February 3, 2020
Quinn (the Marriage Game Series) opens her Lords of London Regency series with this sparkling romance between a purported rake and the young debutante helping to save him from being tricked into marriage. Lord Frederick “Frits” Littleton returns to London from his estate in Surrey to seek a wife after deciding against marrying Lady Dorie Calthorp, with whom he quickly realized he had nothing in common. Running into Lady Dorie is inevitable and awkward, especially as he’s smitten with Dorie’s new friend, Lady Adeline Wivenly. Adeline is wary of Frits, both because he jilted her friend and because of his wider reputation as a rake. Despite her wariness, Adeline bonds with Frits at society events as they discover their shared interests and compatible personalities. When Adeline learns of two ladies’ plot to trick Frits into marriage with one of them, she offers to help him evade them, and, in the process, gives in to her simmering attraction to him. Quinn explores the allures and idiosyncrasies of aristocratic life with wit and charm reminiscent of Jane Austen. This intelligent romance gets the series off to a promising start.