The Heir

Completely lacking in historical accuracy

I usually don't get too upset about historical accuracy in romances because that is not the point of the genre, but this book is so outrageous that I cannot even finish it. I am willing to accept that a beautiful woman with no work history is hired as the head housekeeper for an Earl, even if that is completely impossible. I am even willing to accept a romance between an aristocrat and woman he believes is a servant (seductions happen). Actually, I such a fan of upstairs-downstairs shows that I was eager to see how this would play out.
What I cannot get beyond is that the Earl's butler, secretary, and all his male servants go missing so that the housekeeper can flounce around, performing their duties. La-la-la... she waltzes in on her employer and his brother, proceeds to arrange flowers, and then engages them in conversation. Not only does the Earl not get upset that his housekeeper beats him unconscious, he allows her to nurse him (naked), and then they proceed to share all their intimate thoughts over lemonade. Not only would a housekeeper not sit in the presence of her employer, she would likely have little interaction with him. Her job was to manage the female servants. The butler's job was to manage the male servants and to attend personally on the lord. All the male servants would not be allowed to go missing. I was completely distracted by how woefully understaffed this supposedly rich Earl's house was.
Also, we are led to believe that it is impossible for the Earl to find a wife to bear children and his father is so desperate to get him married that he tries to get his mistress to pass off another man's child on him. What?? A Duke wants his heir to marry a fallen woman who is pregnant with another man's child????
This book is so full of historical problems that I simply cannot finish it, despite decent writing.

17 out of 23 people found this review helpful.

why I read historicals

I loved this book and can't wait for thr sequel. It is so refreshing to NOT have to wade thru character killing angst, which most books are riddled with by todays authors. Historically inaccurate well yeah. But a great read!

6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

Really? Inaccurate, wont load to Nook?

Here is to all you spoil sports FYI. Leaving bad feed back for a Romance fantasy book. Why because the historical facts arent accurate, what? This is a romance fantasy people nothing is real or accurate, its just for fantasy, (fun), get over it. As far as bad reviews for not loading correctly to your nook REALLY? This is not the area for complaining for that. Go through the correct channels. This crap frustrates me. I want a review of the book not your whinning. Besides that it isnt fair to the author to bring down her score for things out of their control. GREAT HISTORICAL (FANTASY) ROMANCE BOOK.

5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

DO NOT TRY TO DOWNLOAD ON COLOR NOOK

The free sample downloads just fine. When I purchased the book and tried to download the entire book, all I got was blank pages. I called the help line and was told to totally wipe out everything on my color book nook and register it, then try again. I did so. Still all I got were blank pages. The Barnes and Noble representative said she would see if she could obtain a refund of my money. m She acted as if she was unsure whether this can be done. Moreover, she acted put out with me as though the problem was caused by me rather than some technical problem. She was NOT friendly. I have downloaded many books, the Barnes and Noble rep even commented on how many books I have in my account, I certainly know how to download books and have never had this problem before.

5 out of 14 people found this review helpful.

Wonderful book!!

Love her style very much!! Must read....wish for more...If you like, Lisa Kleypas, you will also love Grace Burrowes!!

5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

Recommended Read

Young girls of marriageable age staked out like sacrificial lambs in a glittering ballroom for males to prey on just does not work for Gayle Windham, Earl of Westhaven even if he does need a wife--he will be the Duke when his father dies. However, his imperious father, the Duke of Moreland, wants Gayle married to insure the family lineage-he wants grandsons NOW.

Gayle likes solitude, peace and quiet, so he stays in his London residence when all of Society goes to the country for the summer. His housekeeper knows how to adjust the windows to keep the breeze circulating through the house that is sparkling clean and perfumed with fresh-cut flowers daily. The meals are good and the service efficient.

Anna Seaton, the housekeeper, wants to go unnoticed but circumstances bring her front and center to the Earl's attention. She guards her secret well, but does not do so well with guarding her heart. She knows the rules of deception well-dress the part, believe your own lies, have more money and resources than you show, and always have an alternative plan. Keeping her freedom is of utmost importance for her and Morgan who works as a maid in the household. This is an urgent need that colors Anna's life and her actions regardless of how her heart feels.

The Earl's brother, Valentine. With his beautiful music and tender heart, adds joy to the Earl's household. Devlin, the Earl's half-brother is a seasoned veteran of war, astute in the vagaries of humanity, and unerringly protective of Gayle. Even though he is suspicious of Anna, he defends her because she is important to Gayle. The Earl's mother is also protective. She truly sets the fox among the chickens when she hires a detective to look into Anna's background.

Grace Burrowes' characters, full of emotion and action, come alive, Even the rather incidental secondary characters have distinct personalities, even little Rose. The antagonists are so despicable one really wants to reach out and give them a sound drubbing. They are men reared with privilege and should know better.

