The Bookseller and the Earl

After six London Seasons without a proposal, Miss Addie Mallory stops looking for a husband. She persuades her parents to let her spend her dowry on a bookshop in Bath, where she means to live on her own terms.

Lord Grayson, Earl of Berkshire, is a widower who has never recovered from his wife's affair with his brother. He has put his energy into raising his son Michael, who is deaf.

Trouble arrives when Grayson's sister-in-law files court papers to have Michael declared incompetent. Her aim is to see her own son named heir in his place. Grayson asks Addie for help, because she is dyslexic and knows what it is to be underestimated.

The two set out to prove Michael's abilities, and the work brings the wary earl and the independent bookseller closer than either planned. This is a historical romance set in Bath and the first book in the Merry Misfits of Bath series. The court case hangs over the pair as the question of whether Michael keeps his place as heir.