The Heir by Grace Burrowes
Historical Romance Dec. 7th, 2010
4 ½ stars

The Heir is an amazingly touching and genuine regency romance with very human main characters. I enjoyed this authors debut book and look forward to more stories in the series.

Gayle Windham is the poor, beleaguered Earl of Westhave. He is unfortunately, the heir to his father, the devious Duke of Moreland. His father is a crazy wastrel and ran through the familys income putting them near financial ruin. And now the Duke has More...

2.5 stars

Let me say up front that I think this series has potential, and I'm planning to give the next book (The Soldier (Duke's Obsession, #2 )) a shot. The dialogue was witty, and the story had some definitely decent moments. However, there were several things about The Heir that got on my nerves.

First, the idiot heroine.
No, she wasn't truly stupid. Which is what made her refusal to trust the duke to help her seem really ididotic.
I mean, he's already asked you to marry him how many times, and More...

Very poor pacing and manufactured issues (why don't people just talk to each other?) mar this story about a disaffected earl and his mysterious housekeeper.

If I'd been reading a dead tree book I'd probably have been banging it against the wall by the end as the hero and heroine asked themselves "whatever in the world could he/she mean by that?" well into the 90% range. After an entire book (longer than necessary, IMO) of this kind of willful miscommunication, it gets a little tedious.

Oh, and an More...

Gayle Windham, Earl of Westhaven, first gets to know his housekeeper Anna Seaton after she bashes his skull with a fireplace poker, thinking he’s assaulting a chambermaid. It sets the tone for their relationship: not the bashing, but the tender care she gives him afterward. As Anna nurtures Westhaven, tending him through his injury, an attack of chicken pox, and the complexities of his reponsibility-filled life, attraction and affection grows between them. But Anna is hiding secrets, and refuses More...

There were a few things I liked about this book, but most of the time I found myself just wanting the book to be over with.

Let me start with the things I liked about it. The main characters – the earl and his housekeeper Anna – while a nice hero and heroine, were a bit infuriating at times. However, I adored the earl's brothers – Valentine and Dev. They were both quite charming. The dialogue, overall, was quite witty and humorous. The exchanges between the three brothers are among my favorite pa More...

Very promising new author. Burrowes excels in her characters, her writing flows smoothly and the story is engaging, if a little mundane. The biggest problem is the TSTL heroine. HUGE pet peeve! This is where the "first time novel" syndrome screams through - and all the little inconsistencies add up to frustration. Each of the heroines choices just don't ring true to life, given the way the author painted her character - especially the totally incomprehensible reason she refused to trust Westhave More...

Well when I saw this on the kindle for 89 cents I couldn't resist getting it. I don't read a lot of historical any more but this one was very good. I liked the progression of the relationship. While both Anna and Gayle (yuck hate this name and liked that the last name was used alot instead) were employer and employee it made sense how the relationship started out with little to no attraction to becoming friends (at least I would call it that)then the sexual. I loved how the author really showed More...

After reading all the books in the Windham series (except the one that has yet to be published), I have to say that I liked them, despite some truly annoying flaws. So, I decided to write a series review rather than individual ones. Here’s a little roadmap first. The Windham series is divided between three subseries. The Duke’s Obsession is about his three sons, and his obsession is to see them married and populating their nurseries. The Duke’s Daughters is about his five daughters, and he does More...

Housekeeper memang tidak boleh cantik dan pintar rupanya ya.
Itulah yang di alami Anna Straton yang cantik dan pintar saat bekerja di rumah Gayle Windham, Earl of Windhaven.
Awal nya sih saat Anna manjat2 buat nyiram bunga, dan kancing nya tersangkut, dilihat Gayle, di tolong Gayle, lalu mereka berdua terjatuh, dengan Anna menimpa Gayle yg saat itu langsung pingsan karena jatuh terbentur kepala nya.
Anna yang merasa bersalah majikannnya sampai pingsan dan memang keibuan ..ehm..merawat Gayle denga More...

