After the events of last season, the family returns to London with Benedict happily married-and Violet Bridgerton firmly resolved that Eloise will be next. Determined to escape a season filled with tiresome suitors, Eloise forms a practical plan. When she meets the impeccably respectable Lord Thomas Whitmore at the first ball of the year, she proposes a mutually beneficial arrangement: she will publicly encourage the rumor of his interest, and in return, he will enjoy a season free from fortune hunters and overambitious mamas. To her surprise, the viscount agrees. What begins as a simple understanding-shared dances, strategic promenades, carefully observed conversations-quickly becomes the most talked-about courtship of the season. Yet as their convincing performance deepens, Eloise discovers that pretending to be interested in a perfectly respectable viscount may be far more complicated than avoiding one altogether.

Kit Montclair knew that his fate was to marry a woman he knew little to nothing about. His only wish in life was to not succumb to the same fate his parents did-a hateful marriage where little to no words are spoken. Eloise Bridgerton promised herself that she would not marry a man she didn't love. She didn't realize that her father had made a promise to a man years ago. With no way to leave an arranged marriage, Eloise has to navigate a marriage with a man she barely knows.