A Lady's Lesson in Scandal by Darcy McGuire
Series: The Queen's Deadly Damsels #2
Genres: Historical Romance, Mystery
Wallflower at risk of ruin…
Secret femme-fatale in training Millicent Whittenburg needs to escape her unpleasant betrothal. Taking matters into her own hands, she plans her eventual ruin! Then she can disappear from society to carry out the Queen’s deadly missions. Step 1: seduce the one man who despises marriage more than her!
However, she hugely underestimates her target. Major General Beaufort Drake. Fearsome private investigator, he’s notoriously cold and visibly battle scarred. But Millie’s scandalously public kiss awakens a deeply suppressed desire in Drake. Instead of allowing them both to succumb to shame he does the unthinkable, and offers for her hand in a convenient marriage.
Nothing prepares them for the fireworks when a fearless damsel collides with a dangerous Major General! And as their secret missions align they face their hardest test on the glittering battlefield – a week long wedding house party where there is nowhere to escape…only new and wicked lessons to be learnt!
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my review
Millicent Whittenburg is part of a covert group of Queen Victoria’s investigators, led by the powerful and cunning Duchess of Dorsett. Trained by the Duchess herself, Millie has been preparing to serve as one of the Queen’s sleuths, tasked with keeping a watchful eye on the questionable members of the House of Lords. However, her personal life is in turmoil, as she’s being forced into marriage with the repulsive Viscount Tread—a wealthy, elderly friend of her father’s and her manipulative stepmother, Patricia. (Patricia is truly despicable, and it’s baffling how Millie’s father, the Marquess, ever let this woman have so much control over his daughter’s life.)
At a ball where her unwanted engagement is set to be announced, Millie plots her escape—by ensnaring someone else into a marriage and then refusing to go through with it. What she didn’t anticipate was her target, Major General Beaufort Drake, the scarred but captivating Earl of Tetly, who also happens to be a private investigator for the Prime Minister. Sparks fly, and what starts as a scheme becomes something far more intimate. The chemistry between Millie and Beaufort is undeniable, and the story heats up as their fiery romance blossoms.
What follows is a thrilling mix of love, secrets, and lies, where the past collides with the future. This is an exciting new chapter in McGuire’s Deadly Damsels series, blending romance and mystery in equal measure.
meet the author
About Darcy McGuire
Darcy McGuire is a high school counsellor who grew up in the wilds of New Zealand but happily settled in the Pacific Northwest. In between dodging territorial geese, gathering duck eggs, taking the dog for long walks, Darcy loves writing about fierce female protagonists who may dodge daggers and bullets but never seem to escape Cupid’s Arrow.
I love reading a book with a good scandal.