The Husband Hunters by Anne de Courcy

 Hello my lovely readers!

You ever get excited for a book because of the topic and then are severely let down because of the writing? 

Yeah, that was me with this book. Let's get into it.

SYNOPSIS

Towards the end of the nineteenth century and for the first few years of the twentieth, a strange invasion took place in Britain. The citadel of power, privilege and breeding in which the titled, land-owning governing class had barricaded itself for so long was breached. The incomers were a group of young women who, fifty years earlier, would have been looked on as the alien denizens of another world - the New World, to be precise. From 1874 - the year that Jennie Jerome, the first known 'Dollar Princess', married Randolph Churchill - to 1905, dozens of young American heiresses married into the British peerage, bringing with them all the fabulous wealth, glamour and sophistication of the Gilded Age.

MY THOUGHTS
The writing left a lot to be desired, in my opinion. This book was right up my alley, but de Courcy somehow made everything fall flat. She didn't bring anyone to life in this book. I've read a lot of history books that, even if they're about a pretty lame topic, the writing brings it to life and makes me want to keep reading.

An example: Consuelo Vanderbilt was pretty much on house arrest because her mother, Alva, wanted her to marry the Duke of Marlborough even though she was in love with someone else. Alva made sure Consuelo married the Duke by any means necessary. How could something that extreme only serve as a one-liner in this book? "This was an extreme case of husband hunting" (I'm paraphrasing, but that's the gist of it.)

De Courcy focused more on the courting methods of husbands and what was going on around that time, versus the actual women and what happens after the "happily ever after." What a shame.