The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin

3.3 AVERAGE

jdotymccorkell18's review against another edition

4.0
So good!!! Love this time period, loved the writing. You get a little bit from each character and it's amazing. Great story writing that really draws you in and has you rooting for the characters. So a beautifully written book that highlights the difference between the turn of the century America and England.

xenu01's review against another edition

2.0
The writing is not terrible, but as other reviewers pointed out, nothing much happens. This book wants to be a period novel full of shocking revelations, but as the revelations can be seen a mile away and really aren't that shocking after all, it ends up being rather lackluster. I did finish this book because I hate giving up when I've already gone more than halfway, but about the halfway point was when I began wanting it to end soon. I honestly think that Daisy Goodwin has promise, but she needs to decide what kind of books she intends to write.

amandidahlah's review against another edition

2.0
I wanted to read something shamelessly indulgent after getting through a much more hard-hitting war book, so I picked up "The American Heiress." Now I realize that I probably overestimated just how much "indulgence" I was capable of handling.

Daisy Goodwin is a fair enough writer, but her characters are rather frustrating. That, for me, is the hardest part of this book to accept: I just cannot relate to these hoity toity characters.

I think Cora was supposed to come off as the society darling trying to break from her shell, but all I could think about was how terribly snobby she was (we won't even talk about her mother, who just really grinds my gears).

Trot in Ivo. It's as if Goodwin tried to blend Mr. Rochester with Erik from "The Phantom of the Opera." Ivo is moody, mysterious, self-righteous and far too hot-headed for my taste. (Spoiler point: Why not just tell Cora the truth about his relations with Charlotte from the start?)

I could go on about other characters, but it will all boil down to one point: high society just isn't my cup of tea. Everybody's secretive, overly polite nature all for the likes of popularity just baffles me.

The story line is heavily embedded in Cora's desire to rise up as the cream of the crop, and since she apparently does just that upon marrying Ivo, the remainder of the book leaves little to be desired.

ar2chn30713's review against another edition

3.0
I liked this book because it definitely owes a lot to the literary traditions of Henry James and Edith Wharton. However, many of the protagonists are hard to feel sympathy for and the ending seemed a bit contrite.
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alytaylor's review against another edition

4.0
I was intrigued to read this book as it was set in Rhode Island not far from where I live. I liked the main character right away, even though she was a rich girl, she wasn't as bratty as I thought she would be. I really enjoyed this book and couldn't put it down! The only thing I think the author could have done better was come up with a better last name for Cora's family. Come on, super rich family named Cash?? In a world of Astors and Van Der Leyden's I think something far more original could have been thought of!
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editbarb's review against another edition

3.0
A fairly quick, enjoyable read. I liked getting the perspective of multiple characters in the book, but the plot itself wasn't terribly interesting. I was more interested in the details of life in that period and setting than intrigued to find out what would happen next--mostly because the plot was fairly obvious.
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amiwiththe_i's review against another edition

2.0
I wanted so much more for this book. I think parts could have been developed more that would have really got me hooked on the story line and the characters. Overall I as disappointed by it. There is speculation, but not in a gripping kind of way, about scandalous acts. I don't think I'd recommend it to my friends.

mapsco1984's review

2.0
There are 3 things that happened in this book that made it an impossibility to take it remotely seriously, even if the rest of the book had been the pinnacle of sophisticated literature (it wasn't.)



Yes, within 15 pages, we have girls kissing, less than halfway through the book, an artist references what will become known in the 21st century as the progenitor of all uncomfortable anime-based bestiality fantasies (God, the things I learned as an art history minor), and...ok, well Constable Odo from Deep Space 9 isn't actually in this book, but there IS a character named "Odo" and this was all I could imagine.

Beyond all that, this book just wasn't what it was supposed to be. I got the sense that it was trying to be some sort of mix of Dangerous Liaisons and Upstairs Downstairs, but it got caught in this middle ground between romance and historical fiction, which makes it not romancy enough enough for the romancers and waaaaaaaaaay too fluffy and shallow for anyone interested in actual historical fiction. And never mind the fact that nothing, not one single thing, happens during the course of this entire book. NOTHING.

Oh, and I know this is snobby of me to say, but nothing makes me more annoyed than when I read little pieces of meaningless fluff like this and then there's "discussion questions" in the back of the book, like it's freaking Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five or something. There is nothing in this book that requires thought or interpretation. Stop pretending like there is. ARRGH.

kbooksonbooks's review against another edition

5.0
I absolutely loved this book! The era descriptions were spot on and the story of Cora Cash was really the story of every Gilded Age American Heiress. I was so pulled into the life of Cora and the hardship of duty to family versus duty to herself. The challenge of assuring your footing in a new culture and being judged for every step. I only recently became decently versed in Gilded Age history and I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a great fiction work on that time.

dinamurray73's review against another edition

3.0
Why can't we choose half stars???? I'd give this book a 3.5 -- nothing deep, but I did eat it up and it wasn't too horribly predictable -- didn't know all the details until the end. I would read more about these characters if I could.