Book Review: "The Last Heiress" by Mary Ellis

Amanda Dunn is sent from England to North Carolina by her father to act as his emissary to renew shipments of cotton, held up by the American Civil War, to their textile mill. Her father agrees to let her go with only her lady's maid if she promises to conduct her business and return to England without any romantic interludes. When Amanda wanders into Nathaniel Cooper's greengrocery, she is drawn to him in ways she doesn't expect.  Although they both share the same opinion about slavery, how can they find a common ground when their backgrounds are so different?

 This is the second book I've read by Mary Ellis.  Both of them have main characters who are opposed to slavery living with relatives in the American South during the Civil War. This makes for an interesting twist to the story as you see both perspectives on the issue of slavery at the same time.  I found "The Last Heiress" to be well written with fleshed out and believable characters.  The characters changed and developed from the beginning of the book to the end.  There were a few formatting issues like missing spaces and small spelling issues (like 'while' instead of 'white' or 'Mrs.' instead of 'Mr.') but I assume those will have been fixed before the final edition was released.  One thing that did seem out of place was about half way through the book, an event takes place and then the story continues until a few days later and then suddenly, it was back to right after the event took place again.  It seems that part of the story was misplaced and should be with the rest of the part that covered the same event. 

I would recommend this book to those who like Inspirational Historical Romance.

"The Last Heiress" is available for Kindle:

• File Size: 628 KB
• Print Length: 354 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0736950524
• Publisher: Harvest House Publishers (February 1, 2015)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00RYB9NHY

and in paperback:

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Harvest House Publishers (February 1, 2015)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0736950524
• ISBN-13: 978-0736950527
• Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 5.5 x 8.5 inches

I received a free digital advance reader copy of "The Last Heiress" through netgalley in order for me to review it.  A positive review is not required and all opinions are my own.