Part of Mackenzies & McBrides
First published 2013
Lady Louisa Scranton arrives at the Marriage Mart with a clear plan: find a wealthy, respectable husband to rebuild her family's ruined name and fortune. Then the Bishop of Hargate collapses dead at her feet, and the accusation of murder lands squarely on her. Her friends vanish. Her prospects collapse. Society closes its doors. Detective Inspector Lloyd Fellows works for Scotland Yard. He is also the illegitimate son of the Scottish Mackenzie family, which puts him in a peculiar position: connected to the aristocracy by blood, accepted by none of it. He and Louisa have already shared two stolen kisses, and he knows she is innocent. He sets out to prove it. The tension at the center of this book is not really about the murder. It is about two people who should never end up together recognizing that they want exactly that. Fellows can save Louisa's reputation, but a match between them would create a scandal of its own. Jennifer Ashley keeps both threads taut, letting the investigation drive the plot while the emotional stakes between Louisa and Fellows quietly build toward a choice neither of them expected to face.
Genres: romance, mystery, adult, adult-fiction, historical-romance
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, suspenseful, tension-filled
Tropes: class-difference, forbidden-romance, forced-proximity, slow-burn
Setting: Scotland Yard, Scotland, Marriage Mart
Period: 19th-century
194 pages · ebook · InterMix
Content warnings: murder