What do you think?
Rate this book
Hidden Inheritance
Beautiful, blonde Vanessa Tarleton dares to accept a position repairing tapestries for the Earl of Stone, knowing full well his reputation as a handsome rake. She had heard gossip about him during her London season but, when her father gambles everything away, she knows the offer is too good to reject. Nicholas, Lord Stone faces his own dilemma. He must wed an heiress to restore his nearly bankrupt property and keep a promise he made to his grandfather, but is the beautiful and wealthy Mrs. Hewit the right choice? Although forewarned about the dangerously attractive earl, is Vanessa able to resist his charm?
1 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 1, 1989
9 people are currently reading
27 people want to read
About the author
Emily Hendrickson
58 books22 followersDoris Emily Hendrickson lives in Reno, Nevada, with her husband, a retired airline pilot. Of all the many places she has traveled around the world, England is her favorite, and the most natural choice as the setting for her novels. In addition to her Regency romances, she has written a Regency Reference Book.
She is also the recipient of the Romantic Times award for the Best Regency of 1993 for Elizabeth's Rake and the Colorado Romance Writers 1997 Award of Excellence for The Debonair Duke. She is a nominee for the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for Regency Romance.
Emily also enjoys stamps and stamping, and several of her flower designs, originally created for bookmarks for her Regencies, have been made into stamps.
Many of my books were re-published in England by Robert Hale Publishing House of London. My publisher requested that I use three pseudonyms for my English hard cover books. I chose the names: Emily Hendrickson, Emily Johnson, and Emily Harland.
She is also the recipient of the Romantic Times award for the Best Regency of 1993 for Elizabeth's Rake and the Colorado Romance Writers 1997 Award of Excellence for The Debonair Duke. She is a nominee for the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for Regency Romance.
Emily also enjoys stamps and stamping, and several of her flower designs, originally created for bookmarks for her Regencies, have been made into stamps.
Many of my books were re-published in England by Robert Hale Publishing House of London. My publisher requested that I use three pseudonyms for my English hard cover books. I chose the names: Emily Hendrickson, Emily Johnson, and Emily Harland.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 18, 2015
Vanessa gets herself hired by the Earl of Stone to repair some tapestries. He has a "plump" "spotty" younger sister and a flirty widow next door and then there are feelings. But restrained, proper regency feelings because this is not the place for turgid penises, don't you know.
1. There's this whole convoluted plot about how poor the Earl is (but he has enough to hire Vanessa?) and his Grandpa said the tapestries were "the jewels on the wall" and there are some suspicious lumps in the tapestries and I'll give you one guess how this turns out. OF COURSE. And it's not resolved until the last chapter OF COURSE and it fixes everything OF COURSE OF COUSE. SO BORED.
2. The handling of the "make-over" of the sister was just gross. She's too fat (according to Vanessa); she's got horrible spots and freckles (according to Vanessa); she dresses like an imbecile (according to Vanessa). And the fact that Vanessa is held up as the ~ideal woman is gross. It's all gross.
3. It was just so mediocre except for the gross parts with the sister? I don't know. I can't remember! I FINISHED IT TWO DAYS AGO AND I CAN'T REMEMBER ANYTHING.
1. There's this whole convoluted plot about how poor the Earl is (but he has enough to hire Vanessa?) and his Grandpa said the tapestries were "the jewels on the wall" and there are some suspicious lumps in the tapestries and I'll give you one guess how this turns out. OF COURSE. And it's not resolved until the last chapter OF COURSE and it fixes everything OF COURSE OF COUSE. SO BORED.
2. The handling of the "make-over" of the sister was just gross. She's too fat (according to Vanessa); she's got horrible spots and freckles (according to Vanessa); she dresses like an imbecile (according to Vanessa). And the fact that Vanessa is held up as the ~ideal woman is gross. It's all gross.
3. It was just so mediocre except for the gross parts with the sister? I don't know. I can't remember! I FINISHED IT TWO DAYS AGO AND I CAN'T REMEMBER ANYTHING.
August 27, 2013
I think it was the ending that did me in. Yes, everything was resolved but the suspense was held until the very end so though things came to a happy resolution, I was much relieved and felt very satisfied that it all worked out. The main characters have a great chemistry. I appreciated the dignity of the main character who, despite her genteel birth, has to support herself due to circumstances. A satisfying read overall.
June 3, 2020
Both prots nice; little crime; nice enough
July 17, 2008
I've been in the mood for regencies lately, traditional regencies! I have a few Georgette Heyer books arriving soon and in preparation I've been grabbing every trad regency recommendation I have wrote down in the past months. One of them was this Hidden Inheritance...
Beautiful Vanessa Tarleton realized the risk of accepting a position in the household of Nicholas Leighton, Earl of Stone. She knew very well his lurid reputation.
But Vanessa's father had gambled away her family fortune, and she desperately needed employment. She told herself that she could evade whatever snares Nicholas might set. All she had to do was recall his record as a wanton womanizer and remind herself that marriage to her was the last thing on his mind.
Then Vanessa arrived at the earl's isolated country estate--and discovered that though she was forewarned about this infamously attractive man, she was not forearmed.