Ms. Burrowes' smooth, unobtrusive writing style engages all the senses. It makes the love scenes spellbinding, the danger a heart-pounding experience, and the caring, protective love for loved ones awe-inspiring.

The Heir is hard to put down when once started--remarkably good reading. A big thank you to Grace Burrowes for a terrific story that has some provocative thoughts about life and living along with an irresistible love story that has some mighty anxious moments as Gayle and Anna muddle their way toward a happy-ever-after.

Originally posted at the Long and Short of It Romance Reviews

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Read it twice!

I cant believe this is the first book the author wrote! I love how you get to see both sides from the man and the women as well as other views. Its great to see how both sides are feeling inside and a very exciting book that keeps you interested. It is a love story and a good one at that.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Absolutely enjoyable!

What can I say about "The Heir" that hasn't been already said?? While it follows along the same line as most historical romances, it had wonderful differences too. The hero was a rogue bachelor. Big surprise there! Not too many historicals don't have handsome, antisocial men (because we just eat them up). Gayle Windham had wonderful qualities. He loves his family - an amazing caregiver for them, strong willed, loyal, funny, oh I could go on and on.His goal in life - take care of his family, eventually become Duke and never ever marry.until he meets his headstrong lovely housekeeper. The heroine, Anna Seaton, is a woman with a hidden past. She is Lord Windham's housekeeper. She does an amazing job, keeps a tight ship, and is refined and thorough with her care for the Earl. She has secrets.and nothing is going to keep her from keeping them. Not even a gorgeous infuriating Earl. "The Heir" is an easy read. You fall in love with Gayle and Anna, but you also fall for all the supporting characters. The Grace does a great job weaving them into the story. I finished the book wanting to know what was going to happen next with every one of them. I highly recommend "The Heir". I couldn't put it down. I laughed at the shenanigans of the Duke and the Earl's brothers and wanted to shake both Gayle and Anna at times. While the ending did drag out for me (I wanted them to get it together, like NOW), I still enjoyed the storyline. I am looking very forward to the next story of the Windham brothers.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS BOOK

I have never really gotten into romance books until I read this book, now I'm addicted. This book was a great read and you'll find yourself neglecting all other things just to finish the book or get to the next page. The characters are loveable and relateable. I find that in other books sometime the heroine is too dull or (dare I say it) understanding and patient. I like my heroines to have character and stand up for love not let it pass them by. The hero in this book is also equally loveable. He's charming and delightful, he jumps out from the pages and is relateable to the men (boys) of our high school years. I reccommend this book because it's simply a wonderful read and of course dreadfully romantic.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

dont purchase

I decided to buy this book and was looking forward to readind it, but I too have had difficulty downloading it. The book is blank, so if you want to read this book I would suggest buying a soft copy, or get it for another store.

2 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

AN ENCHANTING HISTORICAL ROMANCE DEBUT! THE HERI BY GRACE BURROWES

THE HEIR by Grace Burrowes is a historical romance set in nineteenth century England. It is well written, a debut for the author,has depth,details,turns,twists,a page turner and a keeper. It is the first in the series. It has romance, adventure,mystery,love, passion, sensuality, secrets, betrayal,family, wit, intrigue and mysterious housekeeper meets earl. The characters are enchanting and entertaining. The secondary characters are just as enchanting. They are believable with troubled pasts. The hero, Gayle, is an earl, handsome, trying to survive his father's attempts at matrimony,stubborn, complex and has a mysterious, beautiful housekeeper. The heroine, Annie, is beautiful, mysterious, stubborn, high bred, has secrets, determined to keep her deaf, mute sister safe, fleeing from her past, and the attractive earl's housekeeper. Sparks fly between the earl and the housekeeper, while, Annie tries to keep her secrets safe and her past at bay.The earl is determined to protect her, while he learns little by little of her past. He also begins to believe she is hiding secrets. This is a truly astonishing story of love, betrayal, truths, dealing with the past horrors and coming to terms with the future. I would highly recommend this book especially if you enjoy debut authors, love, romance,troubled women, fascinating brothers, humor, fast paced, passion and good coming from past evils. This book was received from Sourcebooks and details can be found at Sourcebooks Casablanca, an imprint of Sourcebooks and My Book Addiction and More.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

The Heir is a great page-turning take on forbidden love

In Regency England, would an earl really marry his housekeeper? That is the question posed by Grace Burrowes in her debut historical romance, The Heir. It is certainly a Cinderella-like tale when Gayle Windham, Earl of Westhaven, refuses to marry anyone save his servant, Anna Seaton. Why the rush to the altar? Westhaven's father, the Duke of Moreland, desperately desires an heir regardless of the mother's pedigree. He is so blatant about his need for a grandchild that he even gets Westhaven's mistress pregnant by another man in order to pass the child off as his son's.

Westhaven was not meant to be the focus of his father's fanaticism. It was not until the death of his elder brother that the spare became the heir. He loathes his new position in the family hierarchy and will do anything to escape the yoke of matrimony. He's a free-swinging bachelor who means to keep it that way.

Enter Anna Seaton and her secrets. Is she really a war widow? Is the deaf chambermaid, Morgan, her relation? Is she in some kind of trouble? Westhaven is enraptured with the mystery that surrounds her, and he leads her, however reluctantly, down the path of seduction. As the two become more and more intimate, Westhaven's innate caution starts to unravel. In giving himself body and soul to Anna, he might just bestow upon her his father's greatest wish.

As a first time author, Burrowes does a great job in connecting the reader with her characters. Her portrayal of Westhaven and his brothers Val and Dev is spot on. The fraternal teasing as Westhaven falls for Anna is poignant. His brothers inwardly rejoice at his finding happiness. A book is only as good as the depth of its secondary characters and Burrowes fully rounds them out. Whether it's the touching friendship that develops between the piano virtuoso Val and the timid Morgan or the way Dev as an illegitimate son of the Duke is restrained by his secondary status.

A variety of detail is the only weak point. By the conclusion, the reader will never forget that Westhaven enjoys an ample amount of sugar in his lemonade and that Anna is forever arranging flowers throughout his London abode be it in the empty fireplaces or on a dining serving tray. At times, the romantic interludes read like a how-to lesson from the Kama Sutra. Depending on the reader, sometimes less is more in these instances.

Overall, The Heir is a great page-turning take on forbidden love.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Sparkling Start Dawdles to a Slow, Predictable Finish Good poin

Sparkling Start Dawdles to a Slow, Predictable Finish

Good points: Good writing. This author shows potential.
Bad points: Slow-moving, poor plot development, weak characterization
Highlights: Erotic romance
Lowlights: Too many erotic scenes. Is there a precursor to this book? There’s a lot of irrelevant back story on secondary characters

We meet our hero, Gayle, Earl of Westhaven, when his housekeeper, Anna Seaton, bashes him on the head with a fireplace poker. She mistakenly believes he is making unwanted advances toward one of her housemaids. She patches him up, and unless you’ve never read a romance novel before, you know that they quickly feel an irresistible attraction for each other. Gayle is a serious-minded heir to a dukedom, devoted to duty, family and the obligations of his rank. I need hardly tell you that Anna is young, beautiful, and shows unmistakable signs of gentility despite her humble position. But she is trapped in a dangerous situation that leaves her powerless, and she has a secret that precludes her from marrying Gayle or revealing her desperate circumstances. And that’s where things go wrong.

In the best romance novels the plot advances in every scene. But Anna’s refusal to explain her secret bring the action to a crashing halt. The only development in the book for many, many pages is the lovers moving from heavy petting to back-seat high school antics. Gayle and Anna are believable lovers, but we are stuck in the bedroom with them way too many times and for far too long. If you’re 14 and this is your first romance novel, this may be useful—The Heir is a virtual erotic primer for the uninitiated. But Gayle’s initial characterization as the serious man of honor is exploded by this subsequent sexual behavior (where did those principles go?). And Anna’s survival instinct and mettle are undermined by her tedious stubbornness and inability to trust. Her Great Secret, when it is finally revealed, is reasonably interesting, but the action still plods along to a slow, anti-climactic finish. When the villains are at long last revealed, one is the blandest bad guy on record; the other is truly evil, but mostly described as fat. This seems to be as abhorrent to the author as his unspeakable deeds although Anna finally gives him a pass on being porky. It reads as if an editor asked for a little balance, and a touch of it was reluctantly provided.

If you like a historical romance with interesting period details; fully realized characters; a sense of the time and cultural mores; and a feel for the location, this book is not for you. If you are looking for one sex scene after another, a simple-minded plot that hangs fire for at least two-thirds of the book, and characters who refuse to accept or speak what is obvious to the reader from page 10—go for it!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great read!

I liked this book because it seems a bit more realistic than most romance novels in the fact that the protagonists fool around with one another before consumating their relationship. Seems more realistic than just immediately falling into bed with someone. I did find the multiple names given to the male protagonist a bit confusing, but I think that is just how it was in that time period. Great read!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

I WANT MY MONEY BACK!!!!!!

BE WARNED: This book is absolutely terrible. The plot was lame, the main characters were unconvincing and annoying. Im trying hard to figure out how this author got this book published. Save your money....I wish I did.

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Loved it!

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Highly Recommended

I couldn't put it down! Waiting for the newest book by Burrowes to be released!

Read it

This book is fab and so are the sldier and the virtuoso. Wonderful characters steamy and funny. Loved

Awesome

Couldn't put down.

Sweet, funny, and hard to put down, despite the lemonade references

Highly recommend!