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The Fortune Hunter
USA Today bestselling author Meagan McKinney transports us to the opulent townhouses of 1881 New York, and into the life of a young spiritualist who enters a world of desire, obsession, and revenge.
Lavinia Murphy fled a brutal St. Louis orphanage with four younger "siblings" and learned a spiritualist's ways from the carnies and gypsies she met on the road to New York City. Transformed as the mysterious Countess Lovaenya, she has built a safe haven for herself and her troubled family when she is suddenly confronted by a phantom more fearsome than any she's ever conjured in her shadowy parlor.
Edward Stuyvesant-French—the illegitimate son of Lavinia's wealthiest, and most frequent client—has vowed to destroy her. To protect her family, Lavinia will enter into an uneasy bargain with the powerful and bitter Edward that forces her to understand that beyond the darkness of a troubled soul may lie a heart aching for comfort, acceptance, and healing love.
Lavinia Murphy fled a brutal St. Louis orphanage with four younger "siblings" and learned a spiritualist's ways from the carnies and gypsies she met on the road to New York City. Transformed as the mysterious Countess Lovaenya, she has built a safe haven for herself and her troubled family when she is suddenly confronted by a phantom more fearsome than any she's ever conjured in her shadowy parlor.
Edward Stuyvesant-French—the illegitimate son of Lavinia's wealthiest, and most frequent client—has vowed to destroy her. To protect her family, Lavinia will enter into an uneasy bargain with the powerful and bitter Edward that forces her to understand that beyond the darkness of a troubled soul may lie a heart aching for comfort, acceptance, and healing love.
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 1998
2 people are currently reading
178 people want to read
About the author
Meagan McKinney
72 books211 followersRuth Leslie Goodman Roberson (1961), well-known as Meagan McKinney gave up a thriving career as a biologist to become a full-time romance writer. She is author of over 20 critically acclaimed novels. Divorced, she lives with her two children in in New Orleans, Louisiana.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 20, 2016
Meagan McKinney of Lions and Lace fame, wrote this less famous story in 1998. It has trappings of the old-school romance with perpetually angry hero and what turned out to be not so strong heroine. More on this later.
Two things attracted me to the story: time period (the Gilded Age) and subject matter (Spiritualism). I love stories set during the Gilded Age- time full of conflicts, contradictions, and societal changes. I knew I could rely on the author to provide authentic description of the period with meticulously researched and effortlessly presented details. And I wasn’t disappointed in that. The book’s historical setting is not some collection of facts but integral part of the story.
Czarina Renski and Countess Lovaenya, aka the Murphy sisters, are Medium Extraordinaire of Fifth Ave during the time when nothing is more fashionable than attending a séance.
Countess Lovaenya is really Lavinia Murphy who fled a brutal St. Louis orphanage with four younger "siblings" and learned a spiritualist's ways from the carnies and gypsies she met on the road to New York. Lavinia’s history could be summed up as one long painful crawl from the gutter. Her dark childhood notwithstanding, Lavinia is warm, generous loving woman who will do anything to support her "siblings".
There is no shortage of rich and famous clients who flocked their apartment in order to communicate with the spirits of departed relatives and friends. Their most persistent and generous client was a wealthy New Yorker, Wilhelm Vanadder. Wilhelm used seances to communicate with his lover whose reputation he tarnished and who died giving birth to his illegitimate and never acknowledged son, Edward Stuyvesant-French. Having made his own fortune on the frontier, Edward vows to expose the sisters as frauds and to destroy them for polluting his mother's memory. When his father unexpectedly dies and leaves everything to the Countess Lovaenya, Edward has more reasons for revenge. He would destroy sisters and return the father’s fortune to its proper owner- his wheelchair-bound half-sister, Daisy, the only legitimate offspring of the despicable man.
It’s from-enemies-to-lovers story where I was waiting for romance to finally appear among the drama, angst and Edward’s verbal assaults like this:
Two things attracted me to the story: time period (the Gilded Age) and subject matter (Spiritualism). I love stories set during the Gilded Age- time full of conflicts, contradictions, and societal changes. I knew I could rely on the author to provide authentic description of the period with meticulously researched and effortlessly presented details. And I wasn’t disappointed in that. The book’s historical setting is not some collection of facts but integral part of the story.
