Tycoon (The Knickerbocker Club, #0.5) by Joanna Shupe
Series: The Knickerbocker Club #0.5
Published by Zebra on February 23rd 2016
Genres: Historical
Pages: 102
Goodreads

“Ted Harper never saw it coming. One minute, he was alone on the platform, and the next he’d acquired a wife.”

FINAL DECISION:  Enjoyable historical set in a period not often written about (America’s Guilded Age), this story kept my interest from the first word to the last.  These are places, people and times I haven’t read about before.

THE STORY:  Ted Harper is a self made man who has risen to own a major bank in New York City.  While on a train platform, he is approached and kissed by a woman who declares herself his wife.  Intrigued, Ted allows the woman to join him on the train. Clara Dobson is a shop girl who is on the run from men who are after during. Danger and mistrust hangs over these two who get to know one another on a train to Missouri.

OPINION:  This novella was an easy and incredibly interesting read. Taking place in a time and place not often depicted in romance novels.  The historical detail is interesting and informative without overwhelming the romance in the story.  Indeed, the characters themselves are truly products of their times, living their lives in the Guilded Age with concerns and problems different from the normal aristocrats.

Ted is a man who worked himself up from a farm to becoming a wealthy bank owner in New York.  He is a good, decent man who knows nothing but work because that is how he managed to change his life. His wealth makes him a target of swindler and cheat and thus trust comes hard to Ted.

Clara is a challenge to Ted’s worldview.  He is immediately suspicious of her and because she refuses to tell him what is threatening her, he doubts again and again her sincerity and yet he is attracted to her joy and fresh attitude toward life.  Clara is a shop girl (she works at the perfume counter at a department store).  A girl from a small town herself, she loves the big town of New York, but her life is now threatened so she is on the run.  Two days — and nights — spent in a private train car with Ted shows her his decency.

Yes, these two travel far in two days (emotionally) but it is a novella.  I thought the story was very well done especially in such a short format.

I loved how these two manage their difficulties and the plot is enough to keep the characters’ story moving.  I definitely will continue to read the other books in the series.

WORTH MENTIONING: This novella is a breath of fresh air in a genre often too saturated with Regency misses.

CONNECTED BOOKS:  TYCOON is prequel novella to the Knickerbocker Club series.

STAR RATING:  I give this book 4 stars.