A WOMAN OF BREEDING MEETS A MAN OF NO STANDING…
To redeem her family’s disgraced name, Lady Louisa Scranton has decided to acquire a proper husband. He needs to be a man of fortune and highly respectable in order to restore both her family's lost wealth and reputation. She enters the Marriage Mart with all flags flying, determined to find the right bachelor.
But Louisa’s hopes are dashed when the Bishop of Hargate drops dead at her feet—and she is shockingly accused of murder! Soon, Louisa’s so-called friends begin shunning her, because the company of a suspected killer is never desirable in polite society.
The problem comes to the ears of Detective Inspector Lloyd Fellows, by-blow of the decadent Scottish Mackenzie family and an inspector for Scotland Yard. He has shared two passionate kisses with Lady Louisa–and vows to clear her name. For not only does he know she’s innocent, he recognizes he’s falling for the lovely lady.
Fellows is Louisa's only hope of restoring her family's honor—and it is he alone who intrigues Louisa in a way that may be even more scandalous than murder…
The new novella plays out much differently than how I thought the romance between Louisa (who was dead-set on making a Society match during the Mackenzie's Christmas novella) and Fellowes (who was pretty much dead-set on never getting married although he and Louisa kiss like a house on fire) would go. This is set in the spring following the Mackenzie Christmas novella (but possibly after the Epilogue in Hart's book bc Fellowes and Louisa aren't in the family picture). Very fun and a nice cross-class romance - I didn't see the resolution coming ahead of time so that was nice.
The only thing I thought odd that no one (and I mean NO ONE) mentioned was the big age difference between Louisa and Fellowes. Louisa is, what, 23? 24? in this novella (I'm basing on her age in Mac's book, when she was to debut, and it's about 5 years later now) and Fellowes is Hart's age, give or take a year (I think in Ian's book it's mentioned that Fellowes is two years older) so that puts him mid-40s. That's a pretty big age gap even for a Victorian-set novel.
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