Lady Diamond "Glain" Carmichael, paragon of propriety, is horrified when she discovers her headstrong younger sister at the Royal Colonnade Library reading books that would enrage their ducal father. Worse, this disaster-in-the-making has been abetted by an outspoken, opinionated librarian named Mr. Abaddon Grimoire.

Abaddon clawed his way free of a life of poverty and crime thanks to the refuge he found at the Royal Colonnade Library, and he's determined to help other people find their escapes as well—in the pages of the library's books! He issues Glain a challenge: Spend a fortnight exploring the volumes on the library's shelves; if after two weeks, she still wants to prevent her sister from visiting, he won't interfere.

Abaddon soon realizes that beneath Glain's icy veneer beats the heart of a loyal, loving, and passionate woman, and Glain comes to see that Abaddon's devotion to books is a respect for truth and learning. A former guttersnipe and a duke's daughter aren't the stuff of matches made in Mayfair, but perhaps happily ever afters aren't just for fairy tales!

"Fate leads him who follows it, and drags him who resist."

A merciless gaming hell owner
Born on the streets, Lachlan Latimer is neither a stranger to ruthlessness nor short on hatred for London's wealthy elite. When he’d been young and desperate, he struck an alliance with three dukes. He even called them brothers. Now, rich, jaded, and life-hardened, he's since learned his lesson. Unfortunately for his betrayers, Latimer's gone rogue.

A lady with a plan
Born of questionable parentage, Miss Livian Lovelace straddles two worlds, but doesn't truly belong to either. As a headstrong, unmarried, woman, it’s never been clearer just how much of an outcast she actually is. Too proud to spend the rest of her days reliant on the good-will of her family, Livian takes matters into her own hands.
When a chance meeting brings Lachlan and Livian together, passions fly. After one scorching night spent in the arms of the enigmatic, gaming hell, proprietor, Livian's carefully laid plans go up in smoke. From the ashes, springs dreams of a future with the prideful, Lachlan Latimer.

The only problem? Livian's falling for a man too mired in a dark past to offer her anything more than his hot embraces.