cover image If the Earl Only Knew

If the Earl Only Knew

Amanda Forester. Sourcebooks Casablanca, $7.99 mass market (384p) ISBN 978-1-4926-0549-2

Forester (The Highlander’s Bride), a champ at crafting feisty and independent Regency-era women, has outdone herself with Lady Katherine Ashton. Kate and her twin brother, Robert, Earl of Darington, have been fabulously successful privateers for several years and are returning to London to pay dividends to their investors. Kate hates being forced to spend a few weeks in the city, away from the high seas, rubbing elbows with other lords and ladies. She absolutely refuses to be tamed and bound to any man in matrimony, but this visit does offer an opportunity to find a bride for Robert. It’s with that in mind that they agree to stay at the home of family friend John Arlington, Earl of Wynbrook, and plan to attend a handful of social fetes. Needless to say, Wynbrook’s dutiful offer to escort Kate quickly advances to full-on attraction amid Forester’s reliably entertaining signature trinity of danger, intrigue, and dry wit. (July)