Czarina Renski and Countess Lovaenya, aka the Murphy sisters, are Medium Extraordinaire of Fifth Ave during the time when nothing is more fashionable than attending a séance.
Countess Lovaenya is really Lavinia Murphy who fled a brutal St. Louis orphanage with four younger "siblings" and learned a spiritualist's ways from the carnies and gypsies she met on the road to New York. Lavinia’s history could be summed up as one long painful crawl from the gutter. Her dark childhood notwithstanding, Lavinia is warm, generous loving woman who will do anything to support her "siblings".
There is no shortage of rich and famous clients who flocked their apartment in order to communicate with the spirits of departed relatives and friends. Their most persistent and generous client was a wealthy New Yorker, Wilhelm Vanadder. Wilhelm used seances to communicate with his lover whose reputation he tarnished and who died giving birth to his illegitimate and never acknowledged son, Edward Stuyvesant-French. Having made his own fortune on the frontier, Edward vows to expose the sisters as frauds and to destroy them for polluting his mother's memory. When his father unexpectedly dies and leaves everything to the Countess Lovaenya, Edward has more reasons for revenge. He would destroy sisters and return the father’s fortune to its proper owner- his wheelchair-bound half-sister, Daisy, the only legitimate offspring of the despicable man.
It’s from-enemies-to-lovers story where I was waiting for romance to finally appear among the drama, angst and Edward’s verbal assaults like this:
"You’re a whore, Lavinia Murphy.”
”You soil my sister just by speaking her name. I forbid her to keep company with a couple of whores and their gaggle of illegitimate whelps.”
.and so on and so forth…I was contemplating marking the story dnf many times but, strangely, it drew me back and I continued plowing through waiting for Edward’s remorse and attrition. It was the only way, in addition to Lavinia standing strong, the romance could work. Well, my girl Lavinia, who gave me such a promising start disappointed me by getting into “he is a jerk but I’m so attracted to him I can’t help it” attitude. We get this kind of thinking when Edward finally kissed her:She wanted this. He worked on her like a drug and now all she wanted was more. The female animal inside her longed for him, and the need merged with her heart that cried out for substance after the long, endless drought of her life.
Meanwhile, Edward keeps his verbal assault with:"I understand you too well, Lavinia. I’ve had women like you all my life. Little conniving thieves, willing to sell themselves for their latest desire."
To say romance didn’t work for me would be an understatement. The author's emphasis on Edward’s hate throughout the story left love in shambles and the couple’s HEA a suspect. If there were a remorse on Edward's part, I somehow missed it. The love between the couple seemed to humiliate rather than ennoble them. And that's why, despite excellent historical setting and competent writing, I can't give the story more than 2 stars.
June 9, 2010
So, I liked this book. It wasn't what I expected, but it was still fun to read. Lavinia was a great heroine, while Edward was an utter ass! Some of the things he said to her and the names he called her were just shocking! And he didn't redeem himself in the end in my eyes. I'm not so certain he deserved her. I hate it when that happens. But Lavinia made up for it. She was charming!
May 25, 2021
I loved the emotional roller coaster this book put me through, but god, Edward needed to grovel. He needed to grovel a lot and he didn't and I'm still kind of mad about it.
May 7, 2025
Meagan McKinney is one of my FAVORITE authors, as anyone who has ever had WHEN ANGELS FALL or LIONS AND LACE foisted upon them by me knows. When I love an author as much as I love McKinney, I'm willing to forgive them a lot, and will continue to buy their books like a sucker even when-- ahem-- they are lackluster. Sadly, WAF and LAL are McKinney's two best efforts that I've read to date, and while she has some other books that are good, none of them consume my thoughts and my soul the way those two titles do. I still think about Ivan and his "let's destroy each other" line. OH MY GOD. *fans self*
THE FORTUNE HUNTER is actually a really good read for Halloween because it's about mediums and spirtualism. The heroine and her "sister" are famous mediums who have gotten rich bilking the wealthy from their readings and now live in a manor home filled with constructions that help add to the illusion. But their latest customer (i.e. rube) is a copper magnate named Vanadder and his bastard son, Edward French-Stuyvesant, doesn't take too kindly to these monies going into their coffers when they should go to his half-sister, Daisy, the true heir.
