The Great Wooing of 1878. Great Victorian Romances, #1

A Spectacular Swirl of Satin & ScandalWhen a mother-daughter trip to Scotland goes spectacularly awry (doomed from the start, really), Lady Marintha encounters a towering, brooding, and infuriatingly handsome lord from the far north. He's half-Turkish, entirely mysterious, and on a mother-son trip of his own. Cue Marintha's meddling mother, an eccentric dowager countess who views potential scandal with the alarm of a general spotting enemy troops.
Her strategy? Invite three wealthy, eligible, and thoroughly English gentlemen to besiege her daughter's hand (or is it her enormous dowry?). Let the games begin. What follows is a whirlwind of chaos worthy of a French farce: cryptic bouquets, clandestine meetings in rain-slicked alleys, disastrous dinners, a dueling pistol with a mind of its own, and deceit hiding behind every tartan curtain. Amidst the madness, Marintha and Lord Andillie strike a wicked bargain: a secret experiment to see if one can truly know a person before marriage.
Their methods, however, are decidedly unscientific-involving midnight assignations, whispered philosophy, and sensual debates that push them to the very brink of propriety. It's only a matter of time before their resolve shatters, and their experiment fails in the most glorious, scandalous way possible. Between kidnappings, pistols, and society's strictest rules, losing this battle of wills has never been so thrilling.
After all, there's nothing a Scot loves more than a good fight. even when the fiercest skirmishes occur between the sheets. A tale of love, larceny, and lively rebellion-where laughter and passion collide in the misty Scottish Highlands