A Review of the Prince of Broadway, by Joanna Shupe
The Prince of Broadway is a steamy romp through Gilded Age New York with one of the city’s most notorious casino owners and an uptown woman who insists on opening a women-only casino. Because Joanna Shupe knows her business, our dangerous gambler gets more than he bargained for when he agrees to tutor our clever debutante!
Setting
New York City, both uptown and downtown, 1890s.
Main Characters
Clayton Madden has risen from the tenements of Delancey Street to owning the most exclusive casino in New York, not to mention half the city’s other gambling operations. The only goal he has not yet achieved is revenge on the man who turned his family out of their home when he was eleven years old.
Florence Greene is a middle child who has never fit into her society family. She has no intention of marrying some uptown swell chosen by her father. Instead, she plans to support herself by opening a casino for women. She just needs to convince Clayton Madden to tutor her on the operation of an exclusive gambling club.
Romance
Clay finds Florence’s casino plan entertaining and agrees to tutor her. He is honest that he is attracted to her, only does casual relationships, and plans to ruin her father. He won’t tell her how, but promises her it will not involve bankrupting him or causing him physical harm.
Florence is determined to learn how to run a casino and is certain she can dissuade Clay from his plans for her father, or at the very least, find out what they are and warn her family.
When they need to take refuge in the brothel next door to avoid a police raid, the lessons to turn from administrative to something far more intimate.
Plot
But Clay’s plans for revenge on her father are what he has lived on for two decades, and he told her from day one she would not get him to deviate from his plan.
Historical Worldbuilding
Joanna Shupe is the queen of Gilded Age New York. Want to experience what it is like to be accused of counting cards in an 1890’s casino? You will. And you will also experience the atmosphere of a baseball game at the Polo Grounds with Clay and the meat-market elements of a fancy uptown dinner party with Florence. And, of course, shake down some politicians in true Gilded Age fashion. And you will love every minute of it. I certainly did. Oh, and you will also get to view the infamous Nymphs and Satyr in the Hoffman Hotel with Clay and Florence. Yes, it really hung there, yes, it was considered utterly scandalous, and yes, you will love that scene!
Nymphs and Satyr, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1873
Tropes
This is textbook opposite sides of the tracks, uptown/downtown, and Clay is the ultimate morally gray bad-boy.
Secondary Characters
The secondary characters are fantastic. Both of Florence’s sisters get their own books in this series, and each of their love interests is at least mentioned in this book. Clay’s friends, Jack and Anna, are fantastic, and I wish they had each gotten their own book, as well.
Point of View
The book is in third person, and it alternates between Clay’s and Florence’s points of view.
In Summary
- This is a steamy, angsty romance of an uptown debutante and the downtown casino owner who agrees to tutor her. This is a romance, so you know where that is going.
- This takes place in Manhattan in the 1890s.
- Florence and Clay are both tough and both achingly vulnerable. They earn every bit of their happily ever after!
- The Gilded Age comes alive in Shupe’s expert hands, with all of its glamour and danger.
- The Tropes are opposite sides of the tracks and a serious bad-boy.
- This is a good 3.5 out 5 on the heat scale, with sex on the page, and not always of the sort nice Gilded Age debutantes were supposed to be aware of.
- There is occasional underworld violence, but nothing particularly graphic.
Keep them Coming!
Please keep the tips coming! What other historical romances have you read that are set in the Americas and you think others might enjoy? Let’s share the love. Please email me or post in the comments below with suggestions of other titles!
Love historical romance? My novel, Passion’s Duty is set during the war that set up the Revolution. We are embarking on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, so this is the perfect time to read it. Be sure to check it out!
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Image: William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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