Joanna Shupe returns with another unforgettable novel set in the glittering world of New York City’s Gilded Age… passionate shipboard encounter with a mysterious stranger. But Eva’s misfortune strikes once more when she discovers the stranger who swept her off her feet is none other than her new employer.
Or is it Lady Irresistible?
Phillip Mansfield reluctantly agrees to let the fiery Lady Eva oversee his luxury hotel project while vowing to keep their relationship strictly professional. Yet Eva is more capable—and more alluring—than Phillip first thought, and he cannot keep from drawing up a plan of his own to seduce her.
When a series of onsite “accidents” make it clear someone wants Lady Unlucky to earn her nickname, Phillip discovers he’s willing to do anything to protect her—even if it requires a scandalous deal…
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Run, don’t walk to get your copy of Joanna Shupe’s latest, A Scandalous Deal.
Lady Eva, or as she’s known after having three fiances die before getting her to the altar, Lady Unlucky, shares champagne and kisses on her passage to New York with the quintessential tall, dark, and handsome stranger. An architect, and the daughter of one, she’s carried on the famous family business on her own and is prepared to see her designs of an elegant hotel come to life, even if it means keeping secrets and risking all.
Phillip Mansfield can’t stop thinking about the sensuous redhead he’d kissed during a violent storm on a trans Atlantic steamer. Meeting her again as the daughter of the man he’s hired to design his latest and most ambitious project, a luxury hotel, makes him reconsider his promise to never put his heart or trust in a woman’s keeping.
Sexy and compelling with a great cast of characters and just the right amount of historical detail to make the gilded age glitter! Well done!
Full disclosure – I LOVE Ms. Shupe’s gilded age stories. This story was no exception. The premise, a female architect is unique. It weaves a woman’s struggle for recognition and equality amidst a male driven industry and political corruption. The attraction between the heroine, Eva and the hero, Phillip sizzles on the page. The writing is clear and evocative. The descriptions put you into each scene, experiencing the action along with the characters. Well done!
A beautiful love story set in New York’s gilded age.
Eva has lived in the shadow of her father’s greatness her whole life. She is an architect talented even beyond her father but is ridiculed and discouraged at every turn.
Phillip is wealthy and has the pedigree to go with it. He is ambitious and a fair employer who demands nothing but perfection.
Phillip is building the largest hotel in New York City, this is the reason the two get involved. Eva is a firecracker. She is fierce and determined. She is intelligent and gifted. She stands up to all the men that say she isn’t good enough because she is a woman. Phillip is driven and focused. He has a terrible temper and a tragic past. Both have severe trust issues.
I loved Eva, she was such an amazing example of a strong, intelligent woman who had the guts to fight for what she wanted. Phillip oozed power and strength. Both characters were so strongly written. You cheered for them and felt their pain.
The plot was well written. It moved well at a fast pace. It was interesting and had such a strong female lead. But it foremost was a love story, a very passionate one at that. The book kept my attention and I hated to see it end. A great read! I will be reading much more of this author.
A Scandalous Deal is part The Four Hundred Series set in New York City in the late 1800’s. The 400 were a nickname for the richest society people in New York at the time, Vanderbilt, Astor, and our fictional family the Mansfield clan. Philip is a puzzle sometimes. He’s a hard-headed businessman use to getting his own way and being right. The other side, that we see first, is flirty, playful, attracts women like moths to a flame. He’s a good guy there’s just two sides to him and he needs to blend the two together. Lady Eva Hyde is a nod to female architects trying to make it in a mans world. Apparently they existed but were quite overshadowed by men like Stanford White, who came to a scandalous end himself. Even Philip treats her condescending until our HEA, he finally gets it and they live HEA.
We have a Lady Architect and a very wealthy New Yorker as the main characters in this well written and engrossing Gilded Age Romance by Joanna Shupe.
I enjoyed the interaction between this pair with there being a wonderful flow to the story and also some exasperating moments.
This well written book has a can’t put it downess that makes it one for my keeper shelf.
I gave it 4.5 of 5.0 stars for story line and characterization and a 4 of 5 flame rating for sensuality. The intimate scenes are very sensual.
I received a complimentary digital ARC of this book from the publisher through Edelweiss to read and review.
This in no way affected my opinion of this title which I read and reviewed voluntarily.
This is a finalist in this historical long category. This is the 2nd in the Four Hundred Series. (I read and loved the first in the series, A Daring Arrangement).
Our heroine is Lady Eva Hyde, known throughout England as Lady Unlucky since she’s been engaged 3x and each of her fiancees died accidentally. Her father is a famous architect, but he’s in poor health and squandered all their money. She’s on her way to NYC to oversee construction of his latest design for hotelier Phillip Mansfield—only it’s really HER design. She’s passed off the work as her father’s to earn the commission. She can’t hope to be accepted in her chosen profession because she’s a woman. Phillip is all buttoned up and rigid, but has no choice but to accept Eva on the construction project until her father is well enough to travel to England.
Pluses: I loved this novel. I enjoy historicals, & I love a good regency, but these gilded age NY novels by Shupe are It’s just a real pleasure as a romance reader to get out of those stuffy ballrooms. I deeply appreciate that the inclusive nature of the book–Phillip helps a lesbian friend escape her controlling parents, the engineer on the project is black man, the workers are a diverse group.