Edward decides to make it his mission to destroy the Murphy sisters and prove them frauds. He's really quite cruel to the heroine in the beginning, at one point threatening to rape Lavinia and turn her into an unwed mother like his dead mother. YIKES. Holy mommy issues, Batman. And you know I love me a good cruel hero, but Lavinia, spineless con artist that she is, not only convinces herself that she's doing these rich people a favor and using the money to help her young charges (WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN), but she also just spends way too much time fretting over her attraction to Edward, even when he's treating her like something he scraped off his shoe. He never really atones, and they basically go from cat-and-mouse enemies to "I WILL FILL YOUR ROOM WITH POSIES."
THE FORTUNE HUNTER succeeds where lesser works have failed because it has a good story, one of the hottest sex scenes I've ever read in a hist-rom (THEY BANG IN A HAMMOCK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STORM AND HE ASKS HER-- AHEM-- "HOW SHE WOULD LIKE IT" BEFORE TELLING HER WHAT HE'D DO TO HER WHILE SHE BLOWS HIM #BYE), and not one, not two, but THREE secondary romances... which were actually all pretty decent and didn't take up too much page time. I also loved the gothic elements and the supernatural element (even if it was cheesy). It reminded me of McKinney's actual gothic romance GENTLY FROM THE NIGHT, which I loved, but also featured an inexplicably cruel hero who treated the hero like shit until-- boom-- it's love.
Also, the hero has a stupid Colonel Sanders beard and I wasn't into that, so minus half a star.
4 stars
THE FORTUNE HUNTER is actually a really good read for Halloween because it's about mediums and spirtualism. The heroine and her "sister" are famous mediums who have gotten rich bilking the wealthy from their readings and now live in a manor home filled with constructions that help add to the illusion. But their latest customer (i.e. rube) is a copper magnate named Vanadder and his bastard son, Edward French-Stuyvesant, doesn't take too kindly to these monies going into their coffers when they should go to his half-sister, Daisy, the true heir.
Edward decides to make it his mission to destroy the Murphy sisters and prove them frauds. He's really quite cruel to the heroine in the beginning, at one point threatening to rape Lavinia and turn her into an unwed mother like his dead mother. YIKES. Holy mommy issues, Batman. And you know I love me a good cruel hero, but Lavinia, spineless con artist that she is, not only convinces herself that she's doing these rich people a favor and using the money to help her young charges (WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN), but she also just spends way too much time fretting over her attraction to Edward, even when he's treating her like something he scraped off his shoe. He never really atones, and they basically go from cat-and-mouse enemies to "I WILL FILL YOUR ROOM WITH POSIES."
THE FORTUNE HUNTER succeeds where lesser works have failed because it has a good story, one of the hottest sex scenes I've ever read in a hist-rom (THEY BANG IN A HAMMOCK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STORM AND HE ASKS HER-- AHEM-- "HOW SHE WOULD LIKE IT" BEFORE TELLING HER WHAT HE'D DO TO HER WHILE SHE BLOWS HIM #BYE), and not one, not two, but THREE secondary romances... which were actually all pretty decent and didn't take up too much page time. I also loved the gothic elements and the supernatural element (even if it was cheesy). It reminded me of McKinney's actual gothic romance GENTLY FROM THE NIGHT, which I loved, but also featured an inexplicably cruel hero who treated the hero like shit until-- boom-- it's love.
Also, the hero has a stupid Colonel Sanders beard and I wasn't into that, so minus half a star.
4 stars
April 28, 2019
This is an unusual story about spiritualists (people who have seances so family members can reconnect with deceased loved ones). I gave the story three stars just for the originality of the plot. However, there were lots of things that troubled me about the story.
Lavinia was an attractive, intelligent heroine. However, Edward Stuyvesant-French was much too negative. In the opening, Edward wanted to ruin Lavinia so that he could prove that his peer-father was insane. He wanted all of the old man's money to go to his handicapped sister, instead of to Lavinia.
By the time the couple had made it to Bermuda on a cruise ship, one could feel that Edward's feelings were starting to change towards Lavinia. However, he still called her a 'whore.' As a reader, I expected the hero to change his words toward someone he was developing strong feelings towards. But, Edward did not. In my opinion, he is one of the most unlikeable heroes in romance fiction.
