B+

Tycoon

This is the inaugural novella to Joanna Shupe’s new series, The Knickerbocker Club. The series is set in late 1800s New York City, among the stinking rich industrialists who have a fuckton of money and power.

Ted Harper runs New York’s largest bank, and as he is waiting for his private train car to be ready in Grand Central Station , a woman runs up and does that thing of attaching herself to him and saying things like “OH MY FIANCE THANK GOODNESS I’VE FOUND YOU” that any other woman would recognize as “Please help me I’m trying to get rid of someone unpleasant and also dangerous” but Ted at first thinks that she’s crazy until he eventually recognizes it for the plea for help. They end up on a cross-country train journey together in his private coach, and go through the threads of a) who is she running from and b) is she a con artist and c) can we get to bone town?

It’s a novella, so the round of “I just met you, and this is crazy, but let’s have an adventure and get down maybe?” only sorta works. I liked these two crazy kids, and there’s a touch of crazysauce to spice things up, but there’s just not enough time to make me buy the relationship.

What this really does well is set up the world of this series and rags-to-riches industrialists and the Gilded Age in general. I went down a rabbit hole of “how do private rail cars work” and “Jesus fuck who has this money” and stuff like that (it’s a good thing when authors send me down a Google rabbit hole). I’m super excited about this new series and a new-to-me time period to learn about, and

I’m super excited about this new series and a new-to-me time period to learn about, and Magnate, the first full-length book, JUST arrived in my greedy little hands the day after I finished Tycoon. HAPPY DAY TO ME.

– Redheadedgirl

Sometimes the journey is more pleasurable than the destination . . .

In Gilded Age New York City, the bachelors of the Knickerbocker Club spend their days rubbing elbows with Manhattan’s most elite citizens–and their nights with its most intoxicating women . . .

Standing on the platform at Grand Central Station, Ted Harper is surprised by a fiery kiss from an undeniably gorgeous damsel in distress. He’s certain she’s a swindler who’s only after his money, but he’s never met a woman so passionate and sure of herself. Disarmed, he invites her to spend the journey to St. Louis in his private car–perhaps against his better judgment . . .

Clara Dawson has long known how to take care of herself, but the savvy shop girl is at a loss when she witnesses–and becomes entangled in–a terrible crime. Desperation propels her into a stranger’s arms at the train station, but she hadn’t expected Ted to offer her the protection she so badly needs–nor did she expect their chemistry to develop more steam than the engine of the train. He’s everything she never thought she could have, and she’s everything he didn’t know he wanted. But as her secrets begin to unfurl, their fledgling romance could be in danger of derailing before they arrive at the next station . . .