LADY DERRING TAKES A LOVER

When a widowed, penniless aristocrat opens a boardinghouse, she
hopes to make her own way in the world and create a sense of family for her
disparate tenants, including an enigmatic Navy captain who makes her heart
skip.

Delilah Swanpoole, Countess of Derring, hadn’t loved her
husband, though she’d tried to be a good wife. However, when she discovers he
was “in debt up to his eyeballs” at his death, she decides to be bold. The one
valuable thing her husband left her is a building by the docks, and when she
goes to inspect it, she runs into the earl’s mistress, Angelique Breedlove,
whom he has also left penniless though he’d promised her a pension. Delilah
realizes the abandoned building could be the savior of both of them, and she
convinces Angelique, whom she quite likes, to go into business with her as
proprietresses of London’s newest boardinghouse, The Grand Palace on the
Thames. Boarders are slow in coming and very eclectic, but for Delilah, the
most compelling guest is Tristan Hardy. He’s a captain with “an air of
implacable, insufferable authority. As though he moved through the world with
ease in part because he knew destiny wouldn’t dare countermand his orders.”
According to Tristan, he’s looking for rooms while the ship he’s purchasing is
prepared for long merchant runs—which is true, but he’s also the Navy’s
blockade commander, and his main reason for being in the area is to track down
some illegal cigars. As the investigation expands, his attraction to Delilah
and his affection for the household grows, becoming increasingly complicated
when the cigars seem to have connections to The Palace. In the first book of
the Palace of Rogues series, author Long returns triumphantly to historical
romance with this beautifully written and achingly romantic story of two
characters who are blindsided by each other and must fight for their love when
it’s tested. A large cast of entertaining characters keeps the plot moving
while breathtaking writing elevates the story on every page.