Named the ROMANCE FINALIST for The 2025 BookLife Prize by Publisher’s Weekly! A Regency romance with a mysteriously gothic twist A lady of quiet strength Isobel Ridgeway has never left rural Cumberland, content to the whims of her eccentric father and an overbearing suitor who grows impatient to claim her hand. But when Isobel receives word that her sister has fallen ill, she undertakes a reckless journey to Northumberland, heedless of the winter storm that looms. In a chance encounter, Isobel must seek refuge with a man she knows in reputation only—Lord Giles Trevelyan, the earl who became a recluse after his dazzling bride-to-be vanished. A wounded romantic Lord Trevelyan had no desire for company, but immediately finds Miss Ridgeway engaging, intelligent, and tender—the sort of woman who could draw him out of hiding. Perhaps even resuscitate his dreams of being a happily married man. Except Isobel’s marriage has been long since arranged, her sister’s health is in dangerous fluctuation, and impressions of Trevelyan’s first bride lurk around every corner. When the mystery of her disappearance threatens to untangle, Isobel finds herself caught in the crosshairs with love, loss, and sanity at stake.