The Impoverished Dowry (The De Petras Saga Book 2)

Thank you, NetGalley and Dragonblade Publishing for the chance to read and review The Impoverished Dowry by Emily E K Murdoch! The Impoverished Dowry is the second book in The de Petras Saga, starring Coral de Petras, although we get plenty from her sisters Sapphire and Emerald. As their fathers’ ships sink and the family no longer has the money for multiple dowries, Coral decides that marrying a wealthy man who doesn’t care about how much money she has might fix things. Of course, things go a little south when she starts falling for the duke, whom she deemed unsuitable! While The de Petras Saga is planned to be around 5 books, this book comes out tomorrow on the 14th of June. You can still get it on amazon for the pre-order price of $0.99, but it will be available on Kindle Unlimited as I suspect the rest of the series will be! It’s published by Dragonblade Publishing, which is a woman-owned, woman-run boutique publisher that specializes in Historical Romance. I picked out The Impoverished Dowry because I love romance novels and this one had a terrific cover! It’s acknowledged in the book that Coral’s gowns are old-fashioned, but when they look that good who cares? This is a take on the historical fiction genre where we have a woman, Opal, who functions as the head of the family, and not just because her husband isn’t there, but because that’s their family tradition. It was interesting how that plays out for Micah and Coral because they’re still subject to the society around them even if their family is a little different. It was different to see a story play out from the duke’s point of view; he was the main for me in this more than Coral even though we did get her point of view. I was a bit taken aback by the advert Coral placed; that may not seem too out of place now (you do see things like that in the newspaper), but it has a tragic story behind it. While I was reading How Sex Changed the Internet by Samantha Cole (incidentally also a NetGalley read), I came across the story of Helen Morrison who placed an advertisement for a husband in 1727 and was put in an asylum for a month! I understand that regency England technically started around 1795, but everything I’ve read tells me that this would have been considered out there! And while I think it’s great that she was so clear about what she wanted, I wish she had thought this through a little given that she was doing it for her family, and it had consequences for them (as we hear from Micah). The conflict was cute, and I like that they overcame her list and the general good fortune at the end. I’m curious to see what happens to Emerald and Micah in the next few books! I also love the development at the end, which I’m betting will be the main thing in the fifth book!