Hearts of Steel

In the mixed third installment of Camden’s Blackstone Legacy series (after Written on the Wind), a steel company board member and a businesswoman team up to foil a deceitful banker. Liam Blackstone has just landed a powerful position on the U.S. Steel board of directors in 1902 and has an agenda based on workers’ rights. The cause is close to his heart: at three, Liam was kidnapped from the moneyed Blackstone family by a man who raised him in poverty and forced him to work at a steel mill. (Liam only reconnected with his family—and found God—as an adult.) But corrupt board member Charles Morse believes Liam is hurting profits by negotiating workers’ raises, and is trying to run him off the board. When Liam learns Morse has cheated Maggie Molinaro, the co-owner of an ice cream factory, out of a payment, he decides to help her seek justice. Upon digging into Morse’s business dealings, the pair uncover a sprawling web of corruption, and a romance builds between them. While Camden’s prose is zippy, her underdeveloped characters—and Liam’s elaborate backstory—make for an unrealistic, overwrought plot. Camden’s post–Gilded Age romance has its moments, but the subpar execution will leave readers wanting. (Jan.)