One of my favorite audiobooks ever! I actually have a difficult time reading audiobooks but the narrator was so wonderful!

What a fantastic book! From the look into the Paris Exposition of 1889 to the diversity found in a story that spends half its time in Scotland, watching characters right colonial wrongs in a small way while falling in love, it's an utter delight and I look forward to the next book in this world. ( )

A Caribbean Heiress in Paris by Adriana Herrera
Las Leonas, book 1. Diverse historical romance.

Luz Alana traveled from Santo Domingo hoping to sell her family rum at the expo. Unfortunately, as a woman, and a woman of color, she is rejected, scored and ignored. James Evanston Sinclair, the Earl of Darnick is impressed by the tenacity and business sense of the beautiful Luz and decides to help her win a sales contract. Danger and treachery surround them from multiple directions.

Several different themes in this storyline from both sides so a lot going on. I found the history of this rum business very interesting. It’s the first time I’ve been intrigued by people going to the top of the Eiffel Tower. The history and description of a ride in an elevator for the first time was exceptional. Throw in a marriage of convenience, family, and money and wow. Pay attention.
Luz was strong and determined and independent.
It’s also pretty clear who will be part of the upcoming books in this series.
I don’t generally read historical romances for history sake, but enjoyed the details in this book. ( )

This is a fun beach read.  Set in 1889 in Paris (during the Exposition Universelle) and Scotland, this historical romance features a mixed-race heroine (mother a native of the Dominican Republic, Scottish father), probably the first such book I've read to do so.

Luz Alana Heith-Benzan is a rum heiress, and has come to Paris and Scotland to find new markets for her products.  At the Exposition, she meets James Evanston "Evan" Sinclair, a Scottish earl who makes whisky, when they are mistakenly assigned the same table at a distillery exhibition.
Like all good romances, this one has its tropes (common literary or thematic devices used in storytelling, which I've italicized), the main one being a marriage of convenience between Luz and Evan.  This alpha hero and heroine are afraid to commit, but you've got a billionaire virgin and a royal playboy with Instalust who both want a fling, so you can imagine where this all leads, but of course Luz and Evan are the last to know there's more to their relationship than just sex.  It's nice to read a romance novel with the focus on the woman' pleasure, however.

The diverse characters are the strength of this story.  Evan has a Trinidadian staff, two strong-willed sisters, a Columbian half-brother, and Jamaican cousins.  There are non-heterosexual characters in the book as well.  Luz is part of a girl gang called "Las Léonas" (the lionesses) that travels with her, and this is the first book in the series of that name.

According to an interview with author Adriana Herrera, the next book in the series will be about her artist friend Manuela Caceres (who has a lesbian romance), and I expect another will be about her other best friend, Aurora Montalban, a doctor (perhaps a romance with Evan's half-brother Apollo?).  I could also see books in the future about Luz' little sister Clarita, and maybe even their cousin Amaranta.

In that interview, another one, and the book's author's note, Herrera talks about the research she did for the book.  That research makes the historical details in the book feel right.  However, "the characters frequently think and act anachronistically in an effort to appeal to modern sensibilities," as noted in Publisher Weekly's review, and I felt that as well.  It's a romance, though, not standard historical fiction. ( )

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Unexpectedly finding herself at the helm of her family's distillery had been...difficult.

Luz Alana Heith-Benzan lost her mother years ago and now with her father passing eighteen months ago, she's responsible for taking care of her little sister, Clarita. A little hurt that her father passed operations of their family distillery in Santo Domingo to his second-in-command, but left her in charge of expansion in Europe, Luz decides to sell most of her shares in Caña Brava back to the people that have worked and shared in the success of the business. She plans on taking 300 casks of rum to the Exposition Universelle in Paris to sell and try to make contacts to start a new business of selling cordials. Planning on settling in Edinburgh, her father's ancestral home, she also is trying to get her inheritance released to her but her father's solicitor in Edinburgh keeps dodging in his letters. With her two bestfriends, Manuela and Aurora, her younger sister Clarita, and chaperone Amaranta, Luz sets off to gain control of her future.

The distillery could be his...if he married.

James Evanston Sinclair, Earl of Darnick and heir apparent of the Duke of Annan, is in Paris trying to sell his Braeburn whisky when he tries to move some rum bottles out of the way and gets told what's what by a woman that instantly captures his interest. When they meet again at a salacious nightclub Paris show, he can think of no one else. Evan has his hands full with plotting revenge against his father with his newly discovered brother Apollo but when his late mother's will is finally discovered, he knows a way to help himself and Luz out and keep her in his life at least a little while longer.

“Luz Alana, I want to offer you a business partnership,” he finally said, surprising her.

A Caribbean Heiress in Paris is first in the Las Léonas series and brought back all that fun, engaging travel and history of bodice rippers of old but through an updated fresh lens of a character with Luz's life experience, Dominican woman with a Scottish father. The first couple pages introduce us to Luz and the rest of the Las Léonas pride as they travel to Paris. It can seem a little first in a series unloading but, like how old bodice rippers used to do, it becomes more of an Introduction as the book is broken up into sections, Paris is next, followed by Braeburn, and finally Edinburgh. I thought this was a great idea as it suddenly didn't feel like info-dumping but an intro; the section cutting never hurt the flow for me, more helped set me in the place we now were. I did think the Braeburn section felt more like an interlude and kind of slowed the story for me as I felt like it could have been cut and condensed as repetitiveness bogged it down. In fact, I felt like a good amount of the middle slowed. The start in Paris was so engaging and when some of the historical setting details fell away in favor of the romance, my interest wasn't as captured because I found the romance weaker.

Agua brava.
Furious water, an undertow that could lift you up and wash you away. That would never leave you quite in the same place it found you. That returned you slightly---but irrevocably---different. So that at night when you lay in your dry bed, you still felt the memory of that wave moving inside you.

Evan is pretty much all in when he meets Luz, he's instantly attracted to her and mostly likewise for Luz but she has more to lose and therefore has to be more wary. I thought in the beginning the writing prose style, when describing the feelings between Evan and Luz, was very dramatic, sizzling feelings attraction, lush language but even though I was reading the words, I didn't feel it between them. Evan just had those feelings, I'm not sure I was able to see him develop them, which is what I want to read in a romance. These two definitely get hot and heavy, so if you're about those scenes and don't mind insta-love/lust, you'd probably enjoy their romance more. Not feeling their romance as much definitely attributed to my less enjoyment of the second half.

“[..] Women's lives can be a series of daunting choices. Our freedoms or our peace, our safety or our pride. Every day we negotiate these things.”

The plot and characters definitely had a lot going on but I loved all the factions going on, it can feel like a lot to pay attention to, probably more of that first in a series because of introducing future main characters, but I just enjoyed a historical that had some meat to it. The story keeps Luz and Evan together by having Evan discovering his mother's will only gifts him his Braeburn distillery as a wedding gift and Luz being able to sidestep her solicitor by marrying because then her inheritance releases to her. So, around 60% we get our marriage of convenience and the issue becomes both of them having deeper feelings but keeping that to themselves as they both think the other only wants to stick to the plan of staying married for ninety days.

This woman owned him. Every inch of him was hers.

The historical research, incorporation of cultural issues, and secondary characters that were full and rich in their own right, I enjoyed immensely. Luz was a notable leading lady, she never shied away from who she was and fought to create her place in the world. Evan was great in how he supported Luz and used his power and consequence to always help Luz. Their romance was the weaker component of the story for me, I missed feeling the development of their feelings grow but the historical aspects were wonderful. The beginning in Paris dazzled me, the middle slowed some for me, and then the ending gives us some last minute danger before we get our happily ever after. If you don't mind some insta-lust and been wanting more historical details (shebeens talk! newly constructed Eiffel tower!)/setting in your romance, this was a great intro into a new series.

“Mademoiselle Caña Brava. Imgaine finding you here.” ( )