WHEN AN UNLIKELY SUITOR.... The Earl of Stokeford is hardly a man of amiable disposition and social graces. He scowls whenever he pleases, becomes rude at any time convenient for him, and worse, has a regrettable tendency to scare ladies out of their wits. Therefore, it is a most astonishing thing indeed when, upon laying eyes on the beautiful Miss Sophie Winscott, he decides to embark on a courtship... Except, of course, the hapless peer knows nothing in the matters of romance...until he receives help from an unlikely quarter. MEETS AN EAGER MATCHMAKER Then enter Miss Winscott's cousin, the vivacious Caroline Davis, who oddly gets along well with the slightly waspish Earl. Determined to help, Caroline endeavours to make a match of the two. But for all her enthusiasm, she can't help but be drawn to the troubled lord... and things start to get a little tangled from there.

Being a governess was truly the only path open to Olivia Fairfax. Left as a child on the doorstep of Miss Clearwater's School for Girls, she had lived her life among the spoiled and rich daughters of the ton. They often eschewed her company due to her unknown history, leaving the girl alone with her books. Still, Olivia worked hard at her studies, earning a post in Sussex at the age of eighteen. Then she meets her employer's handsome cousin and her life tumbles into chaos. It is not unheard of for a young woman to become a mistress to a rich young lord. But when one mixes in wives, past lovers and best friends, Olivia discovers that she knows nothing about life outside her books.

Sophia has sacrificed everything for her younger sister, Lucy. She has removed them from the only home they ever knew, taken on the care of Lucy's illegitimate son, George, and even assumed the role of a widow and mother in order to erase all hint of scandal from the boy's birth. But rumor continues to follow them like the darkest of clouds, and Sophia must adapt to her new existence as a false widow with no prospects beyond the doors of her small cottage. Lord Haughton - "Finn" to those close to him - will stop at nothing to prevent the slightest whiff of disgrace from tainting his family's name. When he learns of his younger brother's latest indiscretion-one that leaves a bastard child in his wake-Haughton rushes across the country to offer the boy's mother a comfortable living in exchange for her silence about the child's true parentage. But he arrives only to have his generous offer thrown back in his face by Sophia Brixton, a sharp-tongued and sharper-witted woman who proceeds to toss him out of her house. But just because he is banished from her home does not mean he is so easily banished from her life.

Diane Simmons always had the bad luck to look like a spitting image of her tall twin brother David. But as her world turns upside down, Diane has no other choice but to embrace their resemblance; with her father and David dead, two younger unmarried sisters in tow, an emotionally unstable mother and no other male successor, she doesn't see any other alternative to save her family and her home but to become her brother - and bury herself. And even if she thought it will be easy to impersonate a spoiled young heir that always gets his way, things get more than a little complicated with the arrival of David's so-called best friend, Captain Talbot, who seems to know more than she'd like him to. With his arrival, the secrets that have been buried in the heart of the Simmons home start to resurface and it looks like someone wants Diane dead one way or another...