Lady Ruby Ballimore is too eccentric for high society. She's too smart and outspoken, and sometimes misses social cues. Her latest failure became such a scandal that she's convinced her two best friends to join her in fleeing London with a forged invitation to the holiday house of the glamorous (and better yet, absent) princess for whom her dad is a diplomat. They arrive at the Cornwall estate expecting a summer of blissful freedom, instead they find a derelict house with a ragtag group of caretakers who look and act nothing like the staff a household of that stature should have. Captain Malcolm Archer is a disgraced privateer and current con artist who managed to become the steward of the princess’s abandoned estate and is using it as a home base for his and his crew's smuggling operation. The last thing they expected was an unusual trio of London heiresses to come knocking. The secrets, misdirections, and hijinks that follow will be enough to change everyone's lives, especially when the princess arrives with danger right behind her.

It's a fun and romantic romp through the countryside with super original characters that caught my attention from the very beginning. Vasti keeps upping the ante on the ridiculous things the inhabitants of the estate come up with to get rid of the girls, and they just roll with it as if everything were super normal. The charm is off the charts. The banter is fun. And when we get to the action part, the way that Malcom and Ruby support and believe in each other is why I read historical romance. They're polar opposites on paper, but soulmates in reality.

I laughed. I cheered. I swooned. I truly hope we get to spend more time with these characters in the future.

Very happy thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the romantic adventure!