**Previously published as True of Heart

Love lessons have never gone so awry

Miss Ruth Hawthorn helps support her fatherless family the only way she can: doling out love advice in a local newspaper column under an assumed name, The Swan. When she receives a lucrative request for an in-person consultation from someone signed O, her brother persuades her to go to London with him, teaching him what he needs to know in order to survive the short appointment. But when O moves up the time of the rendez-vous and Ruths brother is nowhere to be found, she is forced to take matters into her own hands.

Philip Trent, Lord Oxley, knows precisely which woman will best fill his late mothers shoes as the viscountess—now all he needs is a little help winning her over, swarmed as she is by suitors. Ashamed of his ineptitude with women but determined to succeed, Philip secretly enlists help. The youthful, bespectacled Swan seems like the last person capable of providing such help, but Philip finds in the young man both a friend and a confidant, with a surprising understanding of love.

Philips choice of woman is proving more difficult than anticipated, though, and Ruths ongoing disguise and frequent meetings with him are taxing her conscience—and her heart. With more secrets than Ruth can manage and a heart long since lost to her most important client, she faces the threat of discovery and ruin—a prospect somehow eclipsed by the heartbreak she will face when those secrets are inevitably discovered by the man she loves.

By station, they're worlds apart, but living under the same roof brings their hearts dangerously close

William Yorke faces a tall order: convince people he is worthy of the Dukedom of Rockwood that has unexpectedly fallen to him. Returning from London to his enormous estate, he breaks his journey at an inn and finds himself witness to a drunkard selling his wife to the highest bidder.

William outbids the coarse competition and offers the woman a position as housemaid at his estate, uncomfortably aware that his impulsive chivalry will lead to talk—something he abhors.

Life has brought Clara Quinn very low indeed. Once an esteemed lady's maid dismissed on false charges, her marriage of desperation lasts just long enough for her husband to sell her for gambling money.

Clara is thrust into the heart of the Duke of Rockwood's household, but the duke himself keeps his distance to quell the rumors. She is determined to leave rather than complicate his life—until she stumbles upon one of the duke's greatest secrets.

Their choice? Scandal or mutual salvation.

Determined to support her mother and sisters after her father's untimely death, Charlotte Mandeville covertly crafts satirical caricatures of high society. It not only puts money in her family's bare pockets but ensures the haut-ton cannot guard all the power and the secrets.

Anthony Yorke has a guilty conscience and a brother to exonerate. When the key piece of evidence to clear his brother's name falls into the hands of a headstrong young woman, he is willing to do whatever is required to obtain it from her.

But Charlotte is not easily persuaded, and while the thing she demands in return for the evidence is reasonable enough, it leads to the unthinkable: a forced engagement between them.

Falling for Beau Palmer would be the ultimate crime

Wild horses couldn't drag me back to the small island where I grew up, but you know what can? Making sure the Palmer family–aka the worst neighbors ever–show appropriate respect to the newest resident of their retirement center: my grandma.

But as soon as Grams moves in, her shenanigans put her at risk of being kicked out. Since she's set on staying in Sunset Harbor until her last breath and there's no way I'm staying on this nightmare island to take care of her, that's not an option.

Enter Beau Palmer, the infuriatingly charming local cop who's got the connections to keep Grams right where she needs to be and help me get out of Dodge sooner. But hes got a price, and it requires putting the Sawyer/Palmer drama firmly in the past.

But the drama isn't behind us. In fact, it's right in front of me, wearing a police badge and a smirk that's really started disturbing my peace.