In a way I was expecting something a bit different. Right in the beginning we have a scene where Lord Stone speaks about hiring Vanessa and I thought there was some mystery involved, it made me think this might be some sort of gothic story. And that Vanessa would spend sometime evading Lord Stone's advances.
However it didn't evolve that way. Vanessa, whose hobby at home was to restore the family tapestries, goes to work for lord Stone when her father looses everything and then dies. She has to find employment and since Lord Stone needs someone to restore his tapestries it seems the perfect arrangement. From the beginning Vanessa isn't treated like a servant and her behaviour is more like a member of the family. Especially when she starts helping Stone's sister loosing weight and taking care of her skin to conquer her beau. That part was nicely done and realistic - it takes time and patience. I never quite understood why Stone was so set against it though. He is mentioned several times as a rake but the truth is that he always behaved very correctly and his relationship with Vanessa only develops a bit when they are both attracted to each other but he has to marry for money and Vanessa is penniless.
While working on the tapestries Vanessa notices some lumps but she never finds the occasion to mention it to Lord Stone. At the same time she starts to distrust the housekeeper who seems to be trying to gain some money on the side. They'll have to face a perilous situation that brings them closer together and in the end it's Vanessa who finds the hidden inheritance and solves Lord Stone's problems.
It was a nice and interesting story but I think it lacked some little detail to make the action move forward a bit and make the characters show their emotions. And the story of the hidden inheritance could have been an interesting mystery to counterpart the love story but instead was relegated to the last chapter.
Grade: B-
Beautiful Vanessa Tarleton realized the risk of accepting a position in the household of Nicholas Leighton, Earl of Stone. She knew very well his lurid reputation.
But Vanessa's father had gambled away her family fortune, and she desperately needed employment. She told herself that she could evade whatever snares Nicholas might set. All she had to do was recall his record as a wanton womanizer and remind herself that marriage to her was the last thing on his mind.
Then Vanessa arrived at the earl's isolated country estate--and discovered that though she was forewarned about this infamously attractive man, she was not forearmed.
In a way I was expecting something a bit different. Right in the beginning we have a scene where Lord Stone speaks about hiring Vanessa and I thought there was some mystery involved, it made me think this might be some sort of gothic story. And that Vanessa would spend sometime evading Lord Stone's advances.
However it didn't evolve that way. Vanessa, whose hobby at home was to restore the family tapestries, goes to work for lord Stone when her father looses everything and then dies. She has to find employment and since Lord Stone needs someone to restore his tapestries it seems the perfect arrangement. From the beginning Vanessa isn't treated like a servant and her behaviour is more like a member of the family. Especially when she starts helping Stone's sister loosing weight and taking care of her skin to conquer her beau. That part was nicely done and realistic - it takes time and patience. I never quite understood why Stone was so set against it though. He is mentioned several times as a rake but the truth is that he always behaved very correctly and his relationship with Vanessa only develops a bit when they are both attracted to each other but he has to marry for money and Vanessa is penniless.
While working on the tapestries Vanessa notices some lumps but she never finds the occasion to mention it to Lord Stone. At the same time she starts to distrust the housekeeper who seems to be trying to gain some money on the side. They'll have to face a perilous situation that brings them closer together and in the end it's Vanessa who finds the hidden inheritance and solves Lord Stone's problems.
It was a nice and interesting story but I think it lacked some little detail to make the action move forward a bit and make the characters show their emotions. And the story of the hidden inheritance could have been an interesting mystery to counterpart the love story but instead was relegated to the last chapter.
Grade: B-
Read
June 10, 2014For a time back in the 80’s & 90’s, my reading material of choice was frequently bodice rippers, historical fiction, and regency romances with a few contemporary best sellers thrown in for good measure. Most of them were pretty steamy (blush) &/or overly romantic, but I read them during a time in my life when I found myself as a single parent, and these books fit the bill. I found them to be highly entertaining.
I recently donated a slew of them, but I wanted to catalog them all the same. So if there is no rating here from me, it means that I don’t remember anything about the book other than I obviously read it. If there is a rating, it must have been in some way memorable for me.
I only wish that GoodReads had been around years ago so that I had some idea of the many books I have read – there were thousands! I did own a copy of this book, but most others came from the library because back then I could never have afforded the 100+ books I generally read in any given year.
And by the way, I still read bodice rippers – just not quite so many as I used to!
I recently donated a slew of them, but I wanted to catalog them all the same. So if there is no rating here from me, it means that I don’t remember anything about the book other than I obviously read it. If there is a rating, it must have been in some way memorable for me.
I only wish that GoodReads had been around years ago so that I had some idea of the many books I have read – there were thousands! I did own a copy of this book, but most others came from the library because back then I could never have afforded the 100+ books I generally read in any given year.
And by the way, I still read bodice rippers – just not quite so many as I used to!
December 1, 2013
You know how you start off reading a book and say wow this is boring but then you continue to read and are pleasantly surprised and it turns out really good, yeah well that didn't happen this time it started out boring and stayed that way Emily Hendrickson is an excellent author but her last two books I've read have left me disappointed try her other books but let this one pass
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews