A princess in disguise is forced to live with a rogue in order to protect her from danger in this fun, sexy regency romance.

Bow Street agent Sebastien Wolff, Earl of Mowbray, doesn’t believe in love―until a passionate kiss with a beautiful stranger in a brothel forces him to reconsider. When the mysterious woman is linked to an intrigue involving a missing Russian princess, however, Seb realizes her air of innocence was too good to be true.

Princess Anastasia Denisova has been hiding in London as plain ‘Anna Brown’. With a dangerous traitor hot on her trail, her best option is to accept Wolff’s offer of protection―and accommodation―at his gambling hell. But living in such close quarters, and aiding Wolff in his Bow Street cases, fans the flames of their mutual attraction. If Anya’s true identity is revealed, does their romance stand a chance? Could a princess ever marry a rogue?

Waiting in Paris for her brother to return from war, Anastasia Denisova is notified of his death. She is then accosted by Vasili Petrov who wants to marry her for the prestige of having a princess for a wife and also to buy her silence. Vasili believes her brother sent her proof he was a traitor and a wife couldn’t testify against her husband.

In a desparate act, Anya destroys a family tiara to fund the way to England for herself and her best friend Elizaveta. There they could start a new life away from those who could recognize her.

Unfortunately Vasili turns up in London, and once again Anya is in danger. Her benefactor and employer the Dowager Duchess of Winwick is quick to aid her. Sending her to stay with her great-nephew Sebastien Wolff, one of the owners of a prestigious gaming hall The Tricorn. Sebastien is the Earl of Mowbray having been granted the title following the war, and after meeting Anya under dubious conditions is more than a little curious.

It’s when she aids him in spying on some Russian visitors to the Tricorn that things get even more interesting. Although Petrov doesn’t recognize her at that time, she is more than a little spooked by his attention. Sebastien finds a way to distract her in a most intimate manor. Of course he still has no idea who she really is.

I love the way this tale twists and turns, the intrigue ramping up as does the attraction between Anya and Sebastien.

5 Contented Purrs for Kate!

Kate Bateman

Kate Bateman (also writing as K. C. Bateman) wrote her first historical romance in response to a $1 bet with her husband who rashly claimed she’d ‘never finish the thing.’ She gleefully proved him wrong. Her Regency and Renaissance-era romances all feature her trademark feisty, intelligent heroines, wickedly inappropriate banter, and heroes you want to both strangle and kiss.

When not traveling to exotic locations ‘for research,’ Kate leads a double life as a fine art appraiser and on-screen antiques expert for several TV shows in the UK, each of which has up to 2.5 million viewers. She splits her time between Illinois and her native England and writes despite three inexhaustible children and a number-loving husband who still owes her that dollar.