There were too many happy endings that did not seem realistic. I wondered why Lavinia would settle for someone who was so cruel towards her. Edward's sister, who was in a wheelchair, fell in love with the first man who took note of her. He was an admitted bounder. The Duke of Kylemore selected a woman to be his duchess who had had a child out of wedlock. Really?
I've really been impressed with the quality of the plots from this author. This is the second novel I've read by Meagan McKinney. However, the execution of this story left me feeling somewhat empty. 3.5 stars
Lavinia was an attractive, intelligent heroine. However, Edward Stuyvesant-French was much too negative. In the opening, Edward wanted to ruin Lavinia so that he could prove that his peer-father was insane. He wanted all of the old man's money to go to his handicapped sister, instead of to Lavinia.
By the time the couple had made it to Bermuda on a cruise ship, one could feel that Edward's feelings were starting to change towards Lavinia. However, he still called her a 'whore.' As a reader, I expected the hero to change his words toward someone he was developing strong feelings towards. But, Edward did not. In my opinion, he is one of the most unlikeable heroes in romance fiction.
There were too many happy endings that did not seem realistic. I wondered why Lavinia would settle for someone who was so cruel towards her. Edward's sister, who was in a wheelchair, fell in love with the first man who took note of her. He was an admitted bounder. The Duke of Kylemore selected a woman to be his duchess who had had a child out of wedlock. Really?
I've really been impressed with the quality of the plots from this author. This is the second novel I've read by Meagan McKinney. However, the execution of this story left me feeling somewhat empty. 3.5 stars
May 11, 2024
I think this is my first book by the author so I wasn’t prepared for the drama and angst in the book. This is close to a bodice ripper but still more palatable. The writing is excellent and all the side case and characters keep the story afloat. We got 3 other side romances which were lovely.
Now unfortunately I don’t think the hero did this book any favours. There wasn’t enough grovel or contrition near the end for the journey to have been worth it for me. This needed a few more chapters because the ending was quick and didn’t leave the hero enough room to apologize. As a result we got too many scenes of him being an ass and not enough of his redemption.
For me that left the romance feeling unbalanced. I probably would have rated the book as just ok if it hadn’t been for the writing itself. The author knows how to tell a story and I kept reading. The drama was great and the setting well done. I liked the seance and orphan storyline and everything around the romance enough to like the book. I will check more by the author - just with adjusted expectations.
Now unfortunately I don’t think the hero did this book any favours. There wasn’t enough grovel or contrition near the end for the journey to have been worth it for me. This needed a few more chapters because the ending was quick and didn’t leave the hero enough room to apologize. As a result we got too many scenes of him being an ass and not enough of his redemption.
For me that left the romance feeling unbalanced. I probably would have rated the book as just ok if it hadn’t been for the writing itself. The author knows how to tell a story and I kept reading. The drama was great and the setting well done. I liked the seance and orphan storyline and everything around the romance enough to like the book. I will check more by the author - just with adjusted expectations.
July 14, 2025
Maybe I AM into romance books and just hadn’t found the right one yet, I was so impressed by this one! I found it at my neighborhood’s little free library by chance and was drawn in by its name and cover. I could not be more glad to have picked it up! Although The Fortune Hunter was a sloooow burn and at times felt a little repetitive, I loved how it had various drastic changes in scenery and some really beautiful pieces of writing and descriptions. I hope to come across more of Meagan Mckinney’s work in the future!
August 14, 2022
One of the main characters is terribly misogynistic and narcissistic. I held on until the end hoping he would have some sort of redemption arc since it was clear the entire time he was having a happy ending. I needed him to earn it. But no, he received his happy ending with him being an okay guy in the last four pages.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 22, 2021
Nie, nie, nie.
Toksyczna relacja w całej okazałości.
Toksyczna relacja w całej okazałości.
July 26, 2011
Was reading this book for time pass but got sort of sucked in. Slightly more interesting than the usual saccharine sweet romance novels. The hero is nasty but intriguing. His sudden transformation at the end is not very convincing though.
February 24, 2010
Surprisingly good! This time period is not one I often read. Usually I am just in England, or just in the US. But it was really fun!
Good enough I am going to look into Ms. McKinney as a new author!
Good enough I am going to look into Ms. McKinney as a new author!
May 31, 2012
Interesting and different storyline involving spiritualists. Was a page turner, but fell a bit flat the last 50 pages or so.
June 12, 2009
Violets!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews