Gossipy, episodic, a bit scatterbrained - the topics and dramatis personæ don't always seem to proceed in any sort of organized or logical manner - and yet total cotton-candy fun. (Or candy-floss, depending on your side of the Atlantic!)

Having read a biography of Jennie Jerome Churchill before, it was neat to see her appear here. She and Consuelo Vanderbilt (Duchess of Marlborough) are the most memorable of the many American heiresses the authors follow.

If a history of the Anglo-American marriage mart sounds intriguing to you, this may just be your book. The authors paint a vivid picture of the culture clashes between the different values of American high society and British high society, and one does end up feeling like most of the young American heiresses got rather a bad deal out of the riches for aristocratic status exchange. I finished the book wanting to know more about the histories of a few of the heiresses, which is always good. (Time for more research!)