American Duchess

One of the so-called "Dollar Princesses" who brought much-needed cash into the British aristocracy, Consuelo Vanderbilt became an American duchess a century before Meghan Markle. This fictional account of her life by suspense and historical fiction writer Harper (The It Girls; Silent Scream) begins with her marriage to Sunny, the ninth Duke of Marlborough, in 1895, when she was 18. Coerced into a loveless union by her ambitious mother, Consuelo tries to do her duty by her family and her husband, while championing the poor and the sick. She gives birth to two sons before divorcing the duke and finding love in her second marriage. Despite her wealthy upbringing in New York and Newport, RI, Consuelo was moved by the working class and especially by mothers and children. She maintained a great friendship with the duke's cousin, Winston Churchill, and survived World War I in England and World War II in France. During both wars, she used her wealth for charitable causes, including establishing a hospital in France.