Wishes: I don’t love a plot where one character is lying to another, and Eva spends a lot of time feeling bad about it. But she’s so trapped by circumstances that it largely worked for me. There is A LOT of plot, but it’s tightly controlled and felt necessary to the story.
Verdict: Recommended. I loved the way the romance played out, with Eva taking charge of her own choices and Phillip being unsure of how to treat a woman who is so determined to be an equal.
Copied & Pasted from Twitter as part of a project where I’m reviewing the 2019 RITA finalists.
I adore everything by Joanna Shupe, but this new series is even more fantastic. She brings the Gilded Age to life – and shows us how strong women could be back then.
Lady Eva hopes to establish her career as an architect building a hotel for one of the richest men in New York City. Little does she know, she’s already gotten to know her boss on the last night on the boat from England. If Phillip Mansfield discovers her secret about her father, then her career is over and their love affair ends. But Phillip doesn’t give up and neither does Eva. A sexy as hell hero who possess so much sex appeal it sets the pages on fire.
Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team
Erica –
A Scandalous Deal felt innovated and fresh in a genre that by definition is antiquated. I read the novel feverishly, not realizing how quickly I blew through it until I hit the ending, since nothing broke my concentration.
Two new things for me: I’d never read a book that began with a ship passage from England to New York City and I’ve read very few books taking place in the US during this era. This was a pleasant surprise, adding lawyers of originality.
Equality is the driving force for the premise. Eva is her father’s daughter, using his notoriety as an architect to pose in his place as his health declines. There is an altruistic need, as Eva has to afford to pay for her father’s care, since the man was not a money-miser.
While on the passage to New York, Phillip is playful, free with his laughs, and laid-back. When he arrives back in NYC, the gruff, exacting builder emerges – a man of those times.
Not wishing to spoil the details… Eva is filled with secrets and lies, when Phillip doesn’t abide by either after being burnt in the past. Eva wishes to have a career, using the gift she’s honed since a child, not wanting to go from her father’s daughter to her husband’s wife, with no identity of her own.
Eva isn’t a damsel in distress, nor is she the forced feeling of the ‘spunky’ spitfire – she earns her place by doing as she said she’d do, using her wit and intelligence to reach her goals.
Instead of a balance, where one is exacting and the other is playful, I feel the two exacting intellectuals draw out the playful, passionate side in one another. The novel is high on tension, the spark igniting immediately, but slow-building when it comes to trust, intimacy, and love.
There is an underlying thread, featuring a female friend of Phillip’s that I appreciated seeing brought to light, showing the accuracy of what would have happened to her if she hadn’t had a friend like Phillip.
Joanna Shupe is a new-to-me author. After devouring A Scandalous Deal, I’m looking forward to going back and reading her backlist.
Highly recommended to historical romance fans who appreciate today’s world views taking shape back in the past, as not every woman was comfortable in their station, especially as this takes place during the women’s suffrage movement.
Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of A Scandalous Deal (The Four Hundred #2) by Joanna Shupe to read and review.
A Scandalous Deal by Joanna Shupe is book Two in The Four Hundred series. This is the story of Eva Hyde and Phillip Mansfield. I have read the previous book but feel if you choose to read this one first you should be okay.
Eva is the Lady Unlucky when she looses three fiancés to death and now her father illness is getting worse. Eva’s father is a famous architect who has an assignment to design and oversee Phillips Hotels in America. Eva has been trained by her father and in fact has been covering for him for a while now so she goes forward to go to America to do the job. Phillip and Eva have a encounter where they shared a initiate night together and Eva left before he awoke. Thinking never to see him again she is shocked to learn later that he is the man she is going to be working for. Phillip tries to keep things professional as they can be between the two but that doesn’t work out to well.
Will the Unlucky Lady find her luck?
Really enjoyed this story!
Fabulous! Joanna Shupe captures the spirit of 1890 New York in this fast paced story that I literally started and did not stop until the last page was turned. Lady Eva Hyde has been studying under her father, a famous architect in England since she was young. With her father’s failing health and desperate for funds to survive, Eva takes a daring job in America representing herself in her father’s stead. Philip Mansfield, a very rich and ambitious developer is waiting anxiously for Hyde to show up with his plans and get construction started on his hotel. When Eva shows up, he almost tosses her off the job. I mean, women did not work well on construction jobs and there is no way she would have the knowledge to oversee the construction. Eva is determined and Phillip decides to give her a chance with some very strict rules and with the understanding her father will show up soon. Of course he father never will come over but Eva hopes to have proven herself to the point it did not matter.
What really intrigued me from the start is how Philip and Eva actually met on the ship coming over to America. Neither knew who the other was, yet there were sparks flying between them enough to ignite the ship! Once they get together again, there are so many twists and turns as Phillip tries to resist Eva, but there is no way he can.
This story had a little of it all with suspense, secrets and it showed the terrible corruption in this Gilded Age in New York history which I had never read much about. The secondary characters which included a few from the first book in this series A Daring Arrangement were evident and I loved to revisit them. Although this book can be read as a standalone, this first book was as amazing as this one! I cannot wait for more in this series and I hope it continues on forever!!