Born with a perfect memory, Lady Elizabeth Beckett has become one of the world's most notorious spies, despite being the daughter of a duke. She is shielded only by her code name: Shadow. When young ladies of High Society begin disappearing from London, Eliza has no doubt who is orchestrating these crimes; a heinous man she has been investigating for years. Vowing to save them before they are sold to the highest bidder, she must risk everything to stop him.

Lady Madalene Ramsbury has been summoned home from Miss Bell’s Finishing School to some unfortunate news. In three weeks, she is to be married to a man she’s never met. Rather than face a life she does not want; she flees from her own engagement party and elicits help from a most unlikely source. Society’s golden boy, Everett, the Marquess of Northampton, was outraged when a young woman suddenly appeared in his curricle. Was she attempting to trap him into an unwanted marriage? It would be just like some overzealous mother to put her up to such a ploy.

Richard Graham cannot believe his luck when his great-aunt promises him a fortune if he’s married by Twelfth Night. He can finally clear his father’s debts and save his beloved Belside Manor. Miss Ruth Steele meets all the marriageable requirements his aunt insisted upon, but he’ll need the help of her clever and beautiful sister, Grace, to win the quiet woman over. Not only is Grace a dear friend to his younger sister, with loyalties to his family estate, but she also happens to owe him a generous favor.

Lady Ludmilla Windmere is mortified. The spinster extraordinaire has fallen in love with her best friend, and that cannot be. The problem? She hasn't met him. Not once. For they have only ever corresponded by letter. When she sets out to uncover his identity, her world shatters. For Addy turns out to be none other but London's worst rake. Adrian St. Addington is perturbed. The rakehell extraordinaire is developing a marked tendre for a spinster, and that cannot be. The problem? She might be mistaking him for someone he is not. Or, what is worse, know precisely who he is.

After studying art under Miss Drake, a renowned painter, Phoebe Radcliff is certain she can finally move beyond the childish mistake that’s kept her away from home. She is thrilled when Miss Drake employs her to complete a complicated ballroom renovation. Everything changes, however, the moment Miss Drake is murdered. With her last breath she imparts the location of a clue to Phoebe. Can the biggest secret of Avonthorpe Hall be true? Phoebe is tasked to finish her work in the ballroom by Miss Drake’s infuriatingly regimented yet all-too-handsome nephew, Lt. Graham Burke.

Mary Hatcher traveled to London to procure a trousseau for her upcoming marriage. When she attends the Frost Fair and meets a different man that ignites her interest, she tamps down the unwelcome feelings. But when her host’s son arrives at dinner and she learns he is the man she met at the Frost Fair, she has a new challenge: She must spend the Christmas Season in the same house as him without falling in love.

When a cryptic invitation brings Giulia Pepper to her uncle's remote estate in Devon, she arrives in dire need of a benefactor, only to discover that her uncle never sent her any invitation—nor does he want her there. Forced into a corner, Giulia must contrive a way to convince him to allow her to remain, just long enough to figure out where to go next.

Sowerby, England, 1802. Miss Genevieve Wilde—a magistrate’s daughter and independent heiress—is determined to meet life’s challenges all on her own, just as her late-father had taught her. So when her father’s pocket watch is stolen, she will do anything to get it back, especially when the local authorities prove incompetent. Upon reading an advertisement in the paper, she takes a chance and contacts a thief-taker to find the watch. It’s a choice Ginny regrets when former Bow Street officer Jack Travers arrives on her doorstep.

Lucy Bell burns with determination. Convinced an arrogant aristocrat is to blame for her expulsion from her beloved school, the penniless girl sets out to visit her best friend to help her undo the catastrophe. But when a storm on the road leaves her in a compromising position with a handsome gardener, she is swept away by his gruff kindness.

When Arabella Grant’s wicked aunt dies suddenly, both Arabella and her cousin Lady Isabelle cannot help but feel relieved. She’d made their lives miserable, and now Lady Issie is free to read to her heart’s content, and Bella is free from taunts about her ignoble birth. Their newfound freedom is threatened, however, when Issie’s great-aunt commands her to travel to London for a come-out Issie has never wanted. Issie, who is in poor health, is convinced she’ll drop dead like her mother did if she drops into a curtsy before the queen.