was she was brutally honest. She didn’t try to hide or be coy or try to lie her way out of situations. It didn’t always work out to her benefit, but as she said, “There it is.”

Julius, oh my man, Julius. He was a rags-to-riches guy and had no desire to marry or have children. When he met Nora, he was hosting a party on horseback in an upper floor of Sherry’s Restaurant (this party really happened, according to the author’s notes) and he was so drunk. In all fairness to him, it was his birthday and he did like a good party, so there it is. The next morning, he was so hungover that he could barely see and didn’t remember making a bargain with Nora Parker about pretending to be her betrothed. What a thing to wake up to, ha ha! But getting back to his character, he was highly intelligent, gifted with numbers, and making prosperous calls on the stock market. He was very wealthy and other men often hounded him for stock tips, even when he didn’t want to give them. He wanted to make his way into society to avenge the death of his father and Nora was his ticket in.

There is some mystery, intrigue, and a touch of blackmail that was important to the story, but didn’t take away from the romance and the great feeling of Nora and Julius falling in love. It was palpable and the love scenes were so hot, they left scorch marks on the screen of my reader. But they were done tastefully and without any vulgarities. Thank you for that, Ms. Shupe.

This book was absolutely fabulous! I loved everything about it.

I enjoyed this book. I love books about England

When Lady Honora Parker’s father refuses to let her marry the artist who has claimed her heart she is sent to her Aunt and Uncle in New York City in disgrace. In a plan to change her father’s mind she sets out to find a fiancé so horrific that her father will reconsider his decision to let her marry the man she thinks she loves. Seeking out the most unacceptable candidate for marriage she can find she settles on notorious financier Julius Hatcher. When Nora and Julius agree to a daring arrangement they discover that maybe what they think they want is the last thing they need.

A Daring Arrangement marks the debut of Joanna Shupe’s Four Hundred Series and continues Shupe’s clever and unconventional take on historical romance. This author’s trend of smart heroines and heroes worth winning continues with her leads in this work Nora and Julius. The romance genre can never have enough empowered women and men who are supportive of them. As demonstrated in this work this author shows that love does not need to come at the expense of giving up her heroines’ identities. Expressing characters thought processes and interactions while maintaining historical accuracy and creating scenarios that modern readers can relate to and buy into is not easy, yet Ms. Shupe seems to do so effortlessly. Her detailed enthusiastic descriptions of the Gilded Age transport readers for an authentic experience and a rousing story.

Joanna Shupe’s portrayal of Nora took a beautiful face and refreshingly made it take a back seat to her heroine’s intelligence. Nora’s refusal to accept other’s dictating her fate was further strengthened by her creativity in deciding her own future. This author took her hero Julius and had him struggle with being taken seriously as his sharp mind was often overshadowed by his handsome facade, questionable past and wild ways. The more these two characters got to know each other the clearer it became that they had under estimated each other based on the conclusions of their initial superficial observations and interactions.

Julius and Nora’s immediate attraction further spurred by their genuine curiosity in each other was fun to watch develop as they found numerous excuses to deny that they were interested in more then their original arrangement. What made the chemistry between this couple so intense was it was more then just physical they were becoming friends. As these two became familiar and the burden of secrets was removed they grew to value each other moving this story quickly. With a raw sexual undercurrent Nora and Julius kept the pages on simmer for most of this book and literally ignited them when they finally confronted their attraction directly. Dark plotting and a historical backdrop richly interwoven into this story created an amazing immersive feel of facts and emotions that felt as close to reliving the Gilded Age through the eyes of this author’s well drawn portrayals as you could get. Joanna Shupe has given historical romance an invigorating dose of love and history with A Daring Arrangement.

*I was given an advanced copy. All opinions expressed are my own.*

This is first book in the Four Hundred series by Joanna Shupe. This book takes place during the gilded age, one of my favorite time periods in history.

The main character Nora was sent away to live with her Aunt and Uncle in America ( New York) after her father discovers that she was in a relationship that he thought was unsuitable for her.

Wanting to get back to her lover, Nora devises a scheme to create a bigger scandal so that her father will be forced to send her back to England, which will reunite her with her love, Robert.

She enlist the help of Julius Hatcher, wall street playboy, millionaire, who has some skeletons in his closet. To pose as her fiancé. Things don’t go as expected and Nora/Julius start to develop feelings for each other, each in their own way afraid to commit to each other.

I thought this was very well written. Joanna Shupe has a way of taken you in a story and leaves you wanting more. I am super eager to read the next book in this series.

I thought all the characters in this was book was written very well. Though I admit it took me some time to warm up to Nora. Julius was definitely was my favorite character in this book.

I have to say that I never thought I find the stock market interesting. I liked how some of the plot was centered around the stock market. One of my favorite scenes in the book was when Julius had taken Nora to the stock Exchange. He had to sneak her in, because they didn’t allow women on the floor, which is an interesting history fact, that I didn’t know about.

So if you haven’t picked this up, I highly recommend this book.

There is nothing better than a fabulous read that totally grabs your attention. A self made American Millionaire agrees to become the fake fiancee of an English lady who was sent to America to avoid a scandal with a starving artist. Only things don’t go as planned and they fall in love. Then the starving artist shows up from England to win her back, no matter what it takes.
A definite recommended read.

I am a fan of this series of books, just not so much this one. Stockbroker in New York seemed like one book too many of the Knickerbocker set. I found myself skimming through a book of an author I have always loved.

Love this series.