A Lady’s Guide to Fortune Hunting by Sophie Irwin

Posted July 11, 2022 in review Tags:

A Lady's Guide to Fortune-Hunting by Sophie Irwin
Pages: 352

Genres: Historical Romance
Setting: London, UK
Source: ARC, NetGalley
Narrator: Eleanor Tomlinson

Goodreads

A whip-smart debut that follows the adventures of an entirely unconventional heroine who throws herself into the London Season to find a wealthy husband. But the last thing she expects is to find love...
Kitty Talbot needs a fortune. Or rather, she needs a husband who has a fortune. Left with her father’s massive debts, she has only twelve weeks to save her family from ruin.
Kitty has never been one to back down from a challenge, so she leaves home and heads toward the most dangerous battleground in all of England: the London season.
Kitty may be neither accomplished nor especially genteel—but she is utterly single-minded; imbued with cunning and ingenuity, she knows that risk is just part of the game.
The only thing she doesn’t anticipate is Lord Radcliffe. The worldly Radcliffe sees Kitty for the mercenary fortune-hunter that she really is and is determined to scotch her plans at all costs, until their parrying takes a completely different turn...
This is a frothy pleasure, full of brilliant repartee and enticing wit—one that readers will find an irresistible delight.

A Lady’s Guide to Fortune Hunting by Sophie Irwin brings me back to some of the more classic historical romances I loved. It kind of gave me some Lisa Kleypas vibes (but without the sex) because they characters are well rounded and dynamic. The story is pretty straight forward: Kitty needs a rich husband to save her family, but she isn’t really part of “the ton”. Lord Radcliffe sees her as a gold digger right away and it leads to some great tit-for-tat exchanges.

I loved how the book explores the disadvantages of women in the time and how one of their only recourse for helping their family was marriage. It might not be the same as today, but the plight of women continues and it makes the story feel real.

Like some of the classic historical romances, this is low heat and they don’t profess their love until just about the end. As someone who just finished an insta-love read before this, it creates a huge build up. I went back and forth between the audio and the kindle edition. The audio narrator is Eleanor Tomlinson, a new to me narrator. I enjoyed the narration and felt it was a worthwhile listen! Because it doesn’t have sex, it might be a nice audio while you are at work or in the car if you are afraid (as I am) that someone will overhear from your headphones or car stereo.