New York Times best-selling author Stephanie Laurens returns to the world of the Cynsters’ next generation with the tale of an unconventional nobleman and an equally unconventional noblewoman learning to love and trust again.

A jilted noblewoman forced into a dual existence half in and half out of the ton is unexpectedly confronted by the nobleman who left her behind 10 years ago, but before either can catch their breaths, they trip over a murder and into a race to capture a killer. 

Lord Grayson Child is horrified to discover that the London Crier, a popular gossip rag, is proposing to expose his extraordinary wealth to the ton’s matchmakers, not to mention London’s shysters and Captain Sharps. He hies to London and corners the Crier’s proprietor - only to discover the paper’s owner is the last person he would have expected to see.

Izzy - Lady Isadora Descartes - is flabbergasted when Gray appears in her printing works’ office. He is the very last person she wants to meet while in her role as owner of the London Crier, but there he is, as large as life, and she has to deal with him without giving herself away! She manages - just - and seizes on the late hour to put him off so she can work out what to do.

But before leaving the printing works, she and he stumble across a murder, and all hell breaks loose.

Izzy can only be grateful for Gray’s support as, to free them both of suspicion, they embark on a joint campaign to find the killer.

Yet working side by side opens their eyes to who they each are now - both quite different from the youthful would-be lovers of 10 years before. Mutual respect, affection, and appreciation grow, and amid the chaos of hunting a ruthless killer, they find themselves facing the question of whether what they had deemed to be wrecked 10 years before can be resurrected.

Then the killer’s motive proves to be a treasonous plot, and with others, Gray and Izzy race to prevent a catastrophe, a task that ultimately falls to them alone in a situation in which the only way out is through selfless togetherness. Only by relying on each other will they survive.