Baştan sona kadar beğenerek okudum..Diyalogları harikaydı doğrusu..Yanlızca kitabın isminin kitap ile hiç mi hiç alakası yok.. Kitap çok sıradışı bir şekilde başlıyor..
Westhaven Kontu Gayle Windham'ı evinde çalışan dilsiz hizmetçi Morgana sarkıtılık yaptığını zannedip onu ağır yaralayan Sara Seaton yani kontumuzun kahyası..Romanımızın baş karakterleri:)) Anna Seton ise aslında bir asilzadedir ama bir takım olaylar yüzünden evinden kaçmış ve kimliğini gizlemiştir...
Westhaven ise Dük olan babasını More...

This book did not start picking up until CHAPTER 12...like seriously. First off, Anna was so freaking wishy washy it was absurd. I'm starting to get sick of reading these kind of stories."oh I love you, please don't touch me, I want to be near you, this will be our last night together, yada yada yada"

Second, you mean to tell me that Westhaven is asking you for the truth after he confessed that an investigator is going to give him a report tomorrow, and you say to him you can only tell him 1/2 th More...

I got this book signed by the author at the RT convention in Chicago, and if not for the personal touch I would not have finished this long novel. The writing was fair, though I felt like the way they talked varied between acurate time period and way too modern. This hold true for the characters interactions. I just could not believe that an heir to a great duke would allow any servant to treat him the way she does. Seriously, she would have been out the door after their first encounter when she More...

I'd been seeing this cover all over the place —on reader blogs and Twitter feeds —so when it went on sale for under a dollar as a Kindle download, I grabbed it. I'm glad I did; I found a story I liked, and it's a debut book, so the author will probably only get better with time.

I felt that the characters had a lot of depth to them. They're slightly different from the usual sort of characters you see in this genre of historical romance, so they stand out a little. The heroine was raised a lady bu More...

This was a difficult book. In many ways, it was trying to be too many things. There were multiple romance tropes mixed togter, and the descriptive detailed kept veering between historical fiction and romance, and it didn't quite live up to either expectation.

The good - lots of hero POV, good backstory on him, awesome family dynamics, an interesting suspense angle involving contracts.

The bad - a heroine we never connect to because we don't know her story until very late, repetitive details (lemo More...

Review by Desere: Absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous ,stunning incredibly passionate and totally scandalous ! These are just a few words coming to mind when you enter the world of Grace Burrowes, in her debut book The Heir.

You get to know Gayle and Anna. Two very different people, one legitimate heir to the Duke of Moreland and the other a extremely beautiful woman and well educated working as a housekeeper?

Now that may seem ordinary but Anna is no ordinary woman even in today's times I am sure More...

Young & efficient housekeeper tends to earl's injury after she smacked him on the head with an andiron b/c she thought he was accosting his mute chambermaid. They learn about each other during the time she's nursing him back to health & gradually become attracted to each other. Hero wants to take their r/s to the next level but heroine informs him that they can't due to reasons she can't share. Hero & his brothers believe that heroine likely comes from a titled background due to her More...

I reviewed this novel on my blog at www.bookworm2bookworm.wordpress.com

I’m not going to go into the plot, as the blurb already accomplished that task for me. What I want to do is announce: Here comes Grace Burrowes!

Lately I’ve read a number of début authors that I have wondered where the hell have they been hiding. Their talent is astounding!

But I digress, so let me start at the beginning. After reading all the high praise (and a handful of low), I’ve broken down and bought this “highly” recomm More...

The heir to a dukedom courting his housekeeper? Seriously? I don't care if she does know how to read and write Latin, it just isn't done. Now, I'll accept a lot of implausibility in the name of romantic fantasy, but to have his peers encouraging the match?!? Um....

But that wasn't the worst problem with the book. It's just the most obvious. The worst problem with the book was that Anna had a secret past, and because of that secret past, she couldn't marry her man. It wasn't because she was a hous More...

This is one of those books I just couldn’t get to when it released back in December. Ever have that happen, and then suddenly months have gone by and you think, “What in the hell am I waiting for?” Exactly! At least I got a little incentive when I received Grace Burrowes’ next book, The Soldier, to read and review. So that pushed me to finally pick up The Heir and get started. I’ve never been so glad to have been pushed to do something.

I enjoy the way Ms. Burrowes slowly but surely reveals Anna More...

Due to the number of raving reviews on this site, and others, I was so looking forward to reading this but by page 100 I was forcing myself to keep turning the pages. I swore, if I have to read one more time about "lemonade" every three pages, or what days is the male servant's half-day off, or any of the numerous things that are constantly repeated throughout the book over and over and over again, I was going to throw my ereader out the window. I didn't want to read about my hero using a chambe More...

What can I say about “The Heir” that hasn’t been already said?? While it follows along the same line as most historical romances, it had wonderful differences too.

The hero was a rogue bachelor. Big surprise there! Not too many historicals don’t have handsome, antisocial men (because we just eat them up). Gayle Windham had wonderful qualities. He loves his family - an amazing caregiver for them, strong willed, loyal, funny, oh I could go on and on…His goal in life – take care of his family, event More...

Unexpectedly good! This is a story about how a women can smooth out bumpy roads for those she loves. Many twists and turns.

Recommend: Historical Romance with plenty of mystery.

Things I enjoyed:
*I loved that Anna was not a wilting flower and took her and her sisters future in hand. It is always great to read about siblings supporting/loving each other.
*Morgan was an unexpected delight. She was deaf through most of the book, however with Valentine's help she regained her hearing. It was a touching More...

Who the heck is rating these books? This is getting 4 stars and I'm darned if I know why. The story had possibilities and then it went off the rails. What makes me really grumpy, hence almost certain to give a bad rating, is serious historical inaccuracy - it means the author didn't care enough to do basic research. And there is no way, in Regency England, an Earl blithely thinks he should marry his housekeeper, and his brothers not only agree with him but suggest he do just that, and that his f More...

I took a chance and purchased this book because of the positive reviews and because of the reasonable Kindle price. I'm glad I did, because I found it an engaging read. It has a great storyline, with a bit of suspense. I appreciated that the hero Gayle (Westhaven) and heroine, Anna were both likable and believable characters. Too often I find myself liking one or the other main characters in books, but not in this case. I could honestly understand the motivations, fears and feelings experienced More...

THE HEIR by Grace Burrowes is a historical romance set in nineteenth century England. It is well written, a debut for the author,has depth,details,turns,twists,a page turner and a keeper. It is the first in the series. It has romance, adventure,mystery,love, passion, sensuality, secrets, betrayal,family, wit, intrigue and mysterious housekeeper meets earl. The characters are enchanting and entertaining. The secondary characters are just as enchanting. They are believable with troubled pasts. The More...

Wow, it's kind of rare these days I read 2 really good romances in a row. The hero is the heir to a dukedom (thus the title) and his name is Gayle! That's worse than a man named Tracy, tantamount to a boy named Sue, and makes me think of a schoolgirl from the 1970s. But anyway, this poor man has taken on the responsibilities of the dukedom from his semi-irresponsible father, and is under increasing pressure from his father to marry. Pressure, as in his father instigates a stupid-ass scheme with More...

Inching towards 5 stars for this book. This was a thoroughly enjoyable book and one of the most complete historical novels I've read in a long time. This book had been on a perpetual TBR list and I was finally able to have The Heir and The Soldier (haven’t read yet) together so that I would be able to read in sequence. For fans of regency romance this is wonderful example of witty language and just enough sexiness to keep you turning pages.
Gayle Windham, Earl of Westhaven is being plagued by h More...

4-1/2 stars

Totally enjoyed it. It had a feel to it that I would label 'earthy'. The people used chamber pots and used curse words beyond just saying 'the devil you say!' occasionally. We know that f*** and s*** are old words. They would have used them.

The actions were mostly believable and realistic. This was one time where I felt that the actions of the hero and heroine were portrayed realistically as to the seduction and the heroine giving up her virginity out of the bounds of marriage to him More...