It's been many years since they last met but this time it's different./ Charles Alden, Viscount Dayle, spent his youth as many second sons did, being a rake and getting up to all sorts of outrageous pranks. Now his brother and father dead within a short time, he's determined to reform, determined to change.
Sophie Westby is determined to make a mark, she is a gifted interior designer and is planning to make it her life. She would like to marry but feels that she will never really make it. Everything she does seems to be reported and commented on.

It's pretty predictable from there on in. Entertaining, and you would need to park your brain about historical accuracy, but I enjoyed the ride. ( )

Sophie Westby has come to London to help her friend, Emily Lowder design a nursery. Emily was so pleased with the nursery, she asked Sophie to do several more rooms. Viscountress Dayle, a visitor to the Lowder home is so enamored over the redecorated rooms that she requested Sophie do a project for her.

Lady Dayle happens to be the mother of Sophie’s childhood friend, Charles. Sophie and Charles have lost touch over the years and he is now Viscount Dayle. When Sophie meets him, she hardly recognizes him since he has changed so much. Gone is the young man full of tricks and laughter and in his place is a stern, mean-spirited, stuffy curmudgeon.

Charles has tried to turn over a new leaf and be respectable, upright, and worthy of his title. However, his efforts seem to be worth little as someone is out to destroy his reputation by exposing his wild youthful exploits. He decides to marry a woman of stellar reputation as a way to improve his standing with the ton.

Of course, that women cannot be Sophie, no matter how much she fascinates him. She’s just too eccentric and just too ready to step forward and take a stand, no matter the consequences,

Ms. Marlowe inserts romance, intrigue, and humor into a story of the days after the Napoleonic wars. She writes of the ton, the attitude of Parliament, women’s rights, and the plight of the returning soldiers. Both romance and history buffs will find this book well worth reading. ( )