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A review by tessanne
The Heiress Hunt by Joanna Shupe
2.0
Oh no. Just... no. This book seemed to be ticking the right boxes with the childhood-best-friends-to-lovers bit, a strong heroine doing something unusual for the time, and a man who knows what he wants.
We get like two glimpses of their early friendship which aren’t super convincing of their closeness. We learn why Harrison runs off to Paris and that makes sense. We see that Maddie practices tennis every day but that’s about as much dedication to her sport as we really see. We don’t see either of them fall in love—H was in love with M for years so that’s just a given. (And I fully expected to see him be a somewhat mature person in pursuing M, but instead he was a dick. And the duke, who started off all duke like , turns into a dick as well. That was SUPER annoying.) And honestly, I was never convinced that M actually loved H, so still no falling in love.
I don’t think either main character was developed much, we were just expected to believe what we were told, and that was that.
Similarly, the family drama that only took place for a small part toward the end could have been brought in much sooner and made more sense and worked better. Same with the main conflict between H and M, which instead of feeling like a real problem, feels nitpicky and whiny. I mean, one of M’s things is “doesn’t like surprises”. Okay, but really that’s just part of life and maybe grow a bit and learn some coping strategies? Also, doesn’t like lies. I mean, agreed, but not spilling everything that has occurred over the past three years in the first few days of seeing someone again is just... well, it’s not lying. So that whole premise was poorly done. And how that grew into the bigger issue of H not listening to M, I guess I missed that whole thing because that was a shock to me when it came up with the Big Conflict at the climax. It was like, “I’m mad and so I’m finding something else to throw in the mix.” For a strong heroine, M’s entire personality was a letdown.
I actually found myself rooting for H in the end and thought M should really have done better. (Ironic, because at one point *she* tells *H* to “do better”.)
Side characters: yes, please! Based on my past love of Shupe’s novels, I’m hoping we get back to well crafted characters and stories. I loved her friends and his as well and am looking forward to the next installment(s). They were all supportive and seemed emotionally intelligent. Bring it, Shupe!
We get like two glimpses of their early friendship which aren’t super convincing of their closeness. We learn why Harrison runs off to Paris and that makes sense. We see that Maddie practices tennis every day but that’s about as much dedication to her sport as we really see. We don’t see either of them fall in love—H was in love with M for years so that’s just a given. (And I fully expected to see him be a somewhat mature person in pursuing M, but instead he was a dick. And the duke, who started off all duke like , turns into a dick as well. That was SUPER annoying.) And honestly, I was never convinced that M actually loved H, so still no falling in love.
I don’t think either main character was developed much, we were just expected to believe what we were told, and that was that.
Similarly, the family drama that only took place for a small part toward the end could have been brought in much sooner and made more sense and worked better. Same with the main conflict between H and M, which instead of feeling like a real problem, feels nitpicky and whiny. I mean, one of M’s things is “doesn’t like surprises”. Okay, but really that’s just part of life and maybe grow a bit and learn some coping strategies? Also, doesn’t like lies. I mean, agreed, but not spilling everything that has occurred over the past three years in the first few days of seeing someone again is just... well, it’s not lying. So that whole premise was poorly done. And how that grew into the bigger issue of H not listening to M, I guess I missed that whole thing because that was a shock to me when it came up with the Big Conflict at the climax. It was like, “I’m mad and so I’m finding something else to throw in the mix.” For a strong heroine, M’s entire personality was a letdown.
I actually found myself rooting for H in the end and thought M should really have done better. (Ironic, because at one point *she* tells *H* to “do better”.)
Side characters: yes, please! Based on my past love of Shupe’s novels, I’m hoping we get back to well crafted characters and stories. I loved her friends and his as well and am looking forward to the next installment(s). They were all supportive and seemed emotionally intelligent. Bring it, Shupe!