The story revolves around a wealthy American family attempting to make a place in the traditional hierarchy of the English culture.

Crenshaw’s come to England to visit friends and explore business opportunities, but find themselves in a situation where the Duke of Rothschild proposes to marry their daughter. August and Violet are the 2 Crenshaw sisters. This story revolves around August.

August Crenshaw’s character is portrayed as a forward thinking women, with a mind of her own. She is smart, involves herself in the family business and displays a keen sense of the finances. Her opinion is valued both by her father and brother. She is of the opinion to marry for love (as most women her age) and wants to make her place in the world of men before she can settle down with family. She despises the fact the her friend Camille Bridwell had to marry an older gentleman just to join the ranks of English society thereby making way for her family business to expand. August thought that their fate would not follow such an example until her belief was crushed by her parents.

She originally attempts to save her sister Violet who is portrayed to be an embodiment of beauty and serenity with the essential qualities of a duchess but gets trapped instead. But to her advantage, the Duke in question is neither aged nor with poor character. Though she likes the thought of the union, she fears losing her blue color position which has been her sole focus until now. Due to circumstances, she makes a deal with Evan with whom she has shared multiple kisses, and it ends up to her advantage.

Evan Rothschild unlike most English gentlemen, with 2 sisters, looks at women with a different perspective. He wants to marry for love too but decides to settle due to the dire situation of his dukedom. He is portrayed as being close to family, and a loving person. He is willing to go to any extent to support his family. But in the end, his union with August becomes less of a critical financial need but more of a preferred love match.

Book is dual perspective, where we understand the story both from August and Evan’s perspective, but my thoughts are more focused on August because of the limited amount of privileges women had. The era portrayed considered women as a commodity with no rights, more like an accessory.

Though not all men think that way, legally women had limited to no holding then. Such situations are not limited to the English society and in some cases, this situation is still prevalent in varied cultures.

I hope to see a day when gender/ race/ culture/ color, etc., don’t hold prejudice in our minds and we more or less see people for what they are than the external appearances.

My rating is still 5/5.