Part of Ladies Most Scandalous
First published 2023
Poppy Delamare has spent months in London pretending to be someone else. She calls herself Flora Deaver, works as a secretary, and tells no one she fled an arranged marriage. The disguise holds until news arrives that her sister has been accused of murder. Poppy abandons her cover and heads home, but a carriage collision throws her into the path of Joshua Fielding, the Duke of Langham. He refuses to leave her stranded and, once he understands her situation, proposes a deal. A fake engagement gives Poppy and her sister the protection of his title. It shields Langham from the tide of society women pursuing him. Both parties treat it as a transaction. Neither expects it to feel like anything more. As Poppy and Langham dig into the murder accusation together, they pull apart a knot of old secrets and deliberate betrayals. Their first impressions of each other quietly collapse. England in 1867 offers a woman very little room to act, and Poppy has already spent everything once to get free. The question is whether she can find the real killer, keep her sister safe, and survive long enough to decide what she actually wants.
Genres: romance, historical-fiction, mystery, adult, adult-fiction, historical-romance
Vibes: emotional, intricate, romantic, suspenseful, witty
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fake-dating, forced-proximity, second-chance, slow-burn
Setting: London, England
Period: 1867, Victorian Era
352 pages · Paperback · Forever
Content warnings: murder