Former rake Richard Dolforth is shocked–shocked!!!–to learn that he is not only legitimate, but also the heir to a viscountcy. Legitimacy is a burden Richard can adjust to, eventually, but membership in the peerage qualifies as an affirmative nuisance.

And yet, Richard has a sister he’s never met and an aunt who might have the answers to questions Richard has long held about the circumstances of his birth. Off to Yorkshire he gallops, only to learn that his sister has a cousin, and Miss Amabel Fielding is not about to let some viscount-come-lately disrupt a household she has been managing, and quite capably so, for years.

Richard respects an independent spirit, but he’s utterly flummoxed to find himself attracted to Amabel. She’s all wrong, and so is he, but the sizzle they feel is exceeded only by the sparks flying between them!

Lord Julian Caldicott associates the seaside with war, partings, death, and dyspepsia. At the request of his dear Hyperia, he nevertheless journeys to the shore, where he and his lady plan to speak their wedding vows and begin their honey month at the oceanfront home of Lady Ophelia Oliphant.

Unbeknownst to Julian, Lady Ophelia has rented out cottages on her estate to a pack of professional writers, one of whom, J. Worthington Pierce, lords the success of his children’s books over his literary colleagues. Nobody seems to like Pierce, but somebody is threatening him, his property, and his family. Julian agrees to investigate, but then suspicion falls on Hyperia, and finding answers becomes imperative if the wedding plans aren’t to be tossed into the sea!