On the evening of her betrothal party, the duke Miss Sarah Forrester is set to marry, confesses that he is in love with another. Sarah is instantly named “the girl who lost a Duke” in society and prepares to become a complete social outcast. However, one of the leading ladies in society advises her to reinvent herself, and soon Sarah is known as “The Golden Lady”, the glittering, carefree toast of the town. Not everyone is as happy about her drastic changes, though.
Sarah’s childhood friend Lieutenant Jackson Fletcher is back in London as the ship he was serving on is too old to sail any longer. While he cools his heels, living with the Forresters, waiting to find out the final fate of his ship, he also determines to breach Sarah’s glittering facade and see if there are any traces left of the trusting and adventurous girl he once knew. A truly outrageous scheme involving costumes, lurking in a cupboard and assumed identities leads to a passionate kiss, as well as Jackson being recruited to help solve a high-profile murder. The last thing he wants to do is keep secrets from Sarah, as secrets were what broke up her engagement with the Duke.
This was my first romance by Kate Noble, and I must admit, it was a bit of a hot mess. Full review here.
How long had this been on your TBR pile? I remember reading it a few years ago when you loaned it (recommended it?) and I never bothered to review it. I remember being pleased that there were servants around.
A quick check in LibraryThing shows me that I bought this book in February 2013, most likely because I got it cheap in an e-book sale. Browsing online shows me that this is not one of her best regarded books, so I suspect I was just unlucky with which book I started with. As I said, it fit with a reading challenge, otherwise I’d most likely have started at the beginning